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Thursday, June 20, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS

As the old saying goes, the most 
qualified person is not always the 
best for the job. We’ve heard this for 
much of our lives, whether it be in ref-
erence to getting an internship, a job, 
a seat in a graduate program or, hell, 
even a significant other. Someone can 
have every accolade to their name, but 
that doesn’t mean they’ll be the right 
fit. Sometimes, it takes more than 
just a shining résumé; some people 
just have the “it” factor. It might be 
their demeanor, attitude or specific 
skill set, but when someone has the 
“it” factor, it’s obvious. In the case of 
D.C. rapper GoldLink, he has a knack 
for finding the “it” factor, especially 
when it comes from a singer or rapper 
that still has a lot to prove.
For much of GoldLink’s career, he 
has taken growing talent that has yet 
to see the spotlight and made amaz-
ing music with them. Take his 2017 
sleeper hit “Crew” for example. He 
collaborated with Shy Glizzy, a rap-
per perpetually trapped at the brink 
of breakout success, and Brent Faiyaz, 
a silky-voiced newcomer still try-
ing to get his feet off the ground, and 
together, they struck gold. Each man 
brought their own unique panache to 
the track, and this is credited to each 
respective artist’s hunger and desire 
to breakout. Now that GoldLink has 
risen to a higher profile, it would make 
sense for him to start seeking out big-
ger feature artists. Diaspora does see 
bigger names hitting the tracklist, 
however, Goldlink continues to put on 
lesser-known talent.
Diaspora is an incredible collection 

of songs steamed in GoldLink’s sound. 
No one else sounds like him, and he 
knows it. He leans into his nasally 
voice and bouncy, seamless flow and 
finds collaborators who will aug-
ment his sound without altering it. On 
“Zulu Screams,” Diaspora’s energetic 
lead single, GoldLink takes his dance-
able and electronics components and 
fuses it with Maleek Berry’s afrobeats 
touch. Berry, a world star who has yet 
to break through to the U.S. main-
stream, proves to be a perfect fit on 
the song. His joyous voice and exu-
berant production perfectly accent 
GoldLink’s dance-influenced sound. 

Berry puts his own unique touch on 
the song, proving GoldLink’s ability to 
get the best out of collaborators.
GoldLink further demonstrates 
this ability with outstanding songs 
like “Joke Ting” and “Rumble.” On 
“Joke Ting,” guest feature Ari Pen-
Smith delivers an excellent hook 
that matches and blends in with the 
laid-back vibe of GoldLink’s delivery. 
What’s more, she even matches the 
tone of his braggadocious and slick-
talking verse. PenSmith flexes a little 
bit with lines like, “‘Cause my whole 
squad on swole, you don’t wanna get 
involved / Get close, you might choke, 
we ain’t on a joke ting,” which perfect-
ly drives GoldLink’s verse home. Fur-
ther, on “Rumble,” GoldLink brings 

on DMV rapper Lil Nei as well as 
Jackson Wang, solo artist and mem-
ber of Korean boy band GOT7, both 
of whom bring lighthearted perfor-
mances to an already boisterous and 
jovial track.
Despite the prominence of new-
comers on Diaspora, GoldLink also 
performs without assistance. Tracks 
like the reminiscent and chill “Tiff 
Freestyle” and the frantic, dextrous 
“Manic” both show that GoldLink 
is more than capable of carrying a 
song by himself. Surprisingly, how-
ever, GoldLink does also bring in a 
few high-profile artists to collaborate 
with him. Pusha T, Khalid and Tyler, 
the Creator all make appearances, 
but they aren’t just there to boost 
streaming numbers. They were all 
clearly chosen because GoldLink felt 
that they were the most fit artist for 
their respective songs and that no one 
else could do it better than them. And 
it’s true. Each artist has a great and 
personality-filled performance, with 
Khalid taking home the title of best 
feature. Replace these artists and the 
tracks wouldn’t have had the same 
synergy and dynamicism.
With Diaspora, GoldLink tightens 
the screws from his last release, At 
What Cost. He crafts more enjoyable 
songs, varies his flows and has better 
beat selection. No song reaches the 
heights of “Crew,” but he comes close 
with both “Zulu Screams” and “U 
Say.” What’s more, GoldLink proves 
that his ability to find the perfect 
artists to fit his songs is unmatched. 
No feature is wasted, and no feature 
is unwanted. Everyone involved in 
the project delivers, but especially 
the mastermind behind the project 
himself, crafting an album that is 
distinctly GoldLink.

‘Diaspora’ is a talent show

JIM WILSON 
Daily Arts Writer

ALBUM REVIEW

 NPR

Let’s start this gig off by stat-
ing the obvious: The meaning of 
Pride Month has changed, or at 
least expanded, drastically.
This short bit of gay dribble is 
not a sound-off about how Adidas 
shouldn’t be releasing a collec-
tion of rainbow colored sneak-
ers that may or may not stand to 
benefit the community it seeks 
to represent in any way what-
soever. There are reasons why 
they should, there are reasons 
why they shouldn’t, there are 
things they could do to make it 
feel less exploit-
ative and they’re 
going to release 
them anyway. Its 
existence 
serves 
better as a barom-
eter of Pride and 
its 
relationship 
to mass commer-
cialization 
than 
a lightning rod 
for social critique 
because, 
to 
be 
honest, there are 
too many of those 
to keep track. 
There is press 
circulating the dauntingly fast-
paced, streetwear and sneaker-
focused section of the internet 
detailing their choice to support 
LGBTQ+ athletes (the other being 
to quietly cut ties for a made-up 
reason and hope nobody notic-
es). Articles covering it describe 
the move as an obvious one, but 
in effect congratulate them for 
doing so. We as consumers are 
unlikely to see, let alone pay any 
real attention to, the seemingly 
obligatory and phoned-in state-
ments given by mega-corpora-
tions during the month of June. 
Yet, they manage to commu-
nicate something beyond their 
own sentiments performed in the 
name of self-interest — they rep-
resent the ill-matched marriage 
between 
social 
progressivism 
and our current market.
It’s fascinating and soul-goug-
ing to observe how companies 
posture themselves, intention-

ally or not, as morally-upright 
champions of discredited identi-
ties and communities. It’s also 
very easy to look in the rearview 
mirror, think about icons of queer 
liberation like Crystal LaBeija or 
Martha P. Johnson, and wonder 
if all their strife amounted to 
highly profitable identity badges 
and not much else.
There are a lot of articles 
detailing exactly how rainbow 
capitalism works, how it spits on 
what the first pride parades set 
out to do. Detailing how vitally 
important it is to support queer 
creators, companies that actu-
ally 
support 
the 
community 
through and through and to be 
able to discern them from hol-
low attempts at a 
cash grab via color 
gradient. If you’re 
reading this one, 
odds 
are 
you’re 
already aware of 
this concern (and 
if not, feel free 
to click on some 
highlighted words 
and get yourself 
up to speed). The 
truth is that there 
is very little to say 
that hasn’t already 
been said in this 
way, 
and 
Pride 
Month continues to be treated 
as an injection of capital during 
a time of the year when sales are 
normally down.
Markets prey on the margin-
alized, and it’s bigger than pride 
packs or tank tops that say Make 
America Gay Again on them. It’s 
bigger than the consumer that 
buys those products (really, buy 
the shoes if you like them, you’re 
not going to be sentenced to 
eternal damnation over a pair of 
Continental 80s). It’s bigger than 
the companies that provide those 
products, too — even the ones 
coming from the most genuine 
place and providing the greatest 
amount of support are operat-
ing in an unethical market that 
rewards all entities that adhere 
to a fashionable, adulterated and 
constantly shifting morality.

A word on Pride 
amid capitalism

SAM KREMKE
Daily Arts Writer

STYLE NOTEBOOK

Read more at michigandaily.com

Diaspora

GoldLink

RCA Records

The meaning of 
Pride Month has 
changed, or at 
least expanded, 
drastically.

