Brent Faiyaz weaves tales of suspenseful, allegorical fictions, sung in a spine-tingling R&B tenor that soliloquizes for the broken-hearted and those who break hearts. On his new album, Wasteland, Faiyaz spins the fatal tragedy of a despairing, lovelorn man driven by vice who is teetering on the brink of crash and burning.
Released July 8, Wasteland is a melodramatic, dystopian landscape where a rogue casanova suffers from the demons of his past. Faiyaz's fantastical use of keyed instrumentation and his hauntingly ephemeral vocals complete the scenic foreground for the album's 19 experiential tracks. Packed with the cynical grit of film noir, Wasteland is imbued with a Hitchcockian songful pulse where Faiyaz's high roller protagonist is unconcerned by life’s consequences.
Theatrical moments are heard across Wasteland's three lively, believable skits ("Egomaniac," "Oblivion," "Wake Up Call"), written and produced by Jonathan "Freeze" Wells. Opening track "Villain’s Theme" has Faiyaz, and British singer, Jorja Smith sharing a pensive dialogue about the merciless nature of fame, while attempting to reach true contentment.
Faiyaz has been unwilling to deny the bleak moments of his reality since his poignant 2020 EP, F— The World, which came out a month before: "the pandemic happened, then the world was actually f—ed," he says. "After traveling for so long, coming back to Los Angeles and seeing how the post-pandemic hit everyone. It felt like a wasteland everywhere I went. Everybody lost people and thousands of protests were going on but s— was still going up for me so I felt a sort of guilt. That is why Wasteland shows conflicts of different emotions."
Wasteland is helmed by a high-level team of producers, notably No I.D., Raphael Saadiq and The-Dream. The Saadiq-produced single "Ghetto Gatsby" features Alicia Keys wisecracking with Faiyaz, the two evoking a scene of backstreet mafiosos. Other contributors include Lost Kids artists, Joony ("FYTB") and Tre’ Amani on the facetiously pompous track "Addictions," where I Faiyaz considers excessive behaviors through a punchy chorus: "Maybe it’s the love, the drugs… Maybe it’s all the above."
Brent Faiyaz's independent release exudes spontaneity, love and intoxicating consumption — a combination that is projected to hit No. 1 during its first charting week, potentially knocking out Latin megastar Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti. This would be the first time an independent artist achieved this position since the late rapper XXXTentacion’s 2018 album, Skins.
Days after touring the country, Brent Faiyaz spoke with GRAMMY.com about the real grimness of Wasteland, Kanye West’s musical blueprints, and the human value of going outside.
How do you view the world today, with Wasteland out, compared to your feelings when F— The World was released?
I was sitting with Wasteland for a while because it is a compilation of a bunch of songs that I have strung together through a story. I wanted to create a body of work that I would enjoy listening to. Wasteland is my favorite project so far and I really created this one for the homies, so we could all listen and play it together.
Wasteland offers this sort of Alfred Hitchcock-inspired sound of suspense, and the musical production layered on top of your voice has this heavy intensity. What anchored the narrative concept of Wasteland?
I was watching a lot of films to get me in the mind for Wasteland. I constantly had Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino movies playing. The Kill Bill volumes and Scorsese’s mob films took me to a different realm.
Wasteland is full of visceral storytelling, but you haven’t really released a music video that stars yourself in over a year. What is your vision conceptually for the music video aspect part of this album rollout?
Visually for these music videos, I am inspired by past Helmut Lang campaigns. As well as Kanye, I love his "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" and Late Registration era.
Even for the music videos, I'm supposed to shoot three of them this month. They will all string together and the storyline is cohesive with Black-and-white visuals that follow each other.
With all of the collaborators, a part of Wasteland, consisting of Alicia Keys to Raphael Saadiq to The-Dream, who was a collaborator that impressed you and how did that relationship carry through today?
Definitely, Dream. That's my boy. He is just so quick, bro. I never worked with another producer and artist that worked that fast before. I would be stuck on certain records for four months and he would come in and knock that song out in 3 minutes.
Was there a lot of reflection from your own life that influenced the skits that showed off the kind of wicked, turbulent fun moments you have shared with the aforementioned lovers?
Well, to an extent… but a lot of the skits were from my executive producer "Freeze", Jonathan Freeze. He wrote the sketches and treatments out. When I first read them, I thought to myself: "Damn, this s— is going to hit."
I know you kind of mention in "Rolling Stone" — the insignificance you feel with fame but how you may mean everything to so many people who love your music. Have you developed a sense of numbness to the turmoil and fame you have experienced throughout your career?
I just started really liking this s—. It's getting kind of fun. At this point, I think I am just kind of getting used to it, you know what I mean?
With the fame that grew, it did take some time to get used to it at the beginning but now I am just like, You know what? F— it. The more confidence I gained over the years really allowed me to make this project.
You have maintained a huge sense of ambiguity and privacy while being almost gravely transparent in your music, especially with Wasteland. Is there a tremendous sense of artistic value you have found living an elusive life away from the spotlight?
I think with that solace comes great ideas, because you're not really worried about what other artists are doing. At the same time, I'm also very much an outside artist. I don’t like to document my life outside much because that is when people start to really clock you.
I feel like many people don’t know about you besides the ones in your circle. What is a surprising fact about you that usually shocks people?
I really like to draw and I had so many doodles of fonts and cover art references. Before we settled on the cover of Wasteland, I used to draw out different mash-ups and depictions of what I wanted to do.
Did you set personal boundaries when you were in album mode to bring forth more mental clarity?
None, whatsoever. We didn't know what we were creating at first. We had an idea of the world we wanted to create, but we had no idea how it was going to be perceived or how it was going to be received. We were just winging it, brother. Artists were really doing drugs and making music.
If your popular EP, F— The World is how you see the world, how do you view Wasteland considering it is a whole other part of yourself musically?
Putting my personal story to the side, I would say accountability. I don't know whether it's life imitating art or art imitating life.
There is a maturity of themes in your music but a continuity of sound – how did you find your singing R&B voice?
Well, I started off singing all the time when I was younger and I naturally got better with time. My vocal coach, Rachel Riggs, worked with me and got me right in due time. So, it took some years for me to actually learn how to sing with all the little nuances that make a good vocal performance incredible. When I first started, I never really cared about that type of structure.
I know in the past Master P has been an artist that inspired you for how protective he was of his craft. With the explosion of fame, you are on the brink of experiencing more, how much more protective are you of yourself and your music?
More recently, I have to be real careful about how I am in public because of brand partnerships and such. I can't be out bumming around and wilding out anymore. The music I make now is more aware of how candid I can’t be sometimes in person. I honed in on that aspect more to fine-tune my next album, Wasteland.
What have you experienced while traveling the world, especially since you have been doing Wasteland pop-ups all over the country?
Life has been nuts, man. The first time I pulled up to a pop-up that s— scared me because I didn't think anybody was going to show up. I pulled up there and it was complete pandemonium. I started to love doing the pop-ups more as we went on because if I am going to see my fans in person I want to do it right. I want to meet all the people that really f— with my s—.
Do you have a city or country in the world that inspires you to create music?
I'm really loving New York right now. I just grabbed this new spot in New York and that is where I've been spending a lot of time. I went to multiple studios to make Wasteland, some studios were in L.A., New York, Miami, Bahamas, and Atlanta.
When you wake up every day to sing a new ballad about love and the fast-paced life you live through music and with Wasteland out. What did you learn about yourself?
With the skits and the women characters involved, In "Wake Up Call," she doesn’t want to have my kid but is pregnant. Her not wanting to have the baby and feeling like she is forced to commit suicide touches on the current times we are in. Women's rights are being stripped as we speak, Wasteland is going to touch on a lot of different topics. While there are a lot of moments of clarity as well, there are many sobering moments.
At the same time, you may have nights where you turn everything up too much and wake up the next morning by yourself and your heart hurts. Wasteland is about it all.
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