Forrest Cook
The First Release From The Upstart Dallas Experimental Hip-Hop Group BLACKBONE Puts 2020 Under A Microscope With Hopes For A Rebirth.
Welcome to Song of the Day, where we hip you to all the new local releases you should be caring about. By highlighting one new North Texas-sprung tune every week day, our hope is that you’ll find something new to love about the rich and abundant DFW music scene five days a week.
BLACKBONE — “Cold Reign”
RIYL: Black Star with a little Erykah Badu thrown in.
What else you should know: This track is the first single off the forthcoming 5G EP from the upstart project BLACKBONE, which features the collaborative efforts of Dallas emcee Eboneé A.D and the Washington, D.C.-based producer DISCIPLINE 99, who draws his name from a track by his hero — late, great, avant-garde jazz Afrofuturism visionary, Sun Ra.
Paired with an accompanying digitally rendered Play-Doh-like music video, “Cold Reign” is an impressive introduction to the group — not to mention a song that sums up 2020 in a way that will leave you saying, “Ahh, shit, did that happen this year, too?”
In case you forgot, 2020 began on a down note with the whole continent of Australia ablaze — and that’s just one of many depictions in the 3-D shitstorm diorama highlighted in video director Shawn Chiki’s interpretation of the track. The rest of 2020’s worst qualities then follow, rushing forth like a bad memory. But, hey, at least the song and video make for a humorous take on it all!
As Eboneé A.D. raps here, “Dreams manifest the urgency, this be the intricacies of life.” That’s true: You have to roll with the punches, and her message here is one of healing and overcoming. She makes it clear on this cut that she’s prioritizing a return to spiritual nature and overcoming of chaotic elements through music in 2021. Seems like something we should all aspire to in the year to come, honestly.
In all, the funk-laden “Cold Reign” hits as a reminder of all things copacetic, with Eboneé’s attentive lyricism bringing to mind the explosive vernaculars of Black Star and Lauryn Hill.
Watch her worthwhile imagination unfold in the below visual — if you can near to relive all of 2020’s worst, that is.