Endless Summer bLAck pARty

• 1 No Complaints 03:14
• 2 July 02:49
• 3 Spell 02:38
• 4 Dancing 04:05
• 5 Lay 02:54
• 6 4AM In NY 03:21
• 7 Purple Heart 03:10
• 8 Smoke Break II 01:48
• 9 Home 03:01
• 10 Gold Coast 01:40
• Total Runtime 28:40

Info for Endless Summer

Los Angeles-via-Arkansas singer BLAck pARty has just released his debut album Endless Summer on RCA Records.

“‘Endless Summer started off between two creative spaces; my parents’ home where I was staying, and then Donald [Glover]’s home studio,” he told Complex. “At my parent’s home, I would work with my parents and demo out stuff and work, and then I would take all that to the studio.”

Black encompasses all of the colors on the visible spectrum.

In similar fashion, artist, producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist bLAck pARty absorbs, imbibes, and celebrates a wide swath of styles, spanning R&B, hip-hop, psychedelic soul, and self-described “tropical funk”—his own inimitable infusion of reggae, dancehall, and tropical tones. The Arkansas-born and Los Angeles-based aural alchemist integrates a lifetime of music obsession into unpredictable, undeniable, and unshakable anthems on his 2019 full-length debut, Endless Summer [Wolf + Rothstein/RCA Records].

“I’m just like a scientist who’s obsessed with music,” he exclaims. “I’m always studying it and looking for the feelings and tones that draw people to songs. I try to learn as much as I can and see outside of the box, thinking about creation from a psychological and cultural standpoint. I’ve realized older records and newer records share a common theme: the energy.”

Born Malik Flint, he recognized this energy as a child, admitting that “music discovered me more than I discovered it.” His early passions included everything from Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, and Miles Davis to Sade, India.Arie, and Tupac. At 12-years-old, he picked up trumpet, joining jazz band, marching band, and middle school band. By high school, he taught himself guitar, keys, and bass in addition to engineering and recording. In between his devotion to beat making, he DJ-ed, promoted shows, and performed in hip-hop groups before launching his rap- rock outfit Flint Eastwood. He cut his teeth in the band, opening for the likes of MGK, Big K.R.I.T., Bush, and Nappy Roots, to name a few.

Following the dissolution of the group, he adopted the name bLAck pARty and began producing for local upstart Kari Faux in 2013. Their collaboration “No Small Talk” caught the attention of Childish Gambino who remixed it on his STN MTN / KAUAI mixtape. Following the 2014 release of Prototype, the buzzing talent relocated to Los Angeles, spending “almost 24 hours a day cooking up beats.” Impressed by bLAck pARty’s work ethic and creativity, Gambino personally signed him to Wolf + Rothstein and enlisted his production talents on the platinum-certified GRAMMY® Award- winning “Awaken, My Love!” He also contributed music to Insecure, Dear White People, and Atlanta in addition to executive producing Faux’s Lost en Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, his own 2016 breakout, MANGO, went viral with the video for “Best View” and earned widespread attention from Complex, Vibe, and more. After touring the world, a trip to New York (and some shrooms in Times Square) set the stage for Endless Summer. “New York is always like a vacation, because it’s the polar opposite from L.A.,” he explains. “I was able to get away for the few days I was there. It was the trippiest experience. I figured out shit. When I came back to L.A., I started working on this immediately.”

Achieving that goal, he introduces Endless Summer with the single “4am in NY” [feat. Anajah]. Warm guitars and hazy production bristle against hypnotic harmonies courtesy of Anajah. The simmering beat serves as the perfect soundtrack to a Big Apple stroll in the dead of night punctuated by smooth lyrical confessions.

“There’s something about New York,” he goes on. “Life is happening in every direction, but people are in their own worlds. It allows me to be in my feelings more without overthinking things. I can be myself.”

Elsewhere, “No Complaints” [feat. DMP Jefe] slips from a funky groove into a quietly crooned chant—“I can get high with no complaints”—before a nimbly rapped bridge. “Smoke Break II” immediately intoxicates, while the finale “Gold Coast” hinges on swells of bells and bass before a hypnotic hook.

“I was in Gold Coast Australia for New Year’s Eve,” he recalls. “When we’re having winter, it’s summer down there. It’s a powerful visual. I know of a place to escape the cold where everybody is smiling.”

In the end, bLAck pARty conveys that sentiment with everything he does, painting with every color he can get his hands on. “When you listen to this, I hope you take away what I do from certain records,” he leaves off. “There’s an emotion for every song—sadness, happiness, excitement, and everything in between. It’s about providing an audio escape for people to feel.”

bLAck pARty

bLAck pARty
A visit from a hummingbird is an ethereal experience, highlighting the perpetual motion of life and nature. A series of encounters with these tiny fluttering creatures felt like more than coincidence to LA-based artist Malik Flint, otherwise known as bLAck pARty, whose forthcoming third album, Hummingbird, is dedicated to these uncanny experiences. While working on his first project Mango at a house in Los Angeles, where Malik had been invited to stay and work by Donald Glover, his booming sub bass attracted a hummingbird that lingered daily at the doorway to the studio. Only appearing when he played music, Malik understood the hummingbird’s presence as spiritual and began to identify the hummingbird as a personal totem.

He later learned their indigenous symbolism teaches perseverance and positivity, and their ability to attract mates through elaborate acts, like singing with their tails, resonated with Malik on a deeper level. The album, an amalgam of sounds that sprawl and pull from psychedelic, funk, R&B, and reggae, channels hummingbirds in both sound and theme. Its opening track, “Blues”, finds bLAck pARty’s sultry voice referencing their avian stunts over beats that vibrate like wings. As a collection, the record moves at a steady pace, dynamic in its spectrum of hip shaking grooves and consistent in its ability to command attention.

Malik describes the moniker bLAck pARty as a nod to the collective power of Black music and the tradition’s contributions to the world. Born in Arkansas, Malik was raised an army brat by a musically-inclined family—his mother is a singer and his father, brothers and sister have all played parts on his records. From Tennessee and Kentucky to California and Colorado, Malik experienced a diversity of environments from a young age, always rooting himself in the music he grew up with: Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Shuggie Ottis and Musiq Soulchild to name a few. bLAck pARty is in Malik’s words “a celebration” of all the elements of Black music that solidified his sound as an artist, spanning from soul and gospel to funk, rock and roll and even country music. Any listener familiar with the quintessential, voluptuous funk of neo soul mainstay D’Angelo will immediately take note of his influence.

Malik’s knack for blending sounds is evident not just in his music or the meaning behind bLAck pARty, but also in his approach to collaboration. A cornerstone of his career so far, working with others is at the root of his musical journey. Malik recalls playing trumpet and horns in his middle school and high school marching bands before producing, engineering and recording others like rapper Kari Faux and pop/R&B duo Chloe x Halle. At one point he was in a rap rock band called Flint Eastwood, and his first record, Mango, was the result of finding a community to share demos with on Twitter and Soundcloud. Working closely with Kari Faux early in his career opened doors to working with acclaimed actress, writer and producer Issa Rae on the music for her hit HBO series Insecure, and cemented an impactful relationship with multi-hyphenate artist Donald Glover, culminating in signing to his Wolf + Rothstein label in partnership with RCA and contributing to Glover’s critically acclaimed 2016 Childish Gambino album “Awaken, My Love!”.

“I just wanted to make something that was different, but still felt like it would last,” Malik says about putting Hummingbird together. The album marks both a new chapter in his life as well as an important creative lesson. When the world was trying to tell Malik something, he listened. Hummingbird, in all its exquisite tones and textures, is his response—the world should listen.

This album contains no booklet.