Sariyah Idan moves in a new direction with her potent new single You Got To Go — and the lyric video is premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
Written in Los Angeles and recorded in Berlin, the second soulful single from the globe-trotting singer-songwriter’s upcoming album Breaking Shadows boldly and beautifully crosses genres even as it takes a firm stance against hypocrisy and greed.
“The song is about human relationships tarnished by the demands of capitalism, how it often unintentionally corrupts integrity,” Idan explains. “It’s my quiet roar of frustration at feeling manipulated; the holistic hippie culture I was raised in appropriated for the benefit of wealthy people displacing poorer communities through gentrification. Sy Anon who sings backgrounds said, “It’s about the man,” the irony is I wrote it in response to a woman.”
Along with pointing fingers, the song also points toward a new direction in her sound. “It’s the first song I’ve recorded that authentically brings together a jazzy hip hop groove with klezmer horns in the way I’ve been envisioning for a while. Musically, it’s an arrival for me. I composed on keys and demoed it in my home lab, then started brainstorming where to find live hip hop/R&B and klezmer players that would mix well. Klezmer music is eastern European Jewish music, my ancestral roots. The Black American music canon is how I’m most trained and heavily influenced. Bringing together both traditions has been a mission, and a logistical struggle. Those music communities rarely interact, plus traditional klezmer players are hard to find in Los Angeles.”
Not so in her home away from home: Berlin. “There’s an openness to trying new things in Berlin. There’s a growing interest in live band hip hop and a revival of klezmer music. When I started spending more time in Berlin it seemed perfect to record this song there. Noize Fabrik opened their recording studio doors to me with enthusiasm. I met The SWAG band at their weekly hip hop jam and asked them to record. Chriz Key (keys) and Sugbear Narin (lead guitar) brought new and delicious colors to my arrangement. Christian Dawid from Klezmer Sessions Neukölln delighted my angsty Jewish melancholia with his lilting clarinet. Andy Shlegel has been superb to work with as a mixing engineer. I’m looking forward to more recordings with this creative team for my album Breaking Shadows.”
Jazz and folk trained, hip-hop educated, and influenced by her Jewish roots, Idan embodies fiery sensuality rooted in cultural, social and verbal poetry. A New York-bred independent singer-songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader, she grew up touring as a singer and dancer in a world folk ensemble while honing her lyric skills as a spoken word poet at The Nuyorican Poets Cafe. The sonic tapestry of her music is an expression of both multicultural urban identity and cultural activism. Her lyrics and vocals featured on Artson’s album award winning 2018 album Brave Star, MC Dumi RIGHT’s album Doing It The Right Way, and DJ Haj I Ji’s EP Reports Of My Demise.
Following the release of her Deeper Than Skin EP and Not Afraid Mixtape, Idan is recording her debut LP at studios in Los Angeles, Berlin, and Porto. She has shared stages with legends and mentors Lee “Scratch” Perry, Pete Seeger and Yusef Lateef as well as recordings with Marcia Griffiths and Caron Wheeler on Vienna-based Dubblestandart’s album Woman In Dub. Breaking Shadows can pre-ordered through her Indiegogo page.
Check out You Got To Go above, and connect with Sariyah Idan on her website, Facebook, and Instagram.
