Real Gone's May slate is hitting store shelves tomorrow, May 3, and we've got all the details of the trio of releases below.

First up is the vinyl reissue of Elaine Brown's Seize the Time - Black Panther Party from 1969.  Brown has been an activist for most her life and became the first and only Chairwoman of the Black Panther Party in 1974, appointed by Huey Newton.  She first joined the Party in 1968 after having worked at the newspaper Harambee and being a representative at the Black Congress in California.  She was discovered as a performer while singing Thomas A. Dorsey's "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" at the funeral service for Panther Bunchy Carter.  David Hilliard, the Panther's Chief of Staff, then had her audition for him and that session led to her composition "The Meeting" (about an encounter with Eldridge Cleaver) being adopted as the Black Panther Party National Anthem.   An album was then commissioned, and Seize the Time was released on Vault in 1969.  Brown enlisted Los Angeles jazz legend Horace Tapscott and his Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra to arrange and accompany her.  The influences on the album range from Bob Dylan's folk sound to classical music.

After Seize the Time, Elaine Brown released a self-titled album on Motown subsidiary Black Forum in 1973.  That was pretty much the end of her musical recordings.  She led the Black Panther Party from 1974 to 1977, leaving over issues of sexism in the organization.  Brown has remained a committed activist in the years since.  She has written books and co-founded organizations such as the National Alliance for Radical Prison Reform in 2003.  She ran for the Green Party presidential nomination is 2008 and is currently the COO of Oakland & The World Enterprises, which she co-founded.

Real Gone's vinyl reissue of Seize the Time is first reissue in that format in the United States.  Produced with the cooperation of Brown, it comes with original "uni-pak" packaging featuring lyrics and liner notes, plus an insert with new liner notes by Pat Thomas, author of Listen Whitey! The Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975.  It comes on deep purple vinyl and is limited to 950 copies.  A red with blue splatter vinyl edition is available from Real Gone's website.  It is hand-numbered and limited to around 50 copies.

Next comes Tweet's debut album, Southern Hummingbird, from 2002. Tweet (whose birth name is Charlen Keys), joined the trio Sugah in the early 1990s and became part of Devante Swing's Swing Mob.  It is there that she met Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot.  Tweet would be a featured vocalist on the title track to Elliot's platinum selling 2001 album Miss E...So Addictive.  Tweet then signed with Elliot's record label, Elektra and released her first single in January 2002.  "Oops (Oh My)," produced by Timbaland and featuring Missy Elliott on vocals would top the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart and hit No. 7 on the Hot 100.  That track would be included on Tweet's debut album, Southern Hummingbird, released in April.  It features production work by Timbaland on additional songs, Elliott, Craig Brockman, Nisan Stewart, John "Jubu" Smith, and Tweet herself.  Aside from Elliott, guest vocalists include Bilal and Ms. Jade.  Elliott also contributed a bonus track, "Big Spender," which samples the Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields song from the 1966 musical Sweet Charity.  Southern Hummingbird produced two more singles, "Boogie 2nite" and "Call Me," the latter hitting No. 31 on the Hot 100 and No. 9 on the R&B chart.  The album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified Gold .  Tweet hasn't been incredibly prolific in the studio since her debut album, with only two full-length albums being released since: 2005's It's Me Again and 2016's Charlene.

Real Gone's vinyl reissue of Southern Hummingbird marks the first time the album has appeared in that format in the U.S. (it was previously only available on vinyl in Germany).  A 2-LP set, the reissue includes an insert featuring lyrics and comes on ruby red vinyl.  It is limited to 1,000 copies.

The final item on Real's Gone's May slate is a new vinyl edition of Thomas Newman's score to the film American Beauty.  The movie, directed by Sam Mendes, stars Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Allison Janney, Peter Gallagher, Mena Suvari, Wes Bentley, and Chris Cooper.  It was released in September 1999.  The plot revolves around unhappy couple Lester and Carolyn Burnham (Spacey and Bening) and the problems which ensue when Lester becomes obsessed with his daughter's friend Angela (Suvari).  The film became the best-reviewed film of 1999 and won numerous awards including three Golden Globes, six BAFTAs, and five Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor, Director, Original Screenplay and Cinematography).

Thomas Newman's first film score was 1984's Reckless.  He has scored dozens of films including The Shawshank Redemption, Wall-E, Finding Nemo, Saving Mr. Banks, Erin Brockovich, The Help, and The Road to Perdition.  He has been nominated for 15 Academy Awards and four Golden Globes and has won two BAFTAs, six Grammys, and an Emmy.  The almost entirely percussion-based American Beauty score was Newman's first of two scores in 1999 (the other being The Green Mile) and it earned him a BAFTA and a Grammy.  Last year he scored the Pixar film Elemental and his next scoring effort, White Bird, is due for release in the U.S. in October.  The American Beauty soundtrack was first released on CD by Dreamworks Records in 1999.  Real Gone reissued it on vinyl in 2019.  For that release, they commissioned illustrator Matt Ryan Tobin to create new artwork for the gatefold.  For this new edition, Real Gone is going back to the original album artwork.  It comes on "blood red rose" vinyl.

We've got the full tracklistings and ordering links for these three releases below.  If you'd like to give any of these titles a try, they will all be available tomorrow, May 3.

Elaine Brown, Seize the Time - Black Panther Party (Limited "Deep Purple" Vinyl Edition) (Originally released on Vault LP SLP-131, 1969 - reissued Real Gone Music, 2024) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Side 1

1. Seize the Time
2. The Panther
3. And All Stood By
4. The End of Silence
5. The Meeting (The Black Panther Party National Anthem)

Side 2

1. Very Black Man
2. Take It Away
3. One Time
4. Assassination
5. Poppa's Come Home

Tweet, Southern Hummingbird (Limited "Ruby Red" Vinyl Edition) (Originally released on Elektra/Goldmind Inc. CD 62746-2, 2002 - reissued Real Gone Music, 2024) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

LP 1

Side 1

1. So Much to Say (Intro)
2. My Place
3. Smoking Cigarettes
4. Best Friend (featuring Bilal)

Side 2

1. Always Will
2. Boogie 2Nite
3. Oops (Oh My) (featuring Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott)
4. Make Ur Move

LP 2

Side 1

1. Hotel
2. Beautiful
3. Complain
4. Heaven

Side 2

1. Call Me
2. Drunk
3. Southern Hummingbird (Outro)
4. Sexual Healing (Oops Part 2) (featuring Ms. Jade)
5. Big Spender - Missy Elliott

Thomas Newman, American Beauty (Original Motion Picture Score) ("Blood Red Rose" Vinyl Edition) (Originally released on Dreamworks Records CD 0044-50233-2, 1999 - reissued Real Gone Music, 2024) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Side One

1. Dead Already
2. Arose
3. Power of Denial
4. Lunch w/ the King
5. Mental Boy
6. Smarty-Man
7. Root Beer
8. American Beauty
9. Bloodless Freak
10. Choking the Bishop

Side Two

1. Weirdest Home Videos
2. Structure & Discipline
3. Spartanette
4. Angela Undress
5. Marine
6. Walk Home
7. Blood Red
8. Any Other Name
9. Still Dead