For his newest project, Kadeem went full Rocket Man and launched his bars into the icy depths space — but he didn’t begin his astral voyage alone.
The Boston rapper’s new tape Universum shares an intergalactic soul-search curated with Frank the Butcher, the storied streetwear designer and Mass-based producer. Their collection of large-scale and luscious hip-hop dropped this morning (October 8) following a private listening event in Somerville with Loman this Sunday, pictured above.
“Frank’s great — I’ve always regarded him as an OG and a monumental piece of culture in this state,” Kadeem tells Vanyaland. “For me, the best part of this wasn’t the music but the convos about what the intention of the sound was. Frank’s production on this sounds like what my thoughts are like on a regular basis. To hear that on wax with no barriers was liberating.”
As the title suggests, the Universum aims to unpack the complexities of the universe with just six tracks, each decorated with drifting beats and vintage samples. Simple stuff, right? For Kadeem, examining the theme through a personal lens made his mission more manageable — and more career-affirming.
“I just looked at myself as the universe,” Kadeem explains. “I took my experiences and understandings as small instances that happen on a larger scale. What was daunting was hearing it all back in completion. There were a some intense moments that happened in my life following the project and they confirmed that what I was writing was true—for me at least. That shook me up because I grew to understand the power in words and why I enjoy this craft so much.”
Hear how Kadeem and Frank the Butcher captured the sound of the cosmos below.