Jon Ivan Gill is an author and academic who views hip hop culture as a global philosophy of life and social justice. Encompassing history, religion, Afro-futurism, culture and philosophy, he collapses lineal time and logic, making world building connections that are often startlingly apposite. Part cosmic beat poet and part hardboiled dialectician, his musical alter ego, Gilead7, embraces contradiction, paradox and poetic license, building his narratives to arrive at deeper truths about the world. In producer Boricua Sandy, Gilead finds a collaborator equally wide-ranging in her inspirations. Together as VirgoTwins, their debut release ArtSpace combines an eclectic range of soundscapes with Gilead7’s exploratory verses. Sandy matches his words with expansive backings that owe as much to ambient electronica as traditional hip hop. If this seems counterintuitive, her music frees Gilead7’s lyrical flow from the strict imperative of rhythm and gives ArtSpace a loose, understated vibe that serves as a counterpoint to the intensity of the words and the scratching of guest DJ Presyce.
“Othello’s Children in the New World” is structured as an argument between a tenured professor protecting his status and his younger non-tenured colleague, with Gilead7 playing both parts. It ranges across Afro-diasporic history, the destruction of indigenous cultures and dismissal of their intellectual and artistic achievements by an academic structure wedded to power rather than knowledge— “What they don't know won't hurt 'em/But it will still our imperial power from global interior to coast/And to prevent that great awakening I'll do the most/Make the real historical records disappear like a ghost.” This tour-de-force of verbal and analytical dexterity plays out over growling bass and snippets of communal voice. “Shadow Work” celebrates unacknowledged underground artists. Sandy energizes hazy dreamscapes with loping drums and a circular guitar riff as Gilead7 chronicles the struggle of unrecognized innovators. Jessica Santana provides a foil on the RnB tinged “Empath” where removing a water bug from the house leads to a meditation on difference and co-existence set to a quite lovely piano backing. “A-Symbol” is a freeform reflection on how language and meaning are twisted by power but offers art, specifically, hip hop culture as self-defining path to identity and resistance. With ArtSpace VirgoTwins meld poetry and polemics into a potent interrogation of distorted of histories and a demonstration of the subversive potential of language and music.
