COLORED

"A Work In Progress" is available on all streaming platforms! Thank you to my brother Saint Ezekiel for blessing me with some amazing guitar and to my homie Darwin at Classick for mixing it! Lastly, blessings to my good sis Kim Wells for the artwork. 

Copyright 2021 Sounds Kinda Mad LLC / Sounds Kinda Mad Publishing. All Rights Reserved.

For sync + licensing: hello@itsmadkeys.com

A Work In Progress

Bear Good Fruit

https://jxhnscxtt.bandcamp.com/track/baby-keem-kendrick-lamar-the-hillbillies-jxhnscxtt-edit

Baby Keem & Kendrick Lamar - The Hillbillies (JXHNSCXTT Edit)

Sunburn

How Much Is Weed?

WFLD 32

WFLD 32 (feat. Eshu Tune, video dave & STILL RIFT)

Burning Desire by michael J. bonema
executively produced by dj blackpower
artwork by DA. Jasper
~~~~~~~
1. Intro with Klein
2. Dambe
3. Zap!
4. African Sex Freak Fantasy (produced by GAWD)
5. Snake Charm (produced by laron)
6. plz don’t cut my wings (feat. Earl Sweatshirt)
7. REAL LOVE with fashionspitta
8. U think Maybe? (feat. Liv.e & Venna)
9. Zombie
10. Set the Mood
11. Billboards with Anuoluwapo “Sandra” Majekodunmi 
12. 98
13. Do you Believe?
14. Burning Desire 
15. THEY DON’T STOP IN THE RAIN with TAKA
16. Baby Jesus
17. Ho-Rizin
18. Mussel Beach (feat. El Cousteau & Niontay)
19. Sixteens 
20. should be! (feat. Lila Ramani)
21. What U Say U Are
22. Golden Hour (feat. Larry June)
23. Playtime (Interlude)
24. Let’s Have a Ball (feat. mark william lewis)
~~~~~~
youtube ~ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Y35Tnro_M&t=1994s)
bandcamp ~ (https://mikelikesrap.bandcamp.com/album/burning-desire)
~~~~
#BurningDesire

Burning Desire

This mix is for Black women who love Björk Guðmundsdóttir. For some of us Björk is one of the guiding forces in the most secret parts of our emotional lives. And there is something to be said about the fact that my deepest, most intimate romantic relationships have been with Black women who speak Björk. She is one of the most brilliant artists of our time, with relevance far beyond the boringly sensational Academy Award swan dress debacle, which on the low, I believe was a challenge to American popular cultural values. Like on some fashion resistance shit. “I thought I could organize freedom, how Scandinavian of me?”

During my New York years, I had the opportunity to witness Björk live at the Apollo with three other Black women. Björk at The Apollo? What a combination and what an honorable way to honor the Black folks that get down with her like that. Aside from the sheer weight of the decision to perform in Harlem, we, like thousands of her students, made sure to have loot in hand ready to buy tickets the moment they went on sale. We managed to get tickets, but please understand, in less than five minutes the show was sold out. And to be honest, it wasn’t Harlem or Brooklyn who showed up to see her, which I understand; Björk is ‘strange fiction.’ It was the usual crew at the Apollo concert; former club kids, angsty white women and entitled hipsters. And of course some of us were in the house. My crew and I represented for all the Black women inspired by her audaciousness, by her work ethic, and by her willingness to make whatever screw face necessary to offer ‘love scholarship’ through song. We cheered from the balcony squinting to experience what looked like an Icelandic ball of glitter performing unapologetically to self-composed electro folk music. I will never forget her relationship with the microphone, dancing around it, stepping away from it, looking into it and making it sing her songs. She’s a beast of a live performer. 

Visit my website to download this mix and to read the full liner notes for a small donation! www.djlynneedenise.com

Bjork Mix Final

Background, context, and transcribed text: https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/04/13/james-baldwin-the-artists-struggle-for-integrity/

Recording by Pacifica Radio Archives.

CONTEXT / TEXT

James Baldwin: The Artist's Struggle for Integrity (full lecture)

Closedown (Free Trial)

crappy garage band creations

mirage

Produced by Neon Phoenix
Harp by Nailah Hunter

We can all be so matrixed out the game that freedom can sometimes seem like such an abstract idea that we forget it can be actualized. 
Freedom is not a destination it’s a daily exercise. Most of our ideas of freedom are based on the presence of oppression. This song was an exercise in visualizing freedom that is liberated from even our own colonized ideas of what freedom looks or feels like. Free of my own insecurities my vocals were recorded in one take, Nikko Gray, Annabelle Maginnis and my brother Carlos Ricketts Jr. (it felt really dope to have my brother on the bookends of the first disc) are the real stars of this song. So many levels of thankful to Nailah Hunter for blessing on the live Harp. It felt like the beginning of an end and the perfect place to land before entering the 2nd disc.

11. FREE ENDTRO [feat. Nikko Gray + Carlos Ricketts Jr. + Annabelle Maginnis]

Written by Emmanuel "def sound" Ricketts
Prod. by Zack Sekoff


I still think it's crazy Patrick Martinez did the album cover. Bro is so talented and moves w/ such a humble and grounded spirit it's crazy. Every song is a collage of conversations or experience I've had, the "I'm eating pizza!" line at the beginning of DEALS prt. 2 is written by a 2-year-old named Cairo, when asked about what she thought of 45 being elected president "I'm eating pizza!". This song started as an essay, which became a series of questions I think every artist asks themselves at some point. It's a song dealing w/ the compromises and promises we make ourselves… and how we deal with what we are dealt…. Who are you 10 deals later when the fine print is ugly?

05. Deals [Part 1 + 2]

Produced By Brandon Cordoba & def.sound
Keys played by Brandon Cordoba

________________________________________
First, I need to thank Brandon Cordoba for breathing life and soul into each note played on this song. I fell out in tears the first time I heard the wav. file of this song completed. MIGOS SPIRITUALS is a title for a song I’ve had for a long time but it didn’t actualize until we were having listening sessions for the album and Amelian Kashiro came in and listened w/ fresh ears and gave us feedback as a lover of music I’m giving her creative consultant credits on Disc 1ne. Her main critique was that I’m saying so much and the subjects are so heavy our ears are sometimes fighting through the busy and v large production the message and the words are getting lost. I love critique, its refreshing perspective it was the perfect prompt for me to write a more conversational record. I wanted to make a naked song, a song that was rose quartz level of clarity, where the mission, the mantra's and intentions were front and centered. No distractions just me, you, and a piano. S/o Indya Moore btw.

04. MIGOS SPIRITUALS Part 1

Featuring Clear Mortifee
Prod. by Zack Sekoff
Written by Emmanuel "def.sound" Ricketts and Clear Mortifee.


SATURDAZE came together in a really organic way in my first session at the REVIVAL studios (Earth Wind and Fires studio they used to record in). I usually record myself in my home studio so I felt a lot of pressure going into the session to make something I also thought the album was done so I was a blank canvas on what I needed to make. Two weeks earlier I met a singer named Clear Mortifee while I was looking for an after party (which I never ended up going to) in Leimert Park. I had no idea who they were but their energy felt familiar and they followed up sent me their music the next day. I had no expectations but their music and voice was so refreshing the next time I was in the studio they had to come w/ me. Zack Sekoff who a musical genius went in and recorded hours of wild takes on all the keyboards and drums sets but there was something about the brightness and warmth of the Jupiter. Clear was done w/ their verse in literally 5 min, I didn’t even have the hook yet. Clears godfidence is out of this world and it can be so contagious. At the end of the day the spirit of Maurice White was in that room w/ us.

03. saturdaze [feat. Clear Mortifee]

Prod. by Neon Phoenix and Def Sound.



Growing up as a Seventh Day Adventist in South Central Los Angeles in a food desert on a plant-based diet back in the 90's is pretty rare. This was one of the first songs I decided to own my story in its totality. 12th Ave. & Jefferson was a record it took my whole life to make. I’m in a constant state of shifting, unraveling, and becoming... As a people we are boiled down to cliches, devalued by a structural racial calculus and political arithmetic we had nothing to do with setting up. The sample loop used in the song is a Vine my homie Colin found on VINE (Remember VINE?) of Shiloh Dynasty playing guitar and singing, it felt like the perfect canvas for a confessional. At times we forget how valuable our stories are, just the telling of them alone is a revolutionary act. The truth is the most powerful thing I can share as an artist.

02.12th Ave. [feat. Nikko Gray]

Prod. by Brandon Crumbly, Def Sound.
Additional Production by Zack Sekoff
Additional Vocals by Carlos Ricketts Jr.
Saxophone played by David Michael Otis
Live drums Branden Akinyele

11. FREE ENDTRO [feat. Nikko Gray + Carlos Ricketts Jr. + Annabelle Maginnis]

d e f . s o u n d .

Related tracks