SONG PREMIERE: Farees Drops Propelling Taste of Modern Afrobeat on “Galactic Africa”

The idea of new Afrobeat artists is always bound to be met with skepticism. Questions abound if the artist actually is in a bloodline to the source or if the band can really play – like in a James Brown “you better play tight” kind of way. Well, newcomer Farees meets up to the qualifications and then somewhere he calls upon us to “dance before we get burned” on his new album, Galactic Africa (out June 3 via Rez’Arts Prod), tempering political outrage with afrobeats in a love letter to the motherland. Though his beat routinely persists in emphatically decrying neo-colonialists, imperialism, and “fake-ass revolutionaries,” this neo-funk producer, multi-instrumentalist, and spoken word revolutionary hits on all rhythmic cylinders.

The opening cadence underscores these rudiments with MC Rocky P (AKA The Big Twin) introducing Farees’ strategic production stamp: “Galactic Africa is a composition of blue notes that can’t be written, learned or taught/Only given out in quotes/And it’s all built upon a huge wall of groove/So that y’all can think while your asses move.” Farees boasts that he believes it to be “the first afrobeats album recorded entirely with real instruments.” Helmed by a veritable Tuareg songwriter and visionary, Galactic Africa is a transient record devoid of Western exoticism, and marked by Farees’ expert artistry and knowledge of African rhythm and spirit. 

Glide is premiering the transient “Jupiter/Galactic Africa,” a thrill-seeking track that grooves with hydraulic drumming and powerhouse persuasion that rekindles the minds of hip hop, Afrobeat, and world music in a galloping statement.

“People often ask to define my kind of music. Some call it neofunk or afrofunk. That’s pretty accurate, I guess, but I call my style ‘Galactic Africa.’ Everything I do comes from the motherland, and there ain’t no way that well could go dry. But I don’t like to stick to any tradition… I like to explore and do things my own way, but I orbit around Africa, and that’s why we chose the title. The song deals with oversexualization, oppression and mixed skins. We already had all colors in Africa before any migration took place. And it’s part of my story… set to a wall of groove,” says Farees.

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