Gum Studio x Gaza Thrift | FundRAVER @ The Compound
On Saturday, November 9th 2024 we hosted a 6 hour dance party with a curated market at The Compound in Baltimore. 100% of ticket entry proceeds and 50-100% of market sales were donated to displaced families supported by Gaza Thrift through on the ground mutual aid efforts and personal fundraisers.
We raised ~$3,000 from ticket sales, and $1,000 from market proceeds.
DJ sets by: @gum.mp3 @hiimsydthekid @swamisound @cheekywillie @bmorealien @audiiiit
curated market by: @ziz.inc @reuben.francois.is.alive @blunt.slutz @sprbloom
Photography by Chris Robinson
Cult Classic | Cover Story Interview w/ Nia Archives
Gum Studio X All Caps Studio | Community Bike Ride
BBC 1xtra Mix | Tiffany Calver Show
Gum Studio x Mark Sabino | Cycling Jersey + Bike Meet
Brick Magazine | Interview w/ 454
YINYO - Last Call (Single)
Production
Featured on Spotify’s +81 Connect: J-Hip Hopの「今」と「その先」and Monday Spin playlists.
gum.mp3 - Black Life, Red Planet (LP)
Resident Advisor | Essay
Gum’s Gin | c/o Mark Sabino
Made with Juniper berries from the Dinaric Alps, cacao, chai, raspberry, and cardamom.
Night-Runners | Soundtrack Contribution
Lan Party | madeintheurl x USB Club x Gum Studio
P2P Competition and File Sharing
LAN parties offer a unique and immersive gaming experience that fosters social interaction and friendly competition among attendees. Players can communicate with each other more directly, share tips, strategies, and excitement in real-time, enhancing the overall gaming atmosphere.
These gatherings often include elements beyond just gaming, such as food, drinks, music, and even occasional prizes or giveaways. LAN parties have historically been popular among gaming enthusiasts, providing an opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and enjoy multiplayer games in a controlled and optimized environment.
How was ours different? Better?
We offered the city’s hottest up and coming DJ talent, and the event was held inside a Dominican restaurant-turned-nightclub – a far cry from more traditional LAN parties. We offered games both retro and modern, single and multiplayer, while highlighting indie games from developers in our social group using the various setups and the USB Club ATM.
dazegxd & MON - Gospel Overture (EP)
Project Delivery
Raegun - Kayfabe (Single)
Project Delivery
swoozydolphin & Misery Elliott - Dolphin Soul
Project Delivery/Marketing
dazegxd & gum.mp3 - Girls Love Jungle
Collaborative Album
Rasheed LaPointe - Denim Family
Marketing & E-commerce
Denim Family (2023)
VHS video, archive magazine collage, animated by hand.
As Jannah Handy of BLK MKT VINTAGE said best, denim is often portrayed in American media as a “raceless” staple of American fashion. Some staples of Americana are recognized as having roots in indigenous cultures by the general public, despite opaqueness. For example, the appropriation of patterns originally created by Indigenous people who lived in North America and use of their caricatured likenesses in sports memorabilia and other clothing comes to mind. While the names of the Nations these patterns originate from are often lost on Americans, it is widely understood that they predate Western colonization.
Denim is largely looked at as having its symbolic roots solely in fiction, ranging from depictions of cowboys (popularized by John Wayne) to the white rebel archetype (popularized by James Dean). These fictional depictions and their monolithic presence contribute to the erasure of the black history of denim and the legacy of young activists and farmers who originally championed it.
Denim Family is a work engaging with the largely erased history and symbolism of denim as the fabric of black youth and the working class. It is a symbol that represents the rejection of race and gender-based hierarchies. Subjects of focus are the fabric itself, originally named ‘Negro Cloth’, and the Indigo dye from the West African slaves who carried the knowledge of its cultivation to the United States. The rejection of respectability politics found in streetwear today traces back to the black women-run political movements of the 60s, namely the SNCC, and by extension the black field workers who came before them.
— Rasheed LaPointe
FiFi Zhang - SBSL -REMIX- (EP)
Project Management, DSP Delivery
dreamcastmoe - Sound Is Like Water, 202% THC Remix Package
Remixer
gum.mp3 - Riddim Seeker (EP)
North Carolina's gum.mp3 makes his Spectral Sound debut with Riddim Seeker. The latest in a prolific run for the polymath producer, the EP follows a breakout 2022 packed with city-spanning DJ sets, inspired efforts in academia, and collaborative projects with his Gum Studio community. He sees Riddim Seeker as a form of art-as-research, "an investigation into common threads of rhythm throughout black music." The three tracks access a riddim lineage under a futurist agenda, sending pop vocal cuts — from collaborators Netanya and Leon English and his own — through a wildstyle of house/garage drums, familiar basslines, and funk/jazz-oriented melodies.
Gum adds, "The aesthetic and story idea for the project is that of a futuristic shaman, consulting with ancient tomes and musical relics that speak to a common thread of magic throughout his people's cultural history."
In its sonic and philosophical seeking, which coincides with several university lectures for Dirty Bird in 2023, the EP deals with riddim, the Jamaican Patois pronunciation of the English word "rhythm," and its various forms, from dancehall to dubstep. He positions vocals above the beats like an in-house MC delivering bars over the riddims.
On the lead track, "Cellphone," Gum's smooth cadence at the mic and keys weaves through patterns of hyper-percussion. Next, he hands vocal duties to his childhood friend Netanya, in her first-ever recording, for "Love You Better," a shuffling club cut-up of breakbeats, hi-hats, and an effervescent synth line. The rhythm bounces, skitters, and exhales on the closer, "Furious," featuring the soulful falsetto of Leon English, a frequent collaborator between Gum and dazegxd.
The EP’s accompanying artwork, by Rasheed LaPointe, embodies the music's fusion of historical motifs with modern sensibilities. The "R" logo evokes "both a submarine and a mystical mark one might use in ceremony," says Gum, alongside a serif text treatment that lends an overall air of fantasy.
By engaging the origins of dance music to find new understanding, Riddim Seeker presents Gum at his most intentional. It's a compelling leap forward from a shape-shifting artist as his ascent aboveground continues.
Logos by Rasheed LaPointe
Photos by Chris Robinson
Mastered by Torin Clay
Featuring Netanya and Leon English
via Ghostly International / Spectral Sound (SPC-153)
FiFi Zhang - So Beautiful So Lonely (EP)
Marketing Consultation, Bookings/Events, Project Management, DSP Delivery
Minnowz (Animated Short)
Directed, produced, and scored in-house @ Gum Studio
Halcyon.txt Magazine + E-library
A collective effort, initiated by gum.mp3 and produced via Gum Studio and the Halcyon Zine Team.
gum.mp3 - Virginia Creeper (Animated Music Video)
Animated by @jwiigg
gum.mp3 - Time Traveler (Animated Music Video)
Animated by Alejo Andres