Inside Pink Siifu's Collision Course Of Black Punk Experimentation

Inside Pink Siifu's Collision Course Of Black Punk Experimentation




By Jaelani Turner-Williams


As creatives face restlessness and scheduling adjustments while in the COVID-19 pandemic, Los Angeles-based artist Pink Siifu kept the release date of his new album, Negro (styled in all caps), fixed to a time that’s dearest to him — his mother’s birthday. Its promotion goes hand-in-hand with the diaristic format of the album’s website, through which he introduces a melting weed of visuals, links to samples on Negro from intimate voice memos by family member members, a clip from 1969 crime film A Spook Who Sat by the Door, and never-before-seen pictures of his family member. The collage-like nature of the album may also tie into Siifu’s upbringing. Place on Earth Livingston Matthews in Birmingham, Alabama — residence of Black revolutionaries Sun Ra, Angela Davis, and Eddie Kendricks, who inspired several of the political themes beyond his work — Siifu has lived in a multitude of environments, from Cincinnati to New York, nevertheless has called East Los Angeles residence for the greater segment of the last decade.


At its core, Negro is a collision course of Black punk experimentation, intersecting between jazz and rap. It's a gripping listen: The album revolves around Black anguish, as Siifu raps about police corruption and community rage, with appearances by singer Nick Hakim, producer Ted Kamal, and rapper-actor-skater Na-Kel Smith, of Mid90s fame. Siifu recently told MTV News he even thought having a Negro exhibit curated by HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness creator Terence Nance.


“[Nance is] the OG big homie. [He has] one of the most pretty minds,” he mentioned. “I wish to meet architects, because I want to build some shit [and] I’ll probably have two acts open up, however it’s gonna be jazz and experimental acts. I want Negro to be an experience in full-form.”


While Siifu’s catalog centers on traditionally Black sounds, his resort to punk music is more confrontational. He dabbled in the genre on his EP fuck(demo}, four tracks of which also appear on Negro, and credits a former girlfriend with introducing him to Black punk musical group Bad Brains. Siifu soon broadened his musical rotation to enhance his stage presence, listening to hardcore punk musical group Show Me the Body, former Standing on the Corner member Slauson Malone, and radical Black Arts Movement poet Amiri Baraka. “If you come to my shows, I’ll be screaming. There really are certain songs that don’t sound like that on record, nevertheless that’s just my energy [when I’m] live sometimes,” Siifu mentioned, noting his love for the polarizing, prophetic speech about the stimulating of Black liberation, “It’s Country Time” by Baraka, who frequently collaborated with the Afrofuturist musician Sun Ra.


“I treated this album like I was tapping into some Arkestra shit. I know I can do not get on Sun Ra’s level, nevertheless let me tap into what he was on. I didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, didn’t fuck, and just made this album. [Negro] needed to be conversational because Black aggravation needs to be heard. It’s OK to be irritated. There’s a lot of stuff going on. This album is controlled chaos.”


Siifu is still learning to pace himself. He’s created under various aliases — from his solo assignments to B. Cool-Aid, a collaborative project with producer Ahwlee, and his own productions under the moniker Iiye. This time, Negro had to be a multimedia release. “I feel like people think Negro is about to be like [my 2018 album] Ensley, and [they’re] going to understand that I’m not that kind of artist. I’m probably never going to create the same album twice,” Siifu mentioned. “I’m making rap albums with my homies, however I don’t know as soon as I’m ever going to create another solo rap album. I love gumbo. I like any time shit is mixed.”


Siifu, who’s growing accustomed to performing live as an independent artist, hasn’t contemplated doing a full-fledged tour once stay-at-home measures are lifted. He’d rather perform for a window of time, something that he says is “gonna be on some gallery shit,” potentially previewed by the design of the Negro website. Siifu wouldn’t be alone in transforming Negro into performative art, taking a cue from Black artists like Solange, who collaborated with Nance for her accompanying When I Get Residence art film. Negro fits within that framework; Siifu has his sights on networking with with likeminded artists, without consideration of distance. He’s staying associated with his “new Soulquarian” collective  of other lo-fi rap acts, including Earl Sweatshirt, Mavi, Liv.E, and Mike." And Siifu admits to using the quarantine to resemble on his process.


Cinque Mubarak
“Everybody’s really taking this time to get right within themselves, yet we all tap in like, ‘Are you good? Are you residence? You got food? Alright, cool.’ We’re so spread out, [we’re all like] ‘Just live in the residence, we’ll visualize y'all any time this shit over,’” he mentioned. “I have a documentary to go with the album and I can’t finish it [yet] because of this shit. N----s adapt, [so we] just gotta create and push by way of the turmoil, without consideration. I feel like Black people just push through, on God.”


While Siifu admires the mystery and social-media aloofness of Flying Lotus, he also appreciates how he opened up and hosted a mini Q&A on Twitter last year to promote Flamagra. Siifu, whose social pages are identically remote, still prefers to have an occasional interview to get his meaning across, much like his track-by-track conversation on his 2018 album Ensley. Siifu’s creative process is entirely grassroots, and he extends appreciation for music platform Bandcamp, which recently waived its income shares for a day so artists could receive 100 percent of sales, which Siifu hopes will continue.


“If streaming [services] paid n----s like Bandcamp [does], we’d be outta here. Independent artists could be so good. Bandcamp keeps food in my freezer. [There were] times where I was broke, and all my cash was coming from Bandcamp. It looked like $20 a week, and I required that.”


Siifu mentioned he’s currently listening to Jay Electronica’s long-awaited debut A Written Testimony, and he relays a similar message on his love for Allah and Black culture on Negro, hoping that listeners embark on a revolution of their own. “There is an agitation [within] my people, yet I want [them] to give thanks and praise whoever is your most high,” he mentioned. “Anything in your life that you feel is evil, just attempt to balance that shit.”









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