Manasseh: The Psychedelic Soul of Chicago's South Side

Manasseh is an R&B singer from the South Side of Chicago, and his debut album, "Monochromatic Dream," released on March 29, 2022, announces him plainly. It's a warm record — an embrace for the ears — built from a gospel-filled childhood and stretched well past the borders of traditional R&B into something kaleidoscopic and entirely his own.

He grew up in Woodlawn before moving to West Englewood. His mother sang in church, and that is where his ear got trained. "Monochromatic Dream" carries that history without apology. Take the track "13": it grows out of Psalm 13, a scripture that has stayed with him since he was a kid, and it sits on the record beside songs that sound nothing like Sunday morning.

The genre-hopping has an origin story. A cassette of Brandy's self-titled debut opened the door past gospel, and he never closed it. The album runs through gospel, disco, R&B, pop, soul, and house across nine tracks — a tour of everything he has listened to, filtered through one voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm1Q4oWEpIs

The words matter as much as the sound. Manasseh writes songs meant to work like mantras — lines a listener can repeat until they believe them. He wants people to walk away holding something that steadies them, and that aim makes the album an act of self-care and healing for the artist and the audience both.

He doesn't work alone. His band, The Fam, is Brandon Cameron on drums and percussion, Blake Davis on vocals, Lisha Denise on vocals, Lamonté Norwood on bass and key bass, and Remon Sanders on keys. Each player brings a different musical background to the room, and the band's sound is the sum of all of them.

Around Chicago, Manasseh is known for more than his own records. He does session work and vocal coaching, writes and arranges for others, and mentors younger artists coming up in the city — the quiet labor that keeps a local music scene alive.

As the music keeps coming, the story stays bigger than one artist's rise. It is about community and the mixing of traditions — what happens when a musician refuses to choose between the sounds that raised him.

"Monochromatic Dream" is a walk through Chicago R&B with gospel, family, and lived experience stitched into every seam — made on the South Side, and proud of it.