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Richmond, VA’s $ilkMoney releases his new album Who Waters the Wilting Giving Tree Once the Leaves Dry Up and the Fruits No Longer Bear? via Lex Records. Across 15 tracks co-produced by $ilk himself and frequent collaborator Kahlil Blu, with contributions from Mutant Academy producer Sycho Sid, $ilk explores the reality that giving oneself to something isn’t always reciprocal.
Speaking about the album’s thematic inspiration, $ilk says, “Whether you give your all to your children or your passion or your dreams or to a relationship or whatever it is, we just gotta realize that a lot of what we give ourselves to don’t really owe us anything to begin with.”
The album is a potent artifact of $ilkMoney’s irreverent humor and his refusal to conform, putting together a record that intertwines his signature intensity and debauchery with insightful parables about his own relationship to the industry and what he’s given to his craft. In typical $ilk fashion, every word, line and song title is delivered with intent, whether up front and in your face, or hidden just under the surface. The album rewards repeat listens to unpack some of the metaphors he’s embedded into the album, like a criticism of the rise of digital minstrelsy and negative depictions of Black people in the media, a targeted takedown of the wealthy elite class and complicit rap stars, and even turning his gaze inward to interrogate his own relationship to rap as a career.
$ilkMoney first emerged onto the scene as a teenage rap phenom with unforgettable tracks like “P.Sherman (PS42WW$)” and “My Potna Dem”. In the time since, he’s solidified a sound that’s singularly intense, debaucherous and impeccably precise with a collection of critically acclaimed projects including his most recent 2022 full-length I Don’t Give a F**k About This Rap Shit, Imma Just Drop Until I Don’t Feel Like It Anymore, which was named Best New Music by Pitchfork in their review. The rapper has made a few select guest appearances since his last full length, on Noname’s Sundial alongside billy woods, on Pink Siifu & Fly Anakin’s beloved FlySiifu’s and most recently appearing on two tracks on Fly Anakin’s (The) Forever Dream.
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