There are lyrics in Grammy-nominated LA artist Brent Faiyaz’s latest single, Trust, that really hit home. Take “So much I wanna talk about but I ain’t got no one to talk to” and “the more I tell you, the more you wanna know / if I tell you, will you use it when I’m low?” for example. Who among us has not, from time to time, felt such things? Is it safe to assume then, that the Maryland-born, GoldLink collaborator has trust issues? “Yeah,” Brent told i-D bluntly over email last night. “People be weird.”
The single, he says, is about the distrust that often comes hand in hand with fame; the feeling that nothing is sacred. “If you choose to pursue a profession where people recognise you, you have to get used to being recognised,” he explains. “I’ve always been naturally reserved, so people whispering about me when I walked into a spot weirded me out. Like the movie Inception when they walk into someone else’s dream and everyone knows they’re not supposed to be there. That’s how it feels. It takes time to learn how to move with people looking at you… I just be coolin’ now.”
Reflecting on a less ‘cool’ time, the video — directed by longtime collaborator Lone Wolf (“he’s a young goat, we gotta stick together!”) — portrays a day in the life of our talented protagonist. “It shows me waking up with this girl, linking with my homies and running into the same girl with her boyfriend… then she comes over later that night.” All night time drives and misplaced trust, the video is a mellowed-out neon blur.
When you’re done with that, we recommend you familiarise yourself with Brent’s other projects too, namely his record label, Lost Kids, which he describes as “like a lifestyle, a way of doing things. It’s like being Rasta, or gangbanging minus the criminal activity.” Then there’s Sonder, a collaboration with Soulection affiliates Dpat and Atu that we introduced you to back in 2017. “With Sonder, the music is a little less specific,” Brent says. “Though I find that people never really know what I be singing about anyway…”