XM LAUNCH PARTY (6.10.25)
And we are live!
We made it. It happened. 100 RSVPs. A lime bike tried to kill me, but I was stronger.
Many of your beautiful faces came and showed out.
The duck canape slid.
It was magical.
I performed for the first time in eight years.
Mostly barred out while stationary because I was trying to remember lyrics, but still, we dipped our toes in the pond. Full immersion soon come after the project is released.
Wasn’t nervous at all about the talk with Abbas, because why? It was really insightful and better than having prepared questions to answer. Okayplayer, Lupe, MF DOOM, metaphysics, and the nature of reality, and where does man’s necessity for meaning come from? Spiritual cartography, reading many maps to make sense of the terrain whilst one is scaling and travailing. Many different touch points in the conversation that felt easy and organic to move through. I haven’t had many interactions with Mr Zahedi, but it felt like meeting an old friend for the first time. I think it’s like that when both your internal mechanisms wire you towards practical exercises as your predominant research method, instead of vicariously wading through others’ experiences.
I’m super grateful to you all who came out and made it such a special evening. It’s kinda wild that this is even happening because making a mag has been on my bucket list since I was a kid, and to see that dream become fully realised and have such a reception to the quality of the work means a lot. Whilst it is a dream of mine, it was borne out of the desire to create a community and space to have discourse that challenges biases, where we can learn and grow together in real time.
The mag is dense, rich, and layered, and intentionally so, because so much of what is out there caters to laziness in engagement. For those who are wrestling and excavating many truths to find what’s real out there, come one, come all. Hit the inbox if you have contributions and methods on how to make this thing bigger and better. Thank you to all those who made a purchase, whether that was a mag, sculpture, or a CD of my EP pre-release. We are building in real time, and this can’t become a thing without you.
Big up to Daria Stanios, Hozen Britto, and former project manager Aziz Tarkhan for bunkering down with me to make this vision possible. It couldn’t have happened with you, and I’m eternally grateful for your diligence, hard work, and trust in my vision.
Big up to James Jordan Johnson aka J3 on the sounds and lacing the atmosphere.
Big up to Glenn Barnes on the canapes and for hitting man with that culinary decadence.
Big up to J Love aka the Goten to my Trunks for coming through on behalf of the BAA-GEE and shelling his set and elevating the vibes with his musical whimsy + genius.
Big up to Bolanle Tajudeen for getting Abbas involved and elevating the curation of the evening.
Big up to Abbas Zahedi for coming through and supporting a young G when he’s clouted off doing Tate residencies and collecting the art world prestige like Pokémon badges.
Big up to Spacer, who blessed man with some polaroids of the night.
Presently patterning platforms for you all to ingest the talk in digital format for those who couldn’t make it.
For now, enjoy the slides captured by man like Ross Deeley on the lens. Holla @ him for all your photography + 3D printing needs (he helped me make my helmet, still).
More updates soon come for your headtop!
In a piece you man.
R.K.A
