After nearly a decade lost in space, METERMAIDS return to Earth to team with producer ALXNDRBRWN & turntable titan BUDDY PEACE for A LINE IN THE SKY, their latest otherworldly transmission on Strange Famous Records, dropping everywhere November 10, 2023!
MM emcees Sentence & Swell are joined on the mission by SAGE FRANCIS, MOPES, CAS ONE, SEEZ MICS, JESSE THE TREE, and EARLY ADOPTED.
The first video from the album, "All The Smoke," directed by Tim Young, is one of multiple tracks featuring an appearance by SFR label boss and indie rap legend Sage Francis. True to the DIY-style of all things Strange Famous, everyone you see onscreen in the clip pitched in and shot their own segments, which were interspersed with additional footage selected by director Young.
Metermaids mouthpiece Swell, known for his tendency toward quiet understatement, explains the concept of the clip with his trademark humility from his Brooklyn apartment:
"Yo - let me break down for you fuckers how brilliant this video is."
He clears his throat, ferociously, and continues:
"The summer camp footage grounds the whole video because it features representations of children preparing for a productive life, which is what I think most camps are trying to teach. They're making fires, they're learning how to swim, they're doing things that are all bedrock to the human experience. It's a period in life that everyone who was lucky enough to have that sort of childhood adventure relates deeply to, because it's such a formative time. It really captures what the entire record is about: looking back with the honesty of hindsight, and realizing nothing's really changed - we're still those same kids trying to figure shit out in a hurry. Now we just got more salt than pepper in the ol' neck beard."
He pauses, contemplating. And inhaling... something. Deeply.
"Also, most of us as kids didn't have neckbeards. Except maybe Sage. But that was on the inside."
Neckbeards aside, the individual film of each member of the crew invites the viewer to glimpse a truthful version of their day-to-day goings-on in a way most fans don't get a chance to:
"The footage is clearly self-shot and distinct to each dude. For example, I'm outside being weird (which I actually do a significant amount of), Sentence is being a good father, like he is, and Sage is travelin' and performin', like he does. That was a creative decision, as opposed to a practical one caused by geographic challenges," Swell explains. As the performers are literally spread across the globe, in 3 countries and 3 states, "the footage isn't 'perfect,' and that just helps drive home the point of the record - the visual approach tells the story of the song, which is: it was hard being a kid and it's hard being an adult. Let alone a rapping adult. So fuck it. Give us errrrrrything you got."
"All The Smoke" is a light-hearted look at some serious stuff: the paths we've chosen, the places they started, the choices that guide us from sunrise to midnight. Also, it's not a bad little anthem to holler along to as you get your recreation on, if that's your thing, as Swell reminds us:
"And also I smoke a ton of weed, so if you have that, I will also take that. All the smoke."
A LINE IN THE SKY will be available from Strange Famous Records everywhere you listen to music on November 10, 2023.
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