Ric Wilson, a 22 year-old superstar in his community has announced his new EP, BANBA, will be out May 18th on Innovative Leisure. The announcement comes with the first track off the EP titled “Split,” featuring Sen Morimoto.
“I wrote ‘Split’ in the middle of a relationship that was going south,” Wilson said in a press release. “The song is about how sometimes the best decisions you’ll make in life are the ugliest and hardest, but the healthiest for you.”
For the BANBA cover art, Wilson said it is “an ode to Basquiat and Hebru Brantley who are my favorite visual artists. I want people to feel like they’re in a Basquiat and Brantley-inspired painting when they’re listening to this EP.”
Wilson is making splashes for more than just his music, however. He’s a community activist that started his artistic career with the legendary YCA (Young Chicago Authors), which are the Chicago-based poetry organization that has propelled artists like Saba, Jamila Woods, Chance TheRapper, Vic Mensa, Mick Jenkins, and Noname.
As conveyed by not just his music but his knowledge, interest, and use of visual arts, Wilson combines different genres of art to get his message across.
“When I dropped out of college to do music, I caught myself trying to explain the music I do in a different light than what it really was because I was scared of other people’s perception of my ‘rap music,’ he says. “I feel like people don’t appreciate rap as an actual art form, which is insane because there’s an art to rhyming, every beat is a colorful canvas and every lyric and rhyme is a stroke of mine.”
By Antonio Villasenor-Baca