As I write this, I turn to the only thing that ever makes me feel better—well, besides food, sex, and human connection—music. Thundercat‘s new song, “Them Changes,” speaks to me: “Nobody move, there’s blood on the floor/And I can’t find my heart… somebody tell me how I’m supposed to feel.” I find welcome solace in Quelle Chris‘s soon-to-come album Innocent Country. He’s quietly become one of my favorite rappers out. (From “I Asked God”: “I done heard a lotta speak/But ain’t seen a lotta growth/I’m sensing a whole lotta grief/But hearin’ a lotta hope/What’s really goin’ on?”) Also, I spin the rough version of Dr. Martin Lucid Dream, the great upcoming release from a frequent Quelle collaborator, Detroit MC Denmark Vessey, who sent it my way some moons back.
Vessey named himself for Denmark Vesey (one “s”), a black man who’d bought his own freedom and was a prominent member of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church—the same church in Charleston, South Carolina, where a racist white terrorist…