Soulfège's “Heavy Structured (Plus)” Album Rocks the  World of Funk
 By LINDA A. ANNAN
   
They call themselves an “Afro-diasporic groovalicious” group and their rhythms have traveled from Boston through Ghana to other parts of the world. This four-year old band consists of vocalists Derrick N. Ashong a.k.a. DNA, Jonathan Grambling, Kelley Nicole, who adds a feminine touch to the group, and two other instrumentalists. Soulfège's style is a fusion of reggae, highlife and hip- hop, but what distinguishes this band from others is their strong vocal harmonies that is a result of years of singing in choirs and a cappella groups. Their latest record,
Heavy Structured (Plus) is a re-release of their 2004 album Heavy Structured but this time with remixes, one of which features reggae artist, Bounty Killer.

With a series of projects that have caught the eyes of networks from over fifty countries since 2001, Soulfège continue s to gain publicity throughout the US. Heavy Structured Plus is a collaboration with Ghana's Hip Life producer Panji Anoff and his Pidgen Riddim Kollektive; the group flew to Ghana for this partnership and “Sweet remix,” a hit song off of the album cracked the charts in Ghana, competing with videos by Usher, R. Kelly, and Beyoncè for the top five spots. The song has been picked up by Channel O, Africa's 24 hour TV music station and the band was featured quite prominently by BBC in a documentary on African Hip- hop.   

Although the focus of Soulfège's music is to impart self-empowerment and self-actualization on their fans, this latest record
diverts to issues related to politics, life, and love. The baseline of their music is to uplift the human spirit, as stated by band member DNA. He poetically describes the group as one that is like water, “it's soft, it's fluid, but it's also very strong…it is a natural sound…based on the combination of beauty and strength.”