Hey-o and N’cha from the No-Fi King, your favorite Baltimore Bastard Speed on the Beat. In addition to watching a bunch of Dr. Slump, I’ve been around this past month (mostly with my kids and close friends). Life–as it has been a lot of this year–has lifed my ass off. Suffice to say, I’ve got some dope music I haven’t had the chance to get to posting. Apologies to everyone who’s been waiting weeks (months in some cases) for posts. These next six months will be exponentially better in terms of content. After all, it’s my last hurrah. We’re in the home stretch.

Enough about me, though.

Today, I’ve got some amazing music from Nigerian artist Ayox and Zlatan, “Walking Dead.” First and foremost, the storytelling here is amazing and makes me overlook the fact that the track is a bit shorter than what I typically post. A single from Ayox’s Last Son of a Widow project, “Walking Dead” is a doozy, emotionally-speaking. It focuses on a young man dealing with losing his father all while watching his mother also deal with hardships devoted to that loss. It also deals with how emotional trauma can leave us like zombies to what’s going on around us. On top of that, the song has a third layer which speaks on violence in Black communities (at home and in areas outside of Nigeria). While doing all this, it also discusses the idea of “it takes a village to raise a child” as the song features many community shots that feature inhabitants thriving by joining together in many ways.

The song is a bop, sonically, and a heavy and intense song, lyrically-speaking. Put those things together (and an incredible visual) and you’ve got a song that’ll get stuck in your head–and stuck with you. If you want to see what Ayox has to offer, I recommend checking this one out below and doing what we (still) do on SOTB: support dope music in all its forms.