Sometimes a track will hit you in all the right nerve centers and this joint from Akete and Kiefer has me feeling good from my cerebral cortex down to my toes. You can hear shades of Doris era Earl Sweatshirt (minus the murder and misanthropy) in the former’s laconic flow and the way he stacks non-sequiturs, drug innuendos, and pop culture metaphors into a wobbly stream-of-consciousness Jenga tower. According to a note on Akete’s Bandcamp, he was inspired to create the track after hearing Kiefer’s woozy boom-bap beat, and the final cut carries a sense of freestyle spontaneity. It’s heady and fun, especially when he sticks the landing on one of his spry verbal floor routines (“Stretch these lines like pizza slices with the cheesiest flow”). So much dopeness.
Filmed by Anaïs, the video keeps up the eclectic vibes with a hazy mix of big blunts, video games, and long walks in the woods. Nothing really happens per se, but maybe losing yourself to the muddled atmosphere is part of the point. The clip ends with a quote from Kiefer: “My job is to find beauty and display it to the world.” Make of that what you will, but considering the grim reality of current affairs, that’s a philosophy worth living.
Watch/listen above.
More Info
Bandcamp: akete.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @aketejahlaknight
Instagram: @aketejahlaknight
SoundCloud: @akete