Rappers of the past few years have grown obsessed with looking like flamboyant rockstars while still managing to maintain their rap sound, no matter how far the music deviates from its conventions. Few artists have taken on the task of going all out for the rap rockstar sound, though. New Orleans' Hirakish is one of them.In VICE's music issue, we spent time in NOLA with a collective called The Pink Room Project which has created a mission to bring attention to black native artists that grew within hip-hop culture, but want to make music outside of the genre. Hirakish, a model turned singer, gained his musical chops with The Pink and throughout the course of 2017, has released music that takes the bulk of its inspiration from androgynous British rockstars and funk acts like Parliament Funkadeic. Today we're premiering Hirakish's new track, "Flesh."The track, which is produced by The Pink's Ares, is filled with echoey synths, guitar riffs, and pounding drums as Kish offers slick crooning about what it takes to live the rockstar life. He said it was mainly inspired by acts like Queen, Radiohead, and Sun Ra. "It’s about a young man who is contemplating the idea of become a big time rock star but the sex, drugs, and the concepts of life take him out of his spiritual path," Hirakish said of the song's meaning over email. "The more and more he does this, the less being his soul has." Listen to the track below.
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