Camille Yarbrough is an American musician, actress, poet, activist, television producer, and author. She is perhaps best known for "Take Yo' Praise", which Fatboy Slim sampled from in his track "Praise You" in 1998. "Take Yo' Praise" was originally recorded in 1975 for Camille Yarbrough's first album The Iron Pot Cooker, released on Vanguard Records. The album was based on the 1971 stage dramatization of Yarbrough's one-woman/spoken word show: Tales and Tunes of an African American Griot, which she toured nationally during the 1970s and 1980s. Her second album is a spoken word/soul/blues CD that was released in 2003 on her own record label Maat Music. Entitled "Ancestor House," the album was recorded live at Joe's Pub in New York City [1].
She is also the author of the children's book Cornrows.
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Born in Chicago, Illinois to an father from Alabama, and a mother who was a native of Chicago, Illinois, Yarbrough was the seventh and youngest child of an African-American family that lived in South Side, Chicago.[1]
Writer and activist Kevin Powell regarding the album Iron Pot Cooker: “Without question, The Iron Pot Cooker is a precursor to Lauryn Hill’s best-seller The Mis-Education of Lauryn Hill.” Other reviews of this album include Billboard Magazine: “...Yarbrough has stylish traces of Nina Simone and Gil Scott-Heron but her own style of singing and recitation ... are outstanding. Her songs are all thought provoking.” SPIN Magazine: Nana Camille is a “hip-hop foremother.” CDNOW: “The most important rediscovery of the year…”
Yarbrough currently resides in New York City, New York.