Earlier this summer in June on a rooftop in the Northwest neighborhood of Petworth, DivaMob and King Personal threw a party for QWELL, and boy, did we have a time that night. NUNAR Editor-at-large Jamilah Scott and photographer Grace Bidemi were there to capture the crowd, among whom were a particularly punk flavor of artists and local vendors.

With musical performances including ThaKingAli, Yoko Chanel, Jordan Rietto, TaeHendrix, Helly, and Damnshawtok!, it was no surprise that friends, creatives, and fans from all over the DMV turned out. We spoke to some of the folks there who answered some intimate get-to-know-you’s.

ThaKingAli

JS: My name is JS, I’m here with NUNAR Magazine. This interview is gonna be pretty personal and intimate, nothing crazy but just a heads up. The goal of this is to get to know you on a more personal level as an artist. So, would you mind introducing yourself?

TKA: Hello, my name is ThaKingAli, a.k.a. Rose Boy, aka Bruce Lee, aka Ya Husband Biggest Opp, ya dig?

JS: [laughs]

TKA: Sike nah what’s up. I’m an artist from Landover, Maryland; I’ve been making music since 2016.

JS: Nice.

[…]

JS: And how are you feeling right now?

KA: I feel great, I had a great performance. It felt like almost a once-in-a-lifetime moment, you know, seein’ when the fireworks went off as it was going it was like bruh, I’m made for this shit. Like damn! I realized and I was like bro, I ain’t ever gonna quit. That’s God right there.

JS: Nice. Absolutely, absolutely. All right, and how has your summer been so far?

KA: This has been quite a transitional summer. Right now I’ve been just figuring out where I wanna go next in my music, with my sound. I’m actually tryna learn how to read music, so I feel like that’ll add to my musical capability and the range that I can explore, if I figure out how to read the notes and shit like that. I’m just figuring a lot of stuff out, in between.

JS: Do you feel that your persona as an artist is a complete reflection of who you are, or does it only speak to a specific aspect of your soul? Or, does it speak to who you want to be?

TKA: I think my musical persona is who I really think I am. Aside just from the music, my persona is sort of a safe space for the things I wouldn’t necessarily talk about on the daily, you feel me. But I think it’s who I see myself as, but I do definitely put checks on myself, just not to come off as this cocky, arrogant fuck, you know what I’m saying–can I curse, is that–?

JS: Yeah it’s fine [laughs].

TKA: But I am full of myself, I feel like. When I get in the studio, when I tap into Tha King Ali, it’s just like you can’t tell me nothing. I’m respectful, I’m humble, but you can’t tell me shit. I’m him. You know?

JS: Period. Thank you for that.

Jordan Rietto

JS: Alright, let’s get into the gravy of things, shall we. Do you feel that your persona as an artist is a complete reflection of who you are, or does it only speak to specific aspects of yourself? Or, is it speaking to who you want to be?

JR: I would definitely say the third one. Jordan Rietto is kind of a manifestation of I wanted to be when I was in a very low depressive state when I was younger. I would just write to myself a lot, that’s how it started. I was just writing to myself, and then they turned into songs. I was making songs, speaking back to myself. And it felt like another person, but it also felt like a part of me, so I guess some of that second one as well, where it’s parts of myself too.

JS: Gotchu. That’s amazing, that’s cool. So do you feel it’s been like a healing process for you to create music?

JR: Yes and no. I do find a lot of very interesting things about myself as I write, it can be very therapeutic. Because I’ll find ways to express things that I didn’t necessarily know how to articulate, especially when I was younger. But it can bring out some ugly things in me as well. Like again, I go back to the hyperfixating on work. I have a thing where I’m really really ambitious, and in that I’m not really satisfied with a lot of stuff. So I’ll do something really cool, and everyone is like ‘Oh my god you did this really cool thing, oh my god how do you feel??’ and I’m just like ‘It’s not enough. It’s not enough.’ So.

JS: Gotchu. Perfectionism?

JR: Yeaaaah. Yeah, it’s like a…

JS: That can really be the death of your creativity, your willpower.

JR: Oh, yeah. Oh for sure. It definitely can, I’ve definitely faced that a little bit as well. 

JS: Thank you for that.

Joozi

JS: Well, please introduce yourself.

JZ: My name is Joozi. I'm a part of the Vampboyz, and we are an experimental legacy. 

JS: Interesting.

JZ: I make music solely for the sound of music, having no limits. And it can just embrace vibes that can't be comprehended.

JS: So how are you feeling right now?

JZ: I'm feeling like, very naturally euphoric.

JS: Word.

JZ: I just like performance. It's just, it gets me in my Zen.

JS: I love that. And how has your summer been so far?

JZ: It's been nonstop, just working on myself, to be honest. I'm an introverted person sometimes. And that's just cuz of mood swings. But like I just, like, I learned that if I improve myself, I can improve the people around me. And vice versa. 

JS: Absolutely. Thank you for that. So getting into things. Do you feel that your persona as an artist is a complete reflection of you, who you are? Or does it only speak to specific aspects of your soul? Or, is it more so who you want to be?

JZ: It's is an entanglement of all of that, plus just the art in general and just like the non-limit-ness, that it can come with. That can, like, it can touch people in a way.

JS: Cool, cool. So, can you tell me a bit about your creative process regarding your latest project and also, what was the name of it? 

JZ: My latest song? It’s not an album, there is no [solo] album.

JS: Yeah, latest song, latest project.

JZ: My latest song that I recently dropped was “You and I” it's basically [about] just trying to love somebody and heal and the trauma everybody went through type shit. I was really emotional about my ex. 

[Helly walks up, with Yg Cruddy and friends] 

JZ: Hello! This is Helly.

JS: Oh, hi!

Helly: Sorry. She [JS] caught me peeing earlier.

JZ: Yes? [laughs] Wait what?

JS: [laughs]

Helly: [laughs] Yeah. Crazy.

JS: It's nice to meet you.

Helly: It's nice to meet you too.

JS: I didn't know you were Helly before I knew you were Helly.

Helly: [laughs]

[…]

JS: But uh, so where did we leave off. Okay. Yeah. Your latest project, your creative process.

JZ: The process was just tapping into my feelings and emotions, and just trying to say what I really wanted to say, but it was like, entangled love with it because I love music.

JS: Cool. Awesome. Thank you for that.

Helly

JS: All right. Hi, Helly.

H: Hi there.

JS: So the one very important question I have for you is... 

H: Mm-hmm..

JS: So your first song [Lilith] on your latest album, #death is a lover, declares that God is a woman.

H: Oh yeah. Right. Ahhhhhhhhhhh! *runs in a circle*

Oh my God! Full circle. Life's a full circle. I love it. It's just straight like that, right? 

JS: Yes! Yes. How did you come to that conclusion?

H: God is a woman because, when you talk about the ideals of God and where it came from and how Christianity evolved, you know what I'm saying, and how it overtook our world in the sense of keeping us brainwashed under this certain vibe, like, this frequency of not being humane to each other, but really like capitalizing on each other. And that's like, that's why you got capitalism and communism, and political parties that are that are like that because it's a whole f*****g yadahoop. But besides that, Lillith -- Eve, right. You know what I'm saying? That was her lover, before. It's funny, people don't realize that in the Bible, in the holy scriptures, it's talking about the first lovers were women, you know what I'm saying?

JS: Uhhuh!

H: It's basically just stating that like at the end of the day, bro, we're so consciously below the actual spectrum in that sense, like, we don't give a fuck about each other. So how is that even gonna get on the path of us even becoming a type one civilization? 

JS: Mm,

H: I'm like, thinking about sh*t like that. Like, you know what I'm saying? And then the whole rhetoric of Lillith -- I literally got her tattooed because I grew up around women in my family. There's so many women in my family that don't take the bullshit. Cause I'm Bengali, you know? So I'm from a culture, Desi culture, where men are more like, just d*ckheads, you know? Muslims, the same with Christians, you know what I'm saying? They're good and bad, regardless. I can go on for days. I can go days about these conversations girl, but like, I just, I feel like the number one thing is, love always wins. That's the main point.

JS: Love always wins.

H: That's it, that's it.

JS: Thank you so much. That was an amazing, beautiful answer. I appreciate you.

H: That's a beautiful question.