If you'd like to see full video of this and other episodes, join the Reel Notes Patreon at the Homie ($5/month) tier or higher. You also get early access to episodes, an invite to our Discord server, access to the Reel Talk archives, and more!

My guest this week is Montreal-via-Zambia rapper, producer, and composer Backxwash. We spoke about Sinners, Nigerian cinema, our respective histories with horror movies, moving from Zambia to Canada, how Cassidy mixtapes, Common’s Be, and Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor informed her rap style, the timeless appeal of Memphis rap, mixing rap with doom metal, having fun while making music about trauma, and the creative process behind her latest album Only Dust Remains. Come fuck with us.

Only Dust Remains is available wherever music is sold, streamed, or stolen. Consider copping off Backxwash's Bandcamp. Follow Backxwash on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok: @backxwash

Read my piece, What Sinners and Chelsea Reject Taught Me About The Power of Black Cultural Memory, for Hearing Things.

My first book, Reel Notes: Culture Writing on the Margins of Music and Movies, is available now, via 4 PM Publishing. Order a digital copy on Amazon.

Reel Notes stands in solidarity with the oppressed peoples of Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Tigray, and Haiti. Please consider donating to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, The Palestinian Youth Movement, The Zakat Foundation, HealAfrica, FreeTigray, and/or Hope For Haiti. For information about contacting your representatives to demand a ceasefire, finding protests, and other tools, check out CeasefireToday!

Follow me on Instagram (@cinemasai), Twitter (@CineMasai_), Bluesky (@cinemasai.bsky.social), TikTok (@cinemasai), Letterboxd (@CineMasai), and subscribe to my weekly Nu Musique Friday newsletter to stay tapped into all things Dylan Green.

Support the show

If you'd like to see full video of this and other episodes, join the Reel Notes Patreon at the Homie ($5/month) tier or higher. You also get early access to episodes, an invite to our Discord server, access to the Reel Talk archives, and more!

My guest this week is Vermont-via-Chicago producer, multiinstrumentalist, and record shop owner Greg Davis, also known by his beatmaking alias, Asterisk. We spoke about Perfect Days, the Star Wars franchise, particularly Revenge of the Sith, Legend of Ochi, A Clockwork Orange, falling in love with hip-hop, how studying music in college set him up to expand his vision, running a record store, bridging the gaps between the old and the new, and the creative process behind No School, his return to the world of hip-hop beatmaking. Come fuck with us.

No School is currently available exclusively on Greg's Bandcamp. Find it on all other DSPs starting June 6. Follow Greg on Instagram (@gregorytylerdavis) and Twitter (@asterisk_802), follow his record store, Autumn Records, on Instagram, and check them out if you're in the Vermont area.

My first book, Reel Notes: Culture Writing on the Margins of Music and Movies, is available now, via 4 PM Publishing. Order a digital copy on Amazon.

Reel Notes stands in solidarity with the oppressed peoples of Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Tigray, and Haiti. Please consider donating to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, The Palestinian Youth Movement, The Zakat Foundation, HealAfrica, FreeTigray, and/or Hope For Haiti. For information about contacting your representatives to demand a ceasefire, finding protests, and other tools, check out CeasefireToday!

Follow me on Instagram (@cinemasai), Twitter (@CineMasai_), Bluesky (@cinemasai.bsky.social), TikTok (@cinemasai), Letterboxd (@CineMasai), and subscribe to my weekly Nu Musique Friday newsletter to stay tapped into all things Dylan Green.

Support the show

Join me and special guest billy woods on Saturday, May 10 at Loudmouth in Brooklyn, for the eighth iteration of Reel Talk, a Reel Notes movie night. We'll be screening the 1997 psychological horror film Cure and talking about his latest album, Golliwog. Tickets and more info here.

If you'd like to see full video of this and other episodes, join the Reel Notes Patreon at the Homie ($5/month) tier or higher. You also get early access to episodes, an invite to our Discord server, access to the Reel Talk archives, and more!

My guest this week is Baton Rouge rapper Jireh. We spoke about Richard Pryor’s Which Way Is Up, the magic of video rentals, talking leftist ideology with family, Malibu’s Most Wanted, eventually turning his own life into a movie, making the transition to becoming a full-time rapper, working his way back from a personal low point, and the creative process behind his last three projects—A Guide 2 Recognizing Your Saints, B-Sides, and last year’s Perfect Circle. Come fuck with us.

Perfect Circle is available wherever music is sold, streamed, or stolen. Follow Jireh on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok: @jirehpc

My first book, Reel Notes: Culture Writing on the Margins of Music and Movies, is available now, via 4 PM Publishing. Order a digital copy on Amazon.

Reel Notes stands in solidarity with the oppressed peoples of Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Tigray, and Haiti. Please consider donating to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, The Palestinian Youth Movement, The Zakat Foundation, HealAfrica, FreeTigray, and/or Hope For Haiti. For information about contacting your representatives to demand a ceasefire, finding protests, and other tools, check out CeasefireToday!

Follow me on Instagram (@cinemasai), Twitter (@CineMasai_), Bluesky (@cinemasai.bsky.social), TikTok (@cinemasai), Letterboxd (@CineMasai), and subscribe to my weekly Nu Musique Friday newsletter to stay tapped into all things Dylan Green.

Support the show