TheFader 102 Feb Mar16 JBalvin Davido

THE GLOBAL ISSUE
102 FEB/MAR 2016
Davido
THE GLOBAL ISSUE

102 FEB/MAR 2016
J Balvin
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22
Contributors
Letter from the Editor
26
30
32
36
GEN F
Monika
Section Boyz
Jaala
N.A.A.F.I
58
FEATURES
J Balvin
72
Christine and The Queens
82
Davido
94
Estonia
How people are eating, sleeping,

spending money, and forming scenes
in 24 countries.
A reggaeton renegade steadies his

mind at the end of the Earth.
A French singer shifts shapes

and languages.
In Lagos with an American-born

African pop star.
A chilly city warms up, with spring

fashion to match.
FADE OUT
105 Afrosoca
110 Turkish Soap Operas
114 Letter from Ibiza
APPENDIX
118 Events
126 Stockist
Covers: Davido photography Travys Owen.

J Balvin photography Ryan Lowry.
CONTENTS
16
PHOTOGRAPHY ALICE ROSATI. STYLING JONATHAN HUGUET. DENIM JACKET: JUUN J;

BRA: ROCHAS; PANTS: MASHA MA; EARRING: J.W ANDERSON.
Im trying to become like a pop

song: everything and nothing.
Christine and The Queens
41
FADE IN
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MASTHEAD
18
CONTRIBUTORS
Four writers and
photographers travel the
world to hang out with pop
stars. One ends up crying.
AS TOLD TO
Liz Raiss and Zara Golden
RAWIYA KAMEIR
TRAVYS OWEN
MARLON BISHOP
RYAN LOWRY
Apparently Nigerians are really

into Christmas. I got to Lagos
just before the holiday, and every house had these crazy Home
Alone-style light installations
with reindeer and Santas. At my
hotelit was a nice hotel, the
classiest in Lagosthere were
floor-to-ceiling Christmas decorations, like in a shopping mall.
All the advertisements on the
radio were related to Christmas,
and a lot of them mentioned
Davidos name. He has a toothpaste endorsement, for example.
I got the sense that Christmas is a really big time to party
in Nigeria, especially in a city like
Lagos, where everyone just wants
to party all the time. The city was
preparing for a lot of big shows
and events. A lot of expats come
home. Its a big wedding season
for that reason, too. People kept
saying, Youre missing everything
by leaving before Christmas.
Davidos dads house had nice
lights, even though he had been
out of town for months. But Davidos house was a disaster. I asked
him, Where are your lights?
And he was just like, I should
have thought about it, but I didnt
have time.
I noticed that Davido had a cool

pool. At first, he was kind of
hesitant about getting into the
water, and not having his top
on. So instead we went to his
fathers house and we shot a
lot against a yellow backdrop.
We found a pool at his fathers
house, too, but he wouldnt
get in there, either. It was a bit
too green.
We made our way back to
Davidos house and he finally decided that he would get in the
pool. I started shooting with my
on-camera flash, and it was really
nice; the flash was bouncing off
the water. We ended up spending
quite a lot of time in and around
there. My whole thing when I
take portraits of people is try to
take them out of their comfort
zones. I think those picturesof
him feeling out of his element, a
little vulnerableactually ended
up being the best shots. Theyre
raw and honest.
People joked before I left that

going on tour with a reggaeton
star was going to be all pool parties and models and drugsbut
it was very much not. This was a
group of super-focused professionals trying to take over the
Latin music industry. For J Balvin,
part of that is keeping himself
sane. He wakes up early, goes to
the gym, eats healthy, and, apparently, does coloring books.
His whole thing is that hes
not your average reggaeton
star, and theres a whole bunch
of reasons for that. You dont exactly imagine a big urban star being really into coloring mandalas.
And he was very open. He talked
about his panic attacks. The realest moment was when we talked
about his mental health stuff: he
was sitting on the floor with his
knees in his arms, in this multithousand-dollar hotel suite. He
had been kind of ignoring me for
most of the day, but then when it
was time for him to talk, he was
present and down to be a real
person in front of this stranger
who was going to broadcast
it to the world. He had tears in
his eyes. To be honest, I kind of
teared up too.
J Balvin is 30 years old, but hes

obsessed with his cellphone, to
the point where it was hard to
get a picture of him without it.
He really likes Snapchat. Eventually I just started saying, Hey
J, give me your phone, and just
put it in my pocket. That was my
little trick.
Everywhere we went, a crowd
would gather to get their photo taken with him. There were
screaming kids outside of his
hotel, and we were basically in a
high-speed chase with a car filled
with teenagers. He posted a photo and tagged me in it, so I had all
of these kids hitting me up on Instagram, trying to figure out where
he was.
He was really concerned with
if I thought his jokes were funny
or not. So I kept on fucking with
him and not laughing. All of his
boys would bust on him: Oh he
doesnt think youre funny! We
got along like super well. I mean,
I got comfortable enough to take
his phone away from him.
photographer, Davido
writer, J Balvin
CONTRIBUTORS
photographer, J Balvin
20
PHOTOGRAPHY RYAN LOWRY.
writer, Davido
ONE WAY. ONE PL ACE.

150 YEARS.
W H A T E V E R YO U R E C E L E B R A T I N G , C E L E B R A T E R E S P O N S I B LY.
JACK D A NIELS AND OLD NO. 7 AR E R EGISTER ED TRADEM ARKS. 2016 JACK D A NIEL S T E NNE S SEE W HISK E Y 4 0 % A L C OHOL B Y VOL UME (80 P R OOF ). DI S T IL L E D A ND B O T T L E D B Y J A C K D A NIE L DI S T IL L E R Y, LY NC HBUR G, T E NNE S S E E. J AC KD A NIE LS.C O M
Even on the internet, global

culture is atomized. How
big is your digital backyard?
In 1997, right before my 10th birthday, Puff

Daddy released No Way Out, a rap album that
sold more than 500,000 copies in its first
week and eventually went 7x platinum in the
U.S. It spawned two No. 2 singles and two No.
1 singles, including Ill Be Missing You, the
Notorious B.I.G. tribute that topped the charts
for 11 weeks, and was performed at the VMAs
with Sting and Faith Evans. At the time I only
knew so many people, but I think its fair to
say they all knew the words to that song and
watched that performance on live TV.
Almost 20 years later, pop culture feels
more distortedbig things can seem small
and small things can seem big. Theres a lot
to be excited about, and lots of bots trying to
recommend us more things we might like, but
its also easier than ever to overlook things
other people loveespecially if the thing is in
a language you dont speak, or getting talked about on a website youve never visited.
Which is why I should never be shocked to
realize Ive been missing out on something
millions of other people have already celebrated, even if I often am.
In Nigeria, Davido is a tabloid fixture.
Across Latin America, J Balvin cant stay in
a hotel without having a dozen people congregate outside overnight, hoping to meet
him. Still, their massive successes remain
on the periphery of my YouTube accounts algorithm, or American awards showseven
if plugging into their fandoms simply means

following the right people on Twitter. With
this issue, we were trying to see how far away
these stars actually are from the center of our
community, and how close the internet has
actually managed to bring us.
In making this magazine, some experiences made the world feel as huge as it is.
Layovers were long and tickets were expensive. For reaching out, our usual rolodex
wasnt much help. But to make music a big
part of your life is a great privilege, and the
community of people who do so is cozier
than wed realized. We planned on doing a
page featuring photographs of the different rolling papers DJs everywhere use, but
trashed it after realizing pretty much everyone smokes Rizzlas. It took Rawiya Kameir
20 hours to get to West Africa, but the club
in Lagos was playing the same Future songs
she would have heard out in Brooklyn.
In some way thatsdisappointing? I love
Future, but part of the reward of falling in love
with J Balvin and Davido in the first place was
that they had made an impact outside of the
cultural cocoon Im in every day. But Davido
and J Balvin are not metheyve moved between more places, and worn more identities, and built careers in response to those
interactions. Maybe its no coincidence that
both guys spent time in the States when they
were younger, learning the music industry as
participant observers. They probably bought
that Puffy album, too.
Naomi Zeichner
Editor-in-chief
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
22
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ILLUSTRATION DAMIEN CORRELL
GEN F
Artists to Know Now
Monika
CREDIT TK
After a near-fatal
boat wreck, one
of Greeces biggest
stars found a
hopeful new sound
Story by Steven J. Horowitz
Photography by Molly Matalon
GEN F
26
CREDIT TK
a student! Just leave me alone!and she

instead went with Greek indie Archangel
Music, which put out her first two albums.
Both were sung in English, and both went
platinum.
Secretwhich arrived last fall on Other Musicis a pop album steeped in fluorescent funk, doo-wop, and Motown, as
indebted to ABBA and the Bee Gees as it is
to Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. It was
produced by Dap-Kings drummer Homer
Steinweiss, who enlisted members of his
collective and the Menahan Street Band
to provide analog instrumentation. The
strutting title track, Monika explains, is
a nod to that dark night in 2012: If I try to
find the keys to what Im missing, would
I give my life away to everyone? she contemplates atop a pecking clavinet and
double-time violins.
In Greece, the initial reaction to Secret
was tepid. Nobody accepted it very well.
They were like, This is Monikawhy is she
dancing? she says, leaning back into the
cafs sofa. Dressed in a billowing buttonBack in the summer of 2012, Monika
which shed lost from over-exposure to
down, she already seems acclimated to
Christodoulou was locked in a fight for
salt water. But when she gathered her
the West Coasts laidback style. Now,
her life. The singer-songwriter was on a
close friends a week later to recount
they love it. You just have to make the
boat trip with four friends off the coast of
the accident, her mentality shifted from
people trust you. Im just doing whatever I
her hometown of Athens, Greece, where
shock to sudden acceptance. It just flew
feel like. That means venturing even fur-
a pair of folk-pop albums had already
away, Monika says. My first two albums,
ther from traditional Greek music for her
catapulted her to mononymous levels of
everyone was like, Youre such a positive
next record, which she says may be influ-
regional fame. Then, while way out in the
person, why do you play this sad music?
enced by the A$AP Rocky and Kanye West
Aegean Sea, a jolting gas explosion set
I was like, maybe because it balances my
records that her friend Emile Haynie, pro-
their vessel ablaze. Three remained with
ego. But now? No. Even at home, I just
ducer and Lana Del Rey collaborator, has
the scorched wreckagethey werent ca-
want to be grooving.
been sharing with her.
pable swimmers, and were later saved by
Monikas solemn first two records
I have three albums ready, she says.
a rescue shipwhile Monika and a male
2008s Avatar and 2010s Exitare rooted
Eminem once said its like exercise. You
companion swam nearly eight hours in
in the jangling guitars and wistful accor-
have to exercise your recording, and only
the windy night, fixated on the glowing
dions of contemporary Greek music. By
10 percent of the material will ever be
lights of the city ashore.
contrast, the only real trace of her Greek
released. At present, though, shes more
Panic is the thing that makes people
heritage on Secret in the Dark, her third al-
concerned with spreading the newfound
die, the 30-year-old says inside a hurried
bum and first stateside release, is her full-
hopefulness that came after the accident
Hollywood coffee shop near her new home
bodied alto: part Nico, part Dusty Spring-
at sea. I want to inspire listeners to do
in Los Angeles, where she moved in Sep-
field, and tattooed by an accent that
great things in their own lives, she says.
tember. She speaks of the incident with
stretches consonants and vowels with
Lets have fun, but I dont want to make
peaceful clarity, pausing only to sip espres-
a clear Greek inflection. The sonic heel-
silly songs. I want to make soulful music.
so. I thought I wasnt going to be here. I
turn is not a surprise; Monika has always
I want to make people strong.
stopped thinking of that because I almost
stuck to her own musical rules. She joined
started crying. It was like you were leading
her older brothers rock band Serpentine
yourself to death. I didnt want to think of
at the age of 13, and, at 19, she supple-
that because it was like I was giving up.
mented mathematics studies by record-
In the days that followed the ener-
ing bedroom demos and uploading them
gy-sapping feat, she took pills for heart
to Myspace. Labels like EMI and Universal
health and slowly regained her eyesight,
clamored to sign herI was like, Im just
GEN F
28
More precisely, Section Boyz excel by

mining the gray area between grime, with
its catchy hooks, and road rap, an offshoot
of UK hip-hop thats more rooted in gritty
street tales. They call their hybrid section
sound, and its an approach that affords
their music a lot of freedom. On Trapping
Aint Dead and Mad Man Ting, they
glide over pulverizing 808s with playful,
nifty melodiesa stark contrast to their
breakout effort Lock Arff, a gloomy and
subdued number thats anchored by Inchs
drawl, repeatedly chanting the song title.
Some days were rock stars, some
days were grime artists, says Swift. Littlez even likes to sing.
You cant categorize it, adds Deepee. Were conscious of that 24/7. We
dont follow, we set. We know the worth of
our sound.
Before they were Section Boyz, the
guys were neighborhood friends sharing
West Indian roots and a passion for music.
In the early aughts, when grime and road
rap were largely unknown outside the
U.K., they soaked up what they could from
underground DVDs, like Lord of the Mics
and Streetz Selected, before assembling
basic recording equipment. We used to
record on them mics from Poundland [a
British retail chain where items are 1],
or video ourselves on our phones, Swift
Section
Boyz
Bridging grime
and rap with
solidarity and
spliffs
Story by Aniefiok Ekpoudom
Photography by
Francesca Allen
remembers. If Deepee wanted to spit,

In Thornton Heath, South London, the
then wed park him up somewhere and Id
hush after sunset is interrupted only by
record him, then when it was my turn wed
the occasional muffled sounds of a pass-
swap the phone over.
ing car or the clatter of steel gates swing-
In 2014, they independently released
ing in the winter wind. Its a throwaway
their first mixtape, Sectionly, a satisfy-
Monday evening when Section Boyz are
ing, shifting listen with 20 songs and no
gathered here, in the front room of a mod-
features. They followed up in 2015 with
est house on a tree-lined street. Melting
Dont Panic, another entirely Section Boyz
onto worn-out sofas, the group is a flock
affair. Their sense of solidarity is endear-
of tracksuits and hoodies, grinders, and
ing. At the MOBO Awards, while many of
blunts, as they riff through highlights of
their industry peers opted for rented tux-
the past year.
edos and clip-on bow ties, Section Boyz
Boiler Room. All the little headlines,
walked the red carpet in tracksuits. In
says Knine, one of Section Boyzs six mem-
doing so, they stood together outside in-
bers. Bare stuff. Its kind of crazy still.
dustry norms, but given the recent shift
MOBOs, the mixtape charting, sold
in the U.K. toward movements centered
out our own London show, Deepee mum-
on authenticity, they arent swimming
bles, puffs of velvety weed smoke tum-
totally upstream. Whereas the hallmarks
bling from his lips.
of Section Boyzs aesthetictracksuits
Inch laughs as he explains the secret
and slang, grime and raponce stood at
behind their success: Vibes, energy, and
odds with the mainstream quarters of
tree oclock.
British society, theyre now increasingly
GEN F
30
representative of youth culture across

the island.
Section Boyz, though, have fixed their
hopes beyond national success and say
they intend on branching out into America. Having Drake plug their mixtape to his
12 million Instagram followers, as he did in
September, will surely help, but perhaps
more instructive will be the recent suc-
Jaala
Australian artrock for finding
trouble, or yourself
cess of another key supporter, Skepta. The

grime veteran praised their originality on a
press run in New York last year, telling Peter Rosenberg of Hot 97 he thinks theyve
got something strong, and premiering
a remix of Lock Arff during a guest set
on Beats 1s OVO Sound Radio. Its sick to
know that the ends is spreading out there,
says Littlez. Weve grown up listening to
Skepta, now hes listening to us.
Theres a natural connection between
the lucid, singalong hooks that Skepta
has brought to the States and the snappy,
laconic melodies that have built the Section Boyz brand in Britain. But given the
relentless decade of recording and releasing music that Skepta put in before
gaining any kind of foothold overseas, the
crew knows it must prepare to play the
long game.
Every buzz starts off local, says
Sleeks. So were planting seeds in every
city right now. When we were in school,
Littlez used to say that U.K. music was
going to buss in America and all these
places, and now its happening. Were just
one little state so we have to scream a bit
louder, but it looks like our screams have
been heard.
Story by Jenny Valentish

Photography by Gavriel Maynard
When she was recording her bands debut album, Cosima

Jaala leapt around the studio, whiskey-drunk and mostly
naked, with a wildness that surprised even her. I was
voodoo dancing, she explains when we meet in the shady
yard of her Melbourne share-house. It was a magical
summoning of power, something that I didnt really have
GEN F
32
AT HOME
W/ DANYEL SMITH &
ELLIOTT WILSON
Watch at TheFADER.com
at the time. The resulting record, Hard
the existential phase of Oh, everyones
thing with his band so its a pretty even
Hold, has been described as jazzy, but
just moving the furniture around. Lets get
playing field. For Jaala, the record is
Jaala rejects most of those comparisons.
out of here and be us, she tells me. We
like reaching out to her troubled teenage
If a chord isnt major or minor, people
would go to the bookshop and find litera-
self. When you had a hard time growing
just say its jazz, she says. Rodeo-riding
ture that spoke of the outside world. The
up, you want to send messages back: its
the dynamic instrumentation is her soul-
book Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins,
going to be okay. The ultimate gift, she
ful, elastic voice, which Jaala attributes to
which tells of the iron and fuzz required
reckons, would be to touch a nerve with
the cigarettes she smokes throughout our
to steer ones own destiny, was the cata-
those teens the way songwriters like
talk. Producer and engineer Paul Bender,
lyst that eventually encouraged her to
Martha Wainwright and Jeff Buckley did
who also plays bass with Australian neo-
skip town.
with her. They were so openly emotional
soul quartet Hiatus Kaiyote, was the one
First she moved to Brisbane, where
and female, and so is this, she says. My
who first urged her not to be shy with her
she haunted the pokey indie venue Rics
album should just be called Songs From
singing. Now she holds little back, ripping
Bar and observed the power held by cocky
My Cunt.
out anguished screams one second and
guys in rock bands. At 19, she moved to
Near the end of our chat, Jaala fidgets
dropping to a rattling husk the next.
the creative hub of Melbourne and formed
with her blonde mop of hair and exhales
Jaala was raised in Queensland, in a
bands of her owngroups that teetered
a cloud of white smoke with gusto. Shes
working-class beach town southeast of
the line between punk and performance
got the sort of presence that seems like
Brisbane with plenty of insidious ugliness:
art, and had names like Velcro Lobster
it could get you both into a lot of trouble.
underage sex, hard drugs, gambling. Her
and Mangelwurzelbefore focusing on
Last year was the most wasted year
mum drove trucks in the coalmines, and
her eponymous project in late 2014, and
of my life, she says, as if to confirm.
her dad was not in the picture. I started
filling out its lineup with drummer Maria
But its turned out to be the most fruit-
binge-drinking young because it was the
Moles, bassist Loretta Wilde, and guitarist
ful, which is fucking hilarious. This un-
kind of thing you did, she says. There
Nicolas Lam. The result was a fleshed-out
ruliness is evident across her project: in
was no real scope of the outside world. It
sound that channeled the vibes of classic
press photos, shes lying in a bath with
was this reality that I figured out from a
indie misfitsparticularly the buoyancy
a rubber ducky; in videos, shes sat on
young age I didnt want to be in. Id rather
of X-Ray Spex and the temperamental
a toilet with tampons inserted up both
give my two good playing hands than stay
rhythms of Throwing Muses.
nostrils. Music innately is childish and
in that hot climate and marry one of those
Hard Hold documents a breakup,
playful, she says. When youre older,
men, she vows over a couple sideways
something Jaala says she felt better
youre taught to shut that side of you off.
chords on Salt Shaker.
about when she heard Vulnicura, Bjrks
But there are spirits that can hang around
As a young teen, Jaala escaped the
2015 album, which gorgeously chronicles
and compel you to do things. She thinks
humdrum grit of Queensland with her
the dissolution of a relationship. I dont
for a moment. If I was living a hundred
close friend, Maddie. We started creating
think hes too happy about these songs,
years ago, I would have been institution-
our own personal myths; we went through
she says of her ex, but he does the same
alized or murdered.
If I was living
a hundred years
ago, I would
have been institutionalized
or murdered.
GEN F
34
AT HOME
W/ JONATHAN
MANNION
Watch at TheFADER.com
N.A.A.F
Story by Patrick D. McDermott

Photography by Rose Cromwell
F.I
Communal party
music for anyone
who sets their
own rules
Two weeks before Christmas, N.A.A.F.I
co-founders Toms Dav and Alberto
Bustamente are at their Mexico City headquarters, making final arrangements for
an event theyre throwing at a contemporary art museum the following day.
The apartment-turned-office is small but
feels roomy, mostly thanks to an open-air
courtyard full of healthy plants. Friends
a producer from Australia, a photographer
from Californiadrift from sunlit room to
sunlit room.
The museum event is supposed to
consist of a roundtable discussion followed by an early-evening performance
by three producers, all affiliated with
N.A.A.F.Is experimental electronic label.
But there are still some hiccups. For one,
special guest DJ Nigga Foxan Angolanborn, Lisbon-based musician whos never
been to North Americahas been prohibited from boarding his plane because of
a credit card mishap. Theres also been
trouble locking down a venue for the afterparty, a crucial component for a collective known for its inclusive all-night ragers. Still, no one seems panicked.
Both of N.A.A.F.Is founders come from
Oaxaca, a state in the south of the country, but they didnt meet until 2006 at university in Mexico City. N.A.A.F.Iwhich
stands for No Ambition And Fuck-all
Interestwas born in 2010 as a bi-monthly
club night to showcase underrepresented
sounds from Mexico and beyond. From the
start, they realized what they were building didnt fit in with local club culture.
A lot of the clubs here have so many
rules, says Dav, who is 28 with a scruffy
beard and round glasses. No hats, no
GEN F
37
thanks to teenage producer Erick Rincon

and his chart-topping trio, 3BallMTY.
Theyve also released dizzying sound
collages by Chilean producer Paul Marmota and the Mexican-born Lauro Robles,
aka Lao, both longtime friends of the label who performed at the first string of
events. This past July, N.A.A.F.I organized
a compilation called Pirata 2 that featured
expertly fused mash-ups of pop songs
and wild production by contemporaries
from the U.S. and Europe, like UNiiQU3,
Rabit, and Lotic.
While N.A.A.F.I is a close-knit community, each artist on the label maintains
their own projects with their own goals.
Everyones digging through different
archives and exploring different cultures
and rhythms, Bustamente explains.
Some of them surely are interested in
self-discovery, working carefully with
broken melodies and ancestral tones
to highlight the malleability of personal
identity. But theres also an emphasis
placed on friendship and the groupa
collective agreement on things like the
role of a club space, the power of history,
and the essentialness of human-to-human connections.
People use N.A.A.F.I as an adjective
now, and thats like really weird, because
were trying to define N.A.A.F.I as a thing
you cant put a name on, Dav explains.
Clockwise: Toms Dav, OMAAR,
Bustamente says it stands for anyone with
Alberto Bustamente, Lao, and Paul Marmota.
a way of living their own lives, whether

through avant-garde clothes, atypical sexuality, or left-of-center music taste. Dav
sneakers, no shorts. You can only come if
If the music at N.A.A.F.Is events is
agrees, but reiterates its not so easy to
you have a girl with you. When we started
eclectic, there have also always been re-
explain: You really understand when you
doing parties, everyone paid the same cov-
markable throughlines: harsh textures,
come to one of our parties.
er and we didnt care what you looked like.
unscrupulous rhythms, and an interest in
The following night, the whole crew
If you can afford it, you can come in. And if
blending folkloric, pre-Hispanic sounds
turns up to the afterpartys last-minute
not, maybe you can come in anyway.
with throbbing synths and brain-break-
location, a basement warehouse with low
N.A.A.F.I throws parties all around the
ing beats. After a few years, Dav and
ceilings and a top-notch sound system.
city, in downtown cantinas, art galleries, and
Bustamente expanded the brand into a
Even DJ Nigga Fox is there, beaming after
on rooftops. Everyone uses the word club
proper record label, complete with an
his flight was re-booked just in time. The
as a way to describe music, but its impor-
airtight visual identity and meticulously
crowd is small but ecstatic, the music is
tant to think about what that really stands
designed merch: slip-on sandals, hand-
confrontationally loud, and the vibes are
for, says Bustamente, a petite, curly-haired
woven tote bags, and tiny plastic bags,
endlessly positive. Erick Rincon shows up
30-year-old who sometimes DJs as Mexi-
presumably made for holding small
for an unannounced set. Later, Lao drops
can Jihad. Hes bubbly and earnestthe
quantities of drugs.
a crushing remix of Jennifer Lopezs turn-
yang to Davs mellow and sarcastic yin.
In 2014, N.A.A.F.I put together a three-
of-the-century hit Waiting for Tonight,
We needed places that would allow us to
disc compilation celebrating tribal guara-
and everyone loses their minds. The
do whatever we wanted. Thats our principle
chero, an often neglected Mexican mi-
N.A.A.F.I spirit might be hard to pin down,
struggle in real lifefinding a place.
crogenre that blew up in the late-aughts
but its certainly easy to recognize.
GEN F
38
I N N O V AT I V E L E I S U R E . N E T
ATLAS OF
T
THE
WHAT PEOPLE ARE EATING, WHERE THEY
ARE SLEEPING, WHAT THEY ARE
SPENDING MONEY ON, AND HOW SCENES
FORM IN 24 COUNTRIES.
UNDER
R
GROUND
ME & MY
Bilal Khan and his parents.
P
PARENTS
FOREVER
SOUTH
Bilal Khan, producer: I come from a fam-
ily thats really into business. My dad has

been a real estate agent for most of his
life, then he became an investor. I think
one thing that was very important for my
music career was telling my family, Hey,
I actually want to learn to do this as a science. I want to get into sound engineering. After that, my dad was a bit more accepting about it. He was like, OK, maybe
you could monetize this. So he paid for
me to go to sound engineering school. I
was doing law for two and a half years
before that, and I dropped out because
all I wanted to do was be in a studio making music.
Haamid Rahim, producer: When my dad
heard that I really wanted to pursue my album, he was so supportive and helped me
BILAL KHAN
think of ideas. I decided to teach electroni part-time to make money, then

ic music
I started doing electronic music workshops at high schoolsone time, I had
this 8-year-old girl come to learn Ableton
for about three or four weeks. She was
killing it! My dad would connect me with
friends of his who needed score work, like
advertising radio jingles. I slowly got on
my own two feet and I gured it out. My
dad would share every article that came
out about me, and my mum loved itshes
really conservative and didnt know what
to say at rst, but then she was like, My
son is an electronic music producer. My
grandfatherits his 90th birthday in the
winteris really into music, so hed always be like, So, youre a composer?
Khan: Still, were in a society that doesnt
really have a dynamic for the kind of
things we do. Theres no wider awareness
about this kind of music or that people
do this for a living, because Pakistan is so
unstable due to economic problems and
political problems. There really isnt that
much time to think about creating a subculture that can maybe survive. Its just
like, Oh my God, I need to make money.
Rahim: Of course, there were parties going on before Forever Souththere was
actually a huge jungle scene back in the
90s. It was even cooler then because Pakistan was a lot safer. It was pre-9/11, and
there were warehouses popping off.
Khan: We started Forever South in 2012.
Its a record label, its a collective, and we
do some shows. We want to do something
a bit bigger. We want to work with cultural exchange houses, embassies, and get
people to come back-and-forth. I think
were done trying to imagine a sceneits
about time that we really make one.
Bilal Khan and Haamid Rahim, Forever South.
Rahim: Imagi
Imagine
agi
how cool it would be if
hw
was an international
onal thin
hiin
Forever South
thing.
e rep you need to get the
Youd gain all the
kids involved in music. And they wont
have to prove to their dads and moms that
this is a career path. Theyd just need to
say, Look! Its done. It is what it is.
As told to Ruth Saxelby
As told to Kieran Yates
In the sauna, a man

asks me, Is it hot in here?
At my desk, I cut up an
orange, peel my eggs, and pour
a glass of water. I work casually
for Art Processors as a producer/
Mikael Seifu, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
I make Firfir for breakfasta traditional dish thats

easy to make, provided that you
have its spicy sauce at hand.
Watching Cowboy
Bebop OVA, an anime picked
out of my cousins collection.
I find myself gravitating back
toward it from time to time.
designer/marketing person.
I look at him, unsure where

hes going with this I mean,
like, hotter than usual?
I meet up with Ellice

from the band Pearls. We talk
about a festival were playing
soon and good places to camp
afterwards.
Story by Owen Myers
my club night, Pop My Cherry!, back in

2004. It was a night for different kinds of
girls to play music at a time when there
werent a lot of female DJs. It began after
I found a whole bunch of weird records
when I was studying in MelbourneI like
digging, and I saw things I hadnt heard
in Singapore before.
When my mum rst saw that I had a lot
of records, she said, You know what you
should do to make money? You should record all of these to tapes and CDs and sell
them at the market next to the newspaper
stand guy! I was like, My mum is asking
me to be a bootlegger!
My mum is really traditional. She always expected me to work in an office.
The idea of a successful career was being a
doctor or engineer. That was the standard.
But a few years ago I invited her to see me
perform. She said, I dont know what you
are doing, but that looksvery nice.
Now I make up one half of Syndicate,
a freeform audio-visual collective consisting of DJs, producers, and visual artists.
We started out about ve years ago. Back
then, the club scene was very housey, but
Cycling to the pool

through Fitzroy, I laugh at a
group of elderly women with
large great danes. They seem
kind of amused by me also.
Cherry Chan, DJ/promoter: I started
Waking up, I check

my Bandcamp to see how many
slipmats Ive sold. Eleven!
Thats pretty cool.
CHERRY CHAN
Sui Zhen, Melbourne, Australia
Cherry Chan and her family.
it gave us a space to experiment. We didnt

have funding, so wed go out and make
things ourselves. We used white Ikea curtains stretched over wooden frames as
projector screens. Now, we tend to sound
more experimental and have a strong performative element.
We have a word in Singapore called
kampungit literally means small village and it describes the scene here.
Youre friendly, you support each other, and you play at each others nights.
We like each others eccentricities. Our
friends NADA are a two-piece outt, and
the guy paints his face all white and mixes Malay cultural music. Theres a lot of
mixing Malay, Chinese, and Tamil culture
with the global music scene.
I grew up in Taman Jurong, and I remember my mother would watch a lot of
Chinese drama with characters like Teresa Teng, who is a very classic Chinese
singer. My mother usually likes Mandarin
music, but I made a downtempo mixtape
and a dub and reggae mixtape for her, and
she actually preferred the dub one! I was
like, Dont you like the one with more
singing on it? And she said, No, I like this
one because when Im driving I can bop
my head to it.
I identify as a third-generation Singaporean, but my grandmother was ve
when she was sold here as a child bride
from China. Can you believe that? Maybe
theres a link to me wanting to celebrate
girls now. The older generations have so
many stories to tell; ours tend to let the
music do the talking for us.
DIARY OF A DAY
CHERRY CHAN
A-TRAK ACE HOOD AMANDA PALMER BADBADNOTGOOD

BIG GIGA N T IC BI S HOP NEHRU BOYS NOIZE CI T Y
A N D C O L O U R C U R R E N $ Y C U T/ C O P Y D E L A S O U L
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bittorrent.com/bundle
HOW PARTY PEOPLE

RECLAIMED FOUR
FORSAKEN PLACES.
As told to Ruth Saxelby
MANILA,
PHILIPPINES
HOUS
-ES
PHOTOGRAPHY HELENA YOSHIOKA (BRAZIL), YSTEIN HAARA (NORWAY), OLYA VIRICH (RUSSIA), GERIC CRUZ (MANILA).
SO PAULO, BRAZIL
ART
KRASNODAR,
RUSSIA
BERGEN, NORWAY
Koett, producer: Around 2013, my friends
and I went to the administration of a

Krasnodar factory with a proposal to turn
one of its rooms into a recording studio.
The factory had been founded in 1939,
and specialized in the design and manufacture of electronics and parts for both
civilian and military use. But by the early
90s, this former Krasnodar giant was beginning to fade. In 2001, the factory had
5,000 workers. In 2004, their number was
reduced to 1,500. Production volumes fell,
and debts to suppliers grew. To make ends
meet, the owners were forced to sell any
onsite properties that werent involved in
the manufacturing process. Later, they
stopped producing anything and opened
the plants gates for trade fairs, exhibitions, road shows, and other public events.
We were not offered a high price to
rent the room, and so we agreed. Then,
about a year ago, my good friend Evgeny
Belevtsev told me he wanted to open a
small club, and that the dining hall of the
plant would be ideal for this. We built it
with our own hands last summer and we
called it XOXO.
In our city, there are so many good
electronic musicians and a rapidly developing techno scene. Of course, all of our
artists look to the westto Berlin, N.Y.C.,
and L.A.but I think that we need to develop in a different direction. In November, we had the rst party devoted to fashion, design, art, and, of course, music. It
was magic. The doors are open for everyone who wants to join us, for people who
are not afraid to do new things.
Eyedress, artist: Every Sunday, my friends
PJ and Red have this party called Irie Sunday where they play reggae out of this
ice cream truck that they converted into
Before a meeting,
I spend a few minutes outside
under some trees to get into
the headspace to talk to
academic curators.
Im in a rush, so I have
the most uneventful, quick
In taxi to Megenagna
Square. Glad I can sit comfortably in the taxithey can get
packed real fast when sharing
with others.
At the coffee house,

my friend DJ Jazzy Dave is
mixing for a band led by Henok
Temesgen, the best Ethiopian
bassist I know. Jazzy Dave shows
me his freshest productions on
his laptop. Im hearing Ethiopian
folk-infused house & hip-hop.
Everyone at work is
playing with some beautiful
micro-synths my colleague Nic
made at his home workshop.
I showered and
decided to shave. Realized
midway through shaving that
the beard, however unkempt,
was much better.
I leave work for the

week as I fly interstate for a
gig on the weekend. Outside,
a storm is rolling in and I want
to beat the rain.
lunch one could imagine.
I didnt taste the food.
lo for seven years at architecture school.

My school was in the middle of the city,
and I became interested in doing public
parties and occupying spaces. I started to
explore, nd them, and bring more people. When we started doing the street parties, the government was not OK with it.
Now, with my club night, Mamba Negra,
we do a lot of parties in different places,
including an old mannequin factory. Its
more interesting to do a party in an occupied spaceit changes the party, it changes the artistic feeling.
The government recently closed a lot
of schools in Brazil, so we made a party
at one of these schools, and other collectives did the same. We also do parties
in illegally occupied buildings because
So Paulo has this problem with a lot of
empty buildings and a lot of people who
need a place to live. Sometimes we tell
the public to bring food and clothes for
the families, but the parties are about
getting people to talk about this problem.
We suffer a lot of criticism from the media about doing parties in these places,
but with all the economic problems in
Brazil, people need a chance to party. Its
very important.
At Buh Studio,
I catch up with Endeguena
Mulu (aka Ethiopian Records)
and hear about his awesome
upcoming projects and the
musicians he met recently.
for trade since Viking ages. It was always

so connected to Europe. People from
Bergen are really proud of their city. Its
kind of like Catalonia in Spainpeople
here speak different and have a different
mentality. But, like the rest of Norway, a
lot of local businesses in Bergen are now
abandoned because everything has been
centralized. Bergen Kjtt, which roughly
translates as Bergen Meat, is a rundown
meat factory that has been repurposed
as an artists space. This passionate artist
couple wanted to make it special, so they
renovated the whole place to be workable
and livable. There are so many local musicians and important people in that building, like Ryksopp and Casiokids, and its
also where I have my studio.
Now that music is my only living, I
have to have a space where Im not feeling
Cashu, DJ/promoter: I studied in So Pau-
Having Spreese
(tea & coffee mix) and head out
for a quick walk around the
neighborhood. The drink can
sure make one restless.
Drippin, producer: Bergen has been a hub
lazy and distracted. Theres no internet

in the studio, so its easy for me to focus.
Theres denitely an energy here late at
night sometimes; I dont believe in ghosts,
but you can pick up on energies, especially
while using the elevator that was used to
transport carcasses from the killing oor.
Unfortunately, Bergen Kjtt was recently
bought up by developers, and theres this
court case for us to be thrown out. The
original owners got fucked over. These
court cases can take years and years, but
I think this space is so important that the
Bergen cultural minister would step in if
it gets too bad.
a DJ booth. They do it at a venue they

run called B-Side, this indoor space with
a giant open ceiling. Its part of a development called The Collective that used
to be a car garage. Around 2010, a local
family turned it into a place with restaurants, skate shops, and shows. Its located
on the outskirts of the main city, right
across from this huge police station that
looks abandoned but is just poorly maintained. Id never been to that area before
it changedit was kind of ghetto, but now
its gentried. There are new condos right
next to it. Its really weird.
When PJ and Red started running BSide, they played rare rap music and trap
before it took off. They introduced Manila
to dubstep. Recently, they also opened a
club down the road called Black Market,
a giant warehouse that used to be a production studio. Right now, because of that
club, electronic music is thriving here. Its
helping a lot of producer-type people and
DJs come up. All the college kids are going, and all the high school kids are trying
to sneak in.
Illustration by Hisashi Okawa

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I wish my grandpa
could see the Kung Fu training
All the local flicks

were sold out, so Im watching
Hollywood stuff at the cinema
and fell asleep. 80 birr down
the drain.
At Kung Fu training,
I change into white feiyue shoes
and loose black pants which
make a great whooshing sound
when I do my kicks.
Im at a caf in Bole,
on a small balcony with lots of
people passing, asking myself
if I should catch a flick till my
friends call.
Beakles!my Mum
calls me on the phone as Im
cycling. Shes really proud
because I received some grants
to make my next album and go
to Japan for a residency.
The band is already

deep into a jam, and I join
Daphne with my harmony
on Handcuffed to a Mindless
Mantra.
A group of old friends

has formed. One of them is
silently playing Sudoku. Im
thinking I should learn how
to play Sudoku.
I have to ride about

11km to get to rehearsals with
my band NO ZU. I go to my
house, have the fastest shower,
and grab some snacks, vocal
pedals, and percussion.
Stepped out for dinner

around the Bole neighborhood.
I eat honey and ginger fried
steakreally awesome stuff.
Im doing. He did it his whole

life, and it protected him in
Malaysia when people would
try to mug him.
Photo by Scott Perry
My brain is still
buzzing, echoing the sounds
of all the music Ive consumed,
so I try find some New Age
mixes to help me sleep.
Ethiopian Records is
on the selections. Hes playing
inspiring tunes all roundsome
of his originals and other
electronic music.
I am excited about
my music day tomorrowthe
reward for keeping such a tight
routine. I set up all my Sui Zhen
band gear ready.
I make plans with

Andrew Noble, the NO ZU
drummer, to cover Sades
When Am I Going to Make a
Living. We both love that song.
At a lounge called
Absinthe, which is dimly light
and has this outlier vibe to
it compared to other spots
on Fridays in Addis.
On my way back
home, and looking forward to
crashing in the makeshift bed
situation in the studio. The
sofa is brutal, man.
Everyones still
drinkingbeer and mixed
drinksbut Im about ready
to call it a night.
Small groups are

dancing all over the place. The
musical energy has reached its
peak, and my sister shows up
to join in.
in Tokyo, like if I buy a luxury mascara or

go to a Suki Yaki restaurant. Thats pretty
rare, though, and this amount would usually last me for 2-4 days. You can buy a lot
of delicious food for $50! Especially if you
go to the 100 store. Clothes are expensive here, though, even vintage stuff.
So I went for a really simple 90sinspired look. I just went straight to the
right area, Shimokitazawa, as I know a lot
of vintage stores and boutiques there, like
CHICAGO Vintage, Dog, Nude Trump.
After checking a couple of crazy options
I just went for a classic and comfortable
lookwhite tank with used denim and
white sneakers always works. Unfortunately, nowadays a lot of people think
style is everything, but style itself doesnt
make anyone creative. Trust me, daddy!
Ta-Ha, singer: I can spend $50 in an instant
TOKYO,
JAPAN
Tyler Ford, writer: As a trans individual, I
ignore gendered sections in stores and generally shop for what I want. The skirt was
the rst thing I saw when I walked into
Strawberry in Manhattan, and I had an idea
of what I wanted to pair it with by the time
I got to Uniqlo in Brooklyn. Putting an outt together is always a creative process for
me because its inherently tied to my gender expression. I dont talk to every stranger I pass on the street, but my outt does.
When I rst moved to New York, I was
denitely stressed out about how expensive the city was, and how I was going to
make things work. I can make $50 last for
a weekIve become accustomed to it out
of necessity. Friends help, and there are
tons of free events around the city where
you can meet people. Find community
who help out when youre struggling, and
do the same for them.
NEW YORK,
U.S.A
is all I ever seem to have for clothing. I

always end up spending my cash on music gear and food, so you gotta use your
imagination with less dough. $50 gets
you more in Berlin than in the U.S. or
the U.K., though it was still a little tight.
I went to my friend Juliane Knigs store
in Kreuzbergshe upcycles clothes and
sells secondhand items. The drawings
on the sweater were made by Julianes
twins, Fritz and Karl. Im really interested
in queering clothes and how clothes can
express your own personal sexuality. Ive
been through so many fashion phases,
and all have been in some way or another
about negotiating my body with the outside world whilst trying to sync with my
inside world.
Planningtorock, artist: A limited budget
BERLIN,
GERMANY
$50 OUTFITS
As told to Owen Myers
Dignity Is
Story by Marlon Bishop

Photography by Ryan Lowry
Negotia
able
While J BALVIN proves himself as

reggaetons new champion, he feels
the weight of bringing respect to all.
s Not
an brakes squeal to a stop, and Jos

Osorio Balvin, reggaetons biggest star,
shuffles onto the fairgrounds just minutes before his show is set to start. The
boxy arena hums with anxious chatter;
the venues staff watch him, admiringly.
Snapchat time, Balvin says.
He lms on his phone as hes shuttled through a twist of
hallways to a spare concrete dressing room, where the sound
team rushes to wire him up. Five minutes, warns Fabio
Acosta, one of his managers, as he passes by. Balvin hunches
with his band and stage crew for a pre-show prayer session,
led by a toned Afro-Colombian dancer named Yoel Matute.
Thank you God for giving us the talent of Jos and for the
talent of all our musicians and dancers, he says in Spanish.
Give us strength, God, to perform well tonight.
Balvin shouldve been here over an hour ago, but his fulltime health coach, Estefana Borges, was having a hell of a
time nding him a grilled chicken breast and veggies. She
keeps him on a strict diet, and its especially important he
eats clean when hes running on fumes, like he is now. Its
been an intense, sleepless few weeks of recording and touring, and for a man universally regarded as being very pretty,
tonight J Balvin looks like shit.
As the band hits the stage, he stays behind. They kick into
the pizzicato synth intro of his latest hit, Ginza, which has
clung stubbornly to the No. 1 spot on U.S. Latin charts for
over 20 weeks. On YouTube, Ginza has 350 million views
on par with Drakes Hotline Bling and The Weeknds I
Cant Feel My Face. Its gone No. 1 in Spain, Mexico, and
Colombia, and charted at No. 2 in Romania.
As he lingers in the shadows, its hard to imagine Balvin
taking the stage. Yet, as if possessed by a totally different being, he bounds right into the spotlight. The percussionist
drops the dembow beat, reggaetons dening drum pattern
of steady kicks and staggered snares, and Balvin begins to
sing: Si tu quieres reggaeton dale/ Sigue bailando mami no pare
If you want reggaeton, go ahead/ Keep dancing, mami, dont stop.
The air pulses with fans screams. When the song ends, Balvin closes his eyes. I wonder if hes about to pass out.
Balvin was born in Medelln, a vibrant
metropolis in the hills of central Colombia. Its known to the world as the
center of Pablo Escobars former cocaine smuggling empire, and within
Colombia as the nations industrial
capital. But tonights show is nowhere
near therewere nearly 4,000 miles away, on the opposite
end of South America, in Comodoro Rivadavia, a provincial
city plopped unceremoniously on the wind-blasted emptiness of Argentine Patagonia. Comodoro is the closest you
can get in the world to Antarctica and still be in a town with
100,000 people in it. Its the beginning of summer here in

December, but theres still a nagging chill in the air. People
say it never leaves. Most of the audience is wearing jackets,
even though theyre indoors; at one point, a fan throws a
white woolen hat on the stage. You could fairly call this place
the end of the Earthone of them at least.
The style of music J Balvin makes comes from much closer to his home. The roots of reggaeton are in Panama, where
in the 1980s young people started re-recording popular Jamaican dancehall songs in Spanish, and eventually started
making original tracks inspired by what was happening on
the island. Much like hip-hop, the style began its life as an
underground, black youth movement. Reggae en espaol, as it
was then known, jumped to New York and then to Puerto
Rico. There, in the 90s, it blended with hip-hop to become
reggaeton, as its known today, with its dembow beat and
rapped vocals.
Record execs at the Latin divisions of major labels
quickly saw an opportunity to replicate the trajectory of
hip-hop: take something hot and from the hood, and sell
it on a massive scale. They swooped into Puerto Rico and
signed many of the young artists who were popular on
the street. In 2004, reggaeton had its rst international
hit with Daddy Yankees Gasolina, and the style quickly
came to dominate Latin Caribbean and U.S. Latin markets.
A number of Puerto Rican stars followed: Don Omar, Tego
Caldern, Wisin y Yandel. But reggaeton began to stagnate
around 2010 from a lack of new voices and new ideas, and
the genres stars started moving toward uptempo, Pitbullstyle dance-pop in order to make hits.
J Balvin is part of a new generation. His reggaeton is
more subtle, more relaxed, and more in line with whats
happening in current pop and hip-hop. (Critics might also
say its more watered-down.) Where Daddy Yankee sounded like he was almost yelling, Balvin sings his lines with a
gentle drawl. Instead of the hard-edged, maximalist beats
of the rst wave, Balvins tracks are moody and spaced out.
And in place of the wrap-around aviators and tted caps of
yore, Balvin dons a broad-brimmed cowboy hat and highend streetwear, fresh off the runways of designers like Guillermo Andrade. (Balvin calls fashion his lifes passion, on
the same level as music.)
In a way, you could call him reggaetons answer to Drake
or Kanye Westa singing reggaetonero who dresses well,
writes about relationships, and is unafraid to get a little vulnerable, both on and off record. With Balvin at the lead, reggaetons center of gravity has shifted to Medelln, home to a
new crop of stars, including Maluma and Raycon. A number
of Puerto Rican artists, like Nicky Jam and Alberto Stylee,
have either moved to the city or are spending more time
there to be part of the moment.
There hasnt been another song as big as Gasolina, but
the new generation has done something arguably more
powerful: theyve expanded reggaeton to become a consistent part of the pop landscape all over the Spanish-speaking
world. While the genre once stood for tropical, urban party
music, now its just as at home in this chilly concert hall in
the deep south of Argentina, about the least tropical place
you can imagine. If Balvin is Drake, hes like Drake playing
a show in lily-white Wyoming. The difference is, Drake has
never played in Wyoming.
alvin gets up from his hotel bed, sits
down at a square table, and pours himself a cup of black coffee. He was trying
to take a nap, but was too exhausted to
fall asleephe couldnt get his mind
to sit still. Outside the window, the icy
South Atlantic laps the citys edges.
Balvin has the suave good looks of a pop star, with warm
eyes and an explosive smile he employs often. Hes 30, but
he seems youngernot just because of his boyish features,
but from the massive amount of time he spends glued to
his phone. Despite the pressure of entertaining his tens of
millions of followers, he manages all of his own social media accounts himself, serving up a near constant stream of
thoughts and selespouty, sultry, shirtless, and often all
three at once.
When the industry started creating superstars a while
back, it got rid of their humanity in the process. I prefer to
show the world Im a human being, Balvin explains, in crisp
Spanish. When you maintain a closeness with your fans,
they are more forgiving when you make mistakes. Besides,
when I see what gets likes and what doesnt, its like my own
market study.
He cues up an Instagram post of the chart results for a
new remix of Ginza, featuring six reggaeton legends from
both the new and old schools, including Daddy Yankee and
Yandel. He released the track just this morning. Were already number one in seven countries, he says. Colombia,
Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica he ticks them off, naming each
conquest lovingly.
Balvin is pumped about the remix, but whats really got
him excited right now is his recent writing session with Poo
Bear, Justin Biebers longtime songwriter. They spent four
days recording demos for Balvins next album, titled Ninja
and scheduled for release later this year. It was incredible,
to be making reggaeton with one of the most inuential
people in the world in music today. Were breaking down all
the walls of the market that tries to tell us we cant do certain things. My medium is music, but my goal is to motivate
people to dream.
He often talks like this, in the language of self-help.
His Snapchat is full of pebbles of personal wisdom. While
watching a sunset on a spa retreat in the Maldives: Today
I learned that the secret to conquering fear is to always live
in the present. Over a breakfast of berries and yogurt: Feeling grateful for this food, because not everybody gets to eat
breakfast. (Hes a big fan of DJ Khaleds Snapchat, incidentally.) Again and again, he tells his fans to dream big, that
anything will be possible if theyre willing to ght for it. As
proof of this theory, he offers himself.
Balvin frames his own story as a classic underdog talea
Colombian who made it in a Puerto Ricans genre, against
the odds. And its true that hes not like most reggaeton stars
that came before him. He grew up in a big house in the plush
hills around Medelln, far from the rough housing projects
of Puerto Rico. His father was an economist and business
owner. Like many well-off teens in Colombia, Balvin didnt
care much for Latin music, obsessing instead over Englishlanguage rock music. (Its a fandom he still wears: he has a
tattoo of Nirvanas smiley tongue logo on his right leg, and
he frequently dons Metallica T-shirts.)
Eventually, Balvin says, his fathers business went bankrupt. They lost their house and car, and had to move into a
more modest neighborhood. Because of that I feel something like a chameleon, Balvin says. When I would go to the
barrio, people saw me as a rich person, but when Im around
rich people they see me as someone from the ghetto. Its all
perceptions. I like moving between worlds. I feel equally
comfortable in both.
Balvin got the hip-hop bug not in Colombia but in the
U.S., where he went to live at age 17 as an exchange student
in Oklahoma. After the program, he decided to spend some
time in New York, living with an aunt on Staten Island and
working as a dog walker and house painter. He remembers
being really impacted by walking around the city and seeing
Jay Z and Puffy on billboards. I saw the way hip-hop culture
inuenced society, the whole entertainment industry, fashion. It wasnt just the music that drew me, it was the whole
business around it.
The money side of music was so appealing to Balvin that
when he got back to Colombia at age 19 and started working
toward becoming an artist, he branded himself with the tagline J Balvin El NegocioThe Business. He then set about
trying to turn the nickname into a reality.
I met him at a freestyle battle in Colombia, on the
street, recalls David Rivera Mazo. Mazo is Balvins DJ, business partner, and close friend of 15 years, and he goes just
about everywhere with him. Hes tall and sturdily built, with
cropped black hair, a shaped-up beard, and an air of total
calm. I didnt like Balvin at rst. I thought he was cocky. But
I saw he had a lot of talent and a lot of drive, and we eventually clicked and decided to work together.
Back around 2004, when Gasolina rst came out, reggaeton didnt rule Colombia as it does today, but a scene was
starting to take shape in Medelln, and Balvin and Mazo began to climb their way up through it. For 10 years, I was my
own label, my own promoter, my own PR, says Balvin. We
borrowed money to print our CDs. His rst songs were basically poor imitations of commercial reggaeton from Puerto Rico, but he soon developed his signature style, and by
2009, Balvin was making national hits in Colombia. In 2012,
he scored his rst major international success with his onenight-stand anthem Yo Te Lo Dije, and a year later found
himself in a 360 deal with Universal subsidiary Capitol Latin. The achievements accelerated: in 2013 he earned his rst
No. 1 hit on U.S. Latin charts with 6 AM; 2014s Ay Vamos
sold even better; and in 2015, Balvin took home the award for
Best Urban Artist at the Latin Grammys.
It cant be ignored that, in Colombia, Balvin is a blanco;
his light features and unwavy hair make him read as white.
Racism is very different in Latin America, but its no less insidious: while most people there consider themselves to be
on a racial spectrum, rather than divided sharply into black
or white, fair-skinned people still tend to control the economic and political power, and theyre overrepresented in
entertainment. Thats why, despite reggaeton being invented by black Panamanians and inspired by black Jamaican
music, very few black artists have found major commercial
success in the genre (with Tego Caldern as one shining exception). Latin markets, especially in countries farther south
with smaller Afro-Latino populations, simply tend to unfairly favor guys that look like Balvin.
In addition to being notoriously colorist, Central and
South American audiences also tend to be especially socially conservative about what topics are acceptable for the
radio. To get on the airwaves in Colombia, and bring reggaeton deeper into more buttoned-up countries like Mexico
or Argentina, Balvin strategically smoothed out his lyrics.
We wanted to make music that was clean enough for your
I want mainstream artists to accept

Latino artists as equals, without us
having to sing in English. I want
RIHANNA to pick up my phone call.
grandma to like, but sensual enough that the streets would

like it too, Mazo explains. Its a tricky dance, but they do it
well: J Balvins not a bad boy, hes a good guy with a welltended naughty side.
Onstage, he certainly plays up the latter, sauntering
around and pausing every now and then to grind with an
imaginary dance partner. They tell me, he calls out to the
crowd in Comodoro, that I have nowhere to stay tonight.
Whose house can I stay in? The audience lets out a collective swoon. Theyre mostly made up of women in their teens
and twenties, with a healthy sprinkling of young gay men. As
he leaves the stage, I spot some fans crying.
After the show, Balvin and his team go straight to sleep
in preparation for an early ight to Buenos Aires, where hes
playing the next evening. A few dozen fans wait in vain for
him outside the hotel. Hes the future father of my children,
I know it, says 25-year-old Beatriz Torres. She and her sister travelled from Salta in the far north of Argentina, over ve
hours away by plane, just for the concert. She jokes about scaling the walls of the hotel to break into his room. I just love
him so much, she says. Hes different from other singers.
he next morning, Balvin and his entourage hold court at the tiny Comodoro airport cafe. Overworked waitresses shuttle coffees from an ancient
espresso machine as travelers wait for
the plane that will whisk them away
from Patagonia. In their designer
clothes and with arms full of tattoos, Balvins crew seems
to have been beamed in from another, far more glamorous,
planet. Every so often, a teenager comes over and shyly asks
for a photo. Balvin always obliges.
In one ear, Balvin is listening to a demo of a track he
cooked up with Poo Bear. Nothing is conrmed, but the hope
is to get Justin Bieber to sing on it in Spanish. Balvin passes
me an earbud and asks me what I think. Its a pop song with
a cooing vocal and a heavy reggaeton drop after the chorus.
It reminds me a lot of Biebers Sorrymaybe too much. I
tell him its good.
See, Fabio, people are liking the song, Balvin tells his
manager. In his forties, Fabio is a veteran industry operative in Colombia with a background in heavy metal and a
long track record in breaking national hits. He somehow
manages to always look very serious and very relaxed at
the same time. He and Balvin bicker constantly, like family. Balvin turns to me and grumbles, Fabio thinks its not a
radio song.
Its not nished yet, Fabio says, leaning back into his
chair condently, his leather Guns N Roses jacket bunching
up in the shoulders. The way it is right now, this wont play
on Latin radio, Im sure. The media impact will be big, but
you need the radio too.
Balvins even temper starts to crack. He throws his arms

up, getting louder: Please, Fabio. This is J Balvin with Justin
Bieber, not a bunch of nobodies, asshole. Its a hit.
Fabio is stone-faced. Its not a hit yet, he says. Come
back and show it to me when its nished, and well talk then.
Balvin leaps out of his seat and puts his hand in front of
Fabios face. Hes almost yelling now, drawing stares from
nearby tables and stern looks from his crew. For the rst
time in my two days with him, I see something other than
the humble, fun-guy persona he puts forward. I see somebody who cant stand to be told he cant do something, cant
stand that theres somewhere his music cant go.
Lets make a bet right now. Ill bet you a Lamborghini
Hurracn, worth $250,000. OK? This is going to be a hit.
Were driving the trends on the radio right now! The radio
will play what we tell them to!
I cant tell if hes kidding about the bet. He doesnt sound
like it. Come on, lets go, Fabio, if you are so sure, says Balvin. Come on.
His hand is still in Fabios face. Nobody in the entourage
says a word. Fabio hesitates for a second, and stands down: I
dont have $250,000, so Im not going to bet you.
Yes you do, because I know how big the cut you take
from my shows is, Balvin mutters, and the table erupts with
laughter. Fabio cracks a wry smile, and the tense moment
melts away. A waitress delivers a platter of miniature Argentinian croissants. Within a minute, everybodys happily talking about new sneakers they want to buy.
alvins suite in Buenos Aires is the
most opulent Ive ever seen, with several sprawling rooms draped in red
velvet and contemporary art. Hes sitting on the oor instead of on one of
the massive leather couches. Resting
by his side is a copy of Cultura Mainstream, a book-length sociology essay about how the U.S. has
positioned itself to dominate global pop culture. His mind is
clearly still on the Bieber song. Im curious, is the collaboration an attempt to cross over into the U.S. general market?
No, he says. Maybe one day hell try to cross over, but
thats not really what hes interested in right now. I want to
keep making history in Spanish. I want to invite the mainstream into my world, and to my sound, and to what Im
doing. And I want mainstream artists to respect me, and accept Latino artists as equals, without us having to sing in
English. I want them to know that I can compete globally
with whomever, in Spanish. I want Rihanna to pick up my
phone call. I want the biggest fashion designers in the world
to send me clothes just like they send them to Kanye, and
thats starting to happen. One day designers will send me
their whole catalogs for Christmas because they respect my
art and I respect theirs.
The truth is, Balvin doesnt need the English-language

market to be successful on a massive scale. There are 400
million Spanish speakers around the world, and hes got that
randomly huge fan base in Eastern Europe, too. Still, he cant
stand the fact that even though a full 17 percent of Americans
are Latino todaya number that is projected to grow and
growLatino artists are treated in the U.S. as if they belong
to a different, lesser realm of pop culture. Musicians compete in a separate Latin Grammys, out of the spotlight. They
rarely get proled in major U.S. magazines or interviewed
on English-language television. They dont get cameos in
Hollywood movies. An artist like Romeo Santos can sell out
stadiums several nights in a row in New York, make millions
for U.S. record labels, and your average non-Latino on the
street still will have never heard his name.
That same feeling of disrespect certainly came to Balvins mind in June after Donald Trump gave his now-infa-
mous assessment of Mexican immigrants: Theyre bringing

drugs, theyre bringing crime, theyre rapists. And some, I
assume, are good people. At the time, Balvin was booked
to perform at the Miss USA pageant. When he learned the
pageant was owned by Trump, he canceled his performance,
setting off a domino effect of celebrities and companies cutting business ties with the candidate.
I was personally offended because I also worked illegally in the U.S., painting houses and xing roofs, Balvin
told me. I wasnt a narco or a rapist. And I thought about the
people I worked with, and they were good people just trying
to get ahead. Thats why I didnt even have to think about
[canceling]. Dignity isnt negotiable.
Balvin stands and offers me a glass of Malbec. On the coffee table nearby, my eyes catch one of those adult coloring
books for stress relief. Thats my hobby, he says, without
a hint of sheepishness. I color mandalas. It helps me relax.
When I would go to the barrio, people

saw me as a rich person, but when Im
around rich people they see me as someone
from the ghetto. Its all perceptions.
He doesnt pour any wine for himself; instead, he grabs

a cup of brown sludgeprotein powder with berries, a
recipe from his health coach. She came on board, Balvin
explains, after a recent run of shows in the U.S., when long
days of driving and performing left him feeling really unsteady. By monitoring his exercise and diet, shes helping
to keep him stable.
And he needs that support, he says. Just last night, when
he was struggling before the show in Comodorohe says he
was on the verge of having a panic attack. It happens sometimes when Im overworked and underslept. It brings me
back to the rst time I had one. It was three years ago, while
he was getting on a plane in Bogot, when he suddenly felt
an overwhelming sensation of despair. For two months afterward, I was in hell. I lost the desire to live. I went to lots of
doctors and tried alternative medicine. I didnt want to go to
a psychiatrist because I thought it was for crazy people. And
it turned out I was crazy, he says with a laugh.
Balvins tireless drive to get to the top, his indignation
about the treatment Latinos in the U.S., his obsession with
his social media following, even his struggles with mental
healthI suspect its all closely connected. He tells his fans
to keep dreaming because he wants them to feel powerful,
and ultimately because he wants to feel powerful too.
Toward the end of our interview, I ask him what his greatest fear is. Death, he says, without hesitation. Im afraid to
die young, before I accomplish my dreams.
he concert in Buenos Aires is Balvins
biggest show ever in Argentina, at the
citys legendary Luna Park. When he
heads onstage, I slip into the crowd.
Theyre watching him, rapt, singing along with all the words. About
15 minutes in, theres a part of the
show where Balvin freestyles, making up rhymes specic to
whatever city or country he is in. He throws in a line about
Pope Francis, who is Argentine, and a cheer erupts. Later,
hell pick up an electric guitar and randomly play the intro
to Smells Like Teen Spirit, which baffled the audience in
New York when I saw him perform there a few months ago,
but goes over great here. Its all about context.
A few years ago, it would have been difficult to get this
many thousands of people to show up for a reggaeton show
in Argentina, where rock music is still king. Many people
here identify more closely with Europe than Latin America, and the well-heeled generally keep a distance from anything they consider to be low-class; its unlikely that the
fair-skinned kids in this audience would pay $50 to see a local cumbia band from the villa, as the slums that ring the
wealthy city core are called. But theyve paid tonight, and
in this space, among thousands, the reggaeton coming from
the stage doesnt signify poverty or struggle or blackness, as
it once did. Its urban music presented without urban problems, all sexiness and rhythm and fun.
Thats what happens when something local and specic
goes mainstreamthe audience gets bigger, but the meaning
changes. Somehow, the music of Jamaica, ltered through
Panama and the U.S. and Puerto Rico and now Colombia,
has arrived in this vast room to mean something very different than where it started. The reggaeton-turned-pop Balvin
makes is, perhaps, about identifying as Latin American in
the broadest senseabout the invisible line that connects the
dots between the Argentines in this room to Colombians in
Medelln to Puerto Ricans in New York and all the people up
and down the Americas who speak Spanish. The line connecting all the people of Latin America who are so different,
yet share something special.
J Balvin nishes his freestyle with the line Orgulloso esta
noche ser latinoProud tonight to be Latinoand puts his st in
the air. Judging from their response, the crowd is proud too.
After the show, Balvin slumps against a wall backstage,
posting photos of nights crowd on his social media. Look
at all those people, he says to himself. He shakes hands with
his promoter, says goodnight to his band, and slides into his
van once more. The next morning, hell wake up early again
and y over the spine of the Andes to Chile. Hell drive up to
another arena in another country full of young Latin Americans waiting for him, cellphones in hand, to deliver his gospel of reggaeton.
Beyond
Human
CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS

was conceived in London and born in
Paris, but the shape-shifting pop stars
music speaks a universal language.
Story by Aimee Cliff

Photography by Alice Rosati
Styling by Jonathan Huguet
PREVIOUS SPREAD, FROM LEFT: DENIM JACKET: JUUN J. BRA: ROCHAS.

PANTS: MASHA MA. SUIT: YANG LI. SHOES: ADIEU.
Lets pretend that Im a man for the next

song, Hlose Letissier announces from
a stage in Berlin, before striking a strong,
wide-legged pose in front of her own looming
shadow and launching into her anthemic
song iT. Flexing from bicep to toes in her
tailored suit, the French artist channels Fred
Astaire as much as she does Ginger Rogers
with more than a dash of Michael Jackson.
This moment comes from just one of her
endlessly watchable live performances on
YouTube, which are each wildly different:
theres the session where she sings from
behind a star-flecked gauze headpiece, or
the clip from French TV where she performs
her Kanye West homage, Paradis Perdus, in
a comically oversized pink suit. In each, she
adopts outlandish characteristics or outfits
that would threaten to overwhelm a lesser
performer, yet every time, Letissiers fluid and
precise moves keep her firmly in control.
But the performance is not entirely
Letissier: this stage bravado is her playing
the role of her alter-ego, Christine and The
Queens. The 27-year-old performer is less in
your face in real life as she sips green tea and
honey on a cold December day in London.
I created Christine because I needed her. I
needed to feel free and daring, she explains,
with big, colorful hand gestures. Shes a
survival technique. I need [her] oftenIm
terribly shy, so Im using her right now.
Christine is like my best jacket.
Before Christine, Letissier was a
frustrated teenager growing up in the
remote western French city of Nantes and,
later, a comedy hopeful studying theater in
Paris. In her early twenties, she relocated
to London to escape depression. Shed
visited the U.K. capital with her Englishteacher father growing up, and knew that
something about it made her feel good. As
an adult, she discovered the citys thriving

drag and queer communitiesa culture that,
she explains, she would have to really dig
deep to experience in Paris at the time. One
night, she found herself in Londons famous
(now closed) Soho drag bar Madame Jojos,
where she watched an act called How to
Cook and Make Music at the Same Time.
It was like bad guitar, bad drumming, some
of the drag queens were making pancakes,
she explains. It was fucking weird. But it
felt so good to just watch it, so empowering.
Christine was born right away, because I
was just thinking, I wish I could have a stage
character, to be as free as they were.
It was leaving France that gave Letissier the
boldness to stand onstage and declare herself
a man, but she made her name by coming back
and capturing the imaginations of audiences in
Paris in the same way Sohos queens captured
hers. In the landscape of French music, where
mainstream veers away from indie and hiphop is sharply divided from pop, Christines
boundary-blurring was a blast of fresh air
when she arrived with her debut EP in 2011.
Her first album, 2014s Chaleur Humaine, went
to No. 2 in France, and last year she released a
self-titled, English-language version with new
songs, including features from Perfume Genius
and Tunji Ige. Its rare that a French-speaking
artist crosses over into global consciousness,
but Christine seemingly knows no borders.
Tucked inconspicuously in the woodpaneled booth of a London restaurant, a few
weeks after terrorists attacked a Paris venue
in November 2015, Letissier was frank about
the drawbacks of the French music industry
while also passionate about solidarity with her
home country. She talked about what it means
to create a universal character who transcends
Francophone musics traditional borders,
without leaving her French identity behind.
SHIRT AND PANTS: UNDERCOVER. SHOES: ADIEU.
I could have kept the exotic French

vibe, but I didnt really want to do
that. I just wanted people to meet me.
Are underground and mainstream culture

quite distinct in France? It seems like you
uniquely straddle the two.
Its true that France is not a country

where everything melds quite well; there
are still these notions about good taste
and bad taste, indie and mainstream, underground and popular. Sometimes in old
interviews I was like, I love Phil Collins
and The Knife, and people didnt really
like the statement.
I did a mash-up on the album called
Paradis Perdus. Its a cover that melds
Kanye West and a French singer named
Christophe. In France, that was a really
huge statement. Its starting to change
a bit, but its not the same as the U.K.,
for example, where the music is a mix of
inuences, every genre is blending into
another genre.
In France, radio stations have a quota
system to ensure that 40 percent of
songs played on the radio are in French
language. How does that affect you as a
French artist who sings in both English
and French?
I remember my record label being like,

Can you do a French chorus for the radio? But I was just writing with what
moved me. I didnt want to choose between English and French because, for
me, I use lyrics and languages as an instrument. French sounds different than
English, and so if I can switch between
those two its interesting for me, because
of the ruptures we can create.
Its funny because when you say
Christine and The Queens to French
people, they immediately go, Oh, the
girl who sings in two languages! It used
to be quite complicated at rst, as a
choice. It was considered as a statement.
But I didnt really overthink it. Im overthinking everything else, but the music
the less I think about it, the better it is.
I would love to know how to speak even
more languages. In one song on my album, I use a really bad Italian sentence. I
wish I could use Spanish, or Portuguese.
Im also using weird constructions or images, because Im not a native English

speaker. Im using it as a tool I dont really
know how to use, sometimes. French, I really know how to use it after writing lots
and lots. I can play with it a bit more, I can
be ironic with it. Its like two characters.
How did you make the decision to translate some of your songs to English for a
new version of your album, and how did
you choose which songs?
When I learned that it was possible for me

to release the album in the U.S. and the
U.K., I immediately thought about translating. I could have kept the exotic French
vibe, but I didnt really want to do that, I
just wanted people to meet me, to meet
Christine as a character, the same way
that I wanted to be understood in France.
Its like going on a date. You just want to
present your best self and be relatable
right away.
I really wanted some songs to be more
immediate. I wanted the message to come
across quickly. I translated Tilted and
Half Ladies because those two songs
are like statements for me. Tilted is
about feeling out of place and making
a pop song about, basically, depression.
Half Ladies is about all those girls we
dont really see in magazines. Awkward,
beautiful, awed girls. These are ideas I
want people to understand right away, because it feels like theyre really the core of
my character.
Was it a controversial decision, to translate your music?
In France, because theyre so obsessed

with French preservation, I got some
people saying, Youre betraying yourself,
youre betraying your songs. Im like,
Why? Im still the writer. Im in charge
of the message. Its not betraying something, its just nding another way to get
the message across.
What do you think it means to be a global
pop star today?
Am I a pop star? Thats the rst question.

Are some things easier to express in
French than in English, and vice versa?
Is that how you see yourself?
When I write in English, its more naive,

more straightforward, more vulnerable.
Jesus, I dont know. I dont know who I

am, but I would love to be global. I like the
DENIM JACKET: FAUSTINE STEINMETZ. PANTS: MASHA MA: SHOES: ADIEU
A
song,
Everybody
its
like
a
can
have
virus.
it.
idea of being popular and relatable. This

is why I love pop music, and this is why
Im doing it. I used to be interested in theater, but what I hated about theater is that
its reserved to a certain type of audience.
Its not democratic; you cant really share
it quickly. A song, its like a virus. Everybody can have it.
Theres something about the character
of Christine thats universally appealing,
beyond the language barrier.
This is why I am wearing a suit, this is why

I am dancing. I dont want to be dened,
I just want to be this energy. I would love
to eventually be recognized as a voice and
energy, not really like a singer. You can associate me with a vibe and nothing else.
Im trying to become like a pop song. Im
trying to become nothing and everything.
identity-wise, the main ght is not even

to answer questions. I dont really have
to tick boxes for you. Let us be question
marks forever.
Whats your vision for your next record?
I want a sweaty album. Like, you can feel

people playing. I want a funk albumnot
sexy, but with more sexuality in itso
I will probably need drummers and bass
players. Christine and The Queens is more
like a solitary album, with machines and
a few instruments, and its more soft and
lonely. But the second album, Im going
to be like a woman really desiring people,
and I know Im going to be treated as
a slut in the media, in France.
people and the bad French people. Its

everything [the terrorists] wanted: to tear
us apart. To make everybody feel like the
other is the enemy.
So I didnt want to write. And I didnt
want to be alone. I had this desire to meet
all the French artists I could meet, and
for us to have a collective answer. Really
different people came in: French rappers,
French pop singers. It was a really weird
and great melting pot. It was about nding a soft answer that should raise more
questions. Because in France, it feels like
people want answers now. But I think we
should question even more what it is to be
French, and we should think about what
it means for some people to not feel like
they belong to French society.
Specifically in France?
Yeah, I think so. France is quite slow

you know, the idea of the French woman,
classical woman, Parisienne, all this shit.
I am considered a concept in France
Shes wearing a suit, she doesnt want to
be feminine all the time, oh my god! We
dont really expose gender-questioning
people. Its not mainstream yet. I dont
know if in the U.S. and the U.K. you have
mainstream people questioning that binary, but in France its not really happening.
I feel like I have a queer fan base, and lots
of young girls at my shows, and it feels
really good when one of them is saying,
You made me just want to be my own
boss. Thats cool.
How did you feel after the attacks, with
After the terrorist attacks on Paris in
As Christine goes global, do you feel a
November 2015, you ran a pop-up radio
pressure to represent French identity or
When you say you feel like a Trojan horse,
station called Good Morning Paris. What
to speak to French people in your music?
what message is inside it?
was behind that idea?
In France, when I released the album, I

was always going into shoots in my suit,
and they would always ask me if I wanted
to wear a dress and I would always say,
No, I want to be a woman in a suit. And
then a conversation would start about
What is being a woman? and femininity. So I was raising a question, and it
wasnt even an extreme demandI was
not having a penis or a dildo like Miley
Cyrus on stageI was just saying, Im
going to keep my jacket on. I think the
best thing I will try to do now is not even
answer any questions. I love raising them
and not answering. I think gender- and
Well, you know. It happened. The terrorist

attacks happened. And like when Charlie
Hebdo, the other terrorist attacks, happened, artists were immediately asked to
write tributes. It seemed obscene. It was
like, Can you write about the French
spirit? Can you talk about what is it to be
French? I realized that after what happened, I dont want to be alone to answer
that question. I dont feel like I have the
only denition of being French, especially
when you notice now that what happens
after those terrorist attacks is that racism
is going up, Muslims are being persecuted. We are searching for the good French
Its not really a pressure, its more like

a responsibility I feel. Maybe because I
have this naive and romantic idea of the
artist. For me, even the pop artist, we are
like citizenswere just citizens with a
wider appeal and with more exposure.
But we have to stay citizens. I dont feel
isolated because Im an artist. I dont feel
in a bubble. I feel like I have to be human, and I have to have convictions, even
if Im making pop music. The artists I really love are the ones who are standing
up for what they believe. Otherwise, the
work is empty.
Like beyond human?
Oh, I would love it. Im waiting for the

transhumanists to actually complete their
work and then Im going to be robotic.
When it comes to questioning gender
identity, wearing a suit and taking on this
more masculine character, have you
found thats been received in different
ways around the world?
Well, actually, no. Its been the same way,

and the same nice way. But I think its
been because my character is soft. Its like
being a Trojan horse. I dont look threatening. I look like this eight-year-old boy
trying to be Beyonc.
the international focus on Paris?
This is mainly why I wanted to do the radio. I wanted to say something, to have a
statementnot be intrusive or anything,
but nd my way of reacting. Because of
course, when everyone is looking at Paris,
as an artist, I would feel bad to stay silent
and do nothing. Because everyone has to
do a job, somehow. But yeah, the focus is
on France, and in every interview I have
been asked what I feel about these attacks.
I think we have to be informed, to try to
search for information, try to think, try to
read things. Im still trying to gure out
how I can be helpful.
JACKET: JACQUEMUS. PANTS AND SHOES: ACNE STUDIOS.
F o r t u
DAVIDOs upbringing was almost
impossibly blessed. Now, hes
leveraging his resources to
model the future of African pop.
Story by Rawiya Kameir

Photography by Travys Owen
u n a t e
nce, while on a Greyhound layover

in Birmingham, Alabama, David Adedeji Adeleke, the Nigerian pop star
now better known as Davido, spotted a familiar face on the CD rack of a
bus station rest stop. Packed between
sections for Top 40 and oldies was an
album by Asa, a Nigerian-French singer not widely known
in America. Davido had visited this station before, on trips
to and from his college in nearby Huntsville and the home
of relatives in Atlanta. But this was the rst time hed seen
Nigerian music earn shelf space in a random Southern town,
and it felt like an omen.
Davido was 16 when he had arrived in Huntsville, a year
earlier. His father, Dr. Adedeji Adeleke, a well-known businessman and Seventh-day Adventist in Nigeria with an estimated net worth of over $300 million, dropped him off with
his passport, $2,000 cash, and freshman registration documents for Oakwood University, a historically black Christian college. (People often attach the honoric Chief to Dr.
Adelekes name, referring to his wealth and power, largely
earned through his founding of Pacic Holdings, a company
that deals in steel, oil, gas, and more.) Davido had already
spent time in the U.S.he was born in Atlanta, and sometimes visited in the summerbut much about life in the
States was new to him. That was the rst time I had a phone
in America. There was unlimited calling. I never saw nothing like that before, he remembers. In Nigeria, you gotta
pay before you get what you want.
The school roomed him with another international student, a Rwandan track athleteI was like, Okay, wow. They
just put all the African people together?but he gravitated
toward an upstairs neighbor named Jaymo, an American kid
whose speakers constantly rattled Davidos ceiling. One
day, I went to go check what the noise was. I went upstairs,
opened the door, and the guy had a full studio in his room,
he says. I told him that I was trying to do music, too. He
asked me, How much do you have to invest in equipment?
And I said, $2,000. He was like, Thats too much. They
went to Guitar Center with $500.
From then on, Davido spent most of his time making
beats and recording vocal references to send to a cousin in
Lagos, a fellow musician with a trove of industry contacts.
His grades slipped, and after three semesters, he dropped
out and left town without telling his father. First he went
to Atlanta, where he used his older brothers ID to get into
clubs, and funneled the money Chief Adeleke sent for school
and living expenses toward drinks and motels. Later, he
threw out his SIM card and hopped on a plane to London,
where he went MIA for several months as he shifted his focus from production to vocals. There was no Snapchat, no
Instagram. There was barely Twitter, he says. I just went
off the radar.
Chief Adeleke, meanwhile, had been on the hunt for his

son. When Davido nally returned to Lagos in 2011, with
new tattoos and piercings, his father had him apprehended
by police officers at the airport. Having failed to bring home
the business management degree hed been sent to America
to complete, Davido reached a compromise with his father:
he, still a teenager, would attend a private university two
hours north of the city. His music dreams would be sidelined
until he had honored his family by graduating. Davido returned to school, but often snuck out of his dorm room to
hobnob at industry parties and blew off exams to record.
People always say, Oh, hes just some rich kid. And he
is, Davidos current manager, Kamal Ajiboye, tells me over
coffee in the lobby of a Lagos hotel. But they dont realize
that this music stuffat rst he did it alone.
or the past three years, Davido, now
23, has lived in the posh Lagos neighborhood of Lekki, in a three-story
house that welcomes a revolving cast
of employees, friends, and hangerson, with imported weed and liquor
in constant supply and demand. On a
Friday afternoon in December, hes sitting on a couch in the
homes top-oor lounge, telling his life story to an audience
of a half-dozen people. A television is queued up with YouTube videos of some of 2015s most potent grime beefs and
freestyles. With an omnipresent gold chain swinging around
his neck and a pair of traditional leather slippers dangling
off his feet, Davido waves and claps his hands to underscore
some points, and spits out Nigerian exclamations like ah-ah!
and eiiiish! to emphasize others. A pair of deep symmetrical
dimples and a generous ashing of teeth make even his wildest stories seem like harmless capers.
Davidos childhood home is just a few minutes drive
away. Inside, theres a grand marble staircase, and family
photos spanning several generations line the walls of multiple living rooms. (Davidos godfather, it should be noted, is
Aliko Dangote, a construction magnate whose estimated $18
billion net worth has earned him Forbes title of Africas richest man for the past three years.) At Davidos house, the walls
are dominated by portraits of Davido. Most of the pieces, including a ve-foot tall Old Masters-style painting, have been
painted by fans, who camp outside for as many as three days,
waiting for Davido to accept their offerings. A painting of
his late mother has also been hung up, and so has a Jackson
5-era portrait of Michael Jackson, which keeps watch over
the battered second-oor studio where Davido tracks demos
and records one-off collaborations.
Davido released his rst singles in 2011, while he was still
in school. In the previous years, artists like Danj, Wande
Coal, and P-Square had developed a new sound for Nigerian pop, by pulling elements from R&B, hip-hop, and house,
and blending them with Nigerian rhythms and melodies.

The waves primary currency was its cool, led by singers
who wore designer clothes and engineered songs for the
clubs. Their music was more concerned with letting loose
than standing against the countrys corrupt, oppressive government. Before, the most popular Nigerian music was a
way to give expression to the people. You could still dance
to it, but it was a way to challenge politics, Michael Ugwu,
general manager of Sony West Africa, tells me later. But
these new guys, all they wanted was to have fun. It was a
new image for Africa.
This brand of slick, innovative pop resonated across the
continent and beyond, frequently under the vague descriptor afrobeats, a term popularized in the U.K. In 2011, Dbanj
landed a U.S. record deal with G.O.O.D. Music, then helmed
by Kanye West. Soon after, he released Oliver Twist, a
global dance-pop hit that climbed to No. 2 on the U.K. charts.
Guys like Dbanj, they were legendary status. They were
doing shows internationally, Davido says. I was looking at
them like, Damn, these guys are really big out here. Can I do
this African thing? I need to take the opportunity now.
Davido found an audience with just his second single,
Dami Duro, an uptempo track with a frenetic vocal melody and rattling drums, on which he introduces himself as
omo baba olowo, Yoruba for son of a wealthy man. With its
mix of glossy synths and familiar Nigerian referencesits
second verse features a lyrical nod to Yoruba folk songs
Dami Duro endeared a then-unknown Davido to both
young clubgoers and fans of more traditional fare. It would
go on to become one of his biggest hits, gaining traction on
Nigerian radio, in Lagos nightlife scene, and with his father.
After the song blew up, Davido, still a student, declared he
no longer wanted to study business, and Chief Adeleke paid
for the university to erect a music department for an inaugural class of one.
Last year, he nally graduated, after taking time off to attend to his career. After that rst single, Davido remembers,
everything just happened. I was being booked in, like, Botswana, all over Africa in under six months. He self-released
a debut album via his own HKN label in 2012, and has since
worked with a global crew of producers and songwriters on a
steady stream of singles. Some, like 2013s muted Gobe and
2014s traditional Aye, typify one style he favors: mellow love
songs with lightly Auto-Tuned vocals and beats constructed
out of kora riffs, buzzing electric guitar, bright keyboard
sounds, and stuttering programmed drums. Others are more
indebted to house and hip-hoplike 2013s clattering Skelewu, which was remixed by Major Lazer, and 2015s Meek
Mill-featuring Fans Mi, for which he says the Philly rapper
was paid $200,000and traveled the internet to African diasporic communities in cities like New York and London.
We always wanted to create a new sound that everybody
wants to follow, says producer and longtime Davido col-
laborator Shizzi, while sitting in an elaborately furnished

office in Davidos sisters home. Nigerian music is evolving, and theres something about our music thats easy to
listen to. I always do a fusionI take from here, from South
Africa, from America. I like to take sounds from different
places and bring it together, to be able to sell to people all
over the world.
For Davido, the result has been a kind of fame for which
there are few parallels. When I land at Murtala Muhammad
International Airport in Lagos to report this story and discover I dont have the necessary yellow fever vaccination
document required for entry, I successfully drop his name,
much to the delight of a middle-aged official who asks me to
pass on a message. God bless our son, Davido, he says.
A couple of days later, Davido performs at the wedding
reception of family friends in Lekkis Lagos Oriental Hotel.
His ve-song set was offered to the newlyweds by a family
member as an ostentatious gift, much like the brand-new
Bentley on display elsewhere in the hotels ballroom. Afterwards, he attempts to snake out of the hotel through a
makeshift exit, his oblong face streaked with sweat. Dozens
of young men crowd the wings of the ballroom, undeterred
by the armed soldier who is a member of Davidos everyday
security detail. Waiters drop their serving trays for a chance
to touch him. Bartenders and ushers abandon their posts.
Palms are thrown to faces, temples, and the sky in disbelief.
But the wilder the scrum grows, the calmer Davido seems;
similar scenes manifest nearly anytime he appears in public,
and hes accustomed to the hysteria. Sometimes they want
money, sometimes they want photos, but sometimes I think
they just want me to see them, he tells me later.
His celebrity at home comes with perks and burdens.
For the past few months, Davido has publicly battled for the
custody of a daughter he had out of wedlock in May 2015,
a tabloid scandal that his reputation has survived, partly
thanks to his wealth. Millions of Africans know his name,
but in the U.S., Davido is largely anonymous. Last year, after he paid cash for a house in Sandy Springs, in the same
posh Atlanta subdivision where Future lives, the home was
raided by police, who assumed Davido was a drug dealer
or scammer. I guess a neighbor must have tried to snitch.
They saw me and thought, How did that African get here?
he says. How do I explain to someone whos never heard
of me that Im famous? I showed them all of my videos on
YouTube. They loved it.
A few hours after the wedding, Davido plays another
show, a 20-minute set at the holiday party of a large investment rm, for which he is paid $50,000 USD. Earlier that
night, hed performed with just a DJ and a backing track,
but for this gig he brings along a hypeman and a feverish
ve-piece band. In Nigeria, concerns about security, a lack
of concert venues, and deep income disparity mean there
are few large, ticketed events; aside from a handful of pub-
lic concerts, private shows like these are the norm. While
the major label-backed global music industry makes money
from multiple income streamsalbum sales, radio spins,
tours, and placing songs in adsNigerian artists have to
look elsewhere.
When I cite an oft-repeated statisticthat for every CD
sold legally in Nigeria, 10 are sold illegallyto Davido, he
suggests that its actually much higher. I have 100 million
views on YouTube but I have never directly made money
[selling] my music, Davido says. Zero. Thats nonsense.
Following the widespread adoption of the internet and of
mobile phones, theres opportunity for change.
Artists used to depend on Lagoss Alaba market, a centralized network that distributes bootlegged CDs around the
country, to build the buzz they needed to book private shows
and win endorsement deals. But with physical discs becoming far less common, theyre focusing their outreach online,
using social media to push free downloads on local blogs. Increasingly, there are opportunities to get paid off of releases
too: with the iTunes Store, which launched here in 2012, and,
more importantly, through mobile apps, built by the same
local telecommunications companies whose endorsements
already underwrite much of the music industry.
The signicant majority of Nigerias population, according to the World Bank, lives on $1.25 a day and does not have
a credit card. But even in rural areas, mobile apps make it
easy for people to use prepaid phone credits to pay for ringtones, ringback tunes, and MP3 downloads. Over two-thirds
of the 63 million Nigerians who subscribe to telecom giant
MTNwhich counts Davido among its spokespeoplebuy
ringtones, Bloomberg recently reported. Prots from these
sales are a promising revenue stream, and are currently split
between artists and the phone companies. We still have to
very much depend on third parties, Sony manager Ugwu explains. But it looks like the market is nally taking notice of
the opportunities for industry growth.
But even as mobile song sales surge, there is a fear in the
Lagos entertainment scene that other cash ows are drying
up. In May 2015, Nigeria elected a new president, Muhammadu Buhari, who has promised to clean up the countrys
unchecked corruption. Buhari has threatened government
officials and bank executives with criminal charges and already levied nes on large corporations. MTN was ned $5.2
billion in November 2015 for selling unregistered mobile
SIM cards, an illegal practice government officials believe
may have beneted terrorist groups like Boko Haram.
Davido says people with money are now afraid that ashy
gestures will make them targets of government watchdogs,
and that, as a result, the private concert market has begun
to shrink. In 2014, he says, he might have booked as many
as six gigs on a given Saturdayeach paying in the neighborhood of $70,000. Today, its closer to two or three. The
show money is cool, but I need the kind of money that
comes in the mail, he says. Now, if I say no shows, wheres

the money going to come from? I should be able to take my
daughter somewhere and say, Im not doing no shows for
two months.
So, looking for reliable income and new fans, Davido
is making arrangements outside of Nigeria. In January, he
ies to New York to nalize a deal with Sony Music Global,
which will release his much-anticipated second album, tentatively titled Baddest. Davido has already spent two years
and around $1 million of his own money on the record, and
the timing seems right. There is a massive renaissance going on, says Ugwu, pointing to the international success of
OMIs Cheerleader as an indicator of fans widening tastes.
Theres interest. Music is traveling.
The Sony deal, which was brokered in part by Nigerianborn, U.S.-based A&R Efe Ogbeni, will provide him with
new resources to reach American and European fans. Davido envisions snagging an opening spot on a prime U.S.
tour, a big push for a crossover single, and other traditional
major-label marketing. Baddest will feature non-African
artistsFuture will appear on at least one song, Davido
saysand strike an overall balance between Nigerian pop
and American-inspired hip-hop. I know what kind of songs
work. The music should have everything in itJamaican,
African, American, everything. Something like Wizkids
Ojuelegba, it has a cool feel to it, he says, nodding to the
song remixed by Drake and Skepta in 2015. But are foreigners going to come to Nigeria to listen to that all the time? No.
It has to have a pop inuence.
For any Nigerian artist with international ambitions, the
pressure to succeed is amplied by a fear that global audiences might not welcome more than one African star at a
time. And even thats not guaranteedDavido tells me a
story about a time before the ultimate demise of Dbanjs
G.O.O.D. Music deal, when Kanye West called Dbanj producer Don Jazzy, already wildly successful in Nigeria, into a
tiny, uncomfortable room with 20 other producers. I dont
want that to be me, he says. I wanna be that one African
nigga, where its like, Call that African nigga. Lets get him
on the hook.
That sense of competition underlies a long-running feud
between Davido and Wizkid, former friends and collaborators turned rivals, who have spent the past few years subliminally dissing each other in songs and across social media.
Me and Wizkid, were the best, says Davido. If one telecoms comes to me, the other one will go meet him. If Coke
comes to me, Pepsi goes to him. Whether or not its true,
they make it feel like it can only be one of us. I think theres
enough for all of us to eat, but then sometimes it can feel like
only one person will win.
Wizkid, 25, is perceived as a kid from the hood who made
his way to the top on his own, a story admired in a country where hustle is a virtue and a survival tactic. Davido, on
the other hand, is respected for his smart choices: working

as his own A&R for years before he was in the major label
system, hes enlisted the help of songwriters in a country
where theyre not commonly used, aligned himself with an
experienced management team, and released an unabating
string of singles to stay relevant between albums. My business decisions, theyre not by accident, Davido says. I have
a father thats made billions [of Naira]. When he tells me,
Make this move, I listen to him. But that can also backre.
For all his popularity, Davidos family money and custody
battle have also made him an avatar for what some consider
wrong with modern Nigerian society: the dissolution of traditional values and a culture that favors the rich while the
poor get poorer.
In reality, Davido and Wizkid may have more in common
than it appearsin January, Wizkid faced his own scandal,
after a woman claimed hed fathered her son and was a deadbeat dad. Recently, the two have made overtures to come together. At a December concert in Lagos, they spontaneously
gave a joint performance before a stunned crowd. When both
artists arrived at the venue, there was no clear direction from
the promoter as to who would headline the show and, by effect, leave with a sense of victory. Tension built backstage
until Davido, cleverly recognizing a chance to force Wizkids
hand in public, invited his erstwhile rival to share the stage.
They wound up going back-and-forth for several songs.
A week after that show, Im in the passenger seat of Davidos Porsche Panamera Turbo S, driving to his brothers
house with his manager, Kamal. The sun has set, but the
streets are still clogged with Friday rush-hour traffic, as pedestrians and vendors compete for sidewalk real estate. We
weave through tiny streets and major throughways, drawing waves and claps from a cluster of squeegee kids who
recognize the white sportscar as Davidos. As we drive, Kamals two phones buzz nonstop with requests. Someone
asks about a fashion endorsement. Idris Elba is in town for a
movie premiere and wants to talk about recording a song together. When one call comes through, Kamal answers gruffly,
then warms up. Nah, bad boy! he exclaims, simultaneously
teasing and complimenting the caller. Its Wizkid himself,
asking whether Davido might be down for some sort of collaboration, an official end to the stalemate. Days later, Davido remains enthusiastic about the possibility. Were gonna
give them What a Time to Be AliveAfrican version, he says,
a grin creeping across his face.
avido thinks he will triumph where
others have struggled because of his
innate cultural literacy of both the U.S.
and Africa, the result of being raised
between worlds. Long before the internet erased them for the rest of us,
money and travel erased borders for
him. I can be in the club with Meek Mill and Future and
be on a level with them, he says. I understand what theyre
talking about. I know what the trap is. These are things that
some of these other guys, they dont have it. They cant have
these conversations with the rappers, so how can they have
them with the fans?
The night before he performs at the wedding, Davido
brings me to Quilox, a popular club, for his older brothers
birthday. Inside, the thousands of miles that separate Lagos and cities like New York and London disappear. Here,
if youre well-off enough, like Davido and his friends are,
you are privy to the same bottle service procession of topshelf liquor and champagne, the same Drake- and Futureheavy playlists, and the same $600 Givenchy T-shirts youd
nd all over the world. The women hanging around the VIP
are wearing the same crop-tops and cut-out dresses that Ive
considered buying from Instagram boutiques. In one night,
I see more dabbing than Ive seen across several months in
New York. Davido and his brother tell me that, at last years
celebration, they ordered so much Ciroc that they wound up
having to take some of the bottles home.
Over the four days I spend with him, Davido weaves between Yoruba, Pidgin, and American-accented, slang-lled
English. He talks to his sister about which pink out t his
daughter should be dressed in, records greetings for his
Snapchat followers, and breaks bread with a club-owning
entrepreneur, code-switching effortlessly through all of it.
As comfortable on the subject of local witchcraft as he is
talking about the upcoming U.S. election, he comes off as a
natural representative for all people who can claim a handful of places as home at the same time. Davido recognizes
that there are listeners worldwide who, like him, belong to
multiple cultures. People who instinctively see themselves
through the eyes of others, and must cut through the stereotypes they know theyll be measured against. Which is
why, when I ask him whether or not the world is ready for a
Nigerian superstar, he shrugs and laughs. Of course theyre
ready, he says. They just might not know what thats going to look like.
The show money is cool, but

I need the kind of money that
comes in the mail. I should
be able to take my daughter
somewhere and say, Im not
doing no shows for two months.
I think theres enough for all of us

to eat, but then sometimes it can
feel like only one person will win.
W a r m
S p e l l
Stying by Mobolaji Dawodu

Photography Masha Demianova
Text by Liz Raiss
Tallinn locals
as their city
model spring
thaws around
looks
them.
SPECIAL THANKS DMITRI GERASIMOV AND MAXIM MJODOV.
Previous page:
Dress KAREN WALKER,
sunglasses KAREN WALKER,
bracelets CARA CRONINGER.
The young people of Tallinn, when asked, will

dene their small Estonian city by its chilly
atmosphere: gray buildings and months of
darkness, bitter winters and summers that barely
hover around 60 degrees, and a stern affect
coursing through it all. But even former Soviet
strongholds arent impervious to climate change;
the past few years have seen the citys winters
shrinking and mellowing out, its heavy snows
replaced by warm spells, mud, and rain.
Whats more, the changing temperatures have
arrived in tandem with a sort of cultural thaw, as
the younger residents of Tallinnthe birthplace
of Skypeare becoming increasingly globally
connected and socially conscious. People say
Estonians are unfriendly, one of the Tallinn
locals who modeled for our story explained, as
she walked through the countryside in the early
winter, dressed in springs cheerful colors. But it
just depends who you talk to.
Jacket FREEMANS SPORTING CLUB,

shirt PATAGONIA, pants MARNI,
shoes PENGUIN.
Left: Sweater JONATHAN SIMKHAI,

skirt SUZANNE RAE.
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Jacket HICKEY FREEMAN,

shirt LEVI'S, jeans LEVI'S,
sunglasses SALT. OPTICS.
Tallinn is the most perfect city. It has everything: a

crowded center, and quieter areas. Theres only 100
days in the year where you can see the sunshine.
T
a
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v
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Shirt MARYAM NASSIR ZADEH,

skirt ISSEY MIYAKE.
Shirt MARNI, pants PENGUIN.

Jumpsuit MADEME.
Estonias weather is always unexpected.

Sometimes we have beautiful winters
with white snow, but lately theyve been
brown and dirty, not cold at all. We should
do something about our wastefulness.
K
r
i
s
t
i
n
a
Jumpsuit ISSEY MIYAKE.

Shirt TIGRAN AVETISYAN.
In the summer, I long for those

storms and those rainy days. I feel
more emotional in the winter.
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INSIDE
R
E
S O C A S
V
I
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ROOTS
A
L
By Jesse Serwer
How Caribbean and African
artists are reaching across
the Atlantic to create a global
Carnival sound.
On a Friday night last February, a singer
in a gold lam suit and matching ku
stepped off a throne to pounding drums
and a loud chanting of his name. As
Olatunji performed his single Ola, dancers in feathered headdresses and face
paint interpreted its rhythms with movements like the etighi, a step popularized by
Nigerian artist Iyanyas 2012 hit, Kukere.
Despite the West African signiers, the
performance took place in Port of Spain,
Trinidad, where Olatunji is based, during
one of the most climactic moments of 2015s
International Soca Monarch competition.
The Monarch competition is a key
event in the run-up to Trinidad and
Tobagos annual carnival, and one of the
most prestigious music showcases in the
Caribbean. Olatunjis triumphant performance of Ola, already one of the most
popular songs of the 2015 carnival season,
earned him the title of Groovy Soca Monarch, one of two prizes awarded at the
competition. Perhaps more signicantly,
it also conrmed the arrival of a new subgenre thats come to be termed afrosoca
a blend of Caribbean and African rhythms
that reflects both the outward expansion of Trinidads signature sound and
the growing inuence of afrobeats on
the island, and worldwide. It was Shakira
Marshall, a New York-based choreographer of Guyanese descent, who coined the
term afrosoca as a name for her Brooklynbased dance class in 2012.
The emerging hybrid is the latest volley in a transatlantic conversation that
began, like so many other cultural transfers, with the enslavement of millions of
West Africans and their forced relocation to Caribbean colonies centuries ago.
Trinidadians proved to be remarkably resilient and creative in preserving African
traditions over the years, refashioning the
spoken word commentary of the griot into
calypso, defying colonial bans on drums
by creating new percussion instruments
from bamboo and turning discarded oil
drums into the steelpan. Similar developments occurred across the Caribbean
notably in Jamaica, where the mento style
of folk developed in parallel to calypso in
the early 20th century, and where African
drums later reasserted themselves in the
form of Nyabinghi drumming, the rhythmic foundation of reggae.
Today, Jamaican reggae and dancehall are among the most popular music
forms in many parts of Africa. Along with
hip-hop, house, and African sounds like
highlife and kwaito, reggae and dancehall
represent a major thread in the expansive category of African dance rhythms

that has come to be known as afrobeats,
from the patois-inected bashment pop of
Nigerias Burna Boy and Timaya, to the
quasi-dancehall azonto beats used by
Ghanaian artists like Sarkodie.
That kind of organic culture-mashing
is how soca itself was born. The genre rst
developed in the mid-70s through the
music of calypsonian Lord Shorty (later
known as Ras Shorty I), who sought to
blend calypso with the chutney sounds
of the polyglot islands substantial East
Indian population, creating a Trinidadian
sound he called the soul of calypso. Abbreviated to soca, the genre crystallized
in the 80s, with synthesizers and drum
machines approximating the sounds of
brass bands and rhythm sections. Spreading across the Caribbean, it took on different shapes on different islands, from
the rugged bashment soca of Barbadian
artists, like Lil Rick, to the jab jab style
Illustration by Ben Wiseman
FADE OUT
105
Montano and Bunji Garlin, helping to

bring the latters Differentology to global attention with an official 2013 remix.
Garlin has been a force in soca since
the early aughts, but Montano in particular has found inspiration outside of Trinidad for decades. Beginning in the 1990s,
soca artists took on inuence from pop,
R&B, and other genres, creating a more
melodious, mid-tempo school known as
groovy soca. In contrast to the call-andresponse chants of power soca, its lyrics
paint the trappings of Carnival in more
romantic, universal terms, celebrating
revelry and winingthe circular rotation
of waistlines central to contemporary
Caribbean dance.
Now, it is Africa that is again inuencing Caribbean music, at the considerably more mellow 120 beats-per-minute
tempo of groovy soca. As afrobeats has
fanned out of Lagos and Accra and into
the global mainstream through diasporic
hubs like London and Toronto, it is having a more intimate, familiar conversation with the islands. Artists from the
two regions are building on their shared
histories and extant similarities with collaborations and remixes that are blurring the boundaries between African and
Caribbean sounds even further. Jamaicas
Konshens recently released a remix of his
Gal Ting featuring Ghanas Patoranking, and Sean Paul has paired with both
Fuse ODG and Timaya in the last two
years. The video for Bend Down Pause,
a heavily dancehall-indebted single from
Wizkid and Runtown, both Nigerian, features an intro from Jamaican-born Major
Lazer MC Walshy Fire and Kingston-
originated moves courtesy of Caribbean

dancers like Crazy Hype and Betty Rox.
Machel Montano recently released a
remix of the song geared to the 2016
Trinidad Carnival season. And Busy Signal, dancehalls savviest genre experimenter, has been putting a Jamaican spin
on popular African rhythms for years, notably with Same Way and Professionally, ips of Sarkodies U Go Kill Me and
P-Squares Personally, respectively.
Comb through the YouTube comments for many of these tracks and youll
nd African and Caribbean listeners engaging in vigorous debate over the origins
of sounds, dances, and, sometimes, the
artists themselves. Many Nigerian commenters have attempted to claim Olatunji,
whose Yoruba name is a common one in
their country, to much Trini protest.
Nigerias Timaya has perhaps brought
the commonalities between soca and
afrobeatsas well as dancehallinto sharpest focus. Sanko seamlessly straddles all
three genres; its video features a mixture
of dancehall movements and Nigerian
steps, like the shoki. My intention was to
develop a unique sound, that when played
across continents, the response and the
vibe will be the same, Timaya says via
email from Nigeria. And I am very happy
to say I achieved that.
Afrobeats tracks like Sanko have
had a particularly palpable impact in
Trinidad and Tobago, inuencing not
only emerging soca acts like Olatunji
and Sekon Sta, but also the genres leading voices. In March, Destra Garcia, the
islands Queen of Bacchanal, released
a remix of Sanko. In November, Bunji
Garlin launched Suit of Black, his panCaribbean supergroup with dancehall
deejay Assassin and Jamaican-Canadian
rapper Kardinal Offishall, with She Bad,
a propulsive afrobeats-inspired track
with a sample of seeming West African
origin. And Garlins wife, two-time Soca
Monarch winner Fay-Ann Lyons, effectively kicked off the 2016 Carnival season
with Block the Road, a collaboration
with Ghanas Stonebwoy, built by St. Vincentian producer Stadic as a 50/50 hybrid
between soca and afrobeats.
More than anyone, though, it is socas
marquee act, Machel Montano, who has
FADE OUT
106
The Trinidad & Tobago Carnival
PHOTOGRAPH BY RAWIYA KAMEIR.
associated with Grenada. About a dozen

Caribbean nations and island territories,
including Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua
and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, St.
Vincent and the Grenadinesjust about
every English-speaking country in the
region, save Jamaicacount soca as their
primary musical product.
But what drives and propels soca is
precisely what limits it: it is music made
expressly for the Caribbeans annual carnival celebrations. Carnival traditions
have their own African roots, having originated as a means of resistance among
Trinidadian slaves. Each year, a few
dozen songs, mostly from Trinidad and
Barbados, take hold region-wide and advance through the diaspora, where they
soundtrack oats at celebrations from
London to Brooklyn to Baltimore. A handful of songsKevin Lyttles Turn Me On
and Rupees Tempted to Touchhave
made it to Top 40 radio, though often in
a form remixed to t global tastes. Yet the
genre remains inexorably tied to the parades, or road marches, that are the climax
of every Caribbean Carnival.
To function on the road at Carnival,
songs must effectively propel members
of masquerade troupesrunning on
fumes after weeks of ftes, exhaustive
costume prep, and the paint-splattered,
rum-soaked, pre-dawn ritual known as
JOuvertto vigorously and relentlessly
chip, jump, and wave their ags through
the streets for hours. This requires an
insanely insistent energy, one most often delivered by power soca, a sound in
the 160-165 beats-per-minute range that
ranks among the worlds most aggressive
dance rhythms.
Socas co-dependence with Carnival
means that it lays dormant for large parts
of the year, before gushing forth again in
a mad rush of releases timed to hit just
before Carnival. This stop-and-start cycle
inhibits the genre, critics say, but also creates an opportunity for annual reinvention. In the last ve years, EDM has played
a signicant role in expanding socas parameters, spurring a fusion that has both
inuenced and been inuenced by Major
Lazer. The Diplo-led outt, whose Jillionaire hails from Trinidad, has collaborated
with socas two biggest icons, Machel
Jesse Serwer
By blending with afrobeats, a rhythmically

similar but more nebulous category
with less restrictions and more visibility, soca
is broadening in a way thats true
to its origins and identity.
brought African sounds and consciousness to the fore in Trinidad. He collaborated with South Africas Ladysmith Black
Mambazo on 2013s Possessed, and
was the rst Caribbean artist to endorse
Timaya, hopping on a remix of Shake
Your Bum Bum and bringing him out to
Trinidad for his annual pre-Carnival concert in 2014. Montano has also collaborated with Nigerian rapper 2face Idibia,
and has releases with Ugandas Eddy
Kenzo and Nigerias Legendary Beatz in
the works. Last year, he shot the video
for On My Way, a song inspired by the
global reach of African drums, in Egypt.
One day I was in London, looking

at this African group perform, and they
had these dance moves, Montano says
from L.A., where he now lives part-time.
It reminded me of Jamaican moves like
pon di river, pon di bank, mixed with wining from Trinidad. But something about
it was royal, and something about it was
funny. I thought, This is what I want to
do with my soca music and our dance. To
raise it up in a regal, royal way.
Montano revitalized the genre in the
90s with tracks like the dancehall-inected Big Truck and the Spanish guitardriven Shaggy collaboration Toro Toro,
and he has been socas leader in terms of
both popularity and innovation ever since.
Today, he sees in the fusion an opportunity
to create a greater platform for a genre hes
long worked to bring to wider acceptance.
By blending with afrobeats, a rhythmically
similar but more nebulous category with
less restrictions and rising visibility, soca
is broadening in a way thats true to its origins and identity, a welcome development
for artists seeking to grow the genres prole without losing sight of its core appeal.
This beatbeing inuenced by dancehall, being inuenced by soca, being inuenced by afrobeatswould play and please
a wider cross section of people, Montano
says. You can have Jamaicans, Trinis,
Africans, and even Europeans and Americans dancing to this one beat.
Though hardly ubiquitous, African
themes and sounds are palpable in the offerings for this Februarys Trinidad Carnival, from Optimus Productions Afro Soca
riddim to Olatunjis Oh Yay, a redux of his
Ola that feels fresh and new nonetheless.
I see a lot of people adding more afro elements into their music now, which doesnt
sound exactly like what weve done, but its
everybodys own interpretation of what
soca and African music would sound like,
AdvoKit Productions Israel says. I think
its working very well. Its bringing back
a lot of joy into the music.
Montano may have introduced the
idea of an afrobeats and soca fusion to
Trinidad, but it is Olatunji who is most
wholeheartedly embracing the concept,
pushing the sound forward as a movement.
His song Oh Yay is perhaps the rst to
mention the nascent genre by name.
The son of calypsonian and pannist

Eddie Yearwood and the Trinidadian actress and theater director Mairoon Ali,
Olatunji grew up in a house lled with
African art and fashions. Ola wasnt his
rst local hit in Trinidad, but its where
he found his voice, his soaring tenor
blending seamlessly with the songs West
African choral arrangement. Its a major
inuence on me right now because its
really working for me, Olatunji says of
the afrobeats inuence. In a major way.
[Afro soca] is going to be my sound.
He continues to mine the sound on
his upcoming debut LP, Awakening. Currently slated for February release via Fox
Fuse, the album contains afrobeats-inspired tracks like Having Fun, a collaboration with Isaac Blackman, son of the
late Ras Shorty I. The name [Olatunji]
itself helped me a lot to create this music,
Olatunji says. It shows that the African
heritage still lies very strongly in the Caribbean culture. The meaning of my name
means honor restored again. But the
short meaning is awakening, which is the
name of the album.
Four decades after Lord Shorty redubbed himself Ras Shorty I and a surge
in black consciousness in Trinidad inspired Olatunji and Kitwana Israels parents to give their kids African names, their
children are rediscovering their roots
in their own way. For Machel Montano,
a soca star since age 9, his embrace of
African sounds is also part of a broader
personal growth. I have been trying to
get soca aligned with my spirituality and
who I am, Montano says. I am getting
more spiritual, and I want these beats and
this music to reect that.
What is now organically occurring
between soca, dancehall, and afrobeats,
he says, is the realization of a goal hes
had since he began traveling the U.S. and
Europe as a youth, as the lone international representative of a genre everybody
had heard but few outside the Caribbean
diaspora could name. People used to make
fun and fuss about crossing over before.
This is beyond crossing over, this is like
interweaving, he says. You asked me if
I think soca, afrobeats, and dancehall will
become one genre? Well, that would be
a great dream.
FADE OUT
108
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BRENMAR.BIZ
By Esra Grmen
HOW
TURKISH
SOAP OPERAS TOOK
OVER THE WORLD
Viewers from Morocco

to Mexico are hooked on
Turkeys TV exports. But
what is it about the genre
that makes it so compelling?
As a kid in Istanbul in the 90s, I spent
my afternoons bingeing on Nickelodeon
shows like Hey Arnold!, The Adventures of
Pete & Pete, and Clarissa Explains It All. In
between, Id ick over to a Turkish show
called Kaynanalar (The In-Laws), in which
an Anatolian businessman and his family
work to reconcile modern city life with
their traditional rural roots. Whereas the
American shows offered me a glimpse into
an idyllic alternate universe, Kaynanalar
felt closer to home.
Back then, Turkey was deeply embroiled in a violent struggle as various liberation groups sought to establish an independent Kurdistan, following a mounting
Kurdish insurgency that began in 1984.
The decades-long conict has yet to be
fully resolved, but was especially perilous
in the years of my youth. Growing up in
the relatively safe capital city of Istanbul,
I was lucky to lead a life largely insulated
from political turmoil, but I still internalized the insecurity caused by news coverage of the conict. I remember watching
my family mourn the deaths of activists
and journalists who were assassinated
over ideas we valued at home. I started to
feel like we didnt belong in our own country. But I found comfort in my favorite
shows, and I lapped up the idealized vision
of American life they projected. I wanted
to be a paper girl in a stereotypical neighborhood in America, to build tree houses
or whatever it was Clarissa and Pete and
Arnold did.
I was reminded of that time, recently,
when a Guardian article about Turkish soap operas included a quote from
a 12-year-old girl named Diana Jbour. A
Jordanian devotee of Turkish soaps, Jbour
had just traveled to Istanbul with her family to see the villa where her favorite show,
(Gm) Noor, had been lmed. When I
tell my friends that I saw where Noor lives,
they will think its amazing, she said.
Over 100 episodes, Noor tells the story
of a poor girl who married into a rich family and, despite the pairing being an arranged marriage, wound up nding love
and a semblance of happiness. It originally
aired in Turkey from 2005 to 2007, but the
show reached a wider audience in 2008,
when the Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) began rebroadcasting itand
eventually other Turkish TV seriesin
Arabic. When the nal Arabic episode of
Noor aired in 2010, some 85 million people
in the Middle East and North Africa tuned
in to watch its dramatic conclusion, according to Mazen Hayek, MBCs director
of marketing and PR. Around 50 million of
those viewers, she says, were women.
Noor was one of the rst Turkish soap
operas broadcast in the Arab world, arriving for an audience that had been largely
unexposed to TV portrayals of a secular
lifestyle coexisting with Islamic values.

In Noor, family members drink wine with
dinner while also observing Ramadan,
women dont necessarily wear the veil,
and husbands openly support their wives
career ambitionsan idyllic, near-equal
alternate universe for women almost anywhere in the world. It wasnt just the subtle
escapism that made the show relatable:
Noor was unique for being translated by
voiced-over actors into a colloquial Arabic
dialect, rather than the formal Quranic Arabic to which other foreign shows are usually translated. Following Noors success,
TV executives were prompted to import
more Turkish dramas to countries as far
apart as Egypt and Mexico, bringing about
a wave that enveloped the world in the following years.
Turkish TV is big business. According
to a report by Forbes Turkey, there are 85
privately owned production companies
churning out episodes that cost between
$200,000 and $700,000 to make. In 2014,
the combined gross revenue of the ten biggest production companies was $152 million. According to NPR, Turkey is now
second only to the U.S. when it comes to
the production and global distribution
of TV dramas. Magnicent Century, a period drama about the life of an Ottoman
FADE OUT
110
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The international embrace

of Turkish soaps is a fascinating
byproduct of a shrinking
world, not some stealthy way
to impose Turkish traditions
onto viewers.
Esra Grmen
sultan and his powerful wife, aired in 47

countries; One Thousand and One Nights,
a show about a widowed architect who
sleeps with her multimillionaire boss to
cover her sons medical expenses, aired in
46 countries; and What Is Fatmagls Fault?,
a show about a rape victim who takes her
perpetrators to court, aired in 37. In much
of the Middle East, popular Turkish shows
are broadcast daily during Ramadan, with
families gathering around televisions after
breaking fast at sunset.
As these exports entertain, theyre
also having a lasting cultural impact in
the Middle East and beyond. In the Gaza
Strip, viewers on both sides of the ongoing conict were so captivated by one
recent Turkish series that the ghting
would halt when it aired, Iranian-American diplomat Goli Ameri told NPR last
July. In Latin America, where a Spanishlanguage version of One Thousand and One
Nights has reached cult status, Argentinian and Chilean parents have been increasingly naming their babies after the
shows protagonists, Onur and Sherezade.
Turkish soaps have also contributed to
the destigmatization of divorce in communities where it has long been taboo;
in the United Arab Emirates, their ubiquity was linked to an increase in divorce
rates. Speaking to Greek documentarian
Nina-Maria Paschalidou in 2013, Samar
Shaaban of the U.A.E. explained how
watching What Is Fatmagls Fault? helped
her nd the courage to divorce an abusive
husband: [Fatmagl] showed me that a
woman can claim her rights. I watched

her go to court and win, and [thought]
Why cant I do the same?
Like any other cultural product,
though, Turkish soaps mirror reality as
much as they help shape it. While some
shows normalize, and thus encourage,
womens rights, they frequently do so
while quietly reinforcing the status quo
that keeps men in control. The character
Noor, for instance, works toward establishing the fashion empire of her dreams, but
only with the permission of her husband.
In One Thousand and One Nights, Sherezade
juggles her professional ambitions and
her family life, but ultimately looks to a
man to bail her out in her hour of need.
[Turkish soaps] present these rebellious
women who take their lives into their own
hands, but they do have stereotypes, in the
sense that for a woman to be rebellious,
she still has to get the permission of the
husband or the father, Paschalidou told
me over Skype. But its still impressive
for Turkish society and some of the Arab
societies to see a man who stands for his
daughter or wifes rights.
Interestingly, the most popular Turkish series, soaps like Kara Para Ak (Black
Money Love), Karaday, Noor, Magnicent
Century, and What Is Fatmagls Fault?, are
all written by female scriptwriters, but
the production companies that fund them
are still predominantly owned by men.
In that way, Turkish soaps can provide
a hint of the fantasy I innocently craved
from Nickelodeon, but not so much so
FADE OUT
that they present a threat to the broader

social order.
Despite being popular with large
swathes of global populations, Turkish
soaps have also faced a degree of backlash. In Saudi Arabia, the religious establishment accused the shows of inltrating
Western values into local society. In Iran,
Paschalidou reported, some husbands
resorted to ripping out their TV antennas
to prevent wives and daughters from being
corrupted by soaps. In Greece, the soaps
were seized on by an anti-immigrant,
neo-fascist political party on the grounds
that they amount to a vehicle for Turkish
cultural and political propaganda.
When things like TV and music spread
beyond their place of origin, theyre often
perceived as carrying with them the politics of the culture they come from. Sometimes its harmless, but sometimes its seen
as exing dominance, a soft form of power
through which to disseminate ideas and
ideals to societies where social and cultural values might be different. Though a
few people in Saudi Arabia and Iran and
Greece might not agree, the international
embrace of Turkish soaps is a fascinating
byproduct of a shrinking world, not some
stealthy way to impose Turkish traditions
onto viewers elsewhere. The shows' themes
go beyond womens rights, with plots exploring globally understood concerns like
sibling rivalry, intergenerational conict,
and nancial aspiration. Whether through
Turkish soaps about Ottoman sultans, or
American kids shows about the surreal
adventures of two brothers named Pete,
people from different cultures can identify
shared values and common experiences.
Whats more human than that?
112
MAKING CHILL MUSIC ON

AN ISLAND IS JUST AS
AMAZING AS YOUD IMAGINE
By Duncan Cooper
MARK BARROTT: As a kid, I loved to

look at maps. I grew up three hours north
of London in a very insular city, surrounded by seven hills. My father was a worldrenowned vintage car restorer, and he
would always travel around Europe in old
cars, but we didnt really travel as a family.
School holidays were taken in England,
and rarely further aeld.
My own travel started when I got my

rst record deal, in 1996. I was making
ambient music with breakbeats under the
name Future Loop Foundation, inspired
by polyrhythmic stuff that Steve Reich
was doing with Ghanaian drumming,
and Brian Eno, and I started getting a lot
of gigs around Europe. I remember playing a gig in the shadow of the Alexanderplatz and going to Eastern Europe in the
middle of the Iron Curtain. It was almost
mind-expanding. I dont care what anybody saystheres nothing like that feeling of coming off a stage, having a spliff,
and youre half-stoned, half-deaf, and full
of adrenaline.
And then I met a girl on the airplane.
That was in October 1999were still together all these years later. Often the best things
in your life dont happen out of planning.
I moved to Berlin to be with my wife.
It wasnt like today, where every electronic music producer lives there and its
become gentried and safe. It was exciting, it was dangerous. There was a sense
that anything was possible. The maps I
was looking at in my bed as a kid under
a torchlight suddenly jumped out and became real. There were bullet holes in the
wall from the second World War, and I
could walk past Jungle, which was a club
that Bowie would go to. I was 30 years old,
and I felt like my life had just begun.
At that time, hotels were all trying to
copy Htel Costes in Paris and do their own
compilations, and one of my tracks ended
up in the hands of a hotel in Milan, which
was putting a CD together. Out of courtesy, they sent an invitation to all the artists
for their launch, and I went. They had this
beautiful botanical garden, and I thought,
FADE OUT
114
Mark Barrott traveled the

world and ended up centered.
Vinyl shoppers wise enough to buy Mark
Barrotts 2014 album Sketches from an Island might notice a sticker, affixed to its
tropical bird cover art, that reads MUSIC
FROM IBIZA. And its truly that, though
Barrotts tranquil spin on the Spanish island feels miles away from the zzy raveGomorrah that probably rst comes to
mind. In fact, he is miles away25 miles
down Ibizas only road, living in the fertile
countryside beyond the famous clubs.
Brimming with New Age arpeggios
and field recordings of local wildlife,
Sketches was the rst thing that Barrott, 48,
ever released under his given name, but
his career had been illustrious long be-
fore. He came of age in England, making

zoned-out drum & bass, before moving to
Germany, where he founded a music consultancy rm that almost single-handedly
introduced the world to chill-out lounge
music. When business life started to drive
him crazy, he decamped to the beach
rst Uruguay, then Ibiza. As he explains,
sometimes a little distance can make
a world of difference.
Shit, if Im going to DJ, I want to DJ this,

not a sweaty club in Poland or somewhere
else nuts. So I made a deal with the manager to DJ there once a week, and over the
next year we built an incredible party: Berlusconi before he was prime minister, the
footballers, the models, the politicians.
I was earning pretty good money, so as
a present to myself after years of destitution, I bought a rst-generation iPod. If
youre DJing and want to get to the toilet,
youre either going to have to nd a very
long song or do something like an iPod.
I started to use it practically, and then one
day the manager said, Hey, this could be
you when youre not here. We put play
lists into it, built a little case, and sat it behind the bar.
The hotel manager where I DJed had
a friend at a new Hyatt opening in Milan,
and he needed music, too, so I set him up
with his own iPod. Then Sheraton wanted to pilot eight hotels. I didnt have any
grand plans about putting chill-out music
into hotelsit just exploded. Hyatt came
back and said, We want you to be our
music consultant for the entire company.
All of a sudden I had a list of 300 hotels.
For ve years, I was taking full-on
ights 51 weeks a year. Id go on eightweek Asian trips. To give you an idea, one
time a Black Pearl multimillionaire was
building a hotel in Bora Bora. I got own
Berlin-London, London-Tokyo, TokyoTahiti, Tahiti-Bora Bora for a three-hour
meeting. Got picked up by a boatWatch
out for the sharks!had dinner, then
spent two days ying home.
But I was living in anxiety-land all the
time. Id fallen out of love with music. I got
refused entry to the Hyatt executive board
meeting in Chicago because I was wearing
ip-ops. The tax situation was a mess, the
licensing situation was a mess, and the ac-
countant was tearing his hair out because

I was throwing bunches of receipts at him.
I could tell that ve years of this was the
maximum, or Id end up with a divorce.
Luckily, I found a buyer for the business
fairly quickly. At the same time, the rental on
our house in Berlin was coming to an end,
so on my 40th birthday we said, Lets go to
South America and take a look around.
Really, I cant explain it to this day:
we go to South America for two weeks
on holiday, come back owning a house in
Uruguay. I know that sounds really nonchalant. We were like, How the fuck did
that happen? We bought a house? But
the next thing we thought was, Well, we
might as well go and live in it.
Our house was a ve-minute walk
from the beach. It was very quiet off-season, and it was very detached from what
was going on in Europe. Whatever scene
that was going on was a scene in my head.
I could invent the scene.
I wrote a song called Hands of Love,
but I couldnt get a deal anywhere, so
I decided Id start a record label, and Id
do it really fucking well. Id use all the
experience I garnered owning that music
consulting business, and give myself the
artistic freedom. Thats how International
Feel started. There was no Machiavellian
subplot, no big planI was just sat on my
ass in Uruguay, enjoying the coast and
making music to ll the time.
After a few years, my parents were
getting old and needed me nearer to
transition to the next period of their life.
And my cat who had been with me since
England died, age 17, so all of a sudden we
could travel. We decided to go to Europe.
We got to Ibiza, and we were in a taxi, and
we were like, Could we live here? Fuck it,
lets live here. Went back to Uruguay, sold
everything. I had a Minimoog synthesizer
Ah! Im in Ibiza. Ah! A sunset.

Ah! Es Vedr. Ah! The campos.
Ah! Another sunset.
Mark Barrott
FADE OUT
and I gave it away. We wanted to live as

best we could without possessions.
In Ibiza, we live in the center of the island, in the countryside. Its incredibly quiet. As people say here, it was only 30 years
ago that Ibiza was a priest on a donkey.
Even now, theres only one road. Its a good
road. But because of the topography, Ibiza
feels like it has massive amounts of space.
It has lots of microclimates. What goes on
in the west coast of Ibiza, with the madness
of the party scenes, might as well be New
York. It could be a different continent.
My album Sketches from an Island was
recorded here on a big long table in a rented house, where I had a laptop, a MIDI
keyboard sat on my knees, and a pair of
headphones. The overarching concept is a
Leonardo di Vinci saying: Sophistication
through simplicity. Its a very delicate album, and I think it was very inuenced by
being here: Ah! Im in Ibiza. Ah! A sunset.
Ah! Es Vedr. Ah! The campos. Ah! Another sunset. Theres something about this
island that draws you in, and its not just
me being mystical.
I was talking to a woman here recently
who teaches people to ride horses, and I
said, Whats the secret? She said, Time
in the saddle. Ive been a professional
musician for 20 years, but there was no
child prodigy thing with me. It was about
learning a craft, putting in the hours.
All of my experiences came together
in Sketchesincluding eld recordings. In
Uruguay, we also had a farm in the middle of the interior. It was so isolated you
couldnt drive the last seven kilometers.
There were wild animals running around,
and there was a stream in the bottom. I
always took a recorder with me. You do
these things because why not, and you use
them when you use them.
If I was banned from making another
eld recording, Id be good for 20 years.
You want Barcelona airport? Bora Bora
sunset? Tokyo bullet train station? The interior of a fucking boat? Ive got enough.
But music is about having a blank page and
going forward. If I was to go and make a
track this very minute, and I wanted some
cricket noises at night, I can tell you now
Id still probably want to go out and record
some new ones. The weathers just right
tonight. I think I might just do that.
116
FADER Toyota Avalon Nights
Photography by Roger Kisby

With custom decor and glow bars, 1111 Lincoln Roadwhere The FADER and
Toyota linked for a pair of parties at last years Art Baselwas packed all
weekend. Amidst the crowd was a single Toyota Avalon, complete with some
wild 3D projection-mapped visuals constantly re-inventing the aesthetic of
the car. Playing off their Lets Go Places theme, the projection shifted to
show the Avalon driving through a safari, a garden, and even outer space
while guests sipped drinks courtesy of Titos Handmade Vodka and Blue
Point Toasted Lager. On Friday, Sevyn Streeter performed a set that was
equal parts powerful and playful. The next night, venue staff had to hold
people at the doors during Estelles performance as the space filled up with
diehards. They knew every word.
EVENTS
118
Sevyn Streeter and Estelle
EVENTS
119
New Era Night Cap Sessions
Photography by Ryan Muir

New Eramaker of legendary fitted capshave been throwing some great
parties lately. The latest pair of Night Cap Sessions shindigs went down at
The Late Late. The first started with Khalil of Livin Proofs banging DJ set,
and guests chilled with some Goose Island, Doublecross Vodka and Titos
vodka. Obey City closed out the evening with some underground jams and
memorable remixes of hits by everyone from Fetty Wap to Aaliyah. At the
next, Harlem DJ Austin Millz spun hot tracks from Kodak Black and
Madeintyo, and then D.C.-via-New York rapper Jay IDK played an electrifying
set that had the crowd singing. On their way out, guests snagged some New
Era and FADER snapbacks to take home. Not a bad goody bag.
EVENTS
120
Obey City and Khalil of Livin Proof

Jay IDK and Austin Millz
EVENTS
121
Goose Islands Analog Migration
Photography by Rosie Simmons

The FADER and Goose Island threw the first Analog Migration event of 2015
at Union Transfer in Philadelphia, featuring performances from Wu Tang
Clan spiritual head GZA, country-rock heartthrobs Whitney, and Philly club
stample DJ Diamond Kuts. Attendees enjoyed Goose Island beer and Philly
Pretzel Factory pretzels, and browsed a pop-up shop Profond Music N Art
record store, who were on-site selling records hand-selected by GZA. A
couple days later, we helped transform the North Warehouse in Portland
into a full-on concert venue for FADER Fort alum Conner Youngblood and
Brooklyn indie band St. Lucia to perform in. Fans and music heads gathered
for complimentary beer (on barrel tap!), BUNK sandwiches, a unique 3D
photo booth from GIFFF, and a pop-up stand from Clinton Street Records.
EVENTS
122
GZA and St. Lucia
EVENTS
123
101st Issue Release Party
Photography by Ryan Muir

We brought out the big guns to celebrate The Now Issue. On a crisp Thursday,
we piled into the Lower East Sides Avenida Cantina for some free-flowing
Budweisers and endless good vibes. Local mainstays Dirty South Joe and
Jubilee started out the night right, before poet/artist/DJ Juliana Huxtable
took over the booth to spin some serious jams. After, we assembled in front
of the stage to see another fave featured in the issue: Aussie drag queen and
pop singer Courtney Act, who fully slayed Biebers recent hit Love Yourself,
before launching into a couple of her own hits. Before we could even gather
ourselves post-Courtney Acts enviable dance moves, Juliana Huxtable
resumed her DJ throne. It was litsincerely.
EVENTS
124
Courtney Act, Dirty South Joe,

Jubilee, Julianna Huxtable
EVENTS
125
Marni marni.com
Maryam Nassir Zadeh
mnzstore.com
Masha Ma masha-ma.com
Patagonia patagonia.com
Penguin originalpenguin.com
Rochas rochas.com
SALT.optics saltoptics.com
Suzanne Rae suzannerae.com
Tanya Taylor tanyataylor.com
Tigran Avetisyan tigran.co.uk
Undercover undercoverism.com
Yang Li yangli.eu
STOCKIST
PHOTOGRAPHY MASHA DEMIANOVA.
Acne Studios acnestudios.com

Adieu adieu-paris.com
Cara Croninger caracroninger.net
Faustine Steinmetz
faustinesteinmetz.com
Freemans Sporting Club
freemanssportingclub.com
Hickey Freeman
hickeyfreeman.com
Issey Miyake isseymiyake.com
Jonathan Simkhai
jonathansimkhai.com
Juun J juunj.com
Karen Walker karenwalker.com
Levis levi.com
MadeMe mademenyc.com
Left: Sweater TANYA TAYLOR, skirt KAREN

WALKER, shoes MARYAM NASSIR ZADEH.
STOCKIST
126
SUBSCRIBE.
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thefader.com/subscribe
PHOTOGRAPHY TRAVYS OWEN.
If I wake up and it turns out it was all a dream,

I wouldnt say it was possible.
Davido

TheFader 102 Feb Mar16 JBalvin Davido

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THE GLOBAL ISSUE

102 FEB/MAR 2016

THE GLOBAL ISSUE

Available at G-Shock SOHO

2016 CASIO AMERICA, INC.

PLEASE ENJOY RESPONSIBLY.

THE PLACES YOU GO SHOULD

TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY,

Christine and The Queens

How people are eating, sleeping,

A reggaeton renegade steadies his

A French singer shifts shapes

In Lagos with an American-born

A chilly city warms up, with spring

Covers: Davido photography Travys Owen.

PHOTOGRAPHY ALICE ROSATI. STYLING JONATHAN HUGUET. DENIM JACKET: JUUN J;

Im trying to become like a pop

PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR

VP, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

ASSOCIATE SOCIAL MEDIA

MARKETING & EVENTS

MARKETING & EVENTS

BUSINESS & LEGAL AFFAIRS

ASSISTANT VIDEO EDITOR

FADER CANADA SALES

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

The FADER, Inc.

The FADER is published six times a year

FARM TEAM SENIOR REPS

Copyright 2015 The FADER is a

Apparently Nigerians are really

I noticed that Davido had a cool

People joked before I left that

J Balvin is 30 years old, but hes

PHOTOGRAPHY RYAN LOWRY.

ONE WAY. ONE PL ACE.

Even on the internet, global

In 1997, right before my 10th birthday, Puff

if plugging into their fandoms simply means

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Not on your itinerary.

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ILLUSTRATION DAMIEN CORRELL

a student! Just leave me alone!and she

which shed lost from over-exposure to

down, she already seems acclimated to

Christodoulou was locked in a fight for

salt water. But when she gathered her

the West Coasts laidback style. Now,

her life. The singer-songwriter was on a

close friends a week later to recount

they love it. You just have to make the

boat trip with four friends off the coast of

the accident, her mentality shifted from

people trust you. Im just doing whatever I

her hometown of Athens, Greece, where

shock to sudden acceptance. It just flew

feel like. That means venturing even fur-

a pair of folk-pop albums had already

away, Monika says. My first two albums,

ther from traditional Greek music for her

catapulted her to mononymous levels of

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