A little less than a year removed from the release of his critically-adored album Nat Love, Chicago-area rapper Kweku Collins is already back at it, unveiling a brand new single titled “International Business Trip.” Inspired by his recent tour through Europe, a run that saw him hitting multiple festivals and venues throughout the continent, the new track is a self-produced, syrupy reflection on where he’s been and how far he’s come. “I’m just a twenty-something thinking ’bout my early years,” he raps.
Though he comes out of the Chicago area, Collins doesn’t really fit into the same scene that produced figures like Chance the Rapper, Chief Keef, Noname, or Joey Purp for instance, but that’s okay with him. As he told Pitchfork last year, “It’s just always been that way: The mulatto/mutt cliche thing—too white for the black kids, too black for the white kids—and doing white boy shit like skateboarding, but then I say “nigga,” so white people get uncomfortable. But I found that not belonging in one place helped me feel like I could belong in any place.” Adding, “I’m a hip-hop artist, but there’s a lot more to it than that.”
Collins is currently hard at work on a new project, an EP titled grey. He’s yet to announce an official release date for the record, but it figures to drop sometime this Spring.
