Pianist Duval Timothy has shared a video for a brand new track called ‘Slave’.
The track, which features Twin Shadow, is centred around a manipulated vocal loop of artist Ibiye Camp saying the word "slave," which is placed alongside a YouTube audio rip of Pharrell Williams critiquing record companies who push artists into unfair contracts. You can watch the video above.
"The song explores the history of the transatlantic slave trade," Timothy says. "The idea that we live in a world that not only feels the effect of this horrific history but one that takes elements from the slave system and implements them in different ways adapted to our contemporary life."
He continues: "I created the stop motion video for ‘Slave’ with Max Valizadeh. In the video, we actually personify the audio file as a loveable character which is born into the world through artistic creation but quickly finds itself enslaved and exploited by manipulative music industry agents.
"Many artists have famously spoken out about the importance of owning their masters and have also equated elements of the music industry to slavery such as Prince and Nipsey Hu$$le. These artists are depicted on the peak of the mountain in the end sequence of the video, which I climb to join them. The story is an adaptation of my own experience in the music industry. In 2019 I bought back my own masters, which was my mountain to climb."
‘Slave’ is out now.
