Just prior to recording Black Music, Chocolate Genius had finished reading The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell.

[1] In an email interview with Cleveland Scene, Chocolate Genius explained the meaning of the album's title: "As long as my skin is this color, race will be an unavoidable and hindering label for people that are stuck in that archaic mindset.

Of course, I take a special pride in the achievements of people that look like me, but I am foremost a citizen of the planet.

"[2] Spin called it "a relentlessly somber, wryly confessional avant-folk-funk rebuttal to popular notions of what constituted African-American pop.

"[8] Many other critics have also highlighted the album's morose and starkly autobiographical sound.