Little Rock rapper-singer Malik Flint, known to some as bLAck pARty, left Arkansas for L.A. in 2014 to pursue the sort of musical connections he and collaborator Kari Faux hadn’t been able to fully realize here. Since then, the pair have been making waves with the help of producer-photographer Ibra Ake and rapper-actor Childish Gambino, also known as Donald Glover, who starred on NBC’s “Community” and now acts, writes and directs on FX’s “Atlanta.”
Flint’s direction’s taken a sharp turn for the honeyed vocals he’d only peppered his work with before, exposing a bonafide croon that, thanks to some innovative production, never gets saccharine. His new project “Mango,” went public yesterday. It’s some serious earphone candy, blending trippy production with romantic lyrics that explore the same let’s-get-away-to-paradise territory as the abominable “Kokomo.”
And, here’s Flint and model Samia Hamps in the video for “Best View,” which might be the only music video in which a young man professes his love while his heartthrob sews eyeballs into a dead fox.