The last few weeks have been a roller coaster for Chicago rapper Towkio. After releasing his album WWW. from space—yes, you read that correctly—he performed the single “Symphony” on Tuesday night at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon alongside singer Teddy Jackson. The two were backed by a few of the album’s producers, including Peter Cottontale and Carter Lang. Also joining them was Social Experiment drummer Stix.
The day before the album hit streaming services, the SaveMoney rapper premiered the project from 100,000 feet above ground. Towkio went up to stratosphere solo in a helium balloon, where he listened to the album through a speaker before parachuting back to earth.
It was an appropriate stunt, particularly because the album was reportedly inspired by the Overview Effect, or the transformative experience astronauts have when seeing the planet from afar.
“The project is a concept, it’s the Overview Effect,” Towkio told DJ Booth in a recent interview. “It’s the looking back at the earth. It happens to astronauts when they leave the earth and they break the plane, it’s an out-of-body experience. They look back and see how precious it is because your life on Earth only exists on Earth. So all of the bullshit you deal with on a day-to-day basis, it instantly goes out the window when you leave the plane and you’re looking at the earth.”
The 13-track release was executive produced by Norwegian producer Lido, and includes previously released singles “Drift,” “Swim,” “Hot Shit,” and “2 Da Moon,” featuring Jackson and Grace Weber. Additional guests include SZA and Vic Mensa.
Towkio announced in January that WWW. will be released through Rick Rubin’s American Recordings label, in partnership with Republic. Towkio is the first rapper that Rubin has signed in over 20 years; the album was recorded at the renowned producer’s famed Shangri-La studio in Malibu.
