808s and Otherworlds

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808s & Otherworlds announces a bold and incendiary new voice in Sean Avery Medlin. Against the backdrop of the Phoenix suburbs where they were raised, Medlin weaves a tapestry of worlds -- as gut-wrenchingly real as young, star-crossed lovers unmythed by segregation, and imaginative as the story of Mer-Africans who "live deeper than Atlantis or military submarines, deeper than any human, mutant, or cosmic deity can descend," as narrated by Storm.808s & Otherworlds interrogates the effects of media misrepresentation on the performance of Black masculinity. Through storytelling rhymes and vulnerable narratives in conversation with both contemporary Hip-Hop culture -- superhuman mutants, video games -- and systemic anti-blackness -- the death of Darrien Hunt, murdered by police while cosplaying -- 808s & Otherworlds pieces together a speculative reality where Blackfolk are simultaneously superhuman and dehumanized. It's a love letter to family and self, told to an undeniably energetic beat.