Music Spotlight: Armani White
Armani White is back with Keep in Touch, his new LP inspired by his father’s death. He took a break from making music after his father passed away of cancer a few years ago but the creative process for this album began at his father’s funeral. They encouraged him not to mourn the death, but to celebrate life so he wanted this project to be a celebration of his life and story. Check out what he had to say!
Tell us about Keep in Touch and what you hope people take away from it.
Keep in Touch is a story based on the timeline of my father. I was fully inspired to do it after his funeral when the pastor insisted that we didn’t mourn his death but, instead, celebrate life! The timeline of my father’s story begins in a 1994 Jeep Cherokee, bought with settlement money from a case against the city of Philadelphia. Inside the jeep was Lee Tolbert aka Touché, a member of the Philly Gang “Junior Black Mafia” or JBM for short. The project follows Lee through the many narratives that built him up, yet scraped away and made him human. The fearlessness that drove him and his friend Trevor to attack the rival gang who stole his Jeep from him. The pure emotions that constructed a love life between him and Trevor’s younger sister. The kid they had together that taught him how precious life really is; and the fear of his own power to ruin all of those things while trying to protect them.
Craziest thing that’s happened while on the road?
This one show we played in some bar in the middle of nowhere. Our green room was some really small room next to the fire escape and the people in the crowd could see me from the front. These two girls walked on stage, pushed the opener out the way and chased me into the bathroom. I was hiding in the stall…hahaha. I also broke my tooth in DC on tour with Vince Staples, I’m not sure if that was crazy or just inconvenient!
Who impacts your creative process? Has this process changed for you since your previous work?
This was heavily impacted by my father obviously but it’s either people I know very well or people I don’t know at all. With writing for me, I have to go out in the world, experience as many things as possible and bring all of those things back to my desk to make the music as realistic as possible.
Tyler, the Creator, Childish Gambino, E-40 and T-Pain
In your opinion, what’s the most interesting thing about you that people may not know?
I don’t know how it happened, but I found out I’m allergic to chicken which is just awful…lol
If there was one thing you could change about the music industry today, what would it be?
The amount of honesty, transparency and vulnerability.
Lighting round! Describe each of the following in one word: Who you are, what you value the most, and what you’d be if you were a food item.
Check out Armani’s video for ‘Black Oak Park’ and listen to his new project Keep in Touch available everywhere now.
