DJBooth

To celebrate their impeccable music video catalog and Malcolm’s life and friendship, I spoke with Rex about a handful of Mac’s videos and their touching relationship. It was his idea to weave the video campaign together for K. I.D.S. as a day-in-the-life video series that we built upon. It was one of those videos where we felt like we took a big step forward, and there were a lot of those videos, but that one felt like something special. We weren’t working together as much, but our relationship was taking a step forward in another way where I felt like we were becoming just friends, which felt like a huge relief.

Having attained his current status as one of the biggest artists in the world by continuously keeping his finger on the pulse of music’s latest trends, any moves he makes to experiment with new soundscapes and/or collaborate with emerging artists are inevitably going to be seen by some as cynical or predatory. Given he's perpetually experimenting with new genres, it's Drake's responsibility to continuously reckon with the thorny questions about whether he's adequately respecting these genres or harmfully appropriating them. In the meantime, much of the world has learned more about grime, Afrobeats, New Orleans bounce, Miami jook, and various other genres from Drake than they have any other singular mainstream artist currently releasing music. If the trade-off for this is a few circular conversations, like the one I had with my dad a few years ago, I’d say it’s probably worth it.

Guava Island, the secret film starring Donald Glover and Rihanna and directed by Hiro Murai, was released in conjunction with Childish Gambino’s Coachella performance this past Friday. It opens with an animated history lesson of sorts: the island is home to a silkworm that spins beautiful blue threads and, at some point, this beautiful resource was seized and monopolized by the Red family, who rules over the productivity of the native Guava residents with red hats and cocked guns. Deni’s defiance of the Red family, and his desire to create moments through song that unites the entire island, leads to his death and gives him immortality through music. Therein lies the true beauty of Guava Island: Glover can offer context to all the music he’s released over the past year, to soak each song in community.

At times funky, at times soulful, and doesn’t sound like the work of an amateur,” is how the recently resurrected Potholes In My Blog summarized Thoughts Blunted, Whoarei’s 2012 debut mixtape. It wasn’t until I saw his name appear in the production credits of Kendrick Lamar’s GRAMMY-award winning masterpiece, 2015's To Pimp A Butterfly, that I began imaging a future where major label albums could be filled with Whoarei placements. Sadly, the future I envisioned for Whoarei did not come to fruition, a reminder I am served every time I press play on Mick Jenkins' 2018 sophomore album, Pieces of a Man. Vibrations is why Whoarei is an artist I won’t soon forget.