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The load of generations (and traumas) previous and current hangs heavy within the air on “As soon as Extra & Once more (Our Mourning)” as Lawrence Matthews and Idi X Teco ship a wide ranging, soul-stirring reckoning (and celebration) of the Black expertise. The third single off Matthews’ forthcoming debut album ‘Between Mortal Attain & Posthumous Grip’ hits arduous and leaves a long-lasting, unimpeachable mark on the ears and coronary heart.
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“As soon as Extra & Once more (Our Mourning)” – Lawrence Matthews ft. Idi X Teco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okay-Ll_ul3ZkE
Being black made me really feel like ain’t nothing else on the opposite facet, so I star gazed and counted numbers ’til I felt one thing in my insides…
Tright here’s no denying the depth of Lawrence Matthews’ second single.
The artist previously often known as Don Lifted holds nothing again in “As soon as Extra & Once more” (ft. Idi X Teco), a wide ranging, soul-stirring reckoning (and celebration) of the Black expertise. Unapologetic, uncompromising, and brutally uncooked, it’s an emotionally charged tune of ache and perseverance; of lives misplaced and located; of magnificence misplaced and located.
The load of generations previous and current, and of traumas previous and current, hangs heavy within the air as collectively, Lawrence Matthews, Maurice Colbert (Idi), and Anteco Tate (Teco) seize, confront, unpack, and channel their Black heritage and Black identities by means of music that hits arduous and leaves a long-lasting, unimpeachable mark on the ears and coronary heart.
Rain down, water certain
Levees
Cracked seams, full flight
Collectively
Misplaced stars, false begin
To Heaven
All of us going, we all flying
Perpetually
Independently out June 11, 2024, “As soon as Extra & Once more (Our Mourning)” is Lawrence Matthews’ third tune launched below his personal start identify, and the newest single taken off his forthcoming debut LP Between Mortal Attain & Posthumous Grip (out later this yr). The multi-modal New Orleans-based different / hip-hop artist, who beforehand launched three studio albums below the moniker Don Lifted (his third and remaining LP, 325i, launched in 2021 through Fats Possum Information), has carried out greater than reinvent himself by means of his new moniker and new music; Lawrence Matthews is a real rebirth.
His first three songs – final Could’s “Inexperienced Grove (Our Loss),” this previous February’s “Limelight Honey,” and now “As soon as Extra & Once more (Our Mourning),” – discover Matthews digging deep into his soul, making use of inventive samples, head-turning sonics, and shiver-inducing beats to achingly susceptible, confessional, and candid lyrics that delve into the deepest reaches of his personal humanity, inflicting us, his viewers, to pause and step out of our on a regular basis as we take in and take into account every little thing he’s throwing at us; every little thing he – and, within the case of this newest single, Memphis-based hip-hop duo Idi X Teco – is so powerfully and profoundly expressing.
“This tune visually seems like a funeral procession in New Orleans to me,” Matthews tells Atwood Journal. “This album is a nod to so many Southern traditions, not simply Memphis. It’s additionally only a tune that honors the mountains of misplaced Black people right here. Generations and generations of enslaved people, farmers, on a regular basis Black people which have lived and died on this land for me to have the ability to stroll it. Our artists, academics and entrepreneurs. Our household and family members, people that misplaced their lives in race riots and massacres throughout the South, people that suffered and handed throughout Hurricane Katrina and our common handed down traumatic relationship with water since coming to this nation.”
“Rain down, water certain, levees, cracked seams, full flight collectively. Our grandmothers and fathers, deep wells of data and expertise that return to the Nineteen Twenties and their dad and mom’ tales. This file tries to honor them in addition to our lives and my private journey with religion by means of the Black expertise, as horrific as it may be at occasions. ‘Being black made me really feel like, ain’t nothing else on the opposite facet, so I stargaze and rely numbers until I felt one thing in my insides.’”
“Then chatting with the concern and paranoia I generally really feel within the metropolis, particularly after the dying of Younger Dolph, who was killed down the road from the gallery I used to handle. ‘They killing out right here in daylight, so the place you gonna run when the time proper, nicely you gotta shed blood for the limelight, I carried out have a lot that my head gentle, my ft drag however my Js good.’ Additionally ‘I rode round, seeing dying, trying left at each cease signal, at evening time, and gasoline pump and clothes lumps, and burnt tires, these right here is darkish occasions.‘”
Music like this compels us suppose critically about ourselves, others, and this world we unequally share.
Music like this breaks the spell, snapping us again to the current and lighting a hearth deep inside.
In “As soon as Extra & Once more (Our Mourning),” Lawrence Matthews calls for our consideration first by means of a passionate spoken-word chorus that may’t assist however remind us of historical past’s nice orators; the MLKs and Malcolm Xs of generations previous.
Maggot Meals
And Sky Flown
Devils..
Misplaced Mine(Thoughts)
Mane these boys intelligent
Acknowledge
That I died for Heaven
Left time
To drift round with Brethren…
From there, he splits duties with Idi X Teco; every artist will get his personal verse, and every leaves his personal gorgeous imprint as first Teco, then Matthews, then Idi raps his coronary heart out. A dramatic hook, delivered by Matthews, serves because the separation and the glue between the three verses that see three artists, collectively and individually, processing their particular person and collective Blackness:
I really feel like I’m channeling spirits of each man in my household making it occur
The need of many on this tiny vessel escaping the chains with rapping
Life hits you quick with immediate disasters,
You gotta be prepared for that
Generally stuff coming again to again
so fast it gained’t even let me adapt
I am going by means of the motions,
residing my life on the fly
Generally it really feel dying is the reality
and every little thing else is a lie
The flowers we see are only a disguise
wrapped in deception
The ache of the harmless
covers the laughter of reverends
Preaching a blasphemous heaven,
maintaining the stability of grasp & peasant
I see by means of the blindfold,
’trigger it’s not a blindfold
We simply conditioned to voluntarily
maintain our eyes closed
They need be doped up in a
straitjacket with my thoughts gone
Can’t management who the solar shine on
Nonetheless dropping gems no rhinestones
I’m a treasure chest despatched to bless the globe
hip hop my least attention-grabbing aim
All of us gone float in the long run
so why not be a lightweight and contact some souls?
At the least that’s the plan,
what’s the purpose in rising my bands?
He who loves the world shall burn in it,
that’s an excessive amount of warmth to resist
It’s humorous how not one of the white boys
that kill us commit suicide
They paint footage, have photoshoots
after which public sale off whereas they funds rise
Being black made me really feel like
Ain’t nothing else on the opposite facet
So, I star gazed and counted numbers
Til I felt one thing in my insides
And street round
Seeing dying, trying left at each cease signal
And nighttime and gasoline pump
And clothes lumps and burnt tires
These right here is darkish occasions
Weighed down by these soul ties
Unrequited in my many love lives
Pulling hope from my life guides
Weeping carried out endured like many nights
They killing right here out in day gentle
So, the place we gone run when the time proper
Nicely, you gotta shed blood for the limelight
I carried out gave a lot that my head gentle
And my ft drag however my Js good
Nostalgia hurts however these followers like
Our physique pulled and our stomach knifed
Burnt asunder and our head piked
Each loss is a brand new life
And a more in-depth hyperlink to the opposite facet
I noticed my granny in a cardinal flight
And a robust wind and within the moonlight
And a tide pull and a gesundheit
And a whispered voice saying don’t conceal…
All of us gotta die like a couple of occasions
Idi again selecting my particles up
Ghost and the goons they not startling us
We seen quite a bit, who gonna buss
Reality in my lyrics however come from the bluff
Inform me is it I’m not gangsta sufficient
Mama stated I’m not affected person sufficient
Really feel like a flagrant life hit me too tough
In love with the music however residing in lust
Knock off the mud, I’ma be tremendous
Higher with time, growing older like wine
Ma had that Kia I assumed I might shine
‘Til I misplaced my spirit and my will to rhyme
However I received it again so it’s carried out for you guys
Hero or villain see everybody dies
Sky or the ceiling not everybody tries
You hear it, my spirit, this boy gonna rise
Been hurting for sure not closing the curtain
I actually hope I’m not being a burden
I’m engaged on being a approach higher individual
I’m peaceable when talking so why are you cursing
New day, a brand new episode, the way you rehearsing
Don’t have time to faux, it the sensation simply worsen
Hiding your emotions with intercourse medicine and burkens
What you gonna do when that stuff isn’t working
Numb and also you dumb trigger you consistently percin
I dance with the satan, she flirting and twerking
To promote a bit then you need to hit that’s for sure
Can’t go into labor if you happen to by no means working
Promise I’m working actual arduous to be celibate
However I’m gone f* the world only for the hell of it
Praying my music and concepts all promote a bit
So if you see my grandkids you possibly can inform ’em this
Every verse is as fiery, as soulful, and as significant because the final.
“All of us gone float in the long run so why not be a lightweight and contact some souls?” Teco raps, encouraging all to be one of the best model of themselves and uplift these round us, regardless of how painful the world can usually really feel. “Being black made me really feel like ain’t nothing else on the opposite facet, so I star gazed and counted numbers ’til I felt one thing in my insides,” Matthews confides in his particularly uncooked, visceral verse. “These right here is darkish occasions weighed down by these soul ties… Each loss is a brand new life and a more in-depth hyperlink to the opposite facet…“
And within the third and remaining verse, Idi shines with the intense gentle of resolve and unwavering dedication – to his craft, to life, and to being a greater individual – in a actually breathtaking show of rap acumen: “Hero or villain see everybody dies, sky or the ceiling, not everybody tries,” he declares. “You hear it, my spirit, this boy gonna rise. Been hurting for sure, not closing the curtain, I actually hope I’m not being a burden, I’m engaged on being a approach higher individual, I’m peaceable when talking so why are you cursing…“
For all of the aching of their hearts and souls, “As soon as Extra & Once more” sees Matthews, Idi, and Teco rising like a powerful phoenix, from the (metaphorical and literal) ashes of all those that’ve come earlier than them, in a feverish fury of fireside and keenness; of willpower and perseverance; of inside energy and endurance.
Lawrence Matthews describes “As soon as Extra & Once more” as an ode to all of the fallen Black souls of the South.
We really feel this sentiment echoed all through each his music, in addition to his tune’s cinematic music video. Directed by himself and his brother, Martin Matthews, the visible sees a pastor, portrayed by Lawrence Matthews, dealing with loss. The video additional highlights themes of dying, faith, and Black Southern traditions because the Matthews brothers additional dig into the questions raised within the tune’s provocative, essential, well timed, and pressing lyrics.
“The visible follows a younger troubled pastor coping with the lack of somebody near him and offers with themes of loss, isolation in management, reincarnation, and communal grief and religion whereas residing by means of varied circumstances within the South,” Lawrence Matthews provides. “The story takes place in a composite time, mixing Black Southern Christian aesthetics of ’20s, ’60s and ’90s church.”
It’s a reminder that historical past repeats itself in nasty methods, and that advances gained can simply as simply be misplaced. It’s additionally a painful reminder of the variety of harmless Black lives which were taken far too quickly, not simply in recent times, however over centuries.
One has to carry onto hope that music may be greater than a coping mechanism; that it may be a car for significant, lasting change. If Matthews shares that sentiment, it’s buried deep inside the bones of “As soon as Extra & Once more (Our Mourning)”; this tune is, firstly, a dirge – a cathartic, mournful reckoning with the 18th, nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty first Century Black expertise on American soil. We will’t shake that weight, however we can also’t deny the infallible energy and power exuded by Matthews, Idi, and Teco; and there, of their undeniably evocative, impassioned efficiency, we discover an inspirational celebration of the Black expertise.
“As soon as Extra & Once more (Our Mourning)” guarantees to interrupt you down, in order that it might construct you again up stronger than ever earlier than. Lose and end up anew in Lawrence Matthews’ soul-stirring new single.
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“As soon as Extra & Once more (Our Mourning)” – Lawrence Matthews ft. Idi X Teco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Okay-Ll_ul3ZkE
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