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Second-generation Jamaican, Floridian rapper Wahid shares his new EP ‘feast, by ravens’, out now. The EP includes singles “SOLSTICE” and “Mezcal”, both have seen praise from Dazed’s Only Tracks You Need To Hear, COLORSxSTUDIOS, CLASH Magazine’s Astral Realm and Okay player’s Round-Up. Last year’s two-track EP “WILT/CORNERSTONE” was his debut which landed him in Complex-Pigeons and Planes’ highly respected Best New Artists feature for their October edition.
Through Wahid’s sonic storytelling he refuses to submit to negativity and fatalism. His hip-hop collective had just wrapped their first national tour. Their DMs were flooded with A&Rs offering deals and producers looking to collaborate. Then the group split up. It was over before it even began. The ensuing depression was all-consuming. There were days where Wahid didn’t budge from bed, drawing the blinds closed, and numbing the wounds with bottle after bottle of liquor. Despite his best efforts to salvage the wreckage, none of his attempts yielded anything positive. But through the duress, he discovered his inner resilience and perseverance. The results are manifest on his debut Innovative Leisure EP, feast, by ravens – an artful refusal to submit, and a testimonial to the indomitability of the human spirit. The title of the project comes from the parable of Elijah in the Book of Kings.
If you’re looking for comparisons, let’s start with if Black Thought was born two decades later and raised in Central Florida by a Jamaican DJ father who raised his progeny on a booming system of rocksteady, dancehall and reggae dubplates. As a teenager in the late 00s, his older brother exposed him to the classics of hip-hop’s second Golden Age. As Wahid describes it: “Nas made me want to rap, listening to the GZA’s Liquid Swords made me good at it, and Black Thought helped me refine my skills.”
Second-generation Jamaican, Floridian rapper Wahid shares his new single “SOLSTICE” from his new EP ‘feast, by ravens’, out 22nd March.
“SOLSTICE” unleashes a pure controlled rage through a rapid-fire barrage of words. It embodies the blurred vision and high speed of a life spiraling out of control. There are dead friends and wounded egos, empty bottles and sonic booms. There is the burning desire to wake up from the nightmare, but the nagging fear that you might be permanently stuck. “This record to me is the sibling of Mezcal, but a lot darker.” explains Wahid. “It’s more aggressive in its expression of these thoughts and actions I feel or have felt while binging on my said vice. If Mezcal is the high, SOLSTICE is the crash and burn.” It follows his vibes-heavy party track “Mezcal” - a song tied together by personal anecdotes of a love-hate relationship with liquor.
Last year’s two-track EP “WILT/CORNERSTONE” was his debut, which landed him in Complex-Pigeons and Planes’ highly respected Best New Artists feature for their October edition.
Through Wahid’s sonic storytelling he refuses to submit to negativity and fatalism. His hip-hop collective had just wrapped their first national tour. Their DMs were flooded with A&Rs offering deals and producers looking to collaborate. Then the group split up. It was over before it even began. The ensuing depression was all-consuming. There were days where Wahid didn’t budge from bed, drawing the blinds closed, and numbing the wounds with bottle after bottle of liquor. Despite his best efforts to salvage the wreckage, none of his attempts yielded anything positive. But through the duress, he discovered his inner resilience and perseverance. The results are manifest on his debut EP, feast, by ravens – an artful refusal to submit, and a testimonial to the indomitability of the human spirit. The title of the project comes from the parable of Elijah in the Book of Kings.
