Òṣùpá clear w/ black and white vinyl. For the last 24 years, Tunde Adebimpe has largely been known as the co-founder, co-vocalist and principal songwriter for TV On The Radio. The mostly-black art-rock band triumphed through two decades of volatile cultural change to become one of the most beloved, enduring and influential groups from New York City's early-2000s rock scene. Though Tunde's poetic songwriting and towering vocals are central to TV On The Radio, the band will always be a collaboration between a group of musicians.
Tunde's personal story exists on a parallel path, as a sort of creative polymath. He is a musician but also an illustrator and painter. He's a former animator and stop-motion filmmaker (Celebrity Deathmatch). He is a television and film actor, with roles in Jump Tomorrow (2001), Rachel Getting Married (2008), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Twisters (2024) and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (2024).. And now he is also a solo artist, with his first-ever solo album, Thee Black Boltz.
Tunde initially conceived of the album in 2019, while TV On The Radio was on a break. Two years later, as the world emerged from the Covid pandemic, he started a notebook of words, illustrations and ideas, forming what he calls, "mixtape of emotions the music could evoke. A feeling map of sorts." It is how Tunde begins most of his projects, and in 2011 he started translating those ideas into music with the help of multi-instrumentalist Wilder Zoby (Run The Jewels), with whom he shares a studio with in Los Angeles.
Thee Black Boltz is not a TV On The Radio album. But the excitement of doing something on his own ignited a similar spark in Tunde as the early TV On The Radio days. The songwriting process is the same, but without his TVOTR bandmates Tunde "didn't have that scaffolding to hang on. That was both terrifying and exhilarating."
At the heart of the album is it's title, a nod to Tunde's propensity to write and sing about the human condition, in all it's forms, under all it's stressors, both big and small. It is his response to the macro unease of a post-pandemic world careening towards violent authoritarianism and the personal grief that has come from loss in recent years, specifically the sudden passing of his younger sister while making this album. Thee Black Boltz is Tunde's desperate grasping of small moments of joy amidst the dissonance and sadness, any way he can. "It was my way of building a rock or a platform for myself in the middle of this f***ing ocean."
As Tunde writes in his notebook, "The sparks of inspiration/motivation/hope that flash up in the midst of (and sometimes as a result of) deep grief, depression or despair. Sort of like electrons building up in storm clouds clashing until they fire off lightning and illuminate a way out, if only for a second." "Also," he adds. "It's a good name for a cool metal band, and I think that most people would describe me as akin to a very cool metal band."
