They say reflection requires distance. That meaning is constantly evolving as we are presented with new information and exposed to different perspectives. This would seem to be especially true of artistic endeavors where ambiguous personal truths are often most paramount. In the specific case of Akete’s new single and video—a collaboration with Portland, OR producer Omari Jazz—five years have passed since the duo first started working on the track. In that time, Akete’s interpretation of the music has often shifted. And yet, to hear him say it, the song’s central purpose has never wavered.

“I think I’ve always believed this music, in particular, was valuable,” Akete explains. “Both myself and Omari Jazz, who produced the beat (and also has a fantastic new beat tape Dream Child), are the children of underground artists that were active during the ’90s. So we were able to come together for this antiquated collaboration by way of our parents more than anything else. That was 2015, experimenting with interesting sounds. Fast forward a few years to 2018 when a poem found its way onto the music. I’ve found answers for a lot of the questions I was asking at the time. [But] to this day I feel that the purpose of the song is to inspire initiative and give the listener a ‘get up and get it’ energy. Get to it. Despite your anxieties or to spite them.”

Listening to “Get to What Matters,” one feels exposed to hip-hop both past and present. The jazzy piano combined with the stuttering beats brings to mind the classic backpack rap of the late ’90s and early aughts. Viewed from another angle, however, the song’s nimble shape-shifting recalls Thundercat and Flying Lotus’ abstract Afrofuturism. Akete ably navigates this fertile terrain, spitting rhymes that move from tight and compact to hazy warp-speed in just a few bars. All the while, he sounds confident and assured without coming across as cocky. When he proclaims, “Growth is the real measure of time,” it sounds less like a pronouncement and more of a personal challenge. The future, after all, is what we make of it.

Edited by Zion Amir, the video depicts Akete taking a meditative drive through his neighborhood and the city. The idea of temporary escape and sinking into your thoughts is a familiar one, and here, Amir and Akete use it as a metaphor for pushing forward, finding your path, and achieving your goals.

“My initial concept for the video was to visualize a cruise around the city and ultimately make it back to what matters, home, wherever that may be,” he says. “An analogy to further this idea: moving through traffic the ultimate goal is to reach your destination, just as the goal is to make an action while combing through your thoughts. The traffic is like procrastination. When my friend Zion Amir was interpreting the footage and editing the video, he decided to sync the hook along to footage of some trees. Others have told me they were reminded to connect with nature from this imagery. I like both of these ideas.”

Watch/listen above.

“Get to What Matters” is the lead track from Akete x Omari Jazz’s new two-song single, Jazz Matters, available for streaming now on Bandcamp and SoundCloud.

More Info
Bandcamp: akete.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @aketejahlaknight
Instagram: @aketejahlaknight
SoundCloud: @akete