Kool A.D., fresh off releasing his massive 100-song mixtape O.K., dropped a video for “Maestro” last week, shot against the 24-hour news marquee and billboard backdrop of Times Square.
“Maestro” is a free-form observational track that revels in candid vulnerability, asking open-ended questions that edge on exasperation, all over piano loops from collaborator Amaze 88:
“Fuck the police / They always wanna shoot us
Fuck the government / They don’t really give two fucks plus your school sucks
Money is fake / Poverty sucks / Fuck banks / Free everybody
Why they lock my cousins up in prison / Free everybody”
“Maestro” is almost a musical translation of Kool A.D.’s #rapdad tenderness (have you seen the man’s parenting column?). He ruminates on the volatile world around us, the institutions we’ve grown accustomed to, and the futures where everyone’s free because “There’s no justice on stolen land / hug me, hold my hand.”
Cop the full mixtape here, and keep your eyes out for Kool A.D.’s forthcoming novel O.K.