Young Fathers announce new album White Men Are Black Too, stream "Rain Or Shine"

Despite only releasing debut LP Dead at the helm of last year, Young Fathers are already on the route to releasing a follow up.

Lead single "Rain Or Shine" opens like a broken carousel, before lo-fi beats saunter in and distorted vox (that sound oddly reminiscent of The Clash's "Rock The Casbah") burble forth. Zooming far from straight-up rap music, this is a bizarre venture that barely fits in the outer regions of the genre, going further than noted experimentalists Flying Lotus and Ghostpoet.

The band told DIY about the choice of title:

"I’m aware of the points we’ve discussed but all that sounds like to me is, we are trying to cater to what other people might think, as if it’s a negative thing, which it’s not. We came at it from a different angle, a positive angle. it’s got issues of race and so what? Why should alarm bells start ringing, even though in general conversations race, politics, sex and religion are always the subject matter? Why should it be discussed behind closed doors and never confronted head on?

How do we help tackle one of the biggest hinderances in people’s lives and the world… by not putting the question forward and not letting people debate positively or negatively about the statement?

Motown music helped change the world, made it expectable for blacks to be on radio and seen on tv, MJ did it too. Martin Luther King wanted equality and achieved it to some degree. But, after all that, are things equal in this world? FUCK NO. I still want to ask for it (equality) backed with the best music we’ve ever recorded. A pop album, our interpretation of what a pop album should be.

Weight with words, which is the title plus the pop sensibility of the songs (respectively).

I wanna stand for something which I helped make. Folk will complain about absolutely anything… Even if it’s it from the purest of intentions you just can’t win. We don’t make music to please other people or write certain lyrics to do so, either. Why start now?

When the title was first put forward everybody was excited and 100% there was no fear. That same commitment needs be carried on to make it work despite worries after it’s been digested."

The Scottish alt. hip-hop threesome will drop White Men Are Black Too on 6 April via Big Dada.

Stream "Rain Or Shine" below. The tracklist can be found after.

Tracklist:

1. Still Running
2. Shame
3. Feasting
4. 27
5. Rain Or Shine
6. Sirens
7. Old Rock n Roll
8. Nest
9. Liberated
10. John Doe
11. Dare Me
12. Get Started