Songs

Yasiin Bey – “Basquiat Ghostwriter”

blame it on Patrick Glynn August 14, 2015
yasiin-bey-basquiat

Wait, first Talib Kweli? Now the artist formerly known as Mos Def? Let’s keep it rolling.

Yasiin Bey, who recently took back his challenge of promising to murk any rapper who came at him, dropped a new song, “Basquiat Ghostwriter,” that sounds like he’s taking on distorted MFDoom with an odd, avant-garde-style sound.

Throughout the song, Bey used lyrics from Basquiat paintings to curate one larger meaning for the legendary Harlem painter’s works as a whole, which consisted of a lot of abstract social commentary (like Bey’s song).

On A Country Called Earth, among a larger note where Yasiin said the lyrics were taken from Basquiat paintings, he said:

Love and respect to the Basquiat family and Mr. W.F. Flame. Let us be reminded of Sandra bland, [Ferguson], Baltimore, and all the injustice of the world, as well as the beauty. Respect to the family of Sean Price and Brooklyn, from which I and Jean-Michel are from. Eternal love to my city. God bless the soul and keeping living, even when we die, we wont stay dead.

Listen to the new song below.