Last month, megiapa announced the release of her debut album Intentions, and shared ‘Open Your Eyes‘, a sun-drenched and seductive first taste of what was to come. Now the LA-based producer, vocalist, visual artist and linguist is enticing us again with ‘on the spaceway (frfr)’, a hazy and lush instrumental that puts her beatmaking skills front and centre, with guest contributions from bassist ghalani of Greenwood (aka The Growth Eternal), pianist Ahmad Muhammad (aka Kafari) and Telemakus. Drawing on the liberatory philosophies of Sun Ra, megiapa describes the track as imagining “Black people in this spaceway just enjoying themselves in all their expansiveness.” The track arrives with an accompanying video directed by LA visual artist Eric Coleman, who had this to say about it:
“The inspiration comes in part from Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep and the way Burnett found beauty, intimacy, and humanity within the everyday rhythms of Black life. But rather than focusing on the mundane or the weight of daily existence, I wanted to turn the camera toward joy—specifically the joy that exists within Black spaces. The backyard became the center of that idea. A familiar, almost sacred space where we gather, eat, laugh, create, listen to music, talk shit, tell stories, and simply exist with one another. My intention was to create a day in the life of creative Black folk without making the creativity itself the spectacle. I approached the editing with the same intention. I wanted the video to feel deceptively simple—to move naturally between moments, gestures, conversations, and details while quietly revealing the complexity underneath them. Black life can be joyful and complicated, ordinary and extraordinary, intimate and expansive all at once. I wanted the images, rhythms, and relationships to speak for themselves—to create a small portrait of Black life from the inside, where the backyard is not simply a location, but a space of freedom, creativity, family, and belonging.”
Watch the video below and grab Intentions when it drops on September 25th through International Anthem.
