Neneh Cherry reveals her new song and video “Kong” produced by Four Tet and Massive Attack’s 3D and directed by Jenn Nkiru.
“Kong” is a powerful and vital return to the musical conversation for Cherry. Over a dubbed-out synthesis of the musicals worlds of Four Tet and 3D she fuses the personal and political. She references the history of Colonialism as well as Europe’s on-going refugees’ crisis in a brave and timely protest song; one that uses empathy and compassion as its disobedient tools. “Every nation seeks it’s / friends in France & Italy / and all across the 7 seas / and goddam guns and guts and bitter love still put a hole in me”. The track meditates on the West exporting armed interventions, inviting the listener to imagine the world of someone willing to take the risk to escape from the ruinous effects of their consequences.
Director Jenn Nkiru is from Peckham, London and is a fast rising star of the art and film worlds. She was 2nd unit director for Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s internet-breaking APESHIT, following up on her visual work with Kamasi Washington on his latest album Heaven And Earth.
The single artwork is by Wolfgang Tillmans the first photographer ever to be awarded the Turner Prize. He is one of the most important documentarian of his generation of London and Berlin’s club and gay scenes. His recent musical collaborations include the photo artwork for Frank Ocean’s 2016 album Blonde and the physical magazine that accompanied it Boys Don’t Cry.
Watch “Kong” above!
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