working class musicians
stream my new album, the color of rain
the color of rain is finally pittering and pattering on the world right now. produced by meshell ndegeocello, justin brown, and myself—my sophomore album officially released on all streaming platforms this past friday as an offering and an invitation to contemplate. we made this record to the back drop of civil unrest and protest across the country. though there will always be derivatives of what we do with Blck music and art, there is nothing like creating from the conditions we have to live through day by day and the residue of that living. how it shows up in our relationships, in our expressions, and in our imagination.
the focus track of the album is a poem-song called, “working class musicians” with an animated art video directed by myself and the incredible paper animator, Brandon Ray. this song is dedicated to all the working class musicians whose paths i’ve crossed struggling against nightclub capitalism, music festival plantations, and not-so-a-live nation, ticket master exploitation. may we deepen our relationships to the international community of working class people and labor movements. to be intentional about not turning on one another for crumbs but holding institutions and corporations accountable to our livelihoods. more compassion and consideration for the labor that goes seen and unseen to bring art, music, and poetry to the people who need it most. musicians and poets are essential workers.
when working on my last album, when the poems do what they do, Sonia Sanchez’s record kept falling off the record holders on my wall. i would continually put them back up and it would fall again and again. coincidence? no. the same happened while we were in the studio recording this current album, the color of rain. Except it was The Last Poet’s record that kept falling. i praise my elders not because i seek to be them or replicate what they’ve already brilliantly done but to name and honor the lineage i exist within, the continuum. to push the craft, to experiment, to innovate, to confront, and to explore the self as multidimensional soil. Some times we bloom. it is our duty to move with and beyond.
most folks have no idea what we do with our art because we glorify people and aesthetics more than we do the pursuit and our values. product more than process. and so i want to give thanks for the process of making this incredible new album. to all the collaborators who collectively poured into a vision i’m learning day by day to be obedient to. a service i came here for. a purpose we co-write the story with. give thanks for all the kindred spirits who resonate with what we be on and who dedicate themselves to this frequency so that we may be sincere, true, and dare i say, revolutionary love.
I woul d love for you all to listen to this record and share with me what resonates with you. i still believe in word of mouth as the greatest “marketing strategy,” and so if somethin i made moved you in a meaningful way all i ask is that you share that with someone else. give thanks.
always,
aja
JOIN ME ON THE ELSEWHERE TOUR!
this past week began the elsewhere tour at the legendary Carnegie Hall! it was a powerful moment for me to experiment with the new songs. then we did Atlanta Jazz Festival and now we’re off to Los Angeles at the Getty Museum and then The BAY AREA at The Chapel. Tell your peoples! We hope to see y’all there.
a balm, an anthem, a gift!!!! "say it with your chest" felt like a heart opener, a welcoming of all that is here, a grounding and a gentle nudge towards feeling, "elsewhere" - we are each other's elsewhere made me feel the joy, belonging and weep, "working class musicians" had me chanting because the rent IS TOO HIGH & I felt "i came to the poem" like a prayer. "love is a choosing" hit me at heart & " every media minute"caught me very off guard. thank you <3
This reads like both an album release and a manifesto on labor, lineage and artistic integrity.
What stands out most is the way you refuse to separate music from the conditions it was born inside of. The insistence that process is sacred not just product feels like a necessary correction in a culture that too often flattens art into content. There’s something grounding in the way you name working class musicianship not as a romantic idea but as lived infrastructure: fragile, exploited and still deeply essential.
I also love the lineage moments… the elders “falling” into your space, not as superstition but as a kind of symbolic accountability. A reminder that creation is never isolated and that innovation can still be devotional.
And beneath all of it, there’s a quiet political clarity: that love, labor and art are not separate lanes and that honoring the people behind the sound is part of the sound itself.
I wish you all the best and elevation in your future endeavors and gratitude for all the creativity and genius you put out and share with the world. 🌹