After building up an impressive reputation for his production work for the likes of Travis Scott, Kanye West, Teyanna Taylor, Lil Nas X, Big Sean and more, Boston-born Johan Lenox has spent the last few years working on his own material and building up what has become a stunning back catalogue.
His latest project, Cancel The Party, just dropped today and with it comes the visuals for the title track. A classically-trained composer and musician, Lenox uses his carefully honed instinct for melody and arrangement to create a dreamy wash of slow-burning electronics that swirl and twist with an emotive string section on top of the trappy drum pattern.
Joining him to close out the track is Maryland singer and rapper Landon Cube whose autotune-laced vocals follow up Lenox's tale of what he calls "suburban malaise and aimlessness" with his own story of angsty young love and the disappointment of a crush letting you down. Director Zach Bell captures Lenox in the suburbs, eventually joined by his friends who seem just as dissatisfied by life.
Speaking with Complex via email, Lenox explained: "I wrote this EP about my experience coming of age in suburban Massachusetts. I still go back there a ton, but things used to be more fun and less serious. As we're all getting older I think a lot of people my age are feeling uniquely directionless. I don't know if this is the result of personal issues or if we've been totally screwed over generationally and are never really going to arrive at adulthood. That's the feeling I wanted to capture with this project. I included Wifisfuneral, Yung Pinch and Landon Cube on here because I thought they would relate to this sense of suburban malaise and aimlessness. As with all of my music, aside from the drums and vocals, everything in these songs is made from live classical instruments playing parts I composed on sheet music. That's the first way I learned how to make music and it's still the closest to my heart."
Cancel The Party is out now. Along with the EP, Lenox also released a 20-minute BTS mini documentary, which can be seen here.
