It was only two weeks ago that the Gorillaz revealed HUMANZ, their upcoming album after a six-year hiatus. But in that time, they’ve shared tracks with featured guests D.R.A.M., Vince Staples, and Popcaan, and today they shared their latest collaboration with Pusha T and Mavis Staples, titled “Let Me Out.”
Call Damon Albarn, co-creator of the virtual four-piece band, a prophet because, according to King Push, the song (and overall album) was created as a response to the then-hypothetical concern of Donald Trump becoming president.
During a recent interview with Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 radio show, Pusha said that back in the spring of 2016, before Trump was even a shoe-in for the Republican nomination, Albarn told him “to conceptualize the album, you know, like the album’s a party for the end of the world, like if Trump were to win.”
Push added, “I didn’t even want to think about it, but that did give me a very colorful backdrop into just being like, say anything and attack all issues that I wanted to attack and attack in the song. So when it really happened, I was like, ‘Wait a minute.’ And then I started wondering like, what type of crystal ball did this guy have? Like, why are you even asking me to even think along these lines? And he really did, man. He was first. I don’t think that he thought he was going to win, I’m not gonna go that far, but he definitely conceptualized this whole thing.”
Pusha will be joining the Gorillaz for “at least five” of the band’s upcoming shows. They are currently scheduled to perform at the Le Festival d’été de Québec and their own Demon Dayz Music Festival.
Hear the interview below.