Overview
“Am I out of time?,” Maryland rapper-producer redveil asks, practically gasping for air, in the opening minutes of his latest project sankofa. That’s a startling question to hear from someone in their early 20s, and it’s one that animates every thought, bar, and beat across the album. Entirely self-produced and inspired by the titular Ghanaian interconnected heart symbol—and its specific relation to the Akan proverb “it is not taboo to go back for what you forgot (or left behind)”—sankofa presents redveil at his most boisterous and introspective, digging further into his past in order to illuminate his future.
redveil began his career when he was just a teenager in Prince George’s County, MD making music with his friends while playing videogames. He had some musical experience—he briefly played drums with his cousins in their church’s band in Houston —but after hearing The Internet’s “Palace/Curse” from their third studio album Ego Death, and being inspired by artists like Earl Sweatshirt and J. Cole, he quickly began learning the piano; and, shortly after, how to make beats. Those lessons followed him through his 2019 debut Bittersweet Cry and to his breakout albums, 2020’s Niagara and 2022’s learn 2 swim. What started as a hobby turned into a creative and therapeutic outlet, with swim in particular, released on his 18th birthday, stacking feelings of anxiety, triumph, and PG pride on top of shimmering, genre-expanding production.
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