NEW MUSIC: “I AM AN AFRICAN” by Ethan Tomas
The Brooklyn based DJ and producer had a strong 2020 and is carrying it forward into 2021 with his latest single “I AM AN AFRICAN.”
Ethan Tomas partnered with one of our favorite rappers, Ivy Sole, on one of the best albums of 2020, SOUTHPAW. He also released his first proper single, “Jamestown Joint,” in October. While the rest of the world was lamenting rising cases of the coronavirus, Tomas was doing big things. With his latest release, “I Am an African,” (released through his own Les Fleurs record label, by the way) he’s capturing that energy and bringing it with him into the new year.
“I AM AN AFRICAN” features the spoken word of Thabo Mbeki, former president of South Africa, over a smooth, impossibly cool jazz beat. Mbeki made the speech in 1996 as South Africa adopted a new constitution that brought the country into it’s post-Apartheid world. The song is an unmistakable symbol of black pride in a year marked by civil unrest and the act of overcoming.
The speech, also titled “I Am an African,” has been praised for its rhetoric, and Tomas uses it to wonderful effect. Mbeki’s cadence and delivery carry the emotion of the moment; pride and joy. The backing track that Tomas built to bring the words forward is airy and sexy. It makes Mbeki’s words sound effortless: the gentle percussion; the trumpet in the distance wailing, dancing in and out; the soft synths; rhythmic woodwinds. “I AM AN AFRICAN” is food for the soul with the power to sooth, heal, and deliver tranquility. It’s delivered appropriately in the dark days of winter, as we long for warmer, longer days ahead, and in the socially treacherous 2020, as we look to better days for humanity.