2020 is shaping up to be another big year for Ric Wilson. The breakout rapper and Chicago activist teamed up with musician/producer Terrace Martin for the upbeat EP They Call Me Disco. The duo has now joined once again to share the joyful video accompanying their track “Don’t Kill The Vibe,” which recently named one of the 50 Best Songs of Summer 2020 by The Oprah Magazine.
For the feel-good video, Wilson tapped several of his close friends for a living room dance party. Wilson leads the group in a Soul Train line, showing off his best moves between two rows of the party’s attendees. The visual stays true to the positive energy of the track, which Wilson said was made for “dance floors at the block party, the cookout, the weddings, the rallies, the covid19 living room clubbbbbbbbs.”
In recent months, Wilson has spent time organizing for activist groups like We Charge Genocide, Black Youth Project 100, Chicago Freedom School, and many more. In a statement about his music, Wilson says he’s inspired by Black women freedom fighters like Ida B. Wells and Marsha P. Johnson: “I hear people quoting a lot of black men who were freedom fighters, which is valid. But when I think about next level courage to ball your fist up and look bigotry, racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia right in the eye and fight against it, I feel like blk women like Ida B. Wells and non-binary folks like Marsha P. Johnson are of the bravest of us all and if ima fight any injustice I wanna have the courage of freedom fighters like them. The liberation of black womxn and black trans womxn lead to the liberation of all black people.”
Watch Wilson’s “Don’t Kill The Wave” video above.
They Call Me Disco is out now via Empire. Get it here.
