The way I see it, Marsha Ambrosius is one of the most underrated artists working today. She may be well-known in the world of R&B/soul, but considering how musically talented and original she is, she deserves a whole lot more recognition. She has a voice as unique as any fingerprint, the flexibility to shine in any of the numerous different styles of R&B and hip hop, an uncanny ear for writing melodies, and a poet’s hand when she writes lyrics on any number of topics and themes. And her live performances? Words don’t do them justice. In the studio, on the stage—Marsha Ambrosius moves her listeners, period. In other words, she’s the complete package.

Ever since she debuted as one half of the duo Floetry, it’s been obvious there’s something special about her. Just listen to their hit “Say Yes.” She lays down her vocals with practiced aloofness, weaving through the sensual tempo and mood of the song in a style that sticks with you long after listening. Floetry only ever put out two studio albums and one live album, but Ambrosius has gone on to have a flourishing solo career. In both her own albums and in her collaborations with other artists, her versatility is a sight to behold. She might bring a soulful slice of life to a rapper’s track as a featured artist, enrich another’s with her backing vocals, or lend a creative hand to penning an R&B singer’s song—all the while collecting Grammy nomination after nomination for her albums and singles. Although she’s never won one, the nominations alone have stood as proof of the power behind her career.

But from some point, Ambrosius grew weary of everything she had to deal with in the name of being an R&B star—everything from the exhausting touring schedules to the fickle politics of the music industry. And she had already done pretty much everything she had set out to accomplish as a musician anyway. So, instead of pressing ever onward, she found peace spending her days behind the scenes, making songs for others. It almost came to be that we would never get to hear another album from this brilliantly talented artist again. Fortunately for us, there was someone by her side, a genius in his own right, who ignited the fire inside her once again: none other than Dr. Dre. Dre convinced Ambrosius that they should team up and make some music.

The story of the connection between these two legends begins back in 2007, when Dre asked Ambrosius to join Aftermath Entertainment as a singer-songwriter-producer. But then, sometime in early 2009, that offer was officially withdrawn. Still, the bond between the two artists never broke. When Dre followed up his album 2001 with Compton 16 years later in 2015, Ambrosius’ name showed up on four whole tracks. Plus, their musical journey together led to another collaboration: a new solo album by Ambrosius, with Dre producing every track.

That album was CASABLANCO. They had already finished recording everything long before it was ever released. In 2021, she posted a photo of herself with Dre on Instagram, announcing they had finished recording the album—but it would take nearly three more years before anyone would get to listen to it. In February of 2023, Ambrosius and Dre held a listening session in Los Angeles and finally released the first single off the album in December. And at last, in 2024, the veil was fully lifted from CASABLANCO. Here was a record brimming with amazing production value and out-of-this-world vocals that made the long wait worthwhile. There are 11 tracks, all four minutes or longer, filled with nonlinear verses and choruses, plus mesmerizing instrumental breaks. The album also features a dazzling aesthetic approach to its sampling and vocals that prop it up alongside other great releases in hip hop and R&B history.

Let’s look at “Tunisian Nights” as just one example. The track opens with an enchanting interplay of jazzy piano and vocals, then takes a dramatic shift with the introduction of an adventurous trumpet line, sampling legendary jazz trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie’s 1949 song “A Night in Tunisia.” Ambrosius’ track takes an instrumental section from around the 1:13 mark of Gillespie’s original, speeds it up a bit, and turns it into a focal point. Before the song has even had time to settle into this atmospheric shift, we’re hit with a new layer of a heavy hip hop beat: a sample of Nas’ “N.Y. State of Mind,” a 1994 classic and the perfect encapsulation of ’90s New York hip hop. This expertly layered sampling puts the perfect dramatic spin on the track.

Then there’s “The Greatest,” the first single released off the album, which takes a similar approach. The first part of the song samples a song called “Park Avenue Beat”—also known as the “Perry Mason Theme” for its use as the theme song to the courtroom drama Perry Mason that ran from 1957 to 1966 on CBS. “The Greatest” takes the tense, dour horn section of its sampled source song and amplifies it into a trip hop sound that echoes of Portishead. The middle section is augmented with a taste of Nas’s “The World Is Yours,” which in turn samples Ahmad Jamal Trio’s “I Love Music.” Add on some strings and it all comes together to make “The Greatest” the most profound track on the whole album.

Another track, “Wet,” brings a completely different dimension to the album with a sample that everyone should be familiar with. “Wet” builds on the Dramatics’ classic song “In the Rain” from 1971—a track that’s been sampled in countless hip hop and R&B songs—which is then mixed with a graceful orchestral sound and the distinctive, resonant beats Dre’s team is known for. Ambrosius absolutely kills it here, too, sprinkling into her vocal performance bits from James Moody’s “Moody’s Mood for Love” (1956), Minnie Riperton’s “Inside My Love” (1975), and Wu-Tang Clan’s “Method Man” (1993). Although she’s singing on this track, she flows just like a rapper.

I could go on and on about other tracks, too: “Thrill Her”—a mix of relatively traditional jazz hip hop and hip hop soul with samples of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane’s “In a Sentimental Mood” (1963), Wu-Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M.” (1993), and Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” (1987)—or “One Night Stand,” a soul jazz number sampling Mary Jane Girls’ “All Night Long” (1983) and Patrice Rushen’s “Remind Me” (1982)—but really, every single song off the album is remarkable. It’s hard to take out your earphones and put this thing down without listening to it start to finish. We may live in a time when skipping songs is the norm, but CASABLANCO is the kind of record that makes you forget the “next” button even exists.

When Marsha Ambrosius and Dr. Dre were working on the album, the whole world was quivering under the threat of COVID-19. “If we’re in a pandemic and it’s apocalyptic and so chaotic out in the world,” Ambrosius thought, “what would be that last album if we had to make a musical impression on what we did while we were here?” With this question as a starting point, they took everything they were going through and all the emotions they were dealing with during that time and ended up putting that into “one particular space,” and that, she says, made it feel just like the movie Casablanca. That’s when Dre suggested taking the name and changing the “ca” at the end to “co” to make it feel more gangster. The result was an album as unique and creative as its title. Knowing such a bleak time is what led to this monumental achievement is a cruel irony, but one that’s just as thrilling.

Ambrosius concludes this musical journey with the album’s closer, “Music of My Mind,” where she pays tribute to artists across a spectrum of genres who have served as a source of inspiration and admiration to her, such as Nat King Cole, Etta James, J. Dilla, George Clinton, Duran Duran, and Talking Heads. Now it’s my turn to pay tribute to Marsha Ambrosius and the Dre team. Thank you for bestowing upon the world a superb R&B/soul album that’s so delightful to listen to, it’s almost overwhelming—and one that will surely be remembered for years and years to come.