Open Space: Goldlink | Mass Appeal

For the latest Open Space, we linked with Goldlink.

"I was born in D.C.," says Goldlink, who grew up on a musical diet of go-go, a regional subculture that evolved during his lifetime from funk, blues, and R&B influenced to "more punk and metalish-it became hella raw, less quality and really fast and really violent."

From family reunions to club nights, go-go was the soundtrack. Goldlink posits that go-go was like punk music for black people. "I'm just really directly influenced by it-I like fast shit, and I know that's because of go-go."

He says his recent album "At What Cost" depicts what happens at a go-go on a regular night. "On one track in particular he meets this female that he fancies and she happens to be from a rival neighborhood, and they get into an altercation over here-shots ring off."

D.C. was a patchwork of neighborhoods that he likens to life in Africa. "I kind of went worldly," he says, "cause that was what was intriguing."

"There were some allies but there were strong enemies and they kind of met in the go-go," he continues." The go-go was the meeting point where shit goes down."

In our latest Open Space interview Goldlink also discusses how he began working with Kaytranada-after angering his manager because he jackied one of K's beats of Soundcloud. "For some reason I get his stuff more than I get everybody else's," says Goldlink.

The artist also namees his G.O.A.T. rappers, compiling a list unlike most others: Kurupt, Black Thought, Fat Lip, and Lady of Rage. All of them under-rated underdogs with "unprecedented flows," sorta like Goldlink himself.

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