april 23 2024

Most of the response I get to my music is overwhelmingly positive so I never feel the need to dwell on the negative.

However, I did want to use these comments to say something that’s been on my mind for a while.

Music as an industry is hanging by a thread. We can all feel it. Every aspect of this business has been decimated by a variety of factors that I could go on about forever but the thing that has suffered the most is music itself - both the experience of sharing it as an artist and your experience of listening as an audience. 

A lot of these people who leave these comments and complain about me being on Sub Pop do so because their ability to listen has been compromised. If all you’re served up is a lazy algorithm tailored to your nostalgia/comfort or whatever is the most easily digestible thing of the moment, then of course when you hear something new, different, complex or challenging, you’re not going to be able to process it.

“To the Dancefloor” is an amalgamation of many threads of electronic music: baile funk, amapiano, ghettotech, gqom, industrial, noise, hyperpop, etc. I drew on sounds and samples from all of these genres. It’s got a pop structure. I’m rapping - in English. The percussion is polyrhythmic. And so on and so forth. I wanted to make something that would make people feel good but also something that you could listen to and have a new experience with each time. To hear something like this and not even have an ounce of curiosity tells me that you’re not really listening.

And I’m not saying that these people need to like my music - what I’m saying is that the year is 2024 and “indie” or “pop” or whatever doesn’t look or sound like how it used to. This is a good thing. We should be moving forward as a culture and making new artefacts. Instead, we’re in this place where the majority of our cultural institutions are constantly trying to rehash the past and it is making people crazy and turning them into aesthetic cowards.

I’m not afraid.
I’m not afraid to be different than what you’re used to.
I’m not afraid to try new things and take creative risks.
I’m not afraid to set my sights on the future and make my way towards it.
I love music and I love this work of being an artist and I mean it when I say that.

As a label, Sub Pop has always championed the transgressive and I’m honoured to be part of this kind of legacy.

If you don’t like it then [redacted] and kick rocks bitch!!!