[Cover photo credit to Claudio De La Rosa]
Bronx-based Nigerian-American Hip-Hop artist, activist, and attorney Udoka Malachi has shared the first single from his upcoming debut album Palace Lumumba. The single “Witching Hour” comes along with a visual companion which was written by Udoka and directed by Nicholas Sossi Romano.
Malachi walks us through the song and video:
The song describes a hopeless infatuation with a woman whose mere existence is enough to bewitch her suitors. The video aims to dispel the notion that non-Abrahamic religions consist of evil-minded followers. The idea that followers of religions like Santeria or practices like Obeah have sadistic intentions is inherently anti-black as these practices arrived in the west during transatlantic slavery. Thus, in the video, the victims of the witches do not die or harm anyone, rather they become like the women who kissed them..fun, joyful…and communal.
Udoka Malachi’s upcoming album Palace Lumumba was recorded in May of 2020, after Udoka’s 9-year hiatus from music in pursuit of his law degree. As the COVID19 pandemic brought the world to a sudden halt in 2020, Udoka found himself struggling with ways to engage with the world outside of his Bronx apartment windows.
He began writing the first songs on what would become his debut effort, Palace Lumumba in May of 2020. The album was recorded between his Bronx, NY apartment and his AirBnB in Grenada. Udoka escaped to the small Caribbean nation to complete the recording of the album.
