Mr. Brown is the long-awaited debut solo album of one of Southern hip hop’s most important players. As a member of the long-established production team Organized Noize, the Dungeon Family collective and a frequent Outkast collaborator, he’s been as influential as anyone in shaping the sound of Southern US urban music. However, from the opener ‘I am Soul’ he makes it quite clear that his intentions here are to reveal to the listeners the music that was his first love.

Listening to the album can be a little like playing ‘spot the 70’s soul reference’ at times. From the ‘Theme from Shaft’-esq intro in the opening track to the mention of the ‘gangster lean’ and Cadillacs famously sung about by William DeVaughan to the use of the sitar reminiscent of The Stylistics’ classic ‘You Are Everything’, Sleepy makes no pretence of disguising what is an homage to soul music’s golden age.

However, it’s the spirit of Marvin Gaye that most obviously haunts Mr. Brown. Sleepy clearly owes a massive debt to the late Mr Gaye and the classic albums he produced in the 70’s; ‘Let’s Get it On’ ‘Here, My Dear’ and particularly ‘I Want You’. On tracks like ‘Dress Up’, ‘Come Dance with Me’, ‘One of Dem Nights’ and ‘Sunday Morning’, he perfectly replicates Marvin’s trademark falsetto ad libs, layered vocal harmonies and phrasing and adds it all to a rich background of familiar string arrangements and horn stabs.

Fortunately Sleepy has the passion, the skill and the voice to pull it off. And by adding contemporary staccato beats and modern clipped production techniques he’s able to make something distinctive and new.

Surprisingly the weakest part of the album is the first single and only Pharrell collaboration, ‘Margarita’. Full of the Neptunes signature sounds and drum patterns but without anything to make it memorable, it’s the sound of Pharrell on auto-pilot; an incongruous addition both in terms of style and quality.

Don’t be put off though, as R&B singer Joi (you might remember her as Dawn Robinson’s replacement in the supergroup Lucy Pearl) and Big Boi and Andre 3000 all contribute great guest performances. Andre in particular proves his worth with a guest spot on the closing track ‘I Can’t Wait’. Comprising a classical composition as intro and then alternations between Andre and Big Boi’s quick-fire hip hop bursts and Sleepy’s urgent soul invocations, it’s one of the best songs of the album and a reminder of the Andre 3000 we first got to know on earlier Outkast albums like ‘Aquemini’ and ‘ATLiens’.

Overall, the release of ‘Mr. Brown’ has been well worth the wait. A slick and subtle marriage of classic soul stylings and modern hip hop production, it should appeal to a wide audience and finally bring the name Sleepy Brown to the masses.

1) I’m Soul

4) Dress Up

13) I Can’t Wait feat. Outkast