Black Gold drops before the Olympics
‘Black Gold’, a seven track hip-hop album by XYM (aka WriterMosaic‘s Jonny Wright), launched recently ahead of the Olympics in Japan, is inspired by the gold medal won by African American athlete Tommy Smith, and his subsequent Black power salute, at the Mexico 1968 Olympics. The timely album addresses themes of racial injustice and social inequality, still all too prevalent in the run up to a new Olympics, more than fifty years later. Wright says, ‘It also explores what it means to be an artist today in a world where Black art, but not the artists themselves, is embraced and commodified and what striving for that online success can do to your mental health in real life.’ He hopes that it is ‘a lyrical and sonic embodiment of pure Black Boy Joy’. The album is produced by the hip-hop duo Mutual Soundz.