Montreal's Magi Merlin is brewing up some magic on a new EP, and today she's giving us a taste of what's to come with the single "Pissed Black Girl."
Gone Girl takes off on May 27 via Bonsound. It follows the Exclaim! New Faves alum's 2021 EP Drug Music. Pulling from an array of influences as diverse as '90s house, Motown and acid-splashed hip-hop, Merlin's new seven-track collection is heralded as her most daring, genre-bending effort to date.
And if swirling, soul-drenched slow-burner "Pissed Black Girl" is any indication, we're in for a disappearance to the dance floor. Of the new single, the artist said in a release:
I wrote this song in the summer of 2020. I was made to really look at my identity as a Black woman and what that identity means to the people I surround myself with. I didn't realize a lot of the people I had around me at the time that identified as progressive, leftist and "allies" were not as supportive as they made themselves out to be. Talking with them just resulted in arguments instead of compassion and understanding. This made me very angry and the only thing I was able to do to vent my frustrations and arrive at some form of catharsis was by singing about it.
The title of the track references a story an ex-friend recounted to me, as well as what I and many other Black women who speak their minds are reduced to: an "angry black woman." This ex-friend told me about a time they went to a predominantly white party in the suburbs and one of the party-goers, while staring out onto the front lawn of the house, said: "Wow, there's a n***er on the lawn" – one of many atrocious acts that go unchecked in white suburbia and various other white spaces. If there is anything I've learned from my experiences with ignorant and bigoted people, it is how unapologetic I need to be about my existence. I'm a girl; I am pissed and I'm Black. What about it?
Watch the video for "Pissed Black Girl" below, where you'll also find the EP tracklist.
Gone Girl:
1. Milkweed
2. Free Grillz
3. In Between
4. Pissed Black Girl
5. Children of Fate
6. Gone Girl Interlude
7. No Ego
Gone Girl takes off on May 27 via Bonsound. It follows the Exclaim! New Faves alum's 2021 EP Drug Music. Pulling from an array of influences as diverse as '90s house, Motown and acid-splashed hip-hop, Merlin's new seven-track collection is heralded as her most daring, genre-bending effort to date.
And if swirling, soul-drenched slow-burner "Pissed Black Girl" is any indication, we're in for a disappearance to the dance floor. Of the new single, the artist said in a release:
I wrote this song in the summer of 2020. I was made to really look at my identity as a Black woman and what that identity means to the people I surround myself with. I didn't realize a lot of the people I had around me at the time that identified as progressive, leftist and "allies" were not as supportive as they made themselves out to be. Talking with them just resulted in arguments instead of compassion and understanding. This made me very angry and the only thing I was able to do to vent my frustrations and arrive at some form of catharsis was by singing about it.
The title of the track references a story an ex-friend recounted to me, as well as what I and many other Black women who speak their minds are reduced to: an "angry black woman." This ex-friend told me about a time they went to a predominantly white party in the suburbs and one of the party-goers, while staring out onto the front lawn of the house, said: "Wow, there's a n***er on the lawn" – one of many atrocious acts that go unchecked in white suburbia and various other white spaces. If there is anything I've learned from my experiences with ignorant and bigoted people, it is how unapologetic I need to be about my existence. I'm a girl; I am pissed and I'm Black. What about it?
Watch the video for "Pissed Black Girl" below, where you'll also find the EP tracklist.
Gone Girl:
1. Milkweed
2. Free Grillz
3. In Between
4. Pissed Black Girl
5. Children of Fate
6. Gone Girl Interlude
7. No Ego