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HULKSICKO! is an upcoming HipHop artist already making international waves

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Hailing from Bronx, NY, HULKSICKO! is an artist that you’ll surely become familiar with in the next couple of years. The independent artist describes his name as being derived from a childhood nickname for always lifting weights after basketball practice.  He added the exclamation point for emphasis, so that people could “feel him.” Anyone who listens to his music will certainly feel his distinct uptempo and melodic style along with meaningful lyrics that reflect the trials and tribulations of growing up in the Bronx. Having lived in Section 2 in the Co-op City of Bronx until age 14, HULKSICKO! would find trouble often. His mother, who immigrated from Liberia,found it best to move their family upstate so that her children could focus on staying on the right path.

A music career wasn’t always on the artist’ radar. HULKSICKO! was a star athlete, having received two Division One college basketball offers after his freshman year, but after a traumatizing hip injury, he ultimately decided to retire the jersey and pivot his energy toward the studio. He reminisces and says, “I found myself recording more. My sound started to get better and I saw myself transitioning from athlete to artist.”

Like any skilled musician, HULKSICKO! had the natural ability to connect with his fans. His potential in music didn’t become clear until he received a DM (Direct Message) on Instagram from someone in Germany saying they cried to his song on the night of their mother’s funeral. He realized that if he could provide an emotional experience from a random overseas fan, there’s no telling where his music could take him. 

The Bronx native started to gain international recognition when he ventured to China to further grow his music career, something uncommon for new artists. If you follow him on Instagram, you’ll see the Chinese characters as captions for all of his highlight reels.He adds. “The fact that I speak Chinese influences some of the harmonies that I think of while making music.” He visited twice and went to 10 different cities while there and lived there for a whole month at one point. He even had planned to move to Shenzhen, the “Miami of China”, according to HULKSICKO!.

HULKSICKO! joins a grip of artists who recently moved West for his music. He is currently living in Los Angeles using the COVID Pandemic downtime to adjust to a whole different coast, work on video content and edit his unreleased music.  “After I created a routine [in LA] and I had the right energy around me, I knew it was going to be a better fit than New York for what I wanted to accomplish. There’s a lot of temptation in New York, when you’ve got time on your hands you could get yourself into something you might not want to.”

What does the future hold for HULKSICKO!? He’s been listening to alot of UK artists, so a collaboration is up his sleeve. One of his goals is to have a platinum record. After music he says he sees himself expanding his artistic vision toward architecture, perhaps investing into real estate.

You can check out HULKSICKO!’s music on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and all the major platforms!

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  • Damon Albarn would “like to work with musicians in Palestine and Israel” but calls Bob Vylan Glastonbury chant “a spectacular misfire”

Damon Albarn would “like to work with musicians in Palestine and Israel” but calls Bob Vylan Glastonbury chant “a spectacular misfire”

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Damon Albarn has shared aims of working with musicians “in Palestine and Israel” amid the war, and called the way it was addressed in Bob Vylan‘s Glastonbury set “a spectacular misfire”

Talking to The Times about his passion project, multinational collective Africa Express, the Blur frontman said, “part of the huge issue of Palestine is the way that their identity is being eroded so brutally”.

The UN has found Israel’s military actions to be consistent with genocide, and more than 57,800 people have since been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry (via BBC News). Israel has continually denied that what’s going on in Palestine is considered a genocide, and has argued that it has not partaken in any war crimes.

“Africa Express could go into Palestine,” Albarn added. “It’s not about politics, it’s about culture. And so I would also want to go to Israel and bring people together. If I was asked to go to Russia, I would go. I’d go to Ukraine too.”

 

The comments were made on the heels of Bob Vylan playing a headline-grabbing set on Glastonbury’s West Holts Stage, in which they voiced their support for Palestine, criticised Israel and led the crowd in a chant calling for death to the Israel Defence Forces. The subsequent fallout saw them come under a criminal investigation and have shows in Germany and France dropped, while their agents have reportedly cut ties with them, and their US visas have been revoked.

“It was one of the most spectacular misfires I’ve seen in my life,” Albarn said of the performance. “Especially when he started to goose-step in tennis gear. I mean I’ve had my moments — not quite as catastrophic as that but you do get carried away. The old testosterone gets you going. But it’s unfortunate. Everyone’s just so hysterical.”

He had previously used an appearance at the Worthy Farm festival alongside Bombay Bicycle Club to ask the crowd how they felt about Palestine. “Are you pro-Palestine?” he asked festival-goers last year. “Do you feel that’s an unfair war?”

 

“I’ve been doing this a very long time and I still haven’t got any bloody answers,” he continued to The Times. “You want to say what you believe in and what you feel. That’s important, but it comes with huge caveats. We live and learn, or not.

“People get angry, say stupid things because they’re not communicating with each other properly. Therein lies the rub, as dear Shakespeare once said.”

As for Bob Vylan, they played their first show since Glastonbury at The 100 Club last week, and urged fans to stop repeating the “death to the IDF” chant when a group of gig-goers attempted to revive it.

As shown in footage captured by The Standard, frontman Bobby Vylan immediately pointed at those chanting and said: “No no no no no, you’re gonna get me in trouble. Apparently, every other chant is fine, but you lot will get me in trouble.” He then led the crowd in a chant of “Free, free Palestine”.

 

A BBC Music boss reportedly stepped down following the backlash against the Glastonbury gig being broadcast live, with the corporation describing Vylan’s comments as “offensive and deplorable”. They have also said they will no longer live broadcast any performances deemed “high risk” in the future.

A number of artists spoke out in support of Vylan, including Lambrini Girls, Amyl & The Sniffers and Soft Play, as well as Massive Attackwho urged the media to focus on “what is happening daily to the people of Gaza”, and Chuck D, who said “we have to be able to fight for peace and love by any means necessary”.

Bob Vylan were dropped from Manchester’s Radar Festival too, although organisers made it clear that they did not want to do this. Then, several bands pulled out of the festival in a show of solidarity with Bob Vylan, including Hero In Error.

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