Cue Supa Soul Brotha Del tryna break his damn neck Boogie Baby Boogie

Smells Like Teen Spirit (DJ Skeet Skeet RMX)

Don't trip dt (Sunday serve #9)

X-tina (Sunday serve #10)

This week's exercise is inspired by Tyler Mitchell's recent work 'Wish This Was Real' which explores notions of black masculinity, intimacy and being almost inexorably "trapped" within society/by society + within ourselves/by ourselves. The first verse is a conversation about wanting to explore feelings while the second one deals with the realization of just how impossible that can be. Check out the original video at https://vimeo.com/160522048 it's beautiful. Original music by Romil Hemnani.

Wish this was real (Sunday serve #11)

I'll try to be brief. One of the reasons it's so heavy is because my dad is the person who got me into Prince. I mean, I didn't have a choice. His music was everywhere during my childhood. My dad was a superfan. Like take-a-purple-limousine-with-my-uncle-to-see-Purple-Rain-Live-at-The-Forum-in-'85 superfan. In trench coats and jheri curls. Ironically, I was raised in a Jehovah's Witness household, and even though my father did what he wanted when he wanted, us kids weren't really supposed to be listening to that kind of music. Because I was so repressed and afraid, and Prince represented the exact opposite, I grew to hate him and his music. I would tell people that he was fruity and weird, secretly wishing to explain to them that I felt the same way about myself. Even still, I knew all the songs. I'm saying, when your dad listens to "Housequake" 15 times in a row you can't not learn the words, rhythms, horn parts, vocal inflections and feelings involved in music like that.

So I just ambled along through life, half living it, half running from it. Until high school. Maybe high school is the final battleground for adolescent feelings that have been building up during the years preceding. The fork in the road where you decide what you gon do, if you haven't already done so. And it hit me. It washed over me. I was driving to school and "Sometimes It Snows In April" came on and everything clicked. I felt like I was home. Funny enough, at my actual home there was so much tension because I couldn't communicate to my dad all the things I was certain of about myself. He could be a real terrible dude when he wanted to be. But that's not really the point here.

My dad gave me the lifeline, whether he knew it or not, to help me find my voice. When he died, my father, it was difficult to say the least. A lot of complex feelings and unresolved issues, but eventually I got as best a handle on it as I could. Hopefully that makes it more understandable as to why the news of Prince's passing hit me particularly hard. Not only gone was the person whose music, style, attitude and everything that helped me discover so much of myself, but one of the few bonds that my dad and I shared was now lost. Another moment to cement just how "not here" my father is. I thought I had moved on from all of those emotions, but nope. Here they've been chilling with me for the past few days.

I didn't have it in me to write a new song this week but for my life to work, things must continue on. Today's ‪#‎sundayserve‬ is a demo from about 5 years ago when I was processing the way I initially dealt with my dad's death. I hid myself away, wouldn't eat, barely worked but still felt it my duty to hold up a strong front for my family, especially my brothers and sister. In the song, I looked back on that period uncomfortably but without shame. I wouldn't change anything but I wouldn't revisit that version of myself ever again.

I'm saying all of this because it really does help to simply speak about these things. Not to dwell or wallow, but to just tell someone "I feel this. I might not later but I feel this now." I recommend it. Otherwise it all just festers inside and you end up eroding large pieces of yourself away. I know that it's strange to mourn a person you've never met. Trust. I be side-eyeing some of y'all hard. And I really loathe group-grief activities. But I don't think it's completely about this man. It's about the music, the ideas, the joy. An openness that I didn't know existed until I listened to his songs. Like when your favorite teacher leaves for another school or something. It's hard to explain and I won't try to anymore.

<3

Won't Share U (Sunday Serve #12)

FatBran x YSLIL MARSH Tape This Summer 
Mixed by: Space Coke Fresh
Artwork by: Markus Hufner

Gold Bottles (Prod. YSLIL x MARSH)

First official single by Smiles Davis feat Jck. Davey and Grace Kelly

Smiles Davis feat Jck Davey - Take It Slow

J*Davey - No More (Stanzah! Edit)
@wearejdavey 

Featured - https://soundcloud.com/soulection/show-277-live-from-bangalore-india

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Smells Like Teen Spirit (DJ Skeet Skeet RMX)

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