All About Love
I’m so excited to share the video for the second single off my forthcoming album, From The Ashes of Our Homes! This one coincides with our one year wedding anniversary that happened last weekend, coming up on our fifth year of being together. This is also one of the most important songs on the album, as it is this love that has gotten us through some of the most challenging times of our lives, and it got us through with joy and laughter even on the hardest days. The song is called “You and Me” and it features the amazing Aisha Fukushima (who’s blesses no less than 4 songs on the new album) who also did an impromptu performance at our wedding last year that you can see clips of in the video.
Ijeoma heard this song for the first time on our flight to Paris last month. I thought of surprising her with it when the album came out, but I realized I wanted her input on it before finalizing anything. She ended up recording for the song while we were in Paris, and her words tied this one together with what’s happening on the rest of the album, in such a beautiful way. I feel so lucky to love and be loved by this human, every single day.
Another note about this song, is that this is the first one most people will have heard from me that I produced from the ground up. I have co-production credits on things before, but this album is the beginning of my journey as a producer, and it’s got nine songs that I produced, in addition to six more produced by some of the Northwest’s best.
Speaking of love though… as I was editing this video yesterday, I finally got my official appointment for the UW this Autumn Quarter! I’ve alluded to teaching after my time at KEXP, but I haven’t yet said publicly what I’ll be teaching.
Dr. Jeanette Bushnell has taught a course at the University of Washington since 2017 called Lovework, an Unfinished Syllabus. I suspect that I may be the first Seattle Hip-Hop artist to have a university class named after one of my albums, but this class isn’t about a piece of music. It is inspired by some of the same teachings that have inspired my work though, namely bell hooks and her Love Song to the Nation series of books that started with All About Love. When Dr. Bushnell was first putting this class together (was it 7 years ago now?) she asked if I wanted to co-teach with her. I didn’t feel ready at the time, but I’ve come in every year as a guest speaker and have seen the amazing, life-affirming and transformational space she’s been able to cultivate with her students every year. When I came to speak this year, after the class I mentioned that I regretted never taking her up on the invite to teach with her regularly, mostly because I want to learn more from her too. Her response was “are you serious?” and would I be able to start in the fall. I said yes, began the transition out of KEXP, and today we can say it’s official. I’ll be teaching at the UW in September. Lovework, forever.
For my Seattle people, hope to see y’all at one of the upcoming shows! I keep a calendar of events here. Tomorrow is a free show with Sa-Roc at KEXP!
For people asking about the best way to support our work? This Substack is one of the best ways, with updates every Friday and plans for more exclusive things for the paid subscribers. Bandcamp is also the best way to directly support the music.
Appreciate everyone rocking with us so far… see y’all soon!