Name: Rush by Nikkiesha McLeod
Duration: 1 min 58 s
Description: "Rush" is steelpan driven and underscored by electric guitar, piano, violin, and horns. The song attempts to capture the "visceral intensity and momentum of my mind in motion". I wanted to capture the urgency of what I was feeling. Writing this on the steelpan helped me process the experience and start a conversation around mental health - especially how we don't talk about it enough.

"Rush" is steelpan driven and underscored by electric guitar, piano, violin, and horns. The song attempts to capture the "visceral intensity and momentum of my mind in motion". I wanted to capture the urgency of what I was feeling. Writing this on the steelpan helped me process the experience and start a conversation around mental health - especially how we don't talk about it enough.

Rush

This week's headlines are TRASH. From Contradictory headlines, overbooked flights, bombs, and Black men who just won't let Black women live, literally and figuratively, we are just happy that Janet Jackson got a half a billion dollars for saying "No."

#21 The Natural Order Of Black Joy

According to data presented by Frank Ocean's mother on "Blonde", when people become weedheads, they become sluggish, lazy, stupid and unconcerned.....so we gave yall a full show of fire political commentary, worship to Black women creating humans, and a contest to give 10 listeners a chance to see us live at Refinery 29! Happy 420!

#22 Welcome To Spring, Fat Girl!

We’ve had almost 100 days of 9’s nonsense and what we know for sure is the Black Twitter has managed to get 2 ads pulled in less than a month. We wish the country was that efficient when it came to our government since we’re still dealing with the terrible budget, tax cut, and healthcare proposals that will harm the majority of us. But Black women are still fighting and shifting this system. We still demand reparations for what’s been taken from us! We demand for Shea Moisture to put some respeck on Black women’s hair. And we demand the criminal justice system to get rid of the money bail system!  Black women are well on their way with  the telling of the Henrietta Lacks and her family’s story and National Mama’s Bail Out Day this Mother’s Day of action!

#23 Nappy Hair Love

The Black Joy Mixtape eased on down to Southeast DC to talk to and celebrate one of the trillest Black mamas we know, Jenn Stowe! Before we get to the radical parenting theory and practice of honoring Black single mothers, we had to update everyone on the latest happenings of The Apprentice: White House Edition. 

The FBI Director, the one with zero credibility, James Comey now has zero job. Even though we knew this investigation on Russia was a fluke (because the agency accountable to the president), 9 ain’t like that people were still talking about it, so Comey had to go. 

Jimmy ain’t the only one updating his linkedin profile this week. The U.S. Census Bureau Director, John Thompson is stepping down because he's trying to make the 2020 census happen with a budget that can only cover a couple hundred tally marks and rubber bands. 

Thankfully, The Twins are letting y’all know that they’re on their way to become your future grandchildren’s faves by dramatically changing their legendary mother, Beyoncé. Beyoncé’s rep Yvette Noel-Schure won't let you disrespect Beyonce about their appearance or any other pregnant person for that matter. Jenn talks about surprises during her pregnancy, how to respect mothers, and how to create communities for mothers.

#25 If You're Reading This, God Is A Black Mother Ft. Jenn Stowe

#LookAlive! Thanks so much for the #BlackJoyJubilee and Sesali Bowen for an amazing Refinery29 experience! We got back from NYC, and white people have just been in peril. From brawls at graduation to brawls with Turkey's Presidential security, Amber and Jaz are just left with a lot of questions. Thankfully, our 3rd installment of #CreatorsMonth features the phenomenal @GloriaMalone! She talks about #NoTeenShame, being an Afro-Latina, and her proudest moments being a teen mom.

#26 Teen Mamas are Mamas Ft. Gloria Malone

Malaya’s back! So you know we had to give yall another dope jam to step to after “Put a Flower Crown on It!” It’s #CreatorsMonth so it’s only right that we learn about and honor the Black woman responsible for populating the earth, Dinka Nash (F#$% a Lucy!) And you know it’s gon be lit because dis here is a Notep Free Zone! Malaya even waxes about the literal magic that Beyonce’s twins represent! 

This track was recorded earlier in the week, but 9 & nem wasted no time to started to represent their legacy of controless-ness. Michael Flynn refused a Senate subpoena, the humanities don’t exist in 9’s impossible budget, and the people of Yemen are on the verge of extension from preventable things like war and cholera…

But Solange is creating and stomping out odes to us. And there might be some famous Black twins dropping with the moon in Gemini. This is for us. Because Dinka declared it so.

#27 An Ode To Dinka Nash Ft. Malaya

Quarrel

Deep Cry

Look Ma No Hands

Me&My (To Bury Your Parents)

From an early age, music has been an influential force in Nikkiesha’s life. From the time they discovered Michael Jackson and wanted to sing and break dance like the King of Pop, to being so consumed that Nikkiesha and their siblings performed talent shows in their living room while their parents were both audience and judges, they knew the importance of music.
Nikkiesha (Nikkie) grew up with music around them! In addition to countless talent shows, their home was literally seconds away from a panyard - Panosonic Connection Steel band Orchestra’s panyard. On many late nights, when they should have been asleep, Nikkie’s parents would find the seven year old perched at their bedroom’s window listening to the orchestra practice for the largest steelpan competition in the world: Panorama.
Nikkie’s older brother played the tenor pan for the orchestra. It was witnessing their brother practice which ignited their mesmerized obsession with the instrument. Nikkie took any opportunity to try and play the song their brother was practicing. They didn't care how much noise they made, or how many times they got into trouble for beating their brother’s tenor pan. Nikkie couldn't resist the pan’s allure.
Their love and passion for the steel-pan never died after the age of seven, as twelve year old Nikkie, determined to be a part of the steel-pan culture, began running away to the panyard, and giving the rehearsal director hell - picking up the orchestra’s panists’ sticks and beating any of the unattended steel-pans.
At the time, they were unaware of the difference between beating and playing the pan or any other percussive instrument. The rehearsal director started them off on the Gurndig - better known as the Double Guitar. The Gurndig is similar to the rhythm guitar in a rock band. He told Nikkie if they can learn and master how to play the Gurndig well, they could then move onto their desired pan: the shiny chrome tenor, the soprano, the lead pan in the orchestra.
Knowing they weren’t going to stop running away to Panosonic's panyard, Nikkie’s dad decided to become the orchestra's manager.
As Nikkie got older, they began listening to R&B, Blues, Jazz, Rap/Hip-Hop and Rock music. To their great enthusiasm to hear and experience different forms of music, after migrating to the US, Nikkie was exposed to sub-genres and even more diverse sounds.
Inspired they began to play different instruments: acoustic guitar, the congas, and the drum-kit. Eventually spending more time behind the drum-kit, Nikkie began playing with various rock and punk groups. Most notable, the woman fronted rock trio Telenovela Star whose single, "Car Song" was the theme music for The N Channel’s Beyond The Break.
After many years of playing behind the drum-kit, Nikkiesha is bringing all that they have learned to create and produce their first album, which is a tribute to their late mother and brother.

Rush

Nikkiesha McLeod

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