The album title is the whole thesis. Buy Art From A Human. Six words, a complete statement.
"Not Funny" is track ten off the collaborative album between AWOL One and Nick Andre, released via Sage Francis' Strange Famous Records. The track features Sage Francis himself alongside OldBoy Rhymes, and it fits the record's entire premise. In a time when images and music are increasingly generated by machines, an album called Buy Art From A Human is a stance. The physical vinyl and CD release is not nostalgia. It is consistent follow-through on the idea that art has value that cannot be converted into fractions of a cent per stream.
AWOL One is one of the most distinctive voices in the Los Angeles underground. A founding member of the Shape Shifters, a Project Blowed alumnus who came up alongside Aceyalone and the Good Life open mic scene, and a visual artist in his own right. His trademark raspy, off-cadence flow has always been able to take a rhyme anywhere over any beat. Nick Andre comes from the Bay Area side, a producer who has been operating at a high level for years. Together they build a sound that underlines exactly the human quality the album title insists on.
Sage Francis on "Not Funny" brings his characteristic rawness. The Providence MC and Strange Famous founder is one of the most respected figures in independent rap history, a Def Jam Poetry alumnus whose lyricism has never once compromised for accessibility. OldBoy Rhymes rounds out the track. The features across Buy Art From A Human read like a map of the current Western underground: Lyrics Born, Ceschi, Mr. Dibbs, Nicnak, Existereo, Gel Roc, Codefendants. No random cameos. The West Coast underground family in its current formation.
Watch the lyric video below.
