“His most affecting tracks celebrate nuance; they often manage to be joyful and tragic,
triumphant and anxiety-inducing, all at once” Rolling Stone
“Through Saba’s inner turmoil, he finds his most powerful and diaristic” storytelling.” Pitchfork
“Sell-out shows have been a long time coming for the rapper,
who’s been a streaming success with Australian listeners” Acclaim
“In mining such intensely personal subject matter Saba has found that
the more honest he is with his own life and experiences, the more people connect” FBi Radio
“A beautiful project with so much replay value it’s astounding” The AU Review
“Tremendously gifted” Stereogum
“Lush and funky” Consequence
“Honesty and humility knows no bounds” Best Before
Ahead of his Day N Vegas Festival performance next week, acclaimed Chicago rapper-producer and Pivot Gang Co-Founder Saba has announced that his highly anticipated third solo album Few Good Things via The Orchard coming soon. He also shares the album’s lead single ‘Fearmonger‘featuring frequent collaborator Daoud.LISTEN HERE.
Speaking on the inspiration behind his new single, Saba shares, “A ‘fearmonger’ is defined by Cambridge as ‘someone who intentionally tries to make people afraid of something when this is not necessary or reasonable.’ I’m saying we’re embedded with this ‘irrational fear.’ The song takes this concept and kind of turns it slightly abstract by assigning a character to ‘fearmonger.’ I’ve never made a record that sounded anything like this and part of the fun of releasing music is to create worlds sonically and have people trust you to show them around your own imagination.”
He continues, “At the time of making this record I was beginning to realize how big of a hold fears actually had on me. With big decisions to make, I was never sure if I was doing the right thing. Fearing if I was actually doing enough. Fear had become something that I just accepted. No longer trying to overcome it. Fear of losing everything. Fear of failure. Fear of not being enough. I walk on uncharted territory and it makes me think of my own family and their relationships to fear, failure, and success. The song mostly deals with fear as it relates to money in the Black household, a fear that I am still currently working through.
“Being from a long line of poverty is not a new story, but it does come with its own traumas and judgements that can make our relationship to success feel like it’s never enough. It’s embedded into us from our upbringing so we spend our adulthood trying our best to unlearn it. It becomes you holding on to a dollar afraid to spend it or share it because you don’t know if it’s your last one. There is no family line or trust fund or rich grandparent that can help you. If you hit the bottom, it’s just that. The same way that your parents were, and the same way their parents were. ‘I know if I fall back down ain’t no one there to lend me rope.’
‘Fearmonger (ft. Daoud)‘,co-producedby Daoud and daedaePIVOTis the lead single from Saba‘s forthcoming albumFew Good Things. It also marks the first full-length release since his 2018 breakout album CARE FOR ME, which he debuted in Australia at a sold-out Sydney Opera House performance, alongside major recognition across global outlets including Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Stereogum and more.
‘Fearmonger (ft. Daoud)’ by Saba is out now, buy/stream it here.