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YG

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at Jgermeisters German factory
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ready for you,

pho photographer
Find your photos by person, place
and noodle with Google Photos.

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TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY,

ESPECIALLY THE

DRIVERS SEAT.

Toyota Avalon
toyota.com/Avalon

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ns S
Show
how
own
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BLEACHERS
Converse Rubber Tracks Sample Library, The Fortress
Los Angeles, CA
August 26, 2015

WE GOT YOU
SOMETHING.
IT TOOK US 30
DAYS TO MAKE.
WE WRAPPED
IT OURSELVES.
2015 ANHEUSER-BUSCH, BUDWEISER BEER, ST. LOUIS, MO

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I cant be happy selling a

project that I dont like myself.
Zayn Malik

62

FEATURES
Zayn Malik

74

YG

86

Oneohtrix Point Never

98

Looking for a Host

After quitting the worlds biggest

band, Bradfords son is figuring out
who he really is, at least for now.

The rappers gleeful gangster stories

about life in L.A. have brought him acclaim, and more real drama than ever.

A trip to Daniel Lopatins sleepy hometown to visit the memories he used to

make an LP thats as scary as puberty.

This winter, give up on minimalism

and fall in love with creepy clothing.

108 Green to Gold

20

Letter from the Editor

24
28
32
34
36

GEN F
Wizkid
Whitney
Bones
Dua Lipa
Adia Victoria

FADE OUT
117 A Refugees Struggle
119 The Legal Mess Behind
Viral Vines
122 How Social Justice
Became Cool

42

FADE IN
Faces of the Future

APPENDIX
126 Events
142 Stockist
144 FadeOut

Smart creators from music, fashion,

and art worth following in 2016.

CONTENTS

16

PHOTOGRAPHY FRANCESCO NAZARDO.

As America opens up to legal weed,

women growers in Northern California
are feeling left behind.

PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER

Andy Cohn

FOUNDING PUBLISHERS
Rob Stone & Jon Cohen
EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Naomi Zeichner

CONTENT
VP, CONTENT
Joseph Patel

SALES
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
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MARKETING
VP, MARKETING & EVENTS
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DEPUTY EDITOR
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SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR

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MARKETING DIRECTOR
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EDITOR
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MARKETING & EVENTS

PROJECT MANAGERS
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MANAGING EDITOR
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NEWS EDITOR
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CREATIVE DIRECTORS
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PUBLIC RELATIONS
PR DIRECTOR
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COORDINATOR
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BUSINESS & LEGAL AFFAIRS

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
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LEGAL AFFAIRS
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MASTHEAD

18

life. liberty.
and the
pursuit of hustle.

2015 glacau. glacau, vitaminwater bottle design and label are registered trademarks and hydrate the hustle is a trademark of glacau.

If every choice comes with

risk, then theres actually
no bad choice. Thats what
freedom feels like.

There are 28 skits and songs on YGs 2013

tape, Just Red Up 2, and if you dont often feel
like I want to fuck you or I cant stand you,
then you might not make it through all of them
in one sitting. Not to say the tapes a chore. For
me, its a delight and a mirror, an hour plus of
entertainment that also reaffirms one of my
longest held beliefs: that people can violate
you or please you, respect you absolutely or
not at all, but very little ever lies in between.
Youve got bitch ways or you dont; youre
a real one or youre not.
Im proud to have strong ideas, but I also
realize its foolish to act like everything boils
down so easily. I think YG knows this too.
He might describe his gangbanging past
or his music-industry present in vivid black
and white, but, as a master storyteller, hes
also clearly looking at his life from multiple
vantage points, recognizing that any moment can turn on its head with just a little
chaotic nudge.
Zayn Malik didnt say much in the first
six months after quitting One Direction, so
it wasnt really clear why hed done it. Maybe
he left the group because hed already made
more money than most could imagine, so he
saw no reason to remain under such intense
public scrutiny. Maybe he had a powerful solo
album bottled up inside him, and wanted to
make a more personal connection with his

listeners. Maybe he knew One Directions

days were numbered, and understood that
the smartest business move was to leave
before anyone else did.
Whichever way you cut it, though, being in
One Direction wasnt all bad, and being a solo
act wont be all good. Both routes have their
own risks, just like there can be small repercussions when YG decides to record with a
new producer, or more serious ones when he
walks out of his house wearing gang colors.
The FADERs annual NOW Issue usually
takes a look forward at the year to come, but
for 2016 weve made less a comprehensive
guide to what will happen in the future than
a zoomed-in study on how the future is made:
one decision at a time, each consequence piling up in unknowable ways. Ruth Tecle wrote
about Canadas decision to welcome her family after they became refugees in the 90s, and
Jerrod Carmichael examined network televisions decision to invest in his sitcom. We
talked to Dua Lipa about why she moved away
from Kosovo to pursue music, bo en about
why he stopped singing in Japanese, and
Zane Lowe about why he left terrestrial radio
for Apple. All of these moves required conviction, and none of them were wrong.
Naomi Zeichner
Editor-in-chief

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

20

GEN F

Artists to Know Now

WizA Nigerian
star gets a global
embrace
Story by Phiona Okumu
Photography by Dan Wilton
GEN F

24

kid

The nominees for the U.K.s 2015 MOBO

awardsshort for Music of Black Originhave just been announced when
I reach Wizkid on a crackly phone line. The
Nigerian singer is nominated for Best African Act on the strength of his 2014 single
Ojuelegba and the remix by Drake and
grime golden boy Skepta that made it a
worldwide street hit. But Wizkids recently publicized stance on award shows suggests he could take it or leave it.
My real fans know I am not really about
that kind of thing, he explains, speaking
from a hotel room in Amsterdam. That
was not the reason why I fell in love with
music. Beyond the MOBOs, he alludes to
an incident in June when he snubbed the
BET Awards and dragged the event on
Twitter for not airing the award for Best
International Act: Africa during the live
broadcast. For the record, hes previously
taken home trophies from both shows.
The summer of 2015 was unusually
full of collaborations between African
stars and big-name U.S. rappersthe
Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie teamed up
with Ace Hood, and the Nigerian Afropop singer Davido with Meek Millbut no
song has been as wide-reaching as
Ojuelegba. Even before Drake came

sings on the hook, I cant explain, is so

to 2013 when, whilst on tour in Ghana,

near it, six months after its initial release

infectious that he doesnt need to.

Breezy brought Wizkid on stage with him.

it was simmering toward anthem status

Wizkids biggest hit is far more per-

African Bad Girl, a song they recorded

across Africa. The original is arguably

sonal, but also poppier, than the preced-

together last year in Los Angeles, will fi-

even better than the remix, which omits

ing singles from his sophomore LP, Ayo.

nally see the light of day. Tinie Tempah

the Dr. Dre Nuthin but a G Thang sam-

Show Me the Money and the Femi Kuti-

will be featured on another song, as will

plejust one highlight of the production

featuring Jaiye Jaiye lean more toward

the legendary Beninese singer-song-

by Wizkids longtime collaborators Leg-

the South African style of afro house,

writer and activist Angelique Kidjo, one

endury Beatz. I knew it was a good song,

a bass and drum-heavy sound that Wizkid

of only a handful of artists from Africa to

Wizkid says, but I didnt expect it to blow

favors. I like the way house music is pro-

have won a Grammy.

up the way that it did.

duced, he says. In Africa, house music

For now, Wizkid is on the road, fulfill-

Ojuelegba is named after the heav-

artists are the ones most likely to cross

ing tour dates in Europe and the U.S.,

ing suburb that connects Lagos mainland

over internationally. There are very few

including a performance at Alicia Keys

with the Victoria and Lagos Islands. Fela

African artists who can do that.

annual fundraiser for Keep a Child Alive,

Kutis seminal Confusion Break Bones

With some crucial co-signs in the bag,

her foundation fighting AIDS throughout

referenced its ungovernable chaos as

Wizkid has also recently inked a manage-

Africa and the developing world. With

a way to call out Nigerias leadership.

ment deal with Disturbing London (Tinie

a major U.K. record label deal in the works,

That was in 1990, the same year Ayodeji

Tempah, Jessie J) and headed into the

according to his management, Wizkid

Wizkid Balogun was born. My parents

studio with Norwegian hitmakers Star-

is squeezing in edits to Sounds From the

still live there. We have a house there,

gate and Coldplays Chris Martin to write

Other Side where he can. Im a perfec-

he explains. Ojuelegba, sung in a voice

and record a hook intended for Rihanna,

tionist, he declares, I can listen to the

that sounds like it hasnt fully grown up,

though he cant confirm whether it will

music now and tomorrow Ill be like, Yo,

recounts his attempts to break into music

make her next album. Hes not short of

I feel we need to change this, and then

as a teen, as he navigated the city among

star power for his forthcoming EP, Sounds

we have to go back to the drawing board.

traders, tailors, sex workers, commuters,

From the Other Side, either. A bromance

Everyone else, it seems, is ready.

and area boys. The joyful feeling when he

between him and Chris Brown dates back

GEN F

26

Timberland and

are trademarks of TBL Licensing LLC. 2015 TBL Licensing LLC. All rights reserved.

MADE
FOR!THE!
MODERN!
TRAIL

Timberland.com

posters are the same, but instead of the

palm tree, its a cowboy boot and a horse.
Our agent was like, Im sorry, but theres
just no way. They only have, like, Garth
Brooksnot you indie kids.
According to Kakacek, the breakup
of Smith Westerns was a key factor in
Whitneys formation. I wasnt involved
with the songwriting, he explains. At
the end, the last record had to be made;
it was an obligation. For this project, it
was important that we didnt necessarily
need to be making music togetherit just
happened. Their style of rock definitely
feels spontaneouslike an impulsive
late-afternoon weed-smoking session.
On No Matter Where We Go, the bands
gorgeous first-ever demo, Ehrlichs stark
falsetto cuts through rippled, rollicking riffs. The result is loosey-goosey and
hopelessly soulful, something like a longlost Neil Young bootleg.
Whitney shares a name with Ehrlichs
first kiss, but she isnt technically the
bands namesake. We wanted to make a
record that seemed like it was by an oldass dude living alone, Kakacek explains.
Whitneys not living well, Ehrlich adds.
Hes very sad and distraught, but he has
good times, too. As if to illustrate, they
laugh over whiskey and Coca-Cola, one of
the many mid-afternoon libations being
passed around a Woodland Hills apartment of shirtless cohorts who traipse
in and out of the webcams view. One of
them is Jonathan Rado, the singer of
Foxygen. When Ehrlich and Kakacek try

Whitney
Lonesome
country-rock
for hanging
out, or not
Story by Amy Rose Spiegel
Photography by Ryan Lowry

to use this moment to big-up the dankWhen Whitneys chief songwriting duo

ass record label Rado has in the works, he

first met in 2011, they were both mem-

fake-protests: Dont say dank-ass! Say

bers of critical-darling rock bands. Max

really sweet records, really professional

Kakacek was a guitarist for the now-dis-

records. Ehrlich says the cavalcade of

solved garage-pop crew Smith Westerns,

people is pretty normal. When were not

and Julien Ehrlich was the drummer for

writing, were hanging out, talking about

the dark psych outfit Unknown Mortal

the state of the band and what could be

Orchestra. The Chicago-based pair be-

a little better on each song. The hangs

came friends, started playing together,

and sounds might come easy, but writing

formed Whitney in 2015, and aspired to

songs that reflect Whitneys boundless

inhabit entirely different scenes than the

good times is a bit trickier. A lot of the

ones they were used to. We wanted to

lyrical content is about a breakup, Ehrlich

play Stagecoach, Ehrlich explains over

says of the bands as-yet-untitled debut

Skype from his friends apartment in Los

album, which theyre currently recording

Angeles, where the band is temporarily

as a six-piece bandtwo guitars, bass,

holed up working on its debut album. lts

keys, horns, and drumsand which could

the country version of Coachella. Their

be out as early as spring 2016. We also

GEN F

28

Timberland and

are trademarks of TBL Licensing LLC. 2015 TBL Licensing LLC. All rights reserved.

MADE
FOR!THE!
MODERN!
TRAIL

Timberland.com

wrote a song about my granddad, before

he passed away.
When they recorded the series of demos that marked Whitneys first attempts
at songwriting as a band, Kakacek and
Ehrlichs housing situation was actually
more in line with that of their imaginary

Bones
Building a cult
rap community

hermit-muse: they were living alone in a

Wisconsin cabin. We were in the middle
of nowhere, Ehrlich says. It was bizarre.
Kakacek makes sure to note that their
tenure there was a necessity, not a selfseriously artistic bid for solitude. My
family knew that we had no apartment, he
says, so they let us stay there for a couple
weeks while we got our shit together.
Whitneys

radiant

melodies

and

stoned atmosphere disguise the often

bummed-out lyrics, but close listeners
will see through the pretty packaging
quickly. The subject matter isnt happy,
but it sounds really happy, Ehrlich says.
The bands push-pull relationship with
intro- and extroversion is a tension to
which audiences will relate, especially
because that struggle has rarely sounded
so pleasant. When we were making the
demos [in the cabin], we tried to induce
the feeling that they were lost recordings,
Kakacek says. When we came to Chicago, we nixed that vibe. Its less folked-up.
It sounds like a country record. Its, like,
finding its right place in some weird country hut. Garth Brooks, youre on notice.

Story by Zak Stone

Photography by Edward Cushenberry
An hour into our interview at his San Fernando Valley
home, Elmo OConnor posted a new song on Twitter. As Bones, he is known mostly for a goth style of
rap, with dark lo-fi visuals and seething lyrics, but
on this new track, Encrypted, hes cheerily singing
like Ariel Pink over tinkles of keyboard Muzak. The
next day, hell return to form with an agitated rap,
Okay,ButThisIsTheLastTime, which is followed
hours later by Iron, the drone-like final song in what
turns out to be a mixtape called Frayed, hosted on

GEN F

30

Style: RB2180

the SoundCloud page of his mysterious

aesthetic for a while now. Those people

collective, TeamSESH.

were just paying one of my friends to do

OConnor, 21, releases music at a fre-

a studio session for them, he says, refer-

netic pace, churning out atmospheric frag-

ring to the collectives international net-

ments ritualistically and with indifference

work of like-minded producers, which in-

to quality. Shitty raps forever, he tells

cludes Fifty Grand, Greaf, Hnrk, Drew The

me, resting his lanky frame next to his girl-

Architect, and drip-133. I wish for once I

friend on their pool houses green couch.

could feel like I wasnt being like, Theyre

His habit of constantly sharing songs

taking our ideas, sounding like that guy,

goes back a decade, when an 11-year-old

but the proof is in the fucking pudding.

OConnor would write rhymes on big piec-

I know so much hilarious fucking shit.

es of paper in big block letters that looked

Everybodys just such a dickheadall the

like shit, read like shit, shout them at a

people that are big and making so much

mic hooked up to his computer, and play

money off music are such dickheads.

the tracks for friends. It was a cathartic

Everyone. Seriously, everyone.

process for a hip-hop-obsessed Califor-

Perhaps part of what makes Team-

nia native whose family had moved him at

SESH a target for copycats is that they

age 7 to a rural town 40 minutes outside of

fly so willfully under the radar. Members

Detroit, where he was a clear misfit.

record under multiple aliasesOConnor

Not much has changed, he says,

used to go by Th@ Kidand team up

pausing to run a hand through his long

for side projects, like Bones and Greafs

hair and press a blunt to lips bordered by

acoustic guitar-centric duo, surrenderdor-

an Amish-looking beard. But just a few

othy. They release music informally and

years after he started putting out music

with little fanfare, sometimes just a Me-

as Bones, todays shitty raps are paying

diafire link appended to a YouTube video.

the bills on a nice house a few blocks away

Since 2010, OConnor has put out about 40

from his brother/manager and his par-

mixtapes and albums, but you cant find

ents, who followed their sons back to Cal-

a single one, or anything from TeamSESH,

ifornia. OConnors short tracks, creepy

on the iTunes Store.

videos, and one-word tweets rack up mil-

Like OVO or Odd Future, OConnor

lions of social media interactions from

plans to give TeamSESH its due notice

a cult following that helped him sell out

by bringing their world into the physical

shows in 25 cities on a recent tour. The

plane. He says hell open a Los Angeles

hip-hop elite is taking notice.

store in the next five months that will be

For A$AP Rockys 2015 single Canal

like Bones version of Urban Outfitters.

St., he sampled the beat from Dirt, the

Hes also working on a recording studio

standout track from Bones 2013 mixtape

where overseas affiliates can crash and

Scumbag, and gave Bones a feature cred-

record. Im a person that likes to think

it. Sharing a stage with Rocky on Jimmy

of ideas that involve all the people that

Kimmel Live! in September, Bones showed

I enjoy, he says. Im constantly think-

traces of that 11-year-old self, as if sum-

ing of ideas that I hope will help them and

moned, reluctantly, from a dark basement

myself. Thats it.

somewhere in Midwestern suburbia. He

In his music, OConnors lyrics often

crouches for most of the performance,

address an inauthentic you whos us-

wearing a black hoodie and hiding his

ing the hardness of hip-hop to conceal

face with his hands, before jumping to at-

their weaknesses. OConnor says hes not

tention near the end of the track to head-

troubled as much by that fakeness as by

bang and scream his best-known hook:

the ugliness and lack of creativity. You

You say youve got them guns, but Ive nev-

know how people go through shit towns

er seen you bang/ You say youve got them

and take the big ugly telephone poles and

drugs, but Ive never seen you slang.

make them look like fake trees because

Rocky was one of the first to put him

theyre covering up the eyesore? I wish

on, but OConnor is convinced that people

there was just more covered-up eyesores.

from the award show crowd have been

I wish we could just replace things with

mining the ominous, moody TeamSESH

better things.

GEN F

All the people

that are big and
making so much
money off music
are such dickheads. Everyone.
Seriously, everyone.

32

couldnt build a career in music in Kosovo, and moved back to live with a crew of
friends in Camden, making money working retail and hostessing at nightclubs.
We all went to theater school together, Lipa explains. My parents were like,
Do whatever you want, just fucking stay
in school. From then on, I was really independent. At 16 she started modeling, until a manager said that shed need to lose
weight to do runway. I dont want to do
catwalk, she told them. The only reason
Im in this is to make contacts. I just really
want to eat Krispy Kreme.
Lipa told the people she met while
modeling about the covers she started
posting on YouTube at 14 (Christina Aguilera, Nelly Furtado) and which she still
sometimes records (Chance The Rapper,
Alessia Cara). Its so much easier for me
just to find a mic and sing to a track, rather
than get the whole shebang ready, she
says. But shes laying off the covers for
now, while she works on her debut album
for Warner Bros. Although its been widely
noted that Lipa and Lana Del Rey share
the same management team, Lipa insists
shes only met the melodramatic pop
singer once, at a Barcelona music festival.
Now people are asking me, How does
it feel to be Lanas protg? She smiles,
shaking her head. Im like, Yooo
Lipas first single, New Love, produced by Emile Haynie and Miike Snows

Dua Lipa
Soulful pop
for grown-up
TRL kids
Story by Lindsey Weber
Photography by
Arvida Bystrm

Andrew Wyatt, is surprisingly heavy, with a

Dua Lipa is in L.A. for one month, and shed

throbbing beat underscoring Lipas voice,

really like to see a celebrity. All my friends

which is throaty and mature, like Joss

go, Oh my God, Ive seen this person, this

Stones or Lady Gagas. She fits the clich

person, this person today. Im like, Great.

now emblematized by NBCs singing com-

Ive just seen the producer. I tell her I re-

petition, The Voiceyou just wouldnt ex-

cently saw Ryan Gosling at an Italian res-

pect Lipa to sound like she doesand her

taurant called Little Doms in Los Feliz. Her

youthful excitement and perfect pout will

eyes light up: Can I write that down?

no doubt sell whatever shes putting out

Its only her fourth short stay in Cali-

there, which seems to be a neo-soul sound

fornia, but, judging by her gigantic carrot

with influences beyond the obvious. Her

juice, she seems to already be at home.

voice is the perfect vessel for collabora-

I get out of the studio [late] and its dark. I

tors like Haynie and Wyatt, who stretch it

love it, she says. Its inspiring. Lipaba-

in production, giving it an ethereal echo.

by-faced and 20, wearing a Spice Girls-y

Shes writing too: while her voice may re-

ribbon choker and red bell-sleeve dress

flect an old soul, her lyrics are #relatable.

was born in London. After her parents split

Shes only 20 after all. Taking up my youth/

up, she moved to Kosovo with her dad,

Youve been telling me some lies/ Ive

a rock singer turned marketing executive.

been thinking its the truth, she accuses

(Her first name means love in Albanian.)

on New Loveresentful, nostalgic, and

At 15, though, she realized she probably

always ready for a change.

GEN F

34

Style: RB2140

Adia
Victoria
Adia Victoria starts each sentence knowing exactly where it will end. The 29-year-

With ghostly
folk songs,
a Southern poet
rewrites her
life story

old Nashville-based blues singer speaks

like a writera very good one. Over the
phone from a tour stop in Arkansas,
she tells me about Bart, the 85-year-old
Quaker she subleased a room from in New
York. He would give her cash to buy Parliaments from the bodega, extract a single
cigarette, then gift her the pack. She remembers meeting her stepsister from her
Trinidadian fathers previous marriage at
a train station in Cologne, vividly describing the moment they realized they had the
same laugh. She recalls writing a novel at
age 11 about a Jewish girl living in Germany on Kristallnacht, which she dismisses
now as a Lois Lowry rip-off. Ive always
been drawn to themes of women in times
of darkness, she says.

Story by Liz Raiss

Photography by Brandon Thibodeaux

Victoria and her four siblings were

raised as Seventh Day Adventists in South

GEN F

36

Carolina, splitting their time between the

larly practicing finger exercises and chord

thing, but holds a lot back. Its the art-

economically decimated Spartanburg and

shapes while she sold cable service over

istry of getting to the point quickly in your

a small mountain town called Campobello.

the phone. She got into the music of raw

songs, she says, a trick she learned from

Just before 6th grade, Victorias mother

Delta blues legends Robert Johnson

country greats like Hank Williams and

withdrew her from the insulated environ-

and Junior Kimbrough, a discovery that

Patsy Cline. Its paring down any non-

ment of the church and enrolled her in

helped her make sense of being black

sense and distilling it to its truest form.

public school, a jarring transition that fell

and from the South in a way she never

In some ways, Victorias whole life-

quickly on the heels of another life-alter-

had before. Being from a backwood area,

style is an exercise in paring down the

ing upset: her parents divorce. Victoria

growing up in isolation, and dealing with

nonsense: she lives with her mom and

describes the split as a seismic shift that

misery and sadness[the music] touched

doesnt own a computer or have a drivers

fractured both her internal and external

something spiritual in me, Victoria ex-

license. When shes not working close-

worlds. Her natural aptitude for language

plained. I dont know nothing bout South-

ly with Yo La Tengo collaborator Roger

became her main form of self-expres-

ern belles/ But I can tell you something

Moutenot on her forthcoming full-length

sion; poetry and short stories provided

bout Southernhell, she sings on Stuck in

debut, she rides buses around Nashville;

a safe space where a little girl could write

the South, a swampy ballad from her de-

she calls it living like a ghost. In her free

her own fate. My childhood made me into

but three-song EP, Sea of Sand, which she

time, she reads Angela Davis, Maya An-

an artist, she explains. I am constantly

released in the spring of 2015.

gelou, Lillian Smith, Flannery OConnor,

reassembling and deconstructing and re-

Victorias output may be tiny so far,

and other writers who took a very strict,

constructingand I do it out of necessity.

but her sinister breed of gothic coun-

clinical look at society. These are her role

Spurred on by restlessness, Victoria

try music already feels fully formed. Set

models, women who successfully dragged

struck out for New York after high school.

against muddy guitars and not much else,

outsider narratives into the mainstream.

After just a couple of years, she felt lost

her words are evocative but sparse. Heres

I wanna keep telling stories of the other

there too. By 21, she had returned to the

a song for Atlanta, my sweetheart sweat-

of those who have had darkness thrown

South and was living with her best friend

ing in the night, she sings on Sea of

over them, Victoria says when asked

in a gold-painted apartment in Atlanta,

Sands title track. Theres a kind of emo-

where she sees her music taking her. I

pulling in $50K a year as a telemarketer.

tional economy in Victorias lyricism,

wanna keep prodding underneath that

When Victoria was gifted a guitar by an-

one thatwith its tantalizingly vivid

rock and shining a light on these voices

other friend, she became obsessed, regu-

detailspromises to give you every-

who have been chanting.

GEN F

38

I N N O V AT I V E L E I S U R E . N E T

10
People
Watch
in

to
2016

A lot of good things will happen by this time next

year. Albums will be dropped. New shoes will be got.
Nights will be Netflixed and chilled, and rights to
vote will be exercised. Bad things, toothe future is
an invigorating and terrifying thing. But artists are
there to keep an eye out, giving life to what lies ahead
with new ideas and new ways to see them realized.
These smart creators from the worlds of fashion,
music, literature, sports, and art will start your year
off right, as they lead us all into a better, brighter,
weirder new year.

Story by Myles Tanzer

Photography by
Molly Matalon

Theres never
been a better
time to win by
being yourself

Courtney

Act

FADE IN

43

I just think with the current climate

of pop culture, theres never been a
better time: with gender and sexuality and LGBT visibility increasing,

The thing about gay male pop stars

is: they arent supported by gay men.
Gay men dont really support them
until theyve gone beyond the gay
community and had success in the

a performer? Why now?

As a drag performer, people have traditionally put us into the category of

pervert or deviant or things like

about going too far?

up whipped cream. Do you ever worry

of oily men and then youre slurping

the centerpiece of a pyramid made

language in lyrics?

How will drag help you succeed as

In the video for Body Parts, youre

What are your thoughts on gendered

Steve Grand get flack for not includ-

mainstream, so its really challenging. Before, being gay detracted from

your success, but I now think it is a
really powerful asset to your success
because people are consuming gender
and sexuality right now in a way that
they never have before. There were
some frontrunners, and I did agree
that some people were often scared to
put same-sex pronouns because they
didnt want to turn the audience off.
But it just has to be you. You have to be
honest, upfront, and really celebrate
that fact, not think of it as a weakness
but really think of it as a strength.

ing male pronouns in their songs.

Gay male pop stars like Sam Smith or

sition to have that happen for me.

obviously with the Supreme Court

ruling in favor of marriage equality,
but also the transgender community
and gender fluidity and nonbinary
ideas of gender and sexuality emergingCaitlyn Jenner, Laverne Cox,
Chaz Bono, Janet Mock, all of these
trans people who are so prominent
right now. Over the years, it never
happened how I wanted it to. Now,
I get why that was. Right now is the
precipice of this gender revolution
thats happening, which is really cool.

my best to put myself in the best po-

mainstream, Act says. I want to do

fit in a box is ready to break into the

a gender-diverse artist that doesnt

any moment, a drag or a trans or

and Sam Sparro. I just feel like, at

pop bops written with Jake Shears

light on shmaltz and heavy on electro-

Kaleidoscope EP, released in July, is

honing in on pop star dreams: her

the Brisbane-born drag queen is still

Courtney Act is ready to win. Today,

home on RuPauls Drag Race in 2014,

lian Idol and almost taking the crown

After coming in second on Austra-

that. So Ive always been really careful

not to be vulgar or grotesque with sexuality. In Body Parts, even though
it was sexual, I wanted it to be confronting rather than vulgar. I wanted
peoplemen and womento feel
something, and then ask themselves
what that meant. When theyre watching Body Parts, straight men will be
like, Oh, shes hotoh hang on, wait!
And I get lots of emails from girls
who are like, I dont know, I think I
turned straight for Courtney or gay for
Courtney, I dont know, what does this
mean? And I guess my message is: it
doesnt matter what your body parts
are, it should be about your feelings.

Lukhanyo

Clothes dont
have to be
commercial
Story by Liz Raiss
Photography by Travys Owen
On the internet, Lukhanyo Mdingi is being
hailed as the savior of South African high
fashion. But at home in Cape Town, the
23-year-old supports his mother by working in a restaurant, patiently waiting for
his big break in the more commercial
South African market. Fashion bloggers

buy my clothes are U.K. tourists who

come to South Africa. But I want someone
from my own country to buy it. I want to
empower my own country.

Mdingi
cultures. Youre able to identify and adapt
and see what you really identify with.
What did you find yourself identifying
with most?

You work with a close-knit group of collaborators to bring your clothes to life
in lookbooks. Whats special about your
group dynamic?

South Africa has such a diverse population,

but still the number of creatives living here
is very small. What we have as a team is extremely rare. I cant think of another label
in South Africa that operates the way we
do. With the internet, we were no longer
exposed just to African design: there are
so many people to engage with, you can
see exactly whats happening in different

have fallen in love with Mdingis unisex

collections, both for their reliance on rich

I love classic, traditional brands. I want to

be a traditionalist. When I look at readyto-wear clothes, its all about functionality
and wearability. I really love form. I love
structure and texture and feel. When I created my avant-garde thesis collection at
Cape Peninsula University of Technology,
I was focused on fabrication and the shape
of the garment. But when I launched my
second collection, it was very important
to show people here that I want to create
ready-to-wear. You could say that I was
thinking more commercially, but readyto-wear pieces with special fabrication are
my first love.

textiles and for their awe-inspiring lookbooks, the result of Mdingis collabora-

Would you want to make your clothes even

tions with photographer Travys Owen, art

more affordable?

director Gabrielle Kannemeyer, and

I would never compromise my collection.

I see it as my baby, my vision. I already
make compromises because of the limited
fabrics I have available, but I wont choose
cheaper fabrics to be more commercial.
That would make me the same as every
other designer.

makeup artist Amori Birch. His most

recent collection, Taintless, featured intricately pleated and expertly tailored navy
separates, worn by models whose skin
was carefully tinted to a matching shade
of indigo. While South African shops
arent clamoring for Mdingis clothes yet,
he has already shown designs in the na-

How will fashion in South Africa evolve in

tions first official menswear fashion

the coming year?

week, revealing himself as a beacon of

There is a new wave of fashion designers

contributing distinct styles and aesthetics that cater to niche marketstheres
Tamara Dyson, Nicholas Coutts, Rich
Mnisi, Jenevieve Lyons, Celeste Arendse.
Theyre making a fascinating mix of
African heritage with a flare of contemporary design and international influences.
We all have the same goal of establishing
strong independent labels, but our creations are all so different. Its beautiful.

cultural progressivism for a country mired

in its traditionalist past.

Why do you think South African retailers

resist stocking avant-garde designs?

There is not a huge fashionable retail

culture in South Africa. People do buy into
smaller, independent streetwear brands
that use low-cost materials, but when it
comes to luxury contemporary labels like
mine, its a small group of people who not
only can afford it, but are willing to buy
into it. If I put my price points higher,
I fear the only people who are going to

FADE IN

44

SUBSCRIBE.
FADER documentaries are everything you love about
The FADER, on video. Episodes on Mac Miller, Grimes, and more.
youtube.com/TheFADER

Skateboardings
best blog made
a book
Story by Jeff Ihaza
had flooded skaters favorite spots with
Konstantin Satchek doesnt gush about

constant surveillance. TF at 1 presents

digital media like a blogger. When I meet

archival photography and conversations

him at Ninth St. Espresso, just blocks away

with New Yorks skateboard community

from Tompkins Square Park in Manhat-

as it grew and adapted to a changing envi-

tans East Village, he squirms around the

ronment, physically and digitally. I spent

word content like hes embarrassed to

the entire winter going through hard

have it in his vocabulary. Despite his web-

drives, Satchek laughs. Seeing all of my

sites international acclaim, he doesnt

friends literally grow up on camera was

seem to possess an ounce of pretense. He

pretty crazy.

even gave me a free hat.

Its well documented that years of

This makes sense if you read Quar-

commercial development has rendered

tersnacks, the 27-year-olds prolific New

large swaths of New York totally anew,

York skate blog which is now celebrating

but TF at 1 traces an intriguing parallel

its tenth year. The site reads less like a

shift: skate culture today also looks little

news ticker and more like a transcript of

like it did a decade ago. Justin Bieber

conversations between the citys sprawl-

and Lil Wayne skateboard in their music

ing skateboarder populationjokes about

videos, and the sport has markedly in-

weather, sports, music, and politics that

fluenced the worlds of art, photography,

feel like texts from a friend. Hours before

and fashion. Satchek recalls a recent

I met Satchek, Quartersnacks posted an

episode he witnessed at Supreme, where

End of Summer video, edited to a remix

a patron requested an Ian Connor T-

of Rich Homie Quans Flex. The footage

shirt, mistaking a tee featuring legend-

feels anthropological: a seasons worth

ary New York skater Harold Hunter for the

of skateboarding, outfits, and partying,

self-proclaimed King of the Youth who

the sport: suddenly, there was an audi-

modeled in Kanye Wests fashion show.

Since I was like 13, I always had

ence for videos that didnt have the most

Still, the author says, TF at 1 doesnt take

some dumb little site that I was running,

technically advanced skating, but the

itself, or skateboarding, too seriously.

Satchek says. In the early aughts, young

most interesting.

Instead, the book celebrates one of skate

skateboarders like him flocked to the in-

Satcheks upcoming book, TF at 1: Ten

cultures purest draws: Theres nothing

ternets unfettered democracy. Some of

Years of Quartersnacks, is both a celebra-

to be cynical about with skating because

YouTubes earliest adopters were skat-

tion of his sites success and an authentic

its all fun, Satchek says. If anything,

ers eager to share their makeshift clips.

look at skateboardings past decade of

more girls notice you for skating now than

By the mid-2000s, highly produced films

growth and change. Published by power-

10 years ago.

from major skate companies were com-

House Books, the hardcover is titled after

peting with amateur videos distributed

the tongue-in-cheek nickname for the

on message boards like Metrospective

empty Tompkins courts where the citys

that Satchek checked obsessively. I

skaters flock for warm-up sessions: TF

looked forward to that more than offi-

stands for training facility. In his intro-

cial videos dropping, he recalls, despite

duction, Satchek describes the All City

the site updating twice a week at most.

Skate Jam, a 2002 event meant to revive

The split pointed to new standards in

street skating in the city that, after 9/11,

3 . Konstantin Satchek
FADE IN

46

PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY KEEGIN.

effectively frozen in time.

Coming
NYC MIAMI

to

5 cities.

AUSTIN LA CHICAGO

2 NIGHTS.
LOTS OF ROOMS. LOTS TO DO.

MotelNo7.com
#MotelNo7

21+ INVITATION ONLY EVENT.

Restrictions Apply.
Jack Daniels Motel No. 7 is not a real motel.

LIVE FREELY. DRINK RESPONSIBLY.

Jack Daniels is a registered trademark. 2015 Jack Daniels. Tenn Whsky, 40% ABV.
Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, TN.

Story Liz Raiss

Photography Geordie
Wood

A drag queen
aims for the
mainstream

Courtney

Ac t
4

.
bo
en

How to make
smart music
thats still
totally fun
Story by Duncan Cooper
Photography by
Maisie Cousins
Few musicians seem so creatively unburdened as bo en, the 24-year-old London
producer born Calum Bowen, who sings
in multiple languages and often just hums
over audacious, upbeat production that
combines wacky prog-rock, sentimental
video game soundtracks, and decades
worth of Japanese pop. Hes as likely to
deploy a hardcore techno beat as he is
a farty MIDI tuba, probably on the same
song. Whatever happens, the sounds will
make you smile. Taking a break from work
on his second, as-yet-unnamed album,
he explained some of the philosophical
underpinnings of musics genre-bending,
global future.

bo en: Western music often imagines the

individual at the center making their perfect, authentic expression of themselves:
I am my identity, I am this genre. But no
one can run naked in music, especially in
recorded musicits such a contrived, performed, and planned activity that those
who claim to run naked are often wearing
nude suits. I think you can simultaneously
be earnest and contrived as shit, you just
have to acknowledge your intentions and
choices, and take one step back from the
surface-level game of pushing out desirable identities with sound.
Thats one reason Ive always been attracted to Japanese music. Japanese music
has historically been a lot more self-aware
and playful with its genre-ization. Twenty
years ago it was Cornelius Fantasma, and
today its groups like Dempagumi.inc,
who create absolute overwhelming joy
with little concern for being sensible and
maintaining some poise. You can do what-

ever, you can go to whatever extremes.

Stylistic traits and instrumental selection
are just part of the performanceanother
form to play with.
I try to make music where genres are
something I do, not something I am.
Im just not convinced that theres some
essential, unchangeable me conveying
a meaningful and unquestionable truth in
music or anything else. So I try to make
a big mess of signs, or make the signs so
direct and culturally self-refuting that
people give up on the game and realize
that its a constructed performance.
By singing in Japanese on my first release, I may have misguided people a little
bit, though. I thought Japanese could be
this tiny additional part to what I do that
hints at my influences and communicates
with an audience and scene I cared about,
like, Oh yeah, hes referencing Shibuyakei, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Akiko Yano,
Haniwa, hints of Yasutaka Nakata. But
its become a dominant and overwhelming way of categorizing me.
I care about writing interesting songs
more than anything, and my next album
is forefronting that. Although I have an
inescapable debt to a lot of Japanese artists, this next album takes a lot more
pointers from the 70s singer/songwriter
prog-pop world. Someone like Van Dyke
Parks strikes a beautiful balance, I think
he never loses the engagingness and inventiveness whilst clearly being skilled
and having a broad range of things under
his belt.
For a long time, it seems that some
people have had a sort of I dont get it,
so it must be good approach to unintelligible, dense music, but I think you can
have your cake and eat it. You can make
interesting things worth investigating for
a long time while still drawing people in
and giving them a really overwhelming,
visceral experience on their first listen.
You just have to be smart and work hard.
Its the ultimate challenge, really. Its like
a genetically modified carrot or something, trying to balance the formula to
give people enjoyment and intrigue in
equal measures. A carrot thats good for
you and tastes like a Big Mac.

FADE IN

Those who
claim to run
naked are
often wearing
nude suits.
49

Taylor

Johnson

Why surreal
animation is
more appealing
than ever
Story by
Matthew Trammell
Photography by
Molly Matalon

My mom paints in her free time, so Ive

always kind of been drawn to it.
My friend Isaiah Toothtaker asked me
to do a video for him, so I took a stab at it.
Earl Sweatshirt saw that video, hit up Isaiah, and we got connected. We wanted to
do this Ralph Bakshi homage video. Thats
how I got my feet in the door.
For Off Top, I just drew a bunch of
Earls for a week. I really pushed it, like,
I really want this to look as close to [Bakshis] era as possible. Thats my favorite
kind of animation in generalthe 70s and
80s stuff. It just looks real great and authentic to me. I start off with hand-drawn
sketches, then Ill do frame-by-frame animation, so [the frames] wouldnt be perfect, and you could see the mistakes in it.

When I sent the reference frames to Alex

Barella, who was helping me animate, he
kept the wonky lines. Ive always liked
loose art, like readymade sculptures or
mistake pieces. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt, but its fun to do it that
wayits a little more loose and free.
The same kind of stuff that Ralph Bakshi was talking about in his films in that
era is definitely relevant with whats going
on nowthat feeling of frustration. Obviously, everybody is frustrated with reading the news. Me and Earl talked a little
bit about that when we were [planning
the video]. Animation lends its hand to
cultural commentary so easily. You can be
very vague and specific at the same time.
There is a line at the end [of Off Top]:
I hope the sheriff keep away from me. That
stood out to me. The idea of the video was
already in my brain, and I was like, I can
really push this. That police dog is my favorite part of the video, where its barking.
I couldnt film that myself, or get a slow
motion camera in that amount of time to
film a dog doing that, so it was all digging
through a bunch of stock footage.
I feel like everyone who loved animation as a kid, were still drawn to that sort
of stuff. You can write interesting stuff to
animation, and it can be an adult show
without it feeling childish. Whenever
I saw something [animated] that was out
of my age range as a kid, I was totally enthralled with it. I was like, This is it, this
is amazing. Its this taboo as a kid, seeing
something that youre familiar with thats
also kind of bad. As people get older, animations just gonna become more popular,
smarter, and more well done.

FADE IN

50

Of all the animation that poured out of

American film studios in the 1970s and
80s, most cherished among cult cartoon
fans is the work of Ralph Bakshi, whose
woozy, drunken handstyle conjured up
loose, vulgar characters that did drugs,
had sex, and engaged with the politics of
the day. A young Taylor Johnson took to
Bakshis filmsHeavy Traffic, Wizards,
American Popas a San Diego highschooler. Today, hes a core visual designer at Adult Swim, the edgy prime-time
block thats carried Bakshis subversive
influence to the mainstream. This year,
Johnson dipped his pen into animation
to produce Off Top, Earl Sweatshirts
beautifully surreal music video that scans
as Schoolhouse Rock meets a Hate comic,
a video that felt special for its return-toform aesthetic and political bent. Between
upcoming treatments for bands he loves
but cant yet name, Johnson explained
why cartoons matter and why theyre at
their brightest when theyre dark.
Taylor Johnson: I have to wear many hats
at Adult Swim, working on everything
from the show campaigns to making packages [the logos that air between commercial breaks]. Ive always been interested in
art, as long as I can remember. My parents
put me into art classes in, like, garages
whatever they could get their hands on.

Radios new
goals
Story by Zara Golden
Radio, as its been known for decades,
is an increasingly antiquated platform.
The bulk of music programming is now
determined by algorithms, and in most
cars airwaves are being replaced by aux
cords. So Apples decision to get into the
radio game with Beats 1 in the year 2015
was a curious one. (Admittedly, their

Zane

Lowe

How did you set about doing that?

What else is different?

Its important that whoever is invested in

the wellbeing of music looks at Beats 1 as
a creative place. I really want them to see
the way that we play the music, the way
that we can help artists and labels release
their records, or the flexibility that we can
have in terms of delivering information to
fans. I think that theres a lot of ways for us
to help an artist tell their story: a new artist could get a premiere, or even do their
own radio shows. Beats 1 has provided
a home for artists to feel that they can
come and connect and lead the conversation, as opposed to being a part of it as its
led by someone else.

[Stations where Ive worked] in the past

have been like, Lets put a lot of the new
music into later hours, where people can
make it a destination to listen to it, because they really care about it. But for the
casual listener, they provide them with
a bunch of daytime radio records that
are either super familiar or super easy to
digest. We are not that. The playlist hours
are there to tie all of these amazing tastes
and amazing musical journeys together:
Joshua Homme is gonna come on and
play Hot Chocolates You Sexy Thing or
OVO Sound are gonna come on and play
a really deep mix for two hours. But there
isnt any breaking the schedule down into
places that are scary or not scary.

definition of radio24-hour streaming

hosted exclusively in the iTunes app and
anchored by DJs in London, L.A., and New
Yorkis new.) But in the four months since

How do you measure success with Beats 1?

Beats 1 has launched, it has become the

[Success is measured] on the impact that

we have for the record and the artist, and
how happy they are with the way that we
present the record to the audience. That
can be [measured] on a statistical basis,
in terms of sales, the impact that the
record has had once we got behind it, on
how much noise and volume we make for
a record and artist. For me, whats really
important is that we drive the right new
music stories and messages mixed in with
the right artist shows so that people realize how exciting music is. I feel that we
have more in common, in many respects,
with you at The FADER than we do with
traditional radio.

staging ground of choice for big artists

(Drake) and small collectives (Soulection, NAAFI), proving itself to be anything
but retrograde. Zane Lowe, who spent 12
years at BBC Radio 1 before relocating
to L.A. to anchor Beats 1, has been central
to Apples efforts. Below, he speaks on
what radio can do for music now.

What does the word radio mean to you

in 2015?

PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY KEEGIN.

Its changed a lot from what it meant to me

in 2014. [Radio is] an important voice for
a community to talk about things that are
relevant to that city or that town or even
to a country. When we started Beats 1,
the first question we asked ourselves was:
what is our voice and how does it relate to
the entire world? When you take away the
idea of talking about the local news or the
local weather or whatever at either end of
a song, you get to focus on what I think
doesnt get a lot of attention in the wake of
those things, which is music. So our thing
at Beats 1 was, how do we make music the
center of the conversation for people who
are listening in?

FADE IN

52

Family television
people actually
want to watch

uncomfortable, or even something slightly unlikable, [viewers] are just going to

shut down and turn off the televisions,
he says. But no, people turn on the television for interesting things.
According to NBC, the show attracted
4.7 million viewers in its 9 p.m. slot, mak-

Story by Matthew Trammell

Photography by
Robert Kulisek

ing it the most-watched new summer

comedy on the Big Four networks in eight
years. Lena Dunham just sent us something really nice about the show, and that
feels special, Carmichael says. John

Jerrod Carmichael found out about the

Legend told me he liked the protest epi-

cancellation of his NBC sitcom, The Car-

sode. That was really special to me, cause

michael Show, in true Hollywood fashion.

I actually named my girlfriends charac-

They gave up my parking space, he says

ter, Maxine, after one of his songs. In

with a laugh. The show was ultimately

September, just four days after renowned

picked up again, but the 27-year-old

TV critic Daniel Fienberg declared, NBC

comedian really liked his space. I dont

should renew The Carmichael Showand

know who has it now, but whenever he

renew it with haste, Carmichael got the

or she isnt here, I take my parking space

good news. I found out maybe 10 minutes

back. Growing up in the hood, you think

before the public, he remembers. I want-

that everything is going to lead to a fight,

ed to do a show on Thursday nights on

and so thats what Im mentally prepared

NBC since I was, like, 14. We got Wednes-

for. But in Hollywood, nothing happens!

daywere getting closer, still early.

This other person is probably very suc-

The day of our conversation, The Car-

cessful, and Im sure theyll take care of

michael Show staff is about a week from

them. Im sure they will find another 10

getting back into the writers room, and

feet to donate to his car.

the young comedian is excited for the

Carmichael, who is from North Caro-

chance to flesh out ideas hed hinted at

lina, has stormed the comedy world much

in the first season. With a spacious, well-

in the same way as he did the parking

snuggies, and avoiding his crazy fam-

furnished loft and a wisecracking dispo-

lotfilling voids people hadnt noticed

ily. His parents, played heartily by David

sition, what did Carmichaels character

were empty. He was 20 when he first tried

Alan Grier and Loretta Devine, are upper-

do for a living? For all the family detail

stand-up, working through subversive

middle-class churchgoers who impart

they squeezed into six episodes, the writ-

routines about Chick-fil-A and slavery with

aged wisdom to their two sonswhether

ers never got around to giving him a job.

droll, snail-like delivery. He soon landed

they ask for it or not. A lot of its rooted in

Its so funny because I just kept push-

bit parts in comedies like Neighbors, star-

the perspective of my family, and people

ing it off, like, We dont have to address

ring Seth Rogen, and in 2014 he taped his

Ive met, he says. It was always rooted

it, he says. But since so many people

first HBO special, Love at the Store. The

around conversation.

have asked, we will make something re-

Spike Lee-directed hour was Carmichaels

The series quietly debuted as a sum-

ally fun out of the fact that we didnt. As

mer mid-season tester, an unpromising

the television industry tries on new for-

After the special, he started devel-

fate referred to in the industry as a burn-

mats and styles, attempting to catch up

oping The Carmichael Show as a family-

off. Somewhere between football and

with trends in culture and technology, the

oriented, multi-cam, live-studio-audience

the return of the fall shows, Carmichael

fan-driven clamoring for a second season

sitcom that harkens back to Thursday

says. The six episodes tackle social issues

of The Carmichael Showand to get to

night classics like All in the Family and

like gun ownership and gender identity

know its characters betteris a reminder

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In the show,

alongside riffs on relationships and race,

that audiences want what theyve always

Carmichael plays a version of himself: a

all from a one-of-one perspective that

wanted: relatable personalities, real-life

tall, skinny man-child living with his med-

would make any network nervous. Peo-

conversation, and hella punchlines.

schooler girlfriend, sleeping in camo

ple think if you say something slightly

first time performing on television.

7 . Jerrod Carmichael
FADE IN

54

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The value of
conversations
with the past

Juliana

Huxtable

FADE IN

57

stories written before she was born.

she draws plenty of inspiration from

punk poetry feels forward-looking,

than pageturners. While Huxtables

tional: she reads more academic texts

literary influences that arent conven-

New Yorks undergroundcollects

visual artistnow a central figure in

that the Texas-born writer, DJ, and

ideas. Its not a huge shock, therefore,

of raw memories and empowered

mental, solipsistic works comprised

Juliana Huxtables poems are experiJuliana Huxtable: I tend to read a lot

of theory. I studied poetry and literature in school, but a more formal relationship to [those forms] is less interesting to me. I like getting into a text,
but it doesnt really inspire my own
writing. Generally, the writing that
Id like to see more of in the future is
from the people that exist at the hybrid of theory and poetry; [currently]
I think that model is more prevalent
in the art world.
I dont very often find myself in
conversation with things that are happening now, in terms of writing. I read
a lot of older authors. One book that
I always go back to when I feel like I
need to be regenerated is House of Hunger by a Zimbabwean writer named
Dambudzo Marechera. It was written
in the late 1970s, and he was dealing
with questions of race in a colonial
context, a desire for revolution, and
how those longings mask themselves

onto people who are struggling to

form a national identity in a really difficult political and economic period.
Marechera was able to take those
concerns but elucidate them in a way
thats totally surrealits one of the
most bizarre, otherworldly texts that
Ive ever read; its sort of schizophrenic. Theres a lot of psychoanalysis, and
theres a lot of Frantz Fanon, and it
sort of predates gender and queer theory. He deals with [all] these things,
but his writings register on such
a surreal level. Thats the way that
I approach my writing: Im trained in
a certain canon, but I try to think of
things in an imaginative way. House of
Hunger was the first model [of that for
me] that really blew my mind. I was
like, Whoathis is possible.

Im trained in a
certain canon,
but I try to think
of things in an
imaginative
way.

9
The deferred
victory of Virgin
Islands pop
Story Renato Pagnani

An arena-ready chorus from Adam Levine

might sound like a strange fit for whats
otherwise a straight-up Caribbean slowjam. But the Maroon 5 frontmans appearance on Locked Away was the extra little push that helped propel Timothy
and Theron Thomas, together known
as R. City, up the charts this fall after
years behind the scenes. The brothers,
who have made a name for themselves

R.City

ricane Marilyn hit in 1995, it shut down

everything. We couldnt go anywhere,
and there was a 6 p.m. curfew. We had no
electricity and no water. So we wrote and
sang songs.

doing anything. Its kind of like when you

heard N.W.A. for the first time. They were
so proud to say, Were from Compton.
For us, were so proud to say, Were from
Saint Thomas.

After having albums shelved, how does it

With artists dipping their toes into Carib-

feel to finally release one?

bean sounds lately, it feels like theres an

Timothy: Its a dream come true. We lit-

audience for the kind of music you make

erally come from a 32-square-mile island,

and we started out making music just
for the kids in our ghetto. We went from
making music for Saint Thomas to eventually making music for the entire Virgin
Islands. We moved to the United States
to introduce the world to our home. It always kind of felt like an unrealistic dream
because no one had ever made it out of the
Virgin Islands doing musicno one had
really made it out of the Virgin Islands

that didnt exist just a few years ago.

Theron: We believe that were original
and different enough for the time. There
aint nothing like the music of R. City in
the marketplace right now. There aint no
other us. But the music we make is globaltheres a Caribbean parade in almost
every city in the world. Los Angeles has
a Caribbean parade, London has a Caribbean parade. We everywhere. You cant
get rid of island people.

as hired-gun songwriters in the decade

since they moved to the United States
from the Virgin Islands, have helped write
songs for everyone from Miley Cyrus to
Rihanna, whose strip-club anthem Pour
It Up earned them a Grammy in 2014. But
their dream has ultimately been to put
out their own music. We started out as
artists, Theron says. We ended up writing songs for other people by mistake.
Twice, they recorded albums that were
eventually shelved and never released,
first on Akons KonLive imprint and then
on their own short-lived label. It was the
third time that ended up being the charm
for the brotherstheir debut album, What
in October.

The music we
make is global
theres a Caribbean parade
in every city in
the world.

What was the first song you guys wrote

together?
Theron: The first song I can remember
us writing was called Fresh, and it was
terrible. We were like 10 and 11 years
old. From then we just wrote music all
the time. Music was a great outlet for
two project kids from the Virgin Islands
who didnt have anything. When Hur-

FADE IN

58

PHOTOGRAPHY EMILY KEEGIN.

Dreams Are Made Of, was finally released

A V A I L A B L E

N O W

FREDDIE GIBBS
SHADOW OF A DOUBT

F E AT U R I N G

G U C C I M A N E , E - 4 0 , B L A C K T H O U G H T,
T O R Y L A N E Z , M A N M A N S AVA G E ,
& DANA WILLIAMS
RECORDS
E X E C U T I V E P R O D U C E D B Y F R E D D I E G I B B S , B E N L A M B O L A M B E R T, & S I D S P E A K E R B O M B M I L L E R

10

Alexa

Karolinski

Translating
brands for video,
and humans
Story by Aimee Cliff
Photography by Lara Alegre
A woman in her mid-60s lies on concrete,

online fashion films to use that magical

singing Bon Iver softly, wearing a loose

something to reach people way beyond

shirt made of pasta and a perfectly cut

a fashion houses usual audience. Video

pair of jeans. Her hand movements are

in itself is a medium that is largely acces-

delicate, her face carries the pain of an old

sible, says Karolinski. Much more than

memory. A moment later, shes vanished;

Fashion Week, you can access a whole

pigeons are pecking at dried noodles on

different crowd that isnt necessarily the

the ground where she just was, and you

fashion-interested people.

really want that pair of jeans.

Take First Kiss, the 2014 short

The scene could only happen in the

film by the womens clothing brand

world of fashion films, artful videos made

WREN, in which pairs of strangers are

to introduce collections to online audi-

asked to kiss each othert for the first

ences, where directors like Alexa Karo-

time on camera. Right now, its edg-

linski are moving beyond conventions of

ing close to 106 million views. With

advertizing and pushing new boundaries

an audience of that size and grow-

for representing brands on film. Karolins-

ing, the prospect of fashion heading in

ki, 30, studied social documentary at New

a more inclusive, open direction is very

Yorks School of Visual Arts and released

real. You can really play with reality and

a documentary film about traditional Jew-

make new realities, Karolinski explains.

ish cooking, Oma & Bella, in 2012. Based

It doesnt have to have anything to do

between Berlin and L.A., shes spent the

with the real world. Her most effective

last couple of years making intimate fash-

es the forms openness and dislikes the

videos come from romantic variations

ion films, like Pigeon, for the avant-garde

traditional method of getting inspiration

on the world as were stereotypically

designers Eckhaus Latta, as well as spots

from moodboards made up of images

shown it: take FRIEND, her re-imagining

for the denim brand 69 and a short about

from other films and fashion editorials

of the sitcom Friends thats centered on

the designer Maryam Nassir Zadeh. [Pi-

shed rather start from a blank slate. I

a more racially diverse, LGBT, pot-smok-

geon] was probably the most experimen-

love being put in a situation and seeing

ing group, or Uniform, in which a group of

tal thing Ive ever done, Karolinski says,

what I can make way more than recreat-

elderly Chinese ladies discuss luk tung

laughing. Its something my parents will

ing a photo that someone did in the 80s.

kuen, a 36-step exercise. This new breed

not understand at all.

Today, brands need to know how to

of anything-goes film is giving fashion the

Some fashion films skew closer to mu-

speak in the language of moving visuals.

scope to roam outside of its billboard- and

sic videos, others to documentaries; the

Even though Karolinski regularly warns

runway-formed avenues, revitalizing its

general theme is that there is none. The

clients that you dont plan viral videos,

radical potential. As Karolinski puts it: No

fashion clients Ive worked with never

ever, she finds herself watching YouTube

idea has ever been too crazy.

started with, This is what I want, Karo-

videos with billions of hitspuppies kiss-

linski says. Its more like figuring out how

ing babies and stufflooking for that

to translate how they see the world into

textural or emotional quality that makes

the language of video. Karolinski relish-

online films click. Theres potential in

FADE IN

60

www.gshock.com

BLACK &

Available at G-Shock SOHO

454 W. Broadway New York, NY
Models shown: GA110HT-1A/7A

WHITE

2015 CASIO AMERICA, INC.

N e x t

As part of one of the worlds

biggest bands, ZAYN MALIKs
reality was shaped by other
peoples fantasies. Now, in
his
first
interview
since
quitting, he explains why
he left and who he is now.

Story by Duncan Cooper

Photography by Francesco Nazardo

Direction

oogling Zayn Maliks house brings

up dozens of blog posts that show
you what it looks like: a big white box
with chrome accents evoking Miami
Beach, even though its just down the
road from a 12th-century church in a
bedroom community north of London
where, more than a young pop phenomenon, youd expect
to find the family of a middle manager in finance gathered
around the TV watching The X Factor.
Zayn, 22, just returned to the United Kingdom after three
months in Los Angeles, and as he sleeps off jet lag into the
late afternoon, I wander around his gated property. In the
driveway hes collected all kinds of things with wheels: two
big dirt bikes and a miniature one, a go kart adorned with a Z
in the style of the Superman logo, a vintage Mini Cooper, and
a few cars that are simply old, which he has spray-painted all
over with lime green doodles. Street art, as any fan knows, is
one of Zayns passions, and he has a room inside where hes
painted over every available surface.
These are the hobbies of a rich young man, but entering Zayns backyard stirs up an eerie feeling of boyhood
bumping up against something darker. Boxed on his porch
is a high-powered Predator CarbonLite crossbow. A rope
bridge leads past graffitied plywood reading Fuck this life
to a garden shed thats been converted into a pirate-themed
pub. Handwritten on the door are the bars hours (it never
closes) and the message I pissed inside. The building appears to have been shot up by paintballs. On the far side of
the yard is a 25-foot Native American teepee, like something
out of Neverland. And dead center, at the focal point of all
this, standing with its head wrenched back, is a fighting
dummyone of those big, muscly torsos that you can practice punching or, in Zayns case, fire into hundreds of times
with arrows.
Its been seven months since Zayn quit One Direction,
one of the biggest bands in the world and his employer for
five formative years. His house is a symbol of everything he
achieved during that timeand his unease about those very
same achievements. So far, Zayns has been a story about
how your life gets boxed in by other peoples perceptions of
you, and how easily that can spiral out of control. This happens to everyone, but in a famous boy band, the gulf between
who you are and who the rest of the world thinks you are is
tenfold. As the bands only person of color, and the Wests
single most prominent Muslim celebrity, Zayn has faced
misunderstanding to an unimaginable degree.

osing on the seat of one of his motorcycles, Zayn shifts his bare abs to
catch a fading sliver of light. He has
stepped into this photoshoot straight
after emerging from inside the house
and distributing handshakes among a
12-person crew amassed around him.
It reminds me of a scene from the 2013 documentary One
Direction: This Is Us, where Zayn is awoken in the middle of
the night because its his turn to hop in a booth and record.
His professionalism, by now, is instinctive.
Zayn has been famous for a quarter of his short life, but
the rest of the time was pretty modest. This is my dream
house, he tells me, once the pictures are done. Were settled
into his backyard pub with some Becks, and hes fired up a
spliff. The neighborhoods I came from were not like this.
He was born in Bradford, a working-class borough in northern England, and the influence on his accent is unmistakable: words turn sporadically melodic as every U and A is
pronounced like an O. The whole vibe of Bradford is influential, he says. Its not the most funded place, in terms of
the government, but theres a lot of character there. Theres
a lot of strong family values. Everybodys very proud, and
everybodys stuck in their ways. That rubbed off on me a
little bit and made me a stubborn person, and made me very
aware of who I was. If you werent aware of that in Bradford,
you kind of got left behind.
The name Zayn Malik means beautiful king in Arabic.
He has a Pakistani father named Yaser and an English mother
named Tricia who converted to Islam to marry. Ive always
tried to learn as much as I can about my husbands religion
and culture, Tricia told the BBC in 2013. I made sure the
children went to the mosque. Zayn has read the Quran three
times. When he was growing up, she worked as a halal chef at
a primary school, cooking meals for Muslim children.
In the summer of 2010, a 17-year-old Zayn traveled south
to Manchester to audition for the seventh season of The X Factor. His try-out song was Let Me Love You, a 2004 hit by the
R&B singer Mario. My main influences in music came from
my dad, Zayn says now. It was a lot of R&B, a lot of R. Kelly,
a lot of Usher, a lot of Donell Jones, a lot of Prince. He used
to play a lot of rap as well, 2Pac and Biggie. A lot of bop, a lot
of reggae, Gregory Isaac and weird artists like Yellowman.
While Zayn always imagined singing on the show, he
wouldnt have actually tried out if it werent for his mom.
People laugh at me because it sounds so childish now, but
genuinely, at the time, I was a lazy teen. If I was in control
of me going to audition for The X Factor, I would have never
gone because I would have never got up on the day of the
audition at four in the morning. The reason I woke up is because my mom came in the room and was like, You have to
go audition for this show. I felt like I had to do it because I
owed it to her.

ZAYN MALIK

64

He made the cut, but in the shows televised bootcamp

he exhibited a costly shyness about dancing and failed to
qualify for the next round. But the judges made an unexpected offer: the chance for Zayn and four other boys whod
just been cutHarry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, and
Louis Tomlinsonto stay on together as a group. One Direction, a name Harry suggested, performed for the first time in
an episode filmed at show producer and talent judge Simon
Cowells palatial home in Spain, where they covered Natalie
Imbruglias Torn: Illusion never changed/ Into something real/
Im wide awake and I can see/ The perfect sky is torn. Foreshadowing, perhaps.
When the group placed third on the show, Zayn winked
into the camera and told the audience, This isnt the last
of One Direction, and, within the month, it was announced
theyd signed a $3.1 million contract with Cowells label,
Syco. One Direction released a platinum-selling album every November from 2011 to 2014. They were just the sixth
act ever to debut their first four LPs at No. 1 in the U.S. and
the first non-Americans to do so. In between albums, they
toured the globe relentlessly, in 2014 pulling in $280 million
in ticket sales alone. 1
A decade after *NSYNC broke up, One Direction invigorated the boy band model by injecting every calculated thing
they did with a dose of genuine-seeming anarchy. Arena
rock, it turns out, is an ideal style for average-to-good singers with gravity-defying hair who are either unwilling or too
uncoordinated to follow conventional choreography. It looks
more fun, anyway, to just jump around. The bandmates social lives were carefully confined, with the tabloid mania
surrounding a leaked 2014 video in which Louis and Zayn
smoke weed the rare exception that proves the rule. But in
press appearances and performances, they seemed uncontrollable, just like youd expect from five guys in their late
teens and early 20s. Theyd crack in-jokes and jostle one another, perpetually pumping each other up and egging each
other on until, as if by magic, the occasion of song joined
their voices in a single, pristine chord.
Boy bands like One Direction are unique in music because they intentionally and directly speak to a young, female audience. This is a lucrative approachwhen mom or
dad has to chaperone, its two concert tickets sold for every
fanthat can also have a positive impact. In a convincing essay for Racked called The Absolute Necessity of One Direction, Alana Massey calls boy bands a profound social good
because they present a gentleness that isnt traditionally
encouraged in young men, or so publicly and unabashedly
demonstrated by them. Though their fans dont all belong
to any one age group or gender, a boy bands classic structurethe cute one, the funny one, the bad boy, and so onaffords fans a chance, unlike in actual life, to fantasize without
prejudice about which type of guy theyd like, or why, or how
often they might switch allegiances. Massey calls this happy

alternate reality the Kingdom of the Girl, a place where, for

once, young women are wholly in power, being respected,
celebrated, and adored. 2
Occasionally, spreading all this love can backfire. One
of Zayns managers told me that Directioners have taken to
ringing Zayns doorbell in the middle of the night, hoping
hell think its an emergency, rustle out of bed, and stumble
into conversation. But when I slip up in describing this type
of behavior as crazy, Zayn corrects me to say his fans are
just passionate. Perhaps hes weary of their real, threatening power over his lifehe keeps security guards and an
attack dog for a petor perhaps hes acknowledging their
tastes as legitimate, a subtle feminist gesture. Im inclined
to think its the latter, because loving One Direction is a
perfectly rational thing to do. In a world that is by nobodys
standards ideal, their finely tuned pop songs of unfailing
love are a welcome relief. Its only sensible for fans to recognize what brings them joy and grab onto it tight.
Some of Zayns biggest supporters are fellow people of
South Asian descent, many of whom see him as a powerful
representative of their cultureor at least someone whose
stardom and visibility raises important questions. In a 2015
essay for Noisey, Diyana Noory says that One Direction
caused some people in her community to discuss what it
means to be Muslim in a new way. Zayn has found himself
standing in for the worlds questions like a modern prophet,
she writes. Can you drink, smoke, and sport tattoos while
calling yourself a Muslim? Is music haram [sinful]? One of
Zayns most routinely insightful chroniclers is Two Brown
Girls, a pop culture podcast hosted by two writers, Montreals Fariha Risn and New Yorks Zeba Blay. In one 2015
episode, Risn says that even Zayns small gestures, like his
annual tweet wishing Eid Mubarak, have meant a lot to her
as someone trying to balance religious tradition and secular
interests. Youre either fully committed, and thats great and
beautiful, or youre an atheist and dont give a shit, she said.
Ive never been either of those two things, and I think Zayn
is similar to me in that sense. In our interview, I read him
her quote.
I always felt that I got some favoritism sometimes in
certain places because the fans obviously want to relate to
someone thats similar to them, he says, having consumed

One Directions fifth album, Made in the A.M.which some fans

believe stands for After Malikwas released in November 2015. But
a sixth LP wont be coming next year: in August, it was announced
that the four remaining members would break for an extended
hiatus in 2016.

Thats not to say One Directions music has always been understood as empowering for women. Its been widely noted that their
debut single, What Makes You Beautiful, reinforces an out-ofwhack power dynamic where women are expected to feel unsure
of themselves until they receive compliments from men. But,
to the bands credit, no song since has been quite so insensitive.

ZAYN MALIK

67

the spliff and moved on to a cigarette. Im just a normal

person as well as following my religion, and doing all the
normal things that everybody else does. I love music and I
get tattoos and I make mistakes, and Ive had to go through
relationships and break up relationships. I feel proud that
people actually look to me and can see themselves in that.
I ask if that attention makes him feel pressure to set a good
example, and Zayn replies, I dont feel like I felt pressure
ever. I always felt good that I was, like, first of my kind in
what I was doing. I enjoyed that I brought the diversity. But
I would never be trying to influence anything or try to stamp
myself as a religious statement or portrayal of anything. I am
me. Im just doing me.
Some people have expressed hope that leaving One Direction would embolden Zayn to talk more about political
issues, like Islamophobia in the West, but he doesnt seem
driven to. Maybe thats because over the past five years hes
been accused, both seriously and satirically, of causing 9/11,
joining ISIS, and recruiting fans to wage jihad, or because
people threatened to kill him after he tweeted #FreePalestine. I ask him if harassment is a deterrent to speaking out.
Its not even the harassment, he says. I just dont want to be
influential in that sense. Still, after hearing Zayn talk about
how normal he is, I cant help but wonder how normal a
Muslim person would have to be in order to appease all the
worlds bigotsand whether, given the impossible degree of
nonthreatening-ness that seems required, how someone in
Zayns position could ever feel safe enough to say something
like, Yes, I do want to be influential.
One of the stranger things putting pressure on Zayn and
the current members of One Direction involves shipping
short for relationshippinga short fiction genre that imagines celebrities in relationships with each other. In the case
of the band, that often means matching the bandmates up
with one another. Just as stereotypical boy band personas
encourage fans to fantasize, shipping affords its pseudonymous authors the chance to explore their own sexuality in a
safe environment. Its the rare unorchestrated, participatory
byproduct of One Direction that costs nothing to fans. Some
shippers take things a step further, however, compiling meticulous researchfootage of a clutched elbow in an interview, GIFs of lingering glances at a showin an attempt to
prove that their fiction is based in reality. They become amateur sleuths, mining subtext deep in the singers private lives
in order to secure their place as insiders, and prove theyre
the bands #1 fan.
The more intrusive fan theories are premised on the idea
that One Directions management is callously covering up
relationshipsso I ask Zayn, who has new management
now and can presumably speak more freely, whether any of
the stories are true. Basically, he says, knowing that everything you do will be parsed for subtext is a terrible mindfuck. Theres no secret relationships going on with any of

the band members, he explains. Its not funny, and it still

continues to be quite hard for them. They wont naturally go
put their arm around each other because theyre conscious of
this thing thats going on, which is not even true. They wont
do that natural behavior. But its just the way the fans are.
Theyre so passionate, and once they get their head around
an idea, thats the way it is regardless of anything. If it wasnt
for that passionate, like, almost obsession, then we wouldnt
have the success that we had.
Once you erase the line between reality and fantasy, you
cant really go back. A diehard believer of One Directions
forbidden romances, for instance, could easily invent explanations for Zayns denial: Oh, he must have signed a nondisclosure agreement, or, The bosses must have some real dirt on him.
This is how One Direction can become, for fans and casual
onlookers alike, not just a band but an unsolvable puzzle.
Even benign subjects like how Zayn became known as the

ZAYN MALIK

68

mysterious one raise endless questions. Did he appear mysterious because management forced him to play that role
and if they did, was Zayn seen as mysterious because of the
color of his skin? Or was he naturally withholding because
he felt creatively exiled within the group? Or was it simply
because on a few unlucky press days he just didnt feel like
talking? Zayn says there were plenty of times where an interviewer, having only asked questions of his bandmates,
would turn to him and suggest, Zayn youve been awfully
quiet. Im actually quite easy, a happy-go-lucky sort of guy,
he says, but there was a lot of situations that were almost
created to make me be portrayed as the mysterious or quiet
one. I guess thats just something that people buy into, and it
helps them sell things. Its a product thats already designed,
and it sells.
Zayn has always had to navigate on someone elses course,
whether its regarding passionate fans or the way he expresses his heritage. But nowhere did that bother him so much as
with the actual music, the reason for all of this. Yet again, the
rules werent up to him. There was never any room for me to
experiment creatively in the band, he says. If I would sing
a hook or a verse slightly R&B, or slightly myself, it would
always be recorded 50 times until there was a straight version
that was pop, generic as fuck, so they could use that version.
Whenever I would suggest something, it was like it didnt fit
us. There was just a general conception that the management
already had of what they want for the band, and I just wasnt
convinced with what we were selling. I wasnt 100 percent
behind the music. It wasnt me. It was music that was already
given to us, and we were told this is what is going to sell to
these people. As much as we were the biggest, most famous
boy band in the world, it felt weird. We were told to be happy
about something that we werent happy about.
And so he quit. It happened in March 2015, but the exact
timeline of his decision is hard to explain Zayn says there
was no one incident that led to his departure. I guess I just
wanted to go home from the beginning, he says. I was always thinking it. I just didnt know when I was going to do it.
Then by the time I decided to go, it just felt right on that day.
I woke up on that morning, if Im being completely honest
with you, and was like, I need to go home. I just need to be
me now, because Ive had enough. I was with my little cousin
at the timewe were sat in the hotel roomand I was just,
Should I go home? And he was like, If you want to go home,
lets go home. So we left.
In the tabloids, a more scandalous narrative was presented. For almost the entirety of Zayns time in One Direction,
he was datingthen engaged toPerrie Edwards, a fellow
The X Factor alum and a Syco signee to boot. In early March,
Zayn was photographed at a Thai nightclub holding hands
with a woman named Lauren Richardson, setting off a wave
of cheating rumors. Though Richardson, who would go on
to star in a reality TV dating show, told The Daily Star, It was

just an innocent picture. Nothing else happened, another

British tabloid, The Sun, featured an interview with another
woman, a Swedish model, who claimed to have slept with
Zayn that same night. Days later, on March 18th, Zayn played
what would be his final One Direction show. A shaky video
filmed from the crowd appears to show him briefly in tears.
The following morning, after a Philippines immigration
office demanded the payment of a drugs bond stemming
from the leaked weed video, a One Direction spokesman
announced that Zayn was taking a break from tour due to
stress. Within a week, an official statement of his resignation
was posted on the bands Facebook page, with Zayn citing a
desire to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and
have some private time out of the spotlight.
Did the cheating rumors affect his decision to leave?
The two things never really coincided in my mind, he says.
Obviously, publicly, thats the way it worked, because it
worked well for the purpose. Them two stories looked good
together side by side. Stories came out because we were in
Thailand, and we were out and about. If we were out in Australia, if we were out in India, the same thing would have
happened. It was just at a peak where the fame was intrusive
and invasive. It wasnt because of that that I leftthat was
just a contributing factor to everything. Id already made my
mind up before that. 3
In August, five months after he left the band, news broke
that Zayn and Perrie had called off their engagement. In a
widely circulated story, The Sun claimed he dumped her via
text message. Zayn takes the opportunity of our interview to
deny this. If you could word it exactly this way, Id be very
appreciative, he says. I have more respect for Perrie than to
end anything over text message. I love her a lot, and I always
will, and I would never end our relationship over four years
like that. She knows that, I know that, and the public should
know that as well. I dont want to explain why or what I did,
I just want the public to know I didnt do that.
These days, Zayn seems to be enjoying single life. A recent
Instagram he posted of himself, shirtless and hugging an unnamed woman, set off a mad dash to find her identity. When
I suggest hes intentionally baiting people, his eyes light up

There is, unsurprisingly, a conspiracy theory among some fans

that hypothesizes that Zayns exit was decided months in advance,
though the evidence is a bit shaky. In June 2015, two months after
Zayn left the group, One Direction released an ad on YouTube for
their Between Us fragrance that starred only the four remaining
membershowever, judging by the absence of Harrys mermaid
tattoo, which he got in November 2014, the footage must have been
shot when Zayn was still in the group. Why would they have filmed
a group hug without him? November is also when Zayn missed his
first concert date, in Florida, as well as a subsequent interview
on The Today Show, which prompted Matt Lauer to suggest, on the
air, that Zayn was having issues with substance abuse. This was
a claim that the band, and Zayn, vehemently denied, blaming
a stomach bug instead.

ZAYN MALIK

69

with mischievous glee. The young man who left home at 17 is

now, for the first time in his life, directing his own narrative
and taking little chances to dirty it up. Hes smoking more
and sleeping in. What hell make of his new circumstances
is still an open question, and it wont have a simple answer.
In late July, a week before Zayns breakup with Perrie
became public, he signed as a solo artist to RCA, home to
Chris Brown and Americas most beloved ex-boy bander, Justin Timberlake. Like Syco, the label is a subsidiary
of Sony, and Simon Cowell reportedly helped broker the
smooth transitiona fitting goodbye that presumably paid
both men handsomely.
hortly after a dinner of fish and chips,
ordered in and consumed straight
from cardboard containers on the back
patio, Zayn and I are joined by James
Malay Ho, the 37-year-old producer
whos become his main musical collaborator. Malay has just flown in from
L.A. When asked if hell pose for a photo, he jokes, Can you
make me lose 30 pounds?
Zayns first recording session after going solo was with
Naughty Boy, a British producer with whom he had a public
falling-out after a Rae Sremmurd cover they did together
leaked in July. (Naughty Boy declined to comment.) In L.A.,
Zayn first worked with two British brothers, Michael and
Anthony Hannides, but things only really clicked when he
met Malay. He has a long list of credits for the likes of 50
Cent and John Legend, but is best known for executive producing Frank Oceans debut album, Channel Orange. (Hes
also working on that albums follow-up.) Its Oceans sort
of confessional, artisanal R&B that Zayn seems to want for
himself, offering a return to his roots and the chance to be
heralded as a true creative, rather than as an actor playing
the part of one. Malay, who prides himself on facilitating
an artists vision rather than injecting any signature sound,
appears to be an ideal collaborator. Coincidentally, as the
producer points out over the phone a week later, they also
share a common upbringing: We both have Asian dads and
Caucasian mothers.
Zayn got a few songwriting credits with One Direction,
mostly for minor contributions to existing songs, but he says
he spent countless nights writing on a laptop and guitar:
That was my therapy, like outside of the band. Fittingly, his
recording sessions with Malay have been private and lowkey, happening far from what Zayn calls the circus of Los
Angeles studios. Malay likes to use a mobile recording rig,
and though it was unfortunately held up at customs for this
trip, theyve made good use of it in The Beverly Hills Hotel, in Zayns house in Bel-Air, and even out camping. Thats
where Zayn got into archery, shooting at trees in the downtime while their generator regained electricity, and its where

71

Would you listen to One Direction,

sat at a party with your girl? I
wouldnt. To me, thats not an insult,
thats me as a 22-year-old man.

they laid down some of their favorite vocal tracks, backed by

the soft hum of the woods.
These recording sessions will all go to Zayns forthcoming solo debut, planned for release in early 2016. Of the
roughly 20 percent of the album that Malay estimates they
recorded in a proper studio, even those parts were unconventional, like the time they rented a studio in The Palms
Casino in Las Vegas after a night on the town. Thats how
Zayn, who is doing all of the albums writing himself, got
the idea for a song. We were sitting in the club, Malay remembers, and he was just like, This situation, me in Vegas, Ive done this before a million times, like all over the
world, but not like this. It was a super simple concept, but
that perspective comes from what he experienced at such
a young age.
Everyone moves to the pub, and Zayn takes much delight in filling drink requests. Malay connects his laptop to
a single Yamaha speaker and cues up new versions of a few
tracks, including the one they started in the Palms, which
still needs a name. Theres a muted guitar line that sounds
like something from The xx, but Zayns vocal parts hew closer to Miguel or The Weekndmid-range R&B with a distinct awareness of its own head-nodding flow, before letting
loose for 10 straight seconds of Zayns incomparable falsetto.
The next song they play is an upbeat jam tentatively
called I Got Mine, with freshly recorded trumpets and a
beat thats almost U.K. garage. The lyrics were inspired by a
Guitar Center employee who struck up a conversation with
Zayn about his Prince T-shirt, then revealed that hed loaned
his MIDI keyboard to Madonnas touring band. Theres so
many people in L.A. that have a story to tell, but they never
got to tell the story, Zayn remembers thinking. Every line
in the pre [-chorus] of that song is a different persons perspective. So, its like, Talk is cheap but we still talk it/ Road is
far but we still walk it/ Writing chalks or change the story. At that
point, that could be like a teacher writing on the chalkboard,
writing a story, but they can change it. Keep it moving when
its boring. The dustbin man, putting the garbage out, whatever. Thoughts come out just like theyre pouring. An alcoholic
guy whos, like, a super creative dude. It was all different
perspectives. He says that other songs on the album follow
a similar approachZayn using his position to give voice to
othersincluding one called My Ways thats sung from his
fathers perspective.
People like Frank [Ocean], who have been in studios for
years and years and years developing skills as songwriters
hes been doing that on the performance side, Malay says of
their easy time working together, with most vocals recorded
in just a few takes. Thats powerful right there. His 10,000
hours or whatever have been invested as a performer. He
has the tools physically and mentally to deliver at the drop
of the hat. Though actually writing and recording his own
songs is new for Zayn, hes feeling very comfortable. Its not

hard, he says. To me, its like I stood in front of a canvas for

about five years, and someone said like, Youre not allowed
to paint on this canvas. Ive got the paint, Ive got the fucking
brushes, and I cant get it on there. Now someone removed
the plastic and was like, Alright, you can now paint.
While the plastic may be off, saying goodbye to One Directions billion-dollar brand and global fan base means that
as a solo act, Zayn will likely reach a significantly smaller
audience. A big part of why I left the band is I made the
realization that it wasnt actually about [being the biggest]
anymore, he says, unconcerned. It wasnt about the amount
of ticket sales that I get. It was more about the people that
I reach. I want to reach them in the right way, and I want
them to believe what Im saying. Ive done enough in terms
of financial backing for me to live comfortably. I just want
to make music now. If people want to listen to that, then Im
happy. If they dont want to listen to it, then dont fucking listen to it. Im cool with that too. Ive got enough. I dont need
you to buy it on a mass scale for me to feel satisfied.
In the aforementioned documentary that showed Zayn
waking up in the middle of the night to record, cameras follow his mother as she comes home, for the first time, to a new
house that Zayn bought for his family. He tells me that this
single purchase was his only goal in the band, ever since his
days on The X Factor. In whatever way I can help them right
now, because Ive been almost gifted in a way, I do, he says. I
feel like its my responsibility. The cousin who was with him
on the morning of his departure from the bandafter realizing how far behind Bradfords educational system was, Zayn
paid to enroll him in private school in London.
As much as he says he was tired of the lifestyle that accompanies mega-fame, Zayn is working around the clock
on his solo albumincluding taking time for this story, long
after the suns gone down. Im working every day now, but
Im working on music that I enjoy, he says. Were there any
parts of One Directions music that he enjoyed? He says
thats beside the point. Thats not music that I would listen
to. Would you listen to One Direction, sat at a party with
your girl? I wouldnt. To me, thats not an insult, thats me as
a 22-year-old man. As much as I was in that band, and I loved
everything that we did, thats not music that I would listen
to. I dont think thats an offensive statement to make. Thats
just not who I am. If I was sat at a dinner date with a girl, I
would play some cool shit, you know what I mean? I want to
make music that I think is cool shit. I dont think thats too
much to ask for.
Thats not to say that hell never work with his former
bandmates again. In old interviews and even in the note announcing he was quitting, Zayn always expressed a desire
to remain friends for life with his former bandmates. So it
was surprising when only weeks after his exit he got into an
argument on Twitter with Louis over someones poor choice
of a photo filter. I ask him where he and the group stand now.

ZAYN MALIK

73

Back in the pub, Zayn describes his dad as a way to underscore his own change. My dad is super reserved, and he
kind of just is the way that he is, he says. He just stays in
Bradford. Hes really shy, and he doesnt like to be in the
limelight. He kind of feels like I just went and auditioned
and never came back. This ideawhat happened to the
families when their boys lefthas been stuck in my head
since 2013, when One Direction put out a strange video for
Story of My Life.
The video shows actual photographs of the bandmates
as kids with their families, then, in a trick of special effects,
morphs everyone into their present selves. The One Direction boys are free to move around the frame, browsing an old
childhood bookshelf or looking wistfully out the bedroom
window where they once projected so many dreams, but
their family membersplayed by their actual family membersremain frozen in place. Its as if celebrity brought the
band immortality, but it robbed them of the ability to connect with the ones they most deeply love.
Now Zayn has chosen another path, leaving the world of
gods to live a more fallible life. Theres something really sad
about thatthe once mighty band feels a little off balance,
and solitary Zayn can seem so lonely in comparison. But
he isnt alone. Fifteen minutes before our interview ends,
one of his managers pops in to tell Zayn his mother has arrived. Shes driven down from Bradford, and when hes done
with work tonight theyll head home together, spend time as
a family, and probably not worry about what comes next.

ZAYN MALIK

STYLING JASON REMBERT AND CAROLINE WATSON.

MAKEUP GEMMA WHEATCROFT.

I spoke to Liam about two weeks ago, Zayn says. It was

the first time Id spoken to him since I left the band, and I
rung him, and he wanted to talk. He said that he didnt understand it at the time, but he now fully gets why I had to do
what I did. He understands that its my thing, that I had to do
that, and that basically he wants to meet up and sit down and
have a good chat in person, and he wants to do some music
and work on some stuff aside from being in the band, which
we always wanted to do anyway.
You can bracket phases in Zayns life by albums and concerts and scandals and hairstylesafter quitting the band,
he sported a penitential buzz cut. Now, liberated from the
band and out of the relationship hed been in for almost as
long, his next phase will be defined not by any clear direction but by the total absence of one. Hell try new, weird
things and see what fits, then maybe throw it all out again.
Maybe in a few years the fame he says hes rejecting will be
exactly what he wants. The point is its up to him. When an
album comes out, its a snapshot of the artists life, Malay
tells me. This is who I am, this is where Im at, fuck with
me or dont fuck with me. It takes a lot of guts to do that.
Im sure in the future hes going to have a whole new set of
things hes dealing with. This particular piece is definitely
dealing with a transitional point in his life, but I dont think
theres an end to that.
Zayn does seem up-in-the-air about where exactly hes going, and a bit cagey too. The albumI have a name for it in
my head right now, but I dont want to tell you what the album
name isall the songs are different genres, he says. They
dont really fit a specific type of music. Theyre not like, This
is funk, this is soul, this is upbeat, this is a dance tune. Nothing is like that. I dont really know what my style is yet. Im
kind of just showing what my influences are. Depending on
what the reaction is, then Ill go somewhere with that. If people like that Im a bit more R&B, then Ill do more R&B on my
next album. If they like the fact that theres reggae on there, I
might do more reggae. Its just depending on what they want
and what I feel comfortable with at the time. I might even
have a rock tune on the album, but its kind of like R&B-rock.
A week later, Zayn sends me a three-paragraph mission
statement for the album that elaborates on his feelings.
The very fact of this letters existence says a lot about his
intentions. I can map every lyric and every note to mean
something to me, it says. Its a snapshot of my life and the
thoughts on my life, my hopes, my aspirations, and my regrets in the summer of 2015. The last part is what really
clicks for meits just this summer. The years that came before, and whatever comes after, can stay a mystery. Thats
how everyone lives, isnt it? You find your way. Where Zayns
entire identity was once fixed awkwardly upon him by others, hes now embracing a perpetual state of becoming something else, recognizing hes changing as he goes: this is me,
trying now, and it wont be me forever.

74

On

Set

Y G s been telling gleeful

gangster stories about life in Los
Angeles since he was in high
school. Now that America has
embraced him, real life drama is
threatening to take center stage.

Story by Matthew Trammell

Photography by Chuck Grant

ts a Saturday in September, and YG

is on the top floor of a split-level rooftop patio in Hollywood, holding court
over a small spread of boneless wings
and a chilled Dos Equis. A churning Jacuzzi buoys a large Bathing Ape floatie
nearby, and a tableau of lush trees, luxury cars, and impossibly gorgeous real estate rolls across the
surrounding hills and valleys. The homes owner, Sickamore,
a former Def Jam A&R who is now VP of A&R at Epic, runs
a game of Madden 16 downstairs with YGs day-to-day manager Nano and longtime friend Psych. The guys throw parties here sometimes, and neighbors rarely complain. Just last
week, YG woke up on this very patio to impassioned fellatio
from a houseguest, before nodding off for a few more hours.
Thats how I know Im blessed, the 25-year-old Compton MC says. Thats why Im trying to handle my situation
in the right way.
Life certainly hasnt always been this sweet for YG. Like
on that one sunny morning back in 2008 when a friend short
on rent asked him to come along for a quick score in nearby
Lakewood. He hit me up to go flock, YG says between bites
of wings, invoking the colorful local term for breaking and
entering. Im one of the niggas that knew how to do the shit.
Its 11 a.m., broad daylight. Im like, Come get me.
YG is a funny dude and a compelling storyteller. He
speaks in sharp bursts, at turns boastful and comedic and
brimming with Cali slang, and he uses charisma and rhetorical flourishes (repetition here, a quick joke there) to pull
listeners in and make them feel like co-conspirators along
for the ride.
Im climbing in the window, he says. Get halfway
through the window, the police pull up. Boom. He punctuates the sentence with a pound of his fists. Freeze!
Of course, he did not freeze.
We get on, he says, picking up the pace. We running.
Its a big-ass neighborhood. We hopping all through backyards. We hiding on top of roofs. You ever see the buildings
that have the big-ass plasticthey put the tent over it when
they spraying fumes? Its a house with a tent on it. I go hide
under the tent. Im trying to hold my breath. My nigga, the
police is, like, right here. They move, I hear them. So I hop
out the tent and start running. They start chasing me again.
The whole thing sounds like something out of a crime
drama youve seen before: young black male running down
some palm tree-lined street in broad daylight, LAPD hot on
his tail.
We hit another backyard, he says. Come out the other
side, police got the whole shit blocked off. Man, they had the
helicopters and all that. Twenty police cars. So we run back
in the backyard. Its some old pickup truck
Im laying under the truck like, Fuck, he says. We
caught. Its all bad.

YG and his friends had done countless jobs like this before. Why did this one go wrong?
It was my fault, he says, his tone shifting slightly from
triumph to hushed reflection, a slice of sun cutting back and
forth across his jaw. I was being thirst. Im trying to crack
the window. It aint sliding open. The homies like, Its taking too long, lets go. Im like, I didnt come out here to just
come and then just go. Yall niggas called me, nigga, we
about to get up in this motherfucker!
An old robbers adage says its better to get away with
nothing than get caught with everything. But youth emboldens all, and YG was nothing if not young.
I busted the window with my hand, he says. Bam. Unlocked it, slid it, climbed halfway in. Police pulled up. They
had a silent alarm.

uring whats already felt like a boundless era for young L.A. rappers, YG has
charted an unpredictable course to
fame that few outside the West Coast
saw coming. Despite a string of acclaimed street singles and mixtapes
dating back to 2008, for years he was
largely known to national audiences by Toot It and Boot
It, a gummy no-brainer of a hit made with Ty Dolla $ign.
That changed in March 2014 with YGs debut LP for Def Jam,
My Krazy Life. Anchored by the slow-bubbling My Nigga,
an addictive single featuring Jeezy and Rich Homie Quan
that interpolated C-Murder, Snoop, and Magics No Limitera street-sweeper Down 4 My Ns, My Krazy Life shot to
No. 2 on the Billboard album chart upon release. My Nigga
(repackaged as My Hitta for radio) cracked the Billboard
Hot 100s Top 20, racked up over 1.8 million in sales, and got
a remix with Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and Meek Mill.
The majority of songs on My Krazy Life were produced
by longtime YG collaborator DJ Mustard, and the album
solidified their trademark Cali sound as radio programmer
gold. But the success of My Krazy Life went beyond sales
and spins. Arriving just months after Kendrick Lamars good
kid, m.A.A.d city breathed new life into concept rap albums
with a somber narration of a day in Compton, My Krazy Life
landed just as lucid and conceptual, but that much more visceral, championed for its block-level storytelling, thrill ride
sequencing, and humorous skits. Where Lamars The Art
of Peer Pressure described a hesitant burglary in a cautionary tone, YGs winking Meet the Flockers evoked The Notorious B.I.G and The Pink Panther to let the listener play
stakeout and celebrate a successful job. On the more serious
When I Was Gone, he hosted a roundtable of friends, giving them a chance to tell their own stories of people whod
left them behind while they did time in jail. Soon, fans whod
never stepped foot in Compton were mimicking YGs Bicken Back Bein Bool lingo, swapping hard C sounds for Bs

YG

79

in deference to his loyalty to the Tree Top Piru Bloods. The

project was a huge, unexpected step forward for a rapper
whod largely cut his teeth on one-note, if not blissfully effective, club slappers. Many, including a dozen grade-schoolers
who staged a bicket line protest in Hollywood earlier this
year, felt it was snubbed for a Grammy nod.
YG went through an incredible maturation process as an
artist in the years between Toot It and My Hitta, Def Jam
CEO Steve Bartels says in an email. The YG that emerged
from that process was a fully formed album artist, with perspective and strong music. I can already tell that the new music will continue the pantheon of what has begun, he continues, nodding to YGs forthcoming sophomore record, Still
Krazy. The material is incredibly rich, layered, and musical,
while retaining that unmistakable YG energy and bounce.
In July, YG whet appetites for his new album with Twist
My Fingaz, a sticky flip of George Clintons One Nation
Under A Groove, that was produced by Terrace Martin,

a regular at Lamars TDE label and a Snoop Dogg protg.

The record is already a mainstay on L.A. radio and audaciously boasts: I really got something to say/ Im the only one
that made it out the West without Dre. Delivered in the same
year as Dr. Dres Compton comeback and Kendrick Lamars
To Pimp a Butterfly, the bar is revelatory. Los Angeles rich,
canonical rap history continually suggests gazing back:
The Game and Kendrick Lamar were both ushered in by
Dr. Dre, and songs throughout their catalogues evoke Eazy
E and 2Pac in style and name. In contrast, YGs reference
points sit squarely within the South Central of his day, providing the soundtrack to contemporary L.A. kids with little
sense of nostalgia. His good days demand more cheer than
Ice Cubes. He raps about money and women obsessively
and gleefully, and would almost always prefer a party to a
brawla constant joyfulness thats always overshadowed
any more sinister narrative. If Lamar speaks about young
gangsters in Compton, YG speaks for them.

YG

80

G was born Keenon Daquan Ray Jackson, the son of Ulysses and Shonee,
who ran a daycare business in Paramount and Long Beach to provide for
their six kidsthree of their own, two
children of siblings, and one from a
previous marriage. Though his mom
was from the Crip side, as YG puts it, his father was determined to shield his kids from Comptons gang culture and
pointed his son toward athletics instead. YG was tri-varsity
by junior high, but after a tax fraud case brought down the
family business and sent his father to jail, the young wouldbe G hit the streets. By the time YG was 16, he had joined the
400 set of the Tree Top Piru Bloods.
Its impossible to hang out with YG without noticing
his affiliation. He trades knuckle-tangling handshakes
with Nano and Psych, litters his sentences with pledges to
things he believes in: thats on the set, thats on Blood,

thats on God. During the two days I spend with him in

L.A., he sports a red bowler hat, red boxers, olive threequarter khakis, and tall Vans socks tucked into gray Sk8His. His most eye-catching tattoo, besides the Virgin Mary
that covers his scalp, is a large Bompton All Stars seal
down his side in the style of Converses five-point Chuck
Taylor logo. Nano and Psych wear team colors as well: various jerseys and tees from YGs 4HUNNID merch collection, all emblazoned with Bompton.
Still, the crew shares a fraternal vibe thats more juvenile
than menacing. They spend their downtime roasting each
other, bumming cigarettes, and blasting Future. Its like a
permanent senior spring, except for kids kicked out of high
school. All my friends was gangbangers, YG explains. We
was breaking in houses before school. After school, we was
partying. We going to Paramount High School. It was a lot
of riotsMexican and black riots, gang fights. They called
us to the office one day like, Yall gotta go. Yall are the rea-

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son all this is going on, yall the head honchos. We in the
10th grade!
YGs youth was not beholden to a strict red vs. blue binary, and he claimed close friends from opposing sets. Its
not how it was back in the day with Bloods and the Crips and
all that shit, he says. This shit been going on for so long,
half a niggas family be Crip members. Even today, some
of the older homies dont be approving of that type of shit.
They be likehe adopts an exaggerated, quivering senior
citizens voiceBack in our day, we was beefing with them
niggas! It wasnt no being cool, none of that! But everybody
understands. Times change, shit different.
When asked why, year after year, young men like him
choose to risk their lives for little more than a lifestyle, he
stresses that it isnt fun, but that it also isnt exactly voluntary.
Our culture is gangbang shit, he says. So as a kid, this all
we see. Mamas and them trying to keep us away from itmy
mama wasbut some homies mamas was [banging]. They
all from the same hood. So you seeing this shit as a little kid.
Its scary. Its the shit your people dont want you to do.
Listening to him talk candidly about his days on the 400
block, its hard not to think that the confrontational, performative lifestyle must have trained a young YG for fame,
even if just in high school hallways. He started rapping on
a whim, self-recording house party anthems about chasing
money and girls, largely inspired by his then-favorite rapper Lil Wayne. His tracks went viral on MySpace among
neighboring kids in South Central, and soon he was playing parties for profit, enlisting young homies to sell tickets
at schools across the city. In 2008, his buzz caught the attention of local party promoter Big B, who connected him with
a budding producer named Ty Dolla $ign and a popping DJ
named Mustard.
Thats when I caught my case, YG says, referencing the
botched B&E that day in 2008. Went to jail, [got out] on
bail, and my rap shit started to pop off. Though initially
sentenced to two years, YG walked after just six months
thanks to a family friend who intervened on his behalf, convincing the courts that YG had more to offer society as a
free man.
In 2009, YG and Ty released Toot It and Boot It. According to E-Man, the music director of L.A.s Power 106, the
songs early success was more word-of-mouth. All our mixshow DJs were like Yo, whats this record? We started seeing it react and ran with it. Toot It stormed radio over the
next year, proving YG and Tys jubilant, homegrown sound
had serious commercial potential. From a radio standpoint,
it jump-started YG, it jump-started Ty Dolla $ign, and it
jump-started DJ Mustard, says E-Man. It set off two other
careers. It was all the jerking movement around then, and
here YG came with this all new sound.
YG played his first show in Hollywood in 2009, shortly
after Toot It took off. Def Jam A&R Max Gousse was in at-

tendance, and signed YG to a major deal within days. When

I got signed, I spent all my money on a spot and moved all
my people into a house in Englewood and shit, YG says. We
all in the house. The house turned up. All the homies over
there, bitcheswe doing everything. My mama and them
live there. Everybody here. Its popping. Shit was a movie.
Still, YG was shrewd enough to know the difference between a career-launching hit and an actual career. Homies
started acting weird, he says. Niggas stop coming around
because we were just doing the Toot It and Boot It song.
YG refused to let Toot It define him. Mustard and I had a
talk, he continues. [We decided,] We gonna rock ourselves.
With Mustard fluent in the West Coast classics hed play
in the clubs every night, and YG on the pulse of emerging
youth tastes, the two conspired to make a proper body of
work. The resulting mixtape, 2011s Just Red Up, dips often
into R&B and has lots of skits. We were both experimenting, YG says. [Mustard] didnt really know too much, and
he used to ask Ty to help him start making beats. We were
all learning at the same time. I would be helping like, Nah,
nigga that sounds off, play it like this. Hed be helping me
with shit. We were going in for months.
n a small engineering room in Hollywood, Mike WiLL Made-It is blasting
tracks off a laptop at an almost violent volume. His latest young signee,
Eearz, who sounds like an otherwise
unimaginable split between 2Pac and
Waka Flocka Flame with a dozen different styles in between, sharply mimes along to the unreleased cuts hell be dropping via Mike WiLLs Eardrummers
imprint. The whole ears motif is fittingas the rest of the
room winces, Mike WiLL stands completely unaffected by
every loud hit of a snare. Its easy to imagine he really does
have ears of steel.
YG, whos arrived early for his own session, stands nearby
nodding along as Mike WiLL wraps up, also immune to the
knock. The chance encounter proves fruitful as YG snags
three or four beats from the multi-platinum producer before
they slip outside to check out the YGs new whip and build
one-on-one. Out in the small parking lot, Nano and Psych
debate the difference between being rich and being wealthy
over a few Newports. Their conclusion? Spotless credit.
Most modern rap albums are culled together entirely out
of run-ins like these. A dap here, a folder of beats there, an
email where a face-to-face exchange isnt convenient. But My
Krazy Life benefitted from the focus and polish brought in by
Sickamore, a New York-born rap obsessive who encouraged
YG to study hip-hop classics like Ready to Die, Doggystyle, and
Dr. Dres 2001 for their sequencing and interludes as well as
their timeless cuts. Sickamores the one that got me into the
album process, period, YG says. He got his own neat way of

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Its a lot of motherfuckers thats mad

because they see what Im doing,
and they want my spot so bad.

how to break shit down thats special. He told me what to pay

attention to and how to listen to music. He was in the studio
with me every day.
Sickamore and YG are back at it for Still Krazy, but DJ
Mustard is noticeably less in the mix this time around. In
January, a conflict between Mustard and YG over label payment spilled onto social media, giving rise to rumors of bad
blood, but it wasnt long before they publicly reconciled.
They spent a few weeks in the studio together over the summer and Sickamore hopes the pair will get more time in soon.
Mustard declined to be interviewed for this story, but YG is
quick to play down any hint of a lingering issue. Thats how
it be sometimes when niggas is, like, homies and business,
he says, speaking deliberately. We solid. We A1.
Despite YG and Mustards clear potency as a duo, the
personnel shift has offered the rapper room to expand. The
handful of tracks hes completed for Still Krazy between Atlanta and Los Angeles over the past year are even more ambitious than the breakouts on his debut. My Krazy Life stamped
YG and Mustards gangsta party sound on the mainstream
with followers from Tyga and 2 Chainz to Iggy Azalea and
Jidenna. But Still Krazy has grown out of sessions with a
slew of of-the-moment hitmakers from around the country,
including Terrace Martin, London On Da Track, Hit-Boy,
and Metro Boomin. The results are inspired. Dripping with
classic G-funk synths, the records expand YGs party-driven
sound to broader thematic edges that are at once more personal, infectious and eccentric. Hes rapping more intricately, and tackling bigger subjects relevant to his personal life.
This record is a little darker, says Sickamore. Its more
paranoid. Its a reflection of where hes at now.
There are songs about YGs infant daughter, Harmony,
and the new sense of purpose shes given him. Theres a
screed on the police brutality that has made recent headlinesbut instead of a plea or a spiritual, its a war cry, calling for his comrades to stay armed in light of cops that get
away with murder. One coy takedown of freeloaders revives
an old Compton colloquialism he picked up from family,
Gimme got shota quick retort for when someone asks
for something rudely. There are anthems about staying
bool, balm, and bollected, and a 50 Cent verse thats as good
as 50s sounded in a decade, where he raps with youthful
hunger alongside YG and Nipsey Hussle about wanting a
Benz hes surely already owned twice. And, most revealing,
theres a chilling song about the second day in YGs life that
almost derailed everything hes worked for. It opens with a
sample of a news report about a shooting that had aired just
weeks before. Each time he queues up the album for rooms
full of producers, engineers, label reps, or close friends and
stragglers during the days Im with him in L.A., its the song
he always plays first.

he sun is baking over a sprawling L.A.

highway as YG, Nano, Psych, and I
cruise between offices and studios in
YGs brand new luxury sedan. The
rappers in the backseat, juggling two
iPhones while attempting to coordinate a session for a young singer on
his 4HUNNID imprint as I sneak in more interview time.
But our conversation drifts to a silence as Nano unwittingly
drives past the studio where, in the early hours of June 12,
2015, YG was shot at close range.
Psych looks closer, craning his neck from the passenger
window. Them tall buildings, he says, pointing. If you
make a right on that street, right there? Boom.
Hunh! Thats that shit! YG says in a deep exhale. You
bout to see where I got popped at, he tells me without taking his eyes off the building. Niggas knew we was up in
there! Aye, I was up there having the time of my life!
As the Studio City complex rolls by, the three friends
revisit the still-open case for what feels like the first time.
From the picture they paint, the first sign that something was off came early in the evening, when YGs hypeman and some stray agitators got into it on the street. But
things cooled, and the sessions party atmosphere regained
steam. Then, hours later, a gunman slipped into the studio
and fired, sending guests scrambling. A single bullet shot
through YGs hip and groin, leaving three wounds. Friends
stuffed him into a car and drove so frantically on the way to
the hospital that they totaled the ride. They switched cars,
and once they finally hit the emergency room, they pressed
hospital attendants to give the rapper immediate care.
That was some inside type, somebody-was-really-coming-to-get-me type shit, YG says with hazy disbelief. It was
like niggas knew where we was at, and they was coming to
do what they was supposed to do.
YG was treated for his wounds and discharged on June
13. He recorded a song, tentatively titled Who Shot Me, the
very same day. Authorities reported that YG was very uncooperative when asked about the incident, but on Who
Shot Me he works through his reaction to it with gripping
transparency. Over a snaking sitar and keys drenched in
church choir harmonies, he mulls over enemies and friends
alike who may have had a hand in the attempted hit and how
its affected his family, his work, and his peace of mind. They
knew the code to my gate, he raps. That was awkward.
Since the news of the shooting broke, its become more
difficult for YG to move around in L.A. Many studios have
stopped returning his calls, and hes had to start taking
additional precautions. A bodyguard named Gloves beats
him to every destination and posts at the entrance to every
room. To date, there have been no leads in the investigation
of the shooting.

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Its a gang of motherfuckers out here on some Fuck YG

shit, YG says.
We dont know them, Psych chirps in.
We aint gon speak on em, we aint go give em no fame.
I aint gon shed no light on they careers, or they life, or
whatever the fuck they doing, YG continues. I feel like this:
Los Angeles County is sick right now. Its bad. Everybody
mad out here right now. All the young motherfuckers, they
getting money, they motivated. We had something to do with
that because we came up. It brought opportunity for motherfuckers and shed more light on the West Coast. The music
shit start popping again out here. We got strip clubs now,
you feel me? Its a lot of motherfuckers doing music now.
Its a lot of females becoming models and shit now. We got
something to do with that. But at the same time, its a lot of
motherfuckers thats mad because they see what Im doing,
and they want my spot so bad.
Up close, YGs life is constantly cutting between A and B
plots. Hes a double-platinum, critically adored rapper with
momentum and career milestones left to hit, and also a Tree
Top Piru Blood from 400 block with fresh gunshot wounds
and faceless enemies determined to disrupt what hes built.
The scenes play out under a goldenrod sun, split across both
sides of Interstate 10Hollywood, a visual sedative of a city
that exports the idealized America weve watched in theaters
for decades, and Compton, the 10-mile stretch of turf in the
midst of a 20-year gang epic thats as recognizable in the pop
culture zeitgeist as the Italian mafia.
Its almost no surprise, then, that in 2014 YG penned a
20-minute short film, Blame It on the Streets, from the back of
a tour bus on his iPhone. Spend time riding with him and it
becomes clear that his is a life made for the big screen. During a late cruise on my last night in town, I ask YG what he
thought of Compton, the N.W.A biopic that swept box offices
this summer. That shit is A1. On 10, he says, enthused. I
went to audition for the movie and shit. Im walking out the
audition, I see [Ice] Cube son walking in. Real shit. I was auditioning for MC Ren. He didnt land the role, but doesnt
seem the least bit sour, whipping out his phone to show me
the acting pitches hes now fielding from Tyger Williams,
the screenwriter behind 1993s Menace II Society and this summers The Perfect Guy. Just then, he gets an unexpected call.
Hello? Wassup fool, he answers warmly, sending the call
through his speakerphone.
Damn, Blood! I be thinking I got the wrong number
or something! Dont none of my rapper friends be answering my calls! a jubilant voice taunts. Its Juice, a guy YG
has known for a couple years through mutual high school
friends, calling with a bit of advice for his boy. You know
what I been meaning to tell you, but I be forgetting because
I be high, and my mind be places? You gotta do like Dre, like
Ice Cube, and like T.I., and make a couple more albums,
and then say fuck the rapping and get into acting, nigga!

Cause everybody will put you in they movie as a gangsta.

You do like Cube Vision and make your own movies! Make
400 Vision!
400 Vision? YG beams. Aye bro, Im on the movie shit
right now, he says, trying to reign in the conversation. But
Juice is on a roll.
The way you rocking right now? He chirps on. Come
on, Blood. You the gangstaest nigga on the West Coast! You
see T.I. aint done a song in how long? You seen motherfucking Ludacris aint did a song in how long? All they do is Fast
& Furious, and they be getting Ms! You dont have to ever rap
again. The door is open for you already because you already
a superstar, you understand?
Thats on the set, though, YG says. Thats on God.
Part of me thinks YG knows this would be too easy. The
saga of the American gangster plays out over and over, on
screen and in song, and we havent looked away yet. And
somehow, YG has found an all new way to tell a weathered
tale. His stories about breaking into homes, sitting in jail,
and getting shot are delivered with an exuberance that
makes it sound like he was having a ball throughout. His
music finds the joy of growing up in Compton and puts celebration before narration. His L.A. is decades removed from
crack and Colors; its getting brighter by the day, sparkling
even in its darkest flaws. YGs a famous gangbanger and
doesnt have to prove itwhy would he want to play someone elses version of one?
He hangs up his phone and leans back in his seat still
chuckling, barely acknowledging the coincidence. Crazier
things have happened. That nigga funny as shit, he says,
his laugh flattening to a mutter. That nigga funny than
a motherfucker.

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W h e r e
A trip to Daniel Lopatins sleepy
hometown to visit the memories
he used to make a ONEOHTRIX
POINT
NEVER
album
thats as scary as puberty. His
teenage self would be proud.

Story by Patrick D. McDermott

Photography by Leonard Greco

Heart Is

o get to Winthrop, Massachusetts, by

car from New York City, you have to
drive through a series of long highway tunnels. If it happens to be pouring rain, like it is the early October
morning that I make the trek, coasting through these artificially lit passageways can be a rather surreal experience, offering a brief,
silent reprieve from the storms dull drone. In a way, it feels
like the perfect setting to listen to Garden of Delete, the new
album by digital composer Daniel Lopatin, who releases
music as Oneohtrix Point Never. The record, a meticulous
collage of mutilated samples and computer-generated voices, careens between uncanny familiarity and total alienness.
And on this particular day, playing through an archaic iPod
radio transmitter that keeps cutting out, that combination
sounds almost maliciously disorienting. For the last several
miles of the drivemusic pulsing, rain poundingI feel like
Im inside someone elses dream.
By the time I arrive, the rain has almost stopped. I find
Daniel Lopatin hunched over on Winthrop Beach, his hands
crammed into the pockets of a baggy beige parka. The
bearded, broad-framed 33-year-old is visibly damp, but hes
also grinning. Those are the Five Sisters, he says, pointing to a row of wave breakers 100 yards from shore, carefully positioned to protect beachfront property from brutal
sea swells. The structures are calming to look at, and Lopatin sounds proud when he tells me about them. Although
he currently lives in Brooklyn, Lopatin is really from right
here, a blue-collar beach town barely outside Boston. He
lived nearby, in a white house with green trim, until 1994
the year he turned 12.
Before this trip, I knew that Garden of DeleteLopatins
seventh full-length as Oneohtrix Point Never, and second
for British electronic label Warpwas thematically connected to the vague concept of puberty. I also knew that
he was partially inspired by the harsh edges of 90s alternative rock from his eight-date stint as the opener on Nine
Inch Nails and Soundgardens joint tour last summer. So we
agreed itd be nice to meet here for this story, where Lopatin
spent his childhood yearsa time when misanthropic guitar
music was more important than the internet, and just before the chemical jolt of adolescence changed everything for
him. I have a magical association with this place, but few
actual memories, Lopatin says. Behind him, the sky and
ocean turn the same sinister shade of gray. I dont really
consider myself to be a nostalgic person, but this townit
does it for me.

opatin is the youngest son of two Russian immigrants. His father was a
full-time hardware engineer and parttime bar musician, and his mom was
a programmer and piano teacher.
Since they both worked long hours
to make ends meet, Lopatin spent
most of his early years bumming around the senior citizen
housing community where his grandparents lived, which is
a short driveor BMX bike ridefrom the town beach. This
is gonna be a depressing place, Lopatin warns as we pull
into the complex. Hes not wrong: its a cramped network of
small apartments with even smaller yards, linked by loopy
little half-roads. I used to frolic around here like a little
weirdo, he says when we stop near apartment #8, his grandparents old unit. Theres a bike in a deserted cul-de-sac and
droopy flowers growing in a window box. I rolled down
that hill once, Lopatin says, pointing to a grassy plot behind
a chain-link fence. When youre a kid, you just want to roll
down something. You dont even stop to think that there
might be rocks that are gonna stab you.
You might not guess it from the cryptic, somewhat irreverent public presence he has maintained as Oneohtrix Point
Never, but Lopatin is a pretty cheery dude. Today, his buoyancy might have something to do with our deep dive into a
few of his most carefree days. Before puberty, it seems like
I was more or less smiling a lot, he tells me. I was really
outgoing and wanted to have a happy life. With his parents
off working, he spent a lot of time around his older sister,
Alla, before she split for college when he was 10. She had
this shrine to all her favorite rock bands, made from pictures
she had cut out from SPIN and Rolling Stone, he says. She
listened to Primus religiously and started a Faith No More
cover band with a few of her friends. That was the vibe of
this town in the early 90s, Lopatin says, like, being way
into Les Claypools chops and stuff.
In middle school, after getting rejected from his pals
grunge band for not knowing how to hold a bass guitar,
Lopatin would discover geekier music, including his fathers old jazz fusion cassette tapes. I was a failed grunge
kid who was too nerdy to totally get down with rock, he
admits. He hoarded esoteric sounds in those lonely early
teen years the way other kids collected baseball cards, a
habit that more than likely informed the abstract, amorphous instrumentals that Oneohtrix Point Never is best
known for producing. But for the tracks on Garden of Delete,
which are some of his most straight-up song-like, Lopatin
digs into the arena-sized hard rock and nu metal that peripherally soundtracked his youththe same intrinsically
cathartic guitar music his sister would blast; the same songs
his middle-school peers would listen to on their Discmans.
I was trying to figure out what kind of music I liked at the
precise moment my body was going through this complete

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evolutionary shock, Lopatin explains. A lot of the time it

was just influenced by what other people liked. I was thinking about that weird sense of myself that was so vulnerable;
nothing was really stable.
That juvenile instability, and the rock aesthetics Lopatin associates with it, manifest on Garden of Delete in various
ways. The first single, I Bite Through It, features passages
of rapid-fire, neck-breaking thrash. Lopatin says the funeral-paced Animals was his attempt at penning a grunge-era
heroin jam, and the finished product, though completely
deranged, is probably the closest thing to a conventionally structured pop artifact that he has ever released. The
vocaloid hook, delivered amidst staggered synth arpeggios,
is both scary and sad: We sit on the side and watch the animals/ I try not to laugh cause I know its the end of us. Theyre
the most nihilistic lyrics ever, Lopatin tells me. Just the
idea of laughing at caged animals, cracking up because
everythings so fucking sad. Then theres Sticky Drama,
a polyrhythmic earworm named after a vicious, now-inactive gossip website that was run by a morally bankrupt
pornographer. Lopatin says its technically about the shock
of ejaculating for the first time, but its written more like
an absurd love song (Sticky drama is the girl for me/ Shes so
sticky from the memories), a sort of self-aware version of the
thinly veiled innuendos that tend to populate mainstream
rock songs. Lopatin is 33 years old, is happily in a committed, long-term relationship, and has a reputation for
mostly straight-faced, left-of-center electronic music. Now,
for some reason, hes making demented pop songs about
masturbation.
lthough Bostons only a 20-minute
drive away, 15 if you book it, Winthrop
feels like its own little world. Downtown is a cluster of unflashy businesses, few of which appear to be thriving:
Italian bakeries, package stores, a
freakishly large number of hair salons.
This is where I did all my wheeling and dealing, Lopatin
says, laughing, as he leads me along the mostly deserted brick
sidewalks. Theres hardly any recognizable chain stores,
which is sort of disorienting. The town hall seems to be under construction. Total Robert Zemeckis vibes, Lopatin
says as we pass it, a reference to the filmmaker responsible
for the fake small town from Back to the Future with a broken clock tower at its center. Walking around, it occasionally
feels more like a carefully constructed simulation of a quaint
New England suburb than the real deal, and with the exception of a few boarded-up shopslike the video rental store
Lopatin used to frequentWinthrop looks almost identical
to the fading version that exists in his memory. This town
is stuck between being really beautiful and really wretched,
Lopatin tells me. It doesnt, like, accept change.

Lopatin chose Winthrop as the official hometown for Kaoss Edge, the made-up cybergrunge band that he claims as
a recent influence. I created this shitty alternate universe
that overlaps with my own, he says. Its something you do
when youre in, like, 6th grade. I sound like an idiot when I
talk about it. According to the fictional backstory Lopatin
unveiled via blog posts and tweets and a densely coded PDF
in the final weeks of summer 2015, Kaoss Edges lead singer,
Flow Kranium, hurled himself off the reed-covered cliffs at
the end of Golden Drive, the street Lopatins grandparents
used to live on. On September 2nd, two weeks after Lopatin
announced Garden of Delete, Kaoss Edge tweeted: GLAD TO
BE BACK IN THE ZIT GEIST JUST WISH @FlowKranium
was here to see this.
At the time of this writing, Kaoss Edge has 1,955 real-life
Twitter followers, but their biggest fan is still a 13-year-old
alien named Ezra, another one of Lopatins inventions. According to Ezras blogspotwhich is crammed with amateur music journalism, including a back-dated review of
Oneothrix Point Nevers 2013 album, R Plus Seven, which he
describes as just a little too artsyhe has a dog named Void
and drinks a discontinued soft drink called Krisis, which
I imagine is something like the notoriously banned soda
Surge. His planet sends him to Earth and he has to learn to
be a teenager, Lopatin explains. Hes basically a composite
picture of things that he gleans from other teenagers, but it
doesnt really add up. Hes grotesque in that way, a combination of clichs and stereotypes. But theres also things about
him that are directly pertinent to my life.
Lopatin came up with Ezra and the whole convoluted
Kaoss Edge universe after he finished Garden of Delete in
late June 2015 and realized he had months before its November release. But theres something deeper and more
self-reflective fueling the project than just boredom. Ezra is
this totally depressive character; he cant touch anyone, or
else he makes them enter some sort of gnarly regressive puberty that eventually kills them. Puberty made Lopatin feel
somewhat tragic, too. I was looking through my old stuff
this morning, and I wrote this diary entry and it was like,
I am the King of Almost, he says. It was totally about liking a girl and hoping shed like me back or something, and
how it almost works out all the time. I was perpetually this
B-minus kid vacillating between eagerness and depression.
I wasnt a bad kid, and I definitely wasnt aggressive, but I
was a sad kid.
Ezra can pretty easily be read as a comic manifestation
of Lopatins adolescent identity, a way for someone whos
admittedly not naturally predisposed to memoir to reveal
small pieces of his inner life. I knew my whole life that I
had to make ends meet or I would be ashamed of myself,
he says. I had a lot of pressure from my parents. So thats
where my vision comes from. Its not to be a great artist, its
always to be like, Dad, look, I didnt let you down. In Ezra,

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Lopatin has personified the voice inside his head that keeps
him from half-assing anything, the voice that calls him out
when hes being too indulgent. [Garden of Delete] is basically
me trying to live up to Ezras standards for whats real, he
explains. Every record I make, I think: Am I doing something worthwhile? Is this music that I would obsess over if
it wasnt mine? Because if not, I should hang it up. This is
a schizophrenic way of keeping me striving toward that.
Across seven albums under the Oneohtrix Point Never
umbrella, Lopatin has explored sounds ranging from droning ambience to vaporwave fuckery. He released one fulllength and two 12-inches of glistening electro-pop with Joel
Ford, as Ford & Lopatin. Hes scored two feature-length
films, including the The Bling Ring, which was directed by
Sofia Coppola and debuted at Cannes in 2013. But theres
an exciting, almost childlike energy buzzing around
Garden of Delete thats difficult to put my finger on. Its imaginary Behind the Music backstory seems like the product of
a fully grown human who wants to remind themselves of the
power of make-believe.
The following afternoon, Lopatin and I stop at a barbecue
restaurant in Winthrop. We sit by the window, looking out
on an intersection, when a bunch of tweens start to appear
in droves, likely cutting through town after middle school
let out. Most are in groups of three or four: boys in bulky
sports apparel, giggling girls with carefully straightened hair.
We spot one girl with DIY-dyed pink hair, ripped jeans with
patches, and heavy black eye makeupa completely faithful take on the classic mall-goth aesthetic. Shes walking by
herself. In a small town, being different like that is not fun,
Lopatin says when she walks past. Its liketo quote Rush
conform or be cast out. Lopatin orders a beer. It comes in a Boston Celtics-branded pint glass, and he takes a picture with
his iPhone. On the restaurants radio, Sweet Child of Mine
starts playing faintly. Im having this weird thing, Lopatin
tells me between sips. I dont want to leave Winthrop.

few days after the trip, I visit Lopatins basement studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. When I arrive, hes
busy prepping for his upcoming live
sets, drawing up preliminary digital
sketches of how the new songs will
translate on stage. Even though all of
the singing on the record was either computer-generated or
sampled, hes leaving space for vocals, marking his first attempt to sing live since he was writing fake Strokes songs
in his dorm room at Hampshire, a liberal college in Western
Mass. Though plainly decorated, the square-shaped studio
is littered with unmistakable Lopatin touches: a black skull
mask above the widescreen monitor, horror novels stacked
by the door, a fossilized insect paperweight on the desk.
He keeps the overhead lights low and changes the colored
backlight to match his mood. Once the [overhead] lights
come on, it feels like youre in a room that has walls, Lopatin explains as he cycles through the rainbow of options,
the rooms energy shifting slightly with each new color.
But this feels a little bit more mystical. Its usually this
weird kind of 90s blue.

After finding the studio through his manager in January of

2015, Lopatin spent the next several months grinding on
Garden of Delete for 10, 12, 14 hours a day. I previously had
this all in my apartment, he says of the gear surrounding us.
R Plus Seven had this weird air of domesticity about it because Id just roll out of bed and work. My girlfriend would
be there, and Id want to impress her. Its a very polite record, even though its insane. The new albums hormonal,
subconscious-baring mood is more aligned with the hypnotically lit basement cave it was conceived in, where typically
defined boundariesday and night, work and pleasure, fact
and fictiondont really seem to exist. This album has so
much personality, Lopatin says. I really got into my time

Am I doing something worthwhile?

Is this music that I would obsess
over if it wasnt mine? Because
if not, I should hang it up.
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94

here, on my own, letting all of my deeply buried psychic

inclinations come out.
For the next couple of hours, Lopatin rummages through
his hard drive, pulling up early iterations of Garden of Delete
tracks, plus some half-baked ideas that were scrapped, like
a demo of a romantic-sounding slowgaze track he tried to
sell to the huge-voiced South London singer Katy B, and an
experiment in different aggressive textures titled Maze
Wars. We occasionally pause to watch YouTube clips of
brutal Nightmare on Elm Street kills, listen to dj vu-inducing trance songs from the early-00s, or admire the explosive cover art of a PlayStation game called Twisted Metal 2.
Theres usually a lot of tabs open, Lopatin explains. Weird
searches going, YouTubethats like another instrument.
Later, he pulls up a PDF of the Garden of Delete CD booklet, which is laid out like some insane Tower Records bargain-bin find: an old photo of Lopatin with shaggy hair,
a chicken-scratch tracklist, a heavily doctored Associated
Press image of riots in Ukraine, an unsolvable maze. Its like
rave, its like Radiohead, and then its like Halloween anarchy, he says of the design, which he worked on with the artist Andrew Strasser. None of these things seemingly belong
together, but they also do in a way. Like the songs on Garden
of Delete, the accompanying imagery jumbles the real with
the hyperreal. The effect of both is simultaneously stimulating and numbing, sensual but also inhuman. In the lyrics
section of the booklet, Lopatin points out a few seemingly
arbitrary number sequences, meant to represent the patches
of garbled gibberish heard on Sticky Drama and Freaky
Eyes. But the numbers arent entirely random: theyre all
real telephone numbers from Winthrop.
Garden of Delete is impressively realized, which is probably why Lopatin has been so uncharacteristically playful
and face-forward this time around: in interviews, on the internet, throughout the multiple-day reporting of this story.
Writing the album, there werent particularly fun thoughts
in my head, Lopatin says. Maybe it was a very strange
consequence of making a dark record, but I feel a lot more
secure in what I want to say with it, how I want to say it,
how I want to present it, how simple or complex I want
things to be. I ask if that feeling of security extends outside of music, and Lopatin laughs. Im still learning how
to be an adult. In some ways I feel more confident. I know
my way around airports. Thats the one thing Ill be able to
teach my children.
Its easy to think that a lot of Lopatins decisions on Garden of Deletecatchy melodies, some conventional arrangements, the inclusion of a lyric bookletare indicative of a
bid for a new kind of fame, proof that hes trying to reach
people existing far outside of experimental music circles.
But Garden of Delete is also abrasive and terrifying, wrought
with aggressively melancholic passages that maybe only
Lopatinor an actual pimple-faced teenagerwill ever

truly understand. Lopatin thinks hes not cut out for rock-star
superstardom, which is maybe why he writes pop songs only
to mangle them. I wish I could tell you that Im heading toward some event horizon, because I want it so bad, Lopatin says. But Im probably just too fucking weird. Garden of
Delete is definitely weird, but its also bold. Though thematically and sonically tied to Lopatins foggy past, the effect is
largely unsentimental. It captures the rage and the shame
and anxiety of growing upall the messy trauma of pubertyand, with a wink, makes it normal. Its like staring the
insecure 13-year-old alien inside of you straight in the eye,
or going back to your old town and realizing the only thing
thats changed is you.
Before I leave the studio, I ask Lopatin whydespite
a million clues suggesting otherwise, including the stack of
vintage Terminator 2 movie trading cards on his deskhe
doesnt consider himself to be a nostalgic person. Being
excited about stuff that already happened, Im always a little bit humiliated, he says. Half the time for me, I reassess
something and Im like, Oh, that actually sucked. The past is
just materials that I can use. Theyre not things that I necessarily long for. Im not a person who has very clear memories
of the past. Going to Winthrop is like a steroid injection for
my brain that makes my memories work a little bit. Its the
most potent thing in my life, those weird little memories.
I got a real thrill out of being at those outlets at the end
of Bartlett Street, or whatever.
Hes talking about our last day in Winthrop, when
I drove around the slightly upscale streets closest to the
ocean. Lopatin, riding shotgun, was determined to find a
big white house that he admired as a kid, his first memory
of an honest-to-god mansion. We never found itmaybe it
doesnt even existbut we did run into an embankment on
the edge of the water, a weird lookout nestled between two
big houses, just across the harbor from Logan International
Airport. Growing up, I didnt ever know how close the airport was, Lopatin told me, as we sat for a while in the same
spot where hed daydreamed years ago, on a stone staircase
that descended straight into the Atlantic. Part of me wished
we could go back in time and tell kid-aged Lopatin that everything was going to be OK, that he was going to grow up
to be Oneohtrix Point Never, an artist who releases music
that people all over the world obsess over. I cant tell you
how many times I was down in these little outlets, yet I never conceptualized that the planes were taking off right there,
on a runway that you can pretty much swim to. Green seawater lapped the stairs underneath us. I always thought the
planes were just up in the sky.

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98

Looking
For winter, give up on minimalism
and fall in love with creepy clothing

for
Photography by Tina Tyrell
Stying by Mobolaji Dawodu
Story by Liz Raiss

a
Its become common practice, renting someone elses home
over the internet. Arriving at a weird house and exploring its
layout is now both thrilling and familiar. An adopted weekend haunt makes a nice backdrop for winters soft gothic
clothesits easy to imagine finding impossibly light tulle
gowns in some moth-desiccated garment bag in an attic, or
the joy of trying on a strangers deep-ribbed turtleneck with
extra-extra-long sleeves.
In this issues fashion story, every piece is a statement
piece. Unconventional shapes are even bolder in luxury
materials: creamy cashmere sweatpants, steel-toed leather
brogues, a sweater striped with blue fur. These clothes have
nothing to do with retail trends like one-size-fits-all, or the
functionality of normcore staples, or slick and genderless
minimalism. Theyre intimate and sentimental. They command attention and invite petting. Exaggerated silhouettes,
like the articulated flare of a pant leg, emphasize individuality. These are eerie, warm clothes searching for their owners.
Maybe its you.

H o s t

 Sweater VEJAS.

101

FASHION

 Sweater BILLY REID,

pants OPENING CEREMONY.

 Sweater A PIECE APART.

FASHION

104

 Sweater RODEBJER.
Left: Dress OPENING CEREMONY.
Right: Hoodie ONEPIECE, coat BALLY.
FASHION

105

 Left: Turtleneck KENZO, pants H&M, coat DROMe.

Right: Dress MOLLY GODDARD.

 Pants, turtleneck, and coat BILLY REID,

boots KENZO.
Pants BILLY REID, coat KENZO,
top H&M.

108

FASHION

FASHION

109

E a s y
Being
Green

Lots of people are preparing

to cash in as America opens up to
legal cannabis. So why do many of
the
women
whove
grown
weed in Northern California for
generations feel so left behind?
Story by Kate B. Maxwell
Photography by Sara Lafleur-Vetter

On a warm September evening, about 70 women

gather at The Peg House, a famed roadside
burger joint on Northern Californias Highway
101. They arrive in a stream of 4x4 trucks and
carpools of Subarus; some have driven hours
from remote hillside homesteads. At the state
park across the road, theres plenty of room
to pitch tents under the redwoods.
The women are here for a campout hosted
by Women Grow, a business launched by
female entrepreneurs in Denver in 2014 with
the goal of helping women find their footing
in the fast-growing weed industry. Paying members of Women Grow can list their businesses
in a national directory, or connect with other
entrepreneurs through the organizations weekly
newsletter. There are local chapters in Californias Mendocino and Humboldt counties; the
Peg House campout is their first joint meeting.
Networking, a skill-share for seasonal farming
advice, and a one-woman show prepared by
Sherry Glaser, a dispensary owner and longtime activist, are on the agenda.

As states across America choose to make

medical marijuana legal, the promise of a noncriminal weed industry is creating a rush for jobs
and cash. Women are getting in on the money
in July, Women Grow estimated that some
20 percent of marijuana-related businesses are
owned by women. There are women incubating
start-ups in Denver and Seattle; in New York,
theyre raising capital to meet the costly vertical
integration requirements of the states new
licensing program, which asks marijuana
companies to grow their own plants, process
them, and sell them at their own dispensary.
For some, this is a brand new industry,
but in the region known as Californias Emerald
Trianglecomprised of rural Mendocino,
Humboldt, and Trinity countiesmany women
have spent their lives growing and marketing
pot. Although the underground nature of
marijuana farming makes precise accounting
difficult, Californias Board of Equalization,
the state tax agency, estimates the state is home
to over 53,000 pot farms. A measure, or several,

WEED

111

to legalize recreational use of marijuana is likely

to appear on ballots in California in November
2016, and its likely it will pass, creating an even
greater incentive to grow.
But even when its legal, selling weed carries
high risks and high costs. And now, many of the
women in Northern Californias weed-growing
countieswhose product has for years called
attention to how much money might be made
from recreational weedare worried the booming market may leave them behind. Finding
footing in the transitioning industry is particularly hard for the generation of women whove
been in the Triangle the longest, living for years
in legal limbo, amidst a culture that values
secrecy as an ultimate virtue. Though medical
marijuana cultivation has been semi-legal in
the Triangle since Californias Proposition 215
passed in 1996, the region has a distinct outlaw
culture, governed by distrust of law enforcement
and authority. As a result, womens experiences
have gone largely unshared.
Sitting at picnic tables positioned around
an outdoor stage, the Women Grow attendees
discuss rumors that this will be Californias
last wild harvest season. In Sacramento, 200
miles southeast, the California state legislature
is wrapping up a session. On September 11,
theyll approve the states first new set of cannabis laws in 20 years, a package of bills called
the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety
Act. The laws will create a new system to govern Californias aboveground medical weed

industry and decriminalize an estimated billion

dollars worth of revenue; growers, distributors,
and retail shops will all be required to hold both
state and local licenses, and growers will only
be allowed to send their products to licensed
distributors. The legislation recognizes weed
growers as farmers and business ownersit
allows for for-profit entities, in addition to previously approved medical/caregiver entities
but encourages those businesses to stay small:
permits are capped at 1 acre for outdoor growers and half an acre for indoor growers, though
some number of bigger farms may be allowed
in the future. Its projected by marijuana farmers lobbyists that only one in ten of the states
existing pot farms will make it through the new
licensing process.
The women at the campout are looking to
turn their lifetimes of experience with weed into
success in Californias increasingly regulated
market. The new laws arent simple, and theyll
need lawyers, accountants, and branding skills
to compete with the venture capitalists and
corporations eyeing their customers. When the
meeting officially starts, 51-year-old Mendocino
chapter chair Crystal Rae Aleman asks each
of the women to introduce themselves and come
out of the closet, so to speak. Over the next hour
they stand up one by onetrimmers, thirdgeneration farmers, edible makers, herbalists,
and dispensary ownersmany sharing their
experiences with strangers for the first time.
A visit from Child Protective Services is among
the womens most-dreaded scenarios. They

We dont want women from different communities to be working on these issues separately.
We want to break down the invisible barriers.
Crystal Rae Aleman
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112

can take everything you own, even your children,

if theres cannabis in the home. It tears apart
families, Aleman, an herbalist and grandmother
of two, says later, sitting in her garden and
distilling weed into an alcohol-based substance
she will blend into various medicinal salves
and sell. Arrest reports in local papers routinely
mention children taken by CPS, in cases ranging from the confiscation of hundreds of pounds
to the spotting of loose marijuana on a table.
In recent years, Mendocino Countys rate
of children in foster care was more than twice
the state average. Its always been a topic on
whether someone with a 215 card is an appropriate guardian or caregiver, says Stacey Cryer,
Mendocinos Director of Health and Human
Services, referring to the doctors recommendation card that deems someone a legal patient,
allowed to possess and cultivate medical weed.
If parents are detained, leaving children without
a guardian, CPS is called right away, regardless
of the parents guilt or innocence, Cryer says.
Tara Bluecloud, a 32-year-old mother of
three and fifth-generation farmer of specialized
medicinal strains with ornate botanical tattoo
sleeves, says her first priority is making sure her
children are off the property if a police convoy
is coming. Bluecloud has worked in the business and as an activist for legalization since her
mid-teens; now, she worries about the consequences of her teenager saying the wrong thing
in front of the wrong person. Law enforcement
calls Child Protective Services, they seize the
children, then they investigate if its a valid seizurethats backwards, adds Pebbles Trippet,
a prominent activist now in her 80s, who arrived
in the region in the 70s as part of the sweeping
back-to-the-land movement.
Raids by drug task forceswhich are beholden to both local and state laws, and periodically
involve federal agentsare a source of tension
and hardship, whether or not they involve
children. People with medicinal cards can grow
up to 25 plants in Mendocino and 99 in Humboldt, but homes are raided when authorities
suspect someones growing or selling outside
their license. The Triangle communities are

small, and residents say theres a lot of mystery

around whos targeted and how theyre prosecuted. Some raids begin with anonymous tips
from neighbors and end with no charges filed
charged; other subjects of raids report feeling
personally singled out by sheriffs. In Mendocino,
a restitution program launched in 2011 allows
suspects to plead to a misdemeanor and receive
probation if they pay fees per plant and pound
of processed potfunds which are then shared
by the state, D.A.s office, and local police. Mendocino authorities say these deals have reduced
pressure on their staff and increased their
budgets; some locals consider them extortion.
As an advocate at the countys Project Sanctuary, which offers free services to victims of
domestic violence and sexual abuse, Judy Albert
is required to treat marijuana as an illegal sub-

WEED

113

stance. She points to stories from clients who

claim theyve been prosecuted even after following county rules and passing inspections. For
most people, when they enter the legal system,
Albert says, its utterly shocking how few rights
you have, no matter how loud you scream. Trippet, the veteran activist, says women whove made
a life in the weed industry are weighed down by
a fear presence, shouldering the stress of resisting authorities. I look at it as a tapestry that has
been woven against us for so long that weve
had a hard time even knowing how to come out
of it, she says.
As their industry transitions, though, growers in the Triangle are opening up to each
other about their work, and the sexism theyve
encountered. Aleman, the Mendocino chair,
recently attended industry events in Las Vegas
and Portland. She was shocked by the display
of other businesses legitamacy, and exasperated
by the men she heard giggling at some businesswomen there. I couldnt believe women were
still being disrespected that way, she says.
Men have pretty much been in charge, and
theyre still in charge pretty much of the movement, and that would include the initiative for
the 2016 ballot, Trippet said in a October interview with Mendocino radio station KZYX.
Theres a lot of avoidance of inclusiveness.
When Aleman went to flyer for the HumboldtMendocino campout at a big garden supply store
in Willits, which offers a hugely popular growing
season sale each 4/20, she says she was told to
go home and read a book to your children.
Still, Aleman says her trips out of town have
made her more determined to connect with
women at home. I had known one woman for
15 years before I realized we both were using
cannabis, she says. By running meetings, shes
increasingly aware of how divided local women
areboth geographically and economically.
Some women drive two hours each way to meet
up, Aleman says, and more dont have the time
or money to make the trip. Many women working in the industrytrimmers, seasonal laborers,
transporterstake the same risks as business
owners, but dont stand to reap the same rewards.

Aleman has offered childcare and scholarship

money, sponsored by local businesses, to help
women and families of color, local tribal members, sexual abuse survivors, farmers whove been
through raids, and veterans get to the meetings.
We dont want women from different communities to be working on these issues separately,
she says. Were trying to support tribal communities, Latino communities. We want to break
down the invisible barriers, she says.
The best thing women can do is figure out
how to get compliant. Being a legitimate business is the only way we can address this, says
Amber Cline, a 32-year-old farmer who says
her artisanal weed business subsidizes her vegetable sales. Anticipating the legal changes, Cline
began giving presentations around the region
earlier this year on how farms can adopt environmentally friendly techniques that comply
with new regulations. She estimates it will
take existing farms at least $50,000 to get up
to speed with new requirements, an amount
beyond the reach of many. There are a lot of
us trying to grow with integrity, using the best
practices weve developed over the years, says
Aleman. But even if we think positively and
organize, I think there will be a lot of hard years
ahead, and a lot of people wont make it.
On the last day of September, a convoy
thought to be comprised of county, state, and
federal agents makes its way up the mountain
where Clines farm is located. Helicopters fly the
southern ridges of nearby Covelo, unidentified
men descend from them and chop down plants
on multiple properties. In Mendocino County,
it can be hard for local reporters to get a straight
answer about raids from the sheriff s department,
but as the convoy rolls in, locals activate phone
trees and light up Facebook with tracking of its
progress. In the comments, a new mother debates
whether or not to leave with her newborn, then
asks a friend to check on her goats and chickens
as she decides to flee. An older woman, whos
lived on the hill with her family for decades, stays
behind with her plants and is arrested.

WEED

114

The best thing women can do is figure

out how to get compliant. Being a legitimate
business is the only way we can address this.
Amber Cline

WEED

115

ALL DEF DIGITAL

LAUGHS

BEATS

LIFE

1 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS STRONG

/ ALL DEF DIGITAL

A
S

R E F U G E E S
U
G
G
L
E
By Ruth Tecle

As the global migrant crisis

claims lives and spurs political battles, an EritreanCanadian traces her familys
journey.

Days after my uncle was killed by the

Ethiopian military in 1980, my grandparents helped pack my parents bags, filling
them with light snacks, lentils, and canteens of water. During the Eritrean War
of Independence, all military-aged men
had become targets for swift execution by
Ethiopia. My grandparents had just lost
their eldest son to the violent tactic aimed
at squelching resistance, and they decided
my fathers chances of survival were slim
if he and their recently wed daughter
didnt flee. My mother was just 17.
Eritreas post-colonial history mirrors
that of multiple former colonies across
Africa. After World War II, decolonization from European rule brought about
a mixed bag of revolt in nations seeking
statehood and sovereignty; many were
faced with subjugation instead. In the
case of Eritrea, the regions governance
was handed to Ethiopia by a United Nations resolution. The Eritrean battle for
independence began in 1961 and lasted 30
years, until 1991, when they finally won.
But back in 1980, with minimal preparation, my parents were sent off on what
would be a treacherous 400-mile journey
to Sudan. By foot. The trip would take
several weeks, and the hike was filled with
dangers of its own. The wilderness was
home to packs of blood-thirsty hyenas,
food was scarce, and they would remain
military targets throughout the trek.
They stayed hidden by day and traveled
by night.

Illustration by Tim Lahan

Eventually, my parents arrived safely. Many of their friends who had taken
their chances on a similar route werent
as lucky. Though filled with kind strangers who would welcome them into their
homes and offer them food and odd jobs,
Sudan was a difficult adjustment. It was a
culture shock for two people who had never traveled outside of their home country.
They were without family, and had to pick
up Arabic in order to work. When they arrived, they knew Sudan wouldnt be their
final destination.
Soon enough, my parents obtained visas to work in Saudi Arabia for a member
of the royal family. There, for a few years
in the 80s, they found some stability. My
younger brother and I were born in Riyadh but would never be considered citizens. The oil-rich country has notoriously
exclusive citizenship laws but an enduring
need for migrant workers to support its
economy and class structure. My mother

worked as a kadama (servant) while my

father earned a wage as a driver. Those
work visas would turn out to be our saving grace.
In 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. A high level of uncertainty swept the
country while the United States geared
up for Operation Desert Shield. Schools
across Saudi Arabia, including the one my
brother attended, were temporarily shut
down. Our family was faced with yet another reason to flee.
By this point, my parents boss was also
uneasy remaining in Saudi Arabia, given
the political circumstances. She booked a
flight to New York and brought along my
mom, my two siblings, and me. We soon
made our way to the Canadian border. This
time, instead of arriving with my father, my
mother arrived with an 8-year-old, 3-yearold me, and a 7-month-old baby.
When my mother got to the Canadian
border, she was looking for what all par-

FADE OUT

117

Ruth Tecle

Parenting involves providing guidance

through a world with which you are at
least somewhat familiar. But how do
you effectively guide children when you
dont all speak the same language?.

ents want: a safe place to raise her children. Her plan was hopeful and nave, but
it worked. If you ask her today how she,
an illiterate 27-year-old mother of three
who spoke no English, made her way to
Canada, shell tell you what she told border officials 25 years ago: I heard Canada
was welcoming to refugees. And it was.
Rather, it was in 1990. Canada swiftly
confirmed its reputation and granted our
family asylum. We were given refugee
status in weeks. By 1995, we were fullfledged citizens.
Ten years after first arriving, we were
able to use our citizen status to sponsor
my father to join us in Canada. The saga
of constant relocation was finally complete. The struggle, however, was not.

My mother would go on to lose two more

siblings in the border dispute that erupted between Eritrea and Ethiopia in 1998,
an ongoing conflict that keeps Eritrea in
a guarded state of no war, no peace to
this day.
Growing up as an immigrant in a single-parent household wasnt easy. In general, parenting involves providing guidance through a world with which you are
at least somewhat familiar. But how do
you effectively guide children when you
dont all speak the same language? How
do you help them with homework if you
were pulled out of school in the third
grade? How do you confidently lead a
household when you heavily rely on your
children to help you navigate your surroundings? These are just a few examples
of the daily challenges my mother faced.
For many, being an adult immigrant often means letting go of the old countrys
way of life. My mom had to press reset for
the third time. As for the kids, we were
young enough that helping each other out
by being active members of our family
was the only life we knew.
We were, in many ways, protected
by my mothers unrelenting attempts to
assimilate. Though we frequently approached adjusting to Canadian society
with a Martian-like perspectivee.g., why
is Cool Whip in the freezer section if it is
not in fact some sort of cheap, soft-serve
ice cream alternative?at every turn there
was an attempt to level the playing field
by providing the typical Canadian experience. We went ice skating every winter
and attended day camp during the summer. We took swimming lessons and visited the public library on weekends. My
mom and I shared books and learned to
read together. My brothers played for local
hockey, baseball, and soccer teams. I opted for ballet, art classes, and absorbing as
much television as humanly possible. My
mom eventually earned her diploma and
landed a job in geriatric nutrition. Opportunity presented itself left and right.
Today, refugees dont get to experience
the literally life-saving hospitality Canada
was once known for globally. Over the last
decade, our government has guarded our
borders. Austerity measures at the federal and provincial levels dismantled the

social programs that quickly helped grant

my family affordable housing, healthcare,
and access to public education. Asylumseekers who show up the way my mother
did are considered threats and face rejection. Some are even held in detention indefinitely until the country can determine
where to send them back. Most recently,
thanks to a post-9/11 fear of terrorism, the
federal government has even devoted attention to restricting religious womenswear during citizenship ceremonies, as if
this is the way to establish solidarity in a
nation with a changing face. Its ironic for
a country erected on stolen land. What we
now know as Canada once served as refuge for British and French settlers. Immigrants, many of whom faced persecution
in Europe, violently annexed land from
indigenous peoples.
As I hear countless stories from the
migrant crisis unfolding across Europe,
its easy to feel overwhelmed into defeat.
Almost as soon as my heart broke when
photos of Alan Kurdis tiny lifeless body
made headlines, there were critics who
cautioned the public not to let their emotions be manipulated. It was as if they
were saying our collective humanity
would interfere with necessary suffering.
There are solutions to these global problems that dont involve further marginalization, and it seems like once upon a time
we believed that as a nation. Perhaps Canadas recent election, which ousted the
Conservative government, was how voters
expressed that belief. A refugees struggle
may always be to accept and adapt to pain
in order to move forward. As citizens of
countries with vast resources, our duty
is to make room for immigrants and help
them find ease amidst what are often already difficult lives.

FADE OUT

118

Black teens are shaping the

culture we consume. But
what happens when they
dont own their work?
Kayla Newman started her Vine account
to record herself commenting on the minutia and mundanity of high school life.
This was nearly two years ago, when she
was 16. For her handle, Newman chose a
nickname made up during an annual visit
to her grandmother in Georgia: Peaches
Monroee. She added the extra e because it looked playful, she explained
over email.

Like a diary, Newman began filming

herself daily, though she has since slowed
down to meet the stresses of senior year.
When shes riffing as Peaches, Newman
takes videos of herself from the passenger
seat of her moms car in her neighborhood of South Chicago. She and her mom
dance at a stoplight in one early Vine; she
offers an impromptu speech on self-confidence in another. In the video everyone
knows, uploaded on June 21st, 2014, Kayla
admires her precisely arched eyebrows:
We in this bitch. Finna get crunk. Eyebrows on fleek. Da fuq.
I know the line by heart. Such is the nature of internet virality. As of this writing,
Kaylas original On Fleek Vine has gen-

THE
LEGAL
MESS
BEHIND
THE
I N T E R N E T S
VIRAL
VINES
By Doreen St. Flix

Illustration by Tim Lahan

FADE OUT

erated over 36 million loops, or replays.

Thats where any sensible person stops
the tabulation. A month after Newmans
upload, someone named Kevin Gadsden
reposts her Vine to YouTube, where it acquires around 3 million views. The expression on fleek passes through the clutches
of Ariana Grande, who vines herself singing it in August 2014 for another 9 million
loops, and then through those of seemingly every other social media-literate celebrity outfit that fall; corporate entities like
IHOP and its rivals employ the phrase in
an effort to feign cultural relevance; talk
show host Andy Cohen and Anderson
Cooper exchange vaguely unpleasant jabs
about its meaning. On fleek ascends to
near-officialized language.
Its impossible to track the chain of
ownership from there on out. In fact, the
chain becomes more like a swarm. Put
plainly, there is no recognized ownership. The phrase Newman gave the world
was used to sell breakfast foods and party
cups, but it only belongs to her in an intangible sense, on the rare occasions in
which people choose to give her credit.
I gave the world a word, Newman
said. I cant explain the feeling. At the
moment I havent gotten any endorsements or received any payment. I feel
that I should be compensated. But I also
feel that good things happen to those
who wait.
What things come to those who innovate? And who can be called an innovator? When we talk about technology, the
designation of digital innovator is usually reserved for the engineers who create platforms or the entrepreneurs who
instruct them to. Rarely do we see that
language applied to the users populating
those platforms, though they are techs
bread and butter. A cursory glance at the
user-generated content rising to the top
of the internet heap reveals how much of
it is produced by black teens, members of
a burgeoning Generation Z who experiment with the iPhone gaze.
In an article for The Guardian, writer Hannah Giorgis argued that content-sharing among black users and
consumers constitutes a 21st century
meta-language that gives place to dances,
songs, memes, and other sociolinguistic

119

phenomena that are compelling enough

to make the leap from the producers specific context to even the most corporate of
marketing campaigns. Evidence teems. In
August 2015, Dancing with the Stars shot a
promotional campaign featuring mostly
white celebrity has-beens doing Silentos
Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae), a song and
attendant dance popularized on Vine. In
one breathless appearance on Ellen, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton tried it
too. In those moments, black teens internet production becomes a means for
communication and entertainment. Their
names as creators are harder to find.
Denzel Meechie, 20, was physically
spent when he called me. After we talked,
he headed back to an Atlanta dance studio
to record a video of himself and his crew
improvising to songs from Drake and Futures just-released mixtape. Meechie is a
dancer, first by habit and then by trade.
Hes influenced by Les Twins and the
fluid lines of ballet, but he isnt inclined
to rehearsing. In his videos, his preferred
backdrop is the chrome of industrial spaces. He likes inventing dances that follow
songs hes moved by, something he posits
elevates the impact of any given track. The
Vines on his account, @SheLovesMeechie,
have been viewed over 200 million times;
his choreography has influenced the way
many people move.
Its never planned, Meechie said.
[We] just go for it, and after we have a
lot of takes, me and my director will cut
in and put the best six seconds on Vine.
If we got a good longer take, well put it
on YouTube. His first big break came
as a surprise. I went to the gas station
one time, and I danced to this one song.
It went viral, and all of a sudden my social media started growing because I was
flooding it with dances. The song was
Plug Snitchin by the Houston group
Yung Nation. It hadnt been close to a hit
before Meechie danced to it; afterwards,
the crew found traction.
In mid-September, YouTube shut
down Meechies channel, which had accrued hundreds of thousands of subscribers. I had too many copyright strikes, he
said, referring to his use of songs without
explicit legal permission from labels. According to Meechie, labels contact You-

Tube and demand his videos be taken

down, often without the knowledge of
their own artists, some of whom pay him
directly to help boost their buzz. And its
crazy, you know, because the artists ask
me to put the videos up.
As prolific and internet-known as
Meechie and his crew are, they are multiple steps removed from owning, in a
tangible sense, their art, leaving them vulnerable to both YouTubes whims and to
having their creativity lifted by outsiders.
Atlanta, where Meechie is from, is legendary as a place where teens generate culture, and then go uncompensated as their
style and tastes are usurped by a corporate
machine hungry for Black Cool. Cultural
sharing is ancient. That the speed and relative borderlessness of the internet makes
cross-platform, global dissemination
seem like a consequence of tech is a convenient amnesia. The propensity to share
predates the young black creators doing
so online. But they ought to claim lineage.
Remember, for instance, the blues.
K.J. Greenes 2008 essay, Lady Sings
the Blues: Intellectual Property at the Intersection of Race and Gender, published
in The Journal of Gender, Social Policy & The
Law, situates the American conundrum
of race and proprietorship at the specific
moment of blues music production. Blues
leans on an unpredictable meld of instrumental prowess and rapid improvisation,
and not on a premeditated, capitalistconscious calculus. Black artists had no
input in [copyright law], and examination
reveals that it is in some respects incompatible with Black cultural production in
music, writes Greene, arguing that multiple copyright standards were specifically
structured to preclude black blues artists,
especially women, from claiming ownership. The idea/expression dichotomy of
copyright law prohibits copyright protection for raw ideas, Greene wrote. I
contend that this standard provided less
protection to innovative black composers,
whose work was imitated so wildly it became the idea.
Part of the reason the originators of
viral content are stripped from their labor is because they dont technically own
their production. Twitter does, Vine does,
Snapchat does, and the list goes on. Intan-

gible things like slang and styles of dance

are not considered valuable, except when
theyre produced by large entities willing
and able to invest in trademarking them.
Dana Nelson, founder of D.F. Nelson
PLLC, a New York City firm specializing
in copyright and music law, says outmoded intellectual property law needs updating for the digital age. Copyright law and
intellectual property in America does not
follow the creative production of artists.
Rather, it protects the interests of companies, she says. I think it is now harder
to distinguish a non-commercial (fair)
use from a commercial one. Whereas
Meechies dance videos are considered a
threat to record companies bottom line,
his cultural productionand Kayla Newmans on fleek, toois treated as ripe for
the taking by those same companies.
In some sense, the roaring debates over
white appropriation of black slang, music,
and dance have worked as an avatar for
circumstance of the independent black
creator in the digital age. But the analog
is insufficient. Intellectual property and
viral content should be interrogated from
a legal standpoint, Nelson argues. The
copyright statute under which Meechies
YouTube account got flagged and then
taken down should be re-examined, as
should the legal gray areas that leave individual creators like Newman in the cold.
But Meechie is young, and he has
plans. The immediate one is editing the
video of him and his crew dancing to Justin Biebers What Do You Mean? As of
this writing, the clip has been viewed over
135,000 times on his new YouTube channel, but he still has a ways to go before he
can reach the numbers on his old account.
When I ask him how feels about his position as a simultaneously powerful shapeshifter of music and a disenfranchised net
artist, he simply says hes dancing for
now. And, like Newman, hes still waiting
on those things good things to come.

FADE OUT

120

By Rawiya Kameir

HOW
SOCIAL
J U S T I C E
BECAME
COOL

A new world of social consciousness has opened up

between the public and even
the poppiest of stars, and
many are cashing in.
In October, Usher released a single called
Chains. It was accompanied by a browser-based interactive video created in collaboration with the artist Daniel Arsham,
hosted by TIDAL, and promoted under
the hashtag #DontLookAway. Like the
songs lyrics, the visual implores the viewer to acknowledge a few of the black men
and women killed or otherwise targeted
for their race in recent years; the viewer
must lock eyes with black and white photos of the deceased to unlock the track. If
you avert your gaze at any point or lean
too deeply out of the view of your computer, the webcam-enabled technology

pauses and begs you not to look away.

While racial injustice keeps killing, society keeps looking away, an introductory
title screen reads.
The first time I watched it, I lasted just
two dead faces. When I felt uncomfortable, I closed the tab, a privilege admittedly reserved for the living. On the morning
of the videos release, I had a short conversation with a co-worker about the unlikeliness of Usher releasing such a politically
motivated piece of art. Over his impressive, damn-near unprecedented two-decade-long career, Usher has been known
for many thingsa strong voice, phenomenal dancing, symmetrical dimplesbut
his political messages have largely been
restricted to social media, occasional press
interactions, and, presumably, his personal life. This song marked new territory for
him, hinting at an attempt to, at best, use
his influence for good or, at worst, take
advantage of a new relationship between
celebrities and the public that expects, or
demands, social consciousness from even
its poppiest of stars.
Given the current sociopolitical climatewhere #BlackLivesMatters activists have been able to jostle presidential
candidates to the left on race, and where
corporations are increasingly fearful of
being considered offensive on social mediait stands to follow that Usher was
neither the first nor will he be the last
to incorporate politics into his consumer-facing work. Earlier in the summer,
Janelle Monaes Wondaland camp, including Jidenna, Deep Cotton, and the band
St. Beauty, dropped Hell You Talmbout
(Say Their Names). Its a protest song
in the most literal sense possible. Over
chanting drums, it calls out the names of
victims of police or vigilante murder in
remembrance, and was rolled out with a
series of protests around the country led
by the crew. They were alternately lauded
and mocked; some internet commenters,
myself included, called bullshit on the
move. Not because it was difficult to believe their concern about racial justice in
America, but because it read like a marketing meeting-hatched rollout wherein
they wore social justice like a costume.
Wondalands intentions aside, the moment felt like the inevitable culmination

Writing in The Nation in 2014, Mychal

Denzel Smith argued that the killing
of Trayvon Martin by a self-appointed
neighborhood watchman, and the lack of
justice that followed, sparked a change in
the consciousness of black people. Trayvons death ignited something durable in
a considerable number of black youth.
Whatever apathy had existed before was
replaced by the urge to act, to organize
and to fight, he wrote, pointing to a rise
in youth activists and the establishment of
more action-oriented organizing.
But if Trayvon Martin birthed a new
generation of activists, the killing of Mike
Brown two-and-a-half years later by a police officer gave rise to a new framework
of politics for the contemporary era. Apathy, from anyone, became unacceptable.

FADE OUT

122

of the newfound cool of social justice,

a shift that has made it a marker of social capital, a performative way to make
yourself desirable, whether as a brand or
simply a person. Social justice issues are
becoming widely understood; there is a
political vocabulary that is infinitely more
common now than it was even a couple of
years ago. Language to describe the minutiae of racism, cultural appropriation, and
rape culture has seeped from academia
into the mainstream lexicon as a way of
dissecting and, in theory, resolving social
issues involving race, gender, sexuality,
and more.

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Its easier than ever to say the right things

and loudly criticize people who dont, to the
point where conversations about social justice
have been co-opted by people who arent
directly affected, or for whom arriving at a true
solution isnt particularly urgent.
Rawiya Kameir
Browns death was not the first time the
internet rallied around a social cause, but
it was among the most visible. Speaking
publicly became not the domain of radicals, but a necessary way to identify yourself on the political spectrum, a declaration that you were either with or against
black people. Most intensely in the days
that followed Browns shooting, but also
in the year since, I have seen tweets, Facebook posts, Tumblr notes, and YouTube
comments criticizing silence and equating
it with indifference.
Not for the first time, but perhaps more
intensely than ever before, celebrities like
Beyonc and Jay Z, Kim Kardashian and
Miley Cyrus, were slammed for their silence. (The Knowles-Carters wound up
attending a march and reportedly donating to the bail funds of anti-police-brutality protesters.) When J. Cole visited Ferguson soon after Browns death, he tried to
do so quietly, with no press, conscious of
the gesture looking like an empty publicity moment. Instead, he was turned into a
hero by fans who admired his dedication
to the cause. The sentiment went a long
way toward bolstering his image and its
not uncommon to hear people shout him
out for it, even a year later.
Imagine if Kanye West called out
George W. Bush for not caring about black
people in 2015, as he had in that now-infamous 2005 telethon raising money for
victims of Hurricane Katrina. On social
media, at least, he would likely have been
treated more like a folk hero than an outlaw. Gone are the days when celebritys

political action is a concern for PR agents,

a potential career-ender. In contrast the
thread of Nina Simones difficult career,
as suggested in the recent documentary
What Happened, Miss Simone?, is that being outspoken about her political beliefs
wound up ruining her life.
For lesser-known public figures, voicing their political beliefs, if they are the
right ones, has become a surefire way to
attract positive press. When actor Amandla Sternberg called out Kylie Jenner in a
school assignment for what she described
as appropriation on Jenners part, her
profile rose. And when Zendaya wrote
an open letter similarly criticizing Giuliana Rancic for racist language linking
Zendayas red-carpet dreadlocks to weed,
she was celebrated for it in a continuous stream of praise on social media and
across the internet, where the persistent
feedback loop of fandom can feel hollow
and hyperbolic, even when it isnt.
As social media turns everyone into a
micro-celebrity with a platform, its especially significant that it isnt just the
rich and famous who are compelled to be
vocal. More and more people online are
adopting a new sociopolitical vocabulary
and, with it, identityand thats a good
thing. Consider, for instance, the concept of cultural appropriation. Until a
few years ago, it was not widely known.
Today, thanks to the work of many activists, including the academic Dr. Adrienne
Keene, who runs the popular blog Native
Appropriations, it has become a fixture in
pop culture discourse. Flagrant missteps

persist, but more members of the general public understand how, as Keene describes, wearing a headdress is rooted in,
and works to reinforce, systemic power
imbalances. Consider, too, the way the
phrase social justice warrior began losing its snarky connotation, becoming an
increasingly fringe insult deployed more
by Reddit trolls than moderates eager to
uphold the status quo.
However, if people increasingly use
social justice as a tool through which to
accumulate social clout, vying for their
own place in the public eye, there will be
dangers too. Its easier than ever to say the
right things and loudly criticize people
who dont, to the point where conversations about social justice have been coopted by people who arent directly affected or for whom arriving at a true solution
isnt particularly urgent. We construct our
best selves in public, using fragmented
platforms like Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram to project the identities we want.
We are incentivized by the endorphin
rush of retweets and double taps, with the
added awareness that the stakes are higher as social media has become fully entrenched in modern life. Saying the right
thing can make or break you, encouraging us to act informally as own PR agents.
But if our politics are driven by the urge
to be considered kind rather than the urge
to actually be kind, social justice becomes
like any trend, susceptible to fading out
whenever the next good look comes along.

FADE OUT

124

  

NEW ALBUM COMING JANUARY 2016

FEATURING: Burundi | Horn of the Clock-Bike | Think Like They Book Say

Jgermeister: Unlocking The Craft

Photography by Ryan Muir

Hundreds of people stood in a line that snaked down Bond Street in Brooklyn,
braving the November chill for a night full of music. As the dense crowd
waited for 2 Chainzs performance, they sampled the Dirty Amber, the
rappers signature drinka flavorful cocktail that complements the 56
ingredients that make up Jgermeister. Best of all, they got a sneak peak of
the documentary that 2 Chainz made at the Jgermeister factory in
Germany. Fresh off his trip, 2 Chainz took the stage with gusto, and fans
roared back at him. The rapper summed it up himself, saying, Making
Jgermeister is a process. Its a lot like myself and my music.
EVENTS

126

2 Chainz and DJ Envy

Jgermeister liqueur 35% Alc. /Vol., Imported by Sidney Frank

Importing Co., Inc., New Rochelle, NY. DRINK RESPONSIBLY.
Please do not forward to anyone under the age of 21.

EVENTS

127

The FADER FORT

Presented by Converse

Photography by Ryan Muir, Roger Kisby, and Kyle Dean Reinford

Before our annual Brooklyn iteration of The FADER FORT Presented by
Converse, the queue snaked around the corner of Rubber Tracks studio, but
there was no FOMO for non-New Yorkers thanks to a Dell | Intel-powered
livestream. Inside, we had ample Jack Daniels, vitaminwater, and Budweiser,
plus an Alienware gaming station. Some music highlights: a lovable set from
Philly punks Modern Baseball and a badass rock cover of Drake by Torontos
Dilly Dally. Kranium brought out Ricky Blaze and Skepta popped by to big-up
Little Simz. Kehlani and YG put on flawless headlining sets, and we wont ever
forget the surprise, show-stopping DJ set from a little producer named
Skrillex. Theres really nothing like The FADER FORT, yall.
EVENTS

128

Skrillex, YG, Kehlani,

and more

EVENTS

129

The FADER FORT

Presented by Converse

EVENTS

130

EVENTS

131

100th Issue Release Party

Photography by Ryan Muir

The FADER celebrated the release of our 100th issue in a really big way.
Everyone headed over to Up&Down to turn way, way up with a little help from
some ice cold Budweiser. Pop punk duo Matt & Kim, GEN F alums Wet, and
our latest FADER documentary star Allan Kingdom were there to get their
serious groove on to DJ sets of pure fire from Fools Golds Nick Catchdubs
and Brenmar, Jersey house king DJ Sliink, and Max Glazer (who wrote the
very first FADER cover story on Funkmaster Flex). To say it was lit would be
a massive understatement.
EVENTS

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Nick Catchdubs, Brenmar,

DJ Sliink, and Max Glazer

EVENTS

133

vitaminwater #uncapped

Photography by Ryan Muir

This year marked the 5th anniversary of The FADERs #uncapped event series
with vitaminwater, and the performers over the five nights certainly honored
the energy of the headliners who came before them. Tuesday started with a
knockout set from singer-songwriter Sevyn Streeter and ended with the alwaysturnt Matt & Kim literally hanging from the rafters. On Wednesday, Passion Pits
Michael Angelakos amped up the proceedings with chime-fuelled tunes
followed by a set from bout-to-blow Alessia Cara. After a party-starting DJ turn
from Q-Tip on Thursday, a fierce-as-ever JoJo made us swoon. Thundercat
kicked off Friday with West Coast soul, and Kehlani closed it out. On Saturday,
Willow Smith and Chance The Rapper brought boundless inspiring vibes,
a perfect send-off to a perfect week. Cheers to five years, #uncapped.
EVENTS

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Chance The Rapper, Kehlani,

Alessia Cara, and more

EVENTS

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vitaminwater #uncapped

EVENTS

136

EVENTS

137

New Era Night Cap Sessions

Photography by Ryan Muir

Fitted legends New Era hosted an intimate kickback at their Manhattan
offices in September. Chase Bs tastefully poppin DJ set warmed up the party
while guests sipped on Titos and tasty Goose Island IPAs. DonMonique came
out later for a high energy, Brooklyn-repping set. She even brought out fellow
New York upstart Noah Caine to perform their joint song, Fifty Kay. A month
later, the New Era crew threw another shindig in their offices, this time with
Queens rapper Remy Banks. With some Double Cross Vodka and more IPAs,
guests kicked it to a chill mix of hip-hop and trap courtesy of DJ Yamez.
Guests left with New Era 9FIFTYs, a copy of The FADERs 100th issue, and
a whole lot to smile about.
EVENTS

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Remy Banks, DonMonique,

and Chase B

EVENTS

139

Coors Light reFRESH L.A.

Photography by Emily Berl

On a balmy night this fall, Los Globos in East L.A. lit up for The FADER and
Coors Lights #reFRESHLA series. Guests feasted on a taco bar and sipped
Coors before a DJ set by West Coast beatmaker P. Morris. Noisy-as-ever
HEALTH ran through heart-pounding new jams. Flying Lotus and Gangsta
Boo were spotted backstage, taking it all in. A few weeks later, we packed the
three separate bars and a BOSCO photobooth at Sound Nightclub as
WEDIDITs Nick Melons and Body High co-founder Samo Sound Boy came
through to support their boy Shlohmo, one of the nights featured DJs, who
blended dark electronics with hip-hop re-works and crowd pleasers. L.A. duo
NGUZUNGUZU closed out the party the only way they know how: with a set so
fire it couldve burned all night.
EVENTS

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Shlohmo and NGUZUNGUZU

EVENTS

141

 Left: Top and parts H&M, sweater RAEY. Right: Jacket

VEJAS, pants RODEBJER, shoes COCLICO.

A Piece Apart apieceapart.com

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Kenzo kenzo.com
Molly Goddard mollygoddard.com
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Onepiece onepiece.com
Opening Ceremony openingceremony.us
Raey Available at matchesfashion.com
Rodebjer rodebjer.com
Vejas vejaskruszewski.com
STOCKIST

142

PHOTOGRAPHY TINA TYRELL.

STOCKIST

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PHOTOGRAPHY FRANCESCO NAZARDO.

Im a man now, and when you get older you want to

be an individual, and you want to venture out
on your own. Its scary, and it is nerve-wracking, and
there is a lot of pressure, but for me thats the
whole intrigue of it.
Zayn Malik