Namir Blade Drops ‘Metropolis’ Album + “Ride” Video

Namir Blade releases his highly-anticipated album ‘Metropolis’ + drops the official music video for “Ride”.

Today, Namir Blade releases ‘Metropolis’, his first entirely self-produced album and third on Mello Music Group.

Inspired by and named after the 2001 anime “Metropolis” and its 1927 predecessor, these 16 tracks are chapters of a speculative memoir unstuck in time, a quest for joy as late-stage capitalism crumbles that looks wearily to a near-future dominated by tech oligarchs.

Namir Blade is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and rapper from Nashville, Tennessee.

Like his greatest musical inspiration, Sun Ra, he continually meditates on the future of music and the future of Black people, his catalog an Afro-futurist and surrealist collage informed by decades of absorbing cyberpunk anime, dystopian science fiction, Hype Williams videos, and everything from hip-hop and J-pop to house and hardcore punk.

Namir has worked across genres during his career, but he’s spent his years with Mello Music Group expanding the sonic reaches of his singular and idiosyncratic blend of hip-hop and anime and film scores.

Critical acclaim has followed him with praise from many major media outlets.

Most notable, his L’Orange-produced album ‘Imaginary Everything’ was hailed Nashville Scene’s Top 10 Local Albums of 2021.

The inspiration and name for the album comes from 1927 silent film “Metropolis” as well as the 2001 anime version.

Namir explains, “Despite it being a silent film, I felt like it was able to provide an in-depth look at the ramifications of technologic and perceived infrastructural advancements on urban society at large.” He continues, “I discovered themes of classism, civil unrest, and an overall uncertainty in a bright future. These are all themes that I identified with as a Black man living in the United States.”

Namir recorded, produced, and mixed the album all from his living room, making it his first completely self-produced project.

‘Metropolis’ brings out a new level of vulnerability in Namir’s songwriting as he deals with themes of loneliness, assimilation, self doubt, joy, suffering, social decay, and vanity in an ever-changing world where technology reigns supreme.

Namir states, “It’s vulnerable, it’s uncomfortable at times, it’s flagrant, it’s aggressive—Most importantly it’s me.”

With ‘Metropolis’, his third project on Mello Music Group, Namir Blade finds the perfect balance between his previous releases ‘Aphelion’s Traveling Circus’ and ‘Imaginary Everything’.

With his new album ‘Metropolis’, Namir Blade reaches a defining moment in his career.

In addition to showcasing his talent for rapping, the album is a testament to how far Namir has come as a beatmaker and a producer.

Along with the ‘Metropolis’ album Namir also shares the official music video for his “Ride” single which you can give a watch below…

Namir Blade’s highly-anticipated album, ‘Metropolis’, is also available now on Mello Music Group to stream and cop via all major DSPs