Groundbreaking artist Kamasi Washington debuts the A.G. Rojas-directed video for ‘Street Fighter Mas‘ today—watch it below. The video includes cameos by famed Street Fighter legends Gootecks and Combofiend and one of Washington’s Los Angles heroes—Kevin Gilliam a.k.a. BattleCat, a longtime collaborator of Dr. Dre, Snoop and Tupac Shakur. The video was inspired by Washington’s love of the Street Fighter video game and depicts Washington’s adventure through Los Angeles en route to an epic battle to claim the title of champion against Combofiend. Rojas and Washington previously collaborated on a short film titled “Truth” for Washington’s 2017 EP Harmony of Difference.
Watch the official video for ‘Street Fighter Mas’ below.
Talking about the ‘Street Fighter Mas’ video, A.G. Rojas says:
“I love inhabiting Kamasi’s world, and Street Fighter Mas was an opportunity to take a left turn and explore the surreal qualities of that world. When Kamasi told me the background of the song, how Street Fighter was a safe space for him – it took me back to the supermarket down the street from my childhood home where my brother and I would try and get in as many games before our mother was finished shopping. It was a true labor of love for everyone involved, coming from a desire to interpret the cinematic qualities of the track into something equally unpredictable, familiar, absurd, and ultimately triumphant.”
Washington’s immensely anticipated second album Heaven and Earth is out this Friday, June 22 via Young Turks.
In celebration of the release, Washington will play a very intimate hometown show at The World Stage in Los Angeles—the historic Leimert Park venue where he has been performing since his teens. The show will be streamed through Kamasi’s Facebook and on Boiler Room.
Heaven and Earth is receiving early critical acclaim:
“Lavish, portentous, aware of its political significance, Heaven and Earth also swings like crazy, and the seriousness of the endeavour never detracts from the warm-hearted way in which Washington reframes jazz history for both neophytes and connoisseurs” – MOJO
“This tenor saxophonist—a blistering, continental colossus of jazz uplift and spectacle—returns this month with Heaven and Earth…At nearly two-and-a-half hours, the double album is nearly as sprawling and orchestral as its predecessor, with heaving solos crushed against humongous statues of horns.”—The New York Times
“The title promises something gigantic, and the contents deliver… There’s no denying Kamasi Washington has captured his moment. This is the rare jazz record that feels equipped to venture outside the genre’s familiar borders and engage with the wider world. In an era of division and tension, its embrace of tradition and its boldness of spirit feel not just welcome, but revitalising” –Uncut
“It feels as if Washington really is on a higher mission, reaching beyond jazz to deliver a jubilant celebration of music itself” – Q Magazine
“In another life, the saxophonist Washington might have been a film director specializing in grandiose productions…Drawing on the inclusive spirit of seventies soul jazz and utilizing massed strings, vocals, and a contingent of eclectic improvisers, Washington creates his effect by painting with sweeping brushstrokes.”—The New Yorker
“The O.G. saxophonist made his name in jazz, but he’s bigger than the genre.”—The FADER
Kamasi Washington
Heaven and Earth
I. EARTH
Fists of Fury
Can You Hear Him
Hubtones
Connections
Tiffakonkae
The Invincible Youth
Testify
One of One
II. HEAVEN
The Space Travellers Lullaby
Vi Lua Vi Sol
Street Fighter Mas
Song for the Fallen
Journey
The Psalmnist
Show Us the Way
Will You Sing
Kamasi Washington is a multi-instrumentalist and producer born and raised in Los Angeles. He grew up playing jazz in the city’s storied Leimert Park neighborhood. Forming his first band, the Young Jazz Giants, with Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner, Ronald Bruner, Jr. and Cameron Graves in high school, Washington went on to study ethnomusicology at UCLA and play with Snoop Dogg, Raphael Saadiq and more. His debut album, The Epic, was released in 2015 to rapturous critical reception, universally embraced as one of the best of the year and awarded the inaugural American Music Prize. Heaven and Earth follows The Epic as well as Washington’s 2017 EP Harmony of Difference, an exploration of the musical concept of counterpoint that debuted as an original work for the 2017 Whitney Museum of Art Biennial.
Heaven and Earth, over two and a half hours of music, will be available on double deluxe CD and a four piece vinyl housed in bespoke double gatefold sleeve, in addition to all digital services.
Kamasi Washington online
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