Grip

About

The music of Josiah Wise lives at the intersection of sacred and profane. Since his 2016 debut EP, <i>blisters</i>, the Baltimore-born singer-songwriter has mastered his mode of gospel music for sinners—midnight music that shimmers like an oil slick, made to soundtrack the megachurch/nightclub hybrid that exists in his wildest fantasie. His third album, <i>GRIP</i>, begins in the club: a Black queer love story shown through a cool, controlled, voyeuristic len. Picture a strobe-lit close-up of a hand placed on a waist, a bead of sweat trembling on a shoulder, as serpent coos over the four-on-the-floor thump of intro “Damn Gloves”: “Hold you closer, closer than those damn gloves/Kiss you longer, longer than an opera.” (He’s joined by frequent collaborator and fellow hedonist Ty Dolla $ign, along with the Cape Town soul singer Yanga YaYa.) .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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