Photo Credit: Philip Shum | Download Press Photo HERE
Download “Brainrot” Los Angeles-based singer, rocker, and rapper grandson (aka Jordan Benjamin) explodes back onto the scene with the announcement of his third album INERTIA out September 5 via his own endeavour XX Records in partnership with Create Music and his sharp and poignant new single, “BRAINROT,” attacking apathy and societal conformity in the digital age. The track is his first new music since writing the theme song for the film Venom and is his first solo offering in over two years. Produced by Mike Crossey (The Killers,The 1975, 21 Pilots), “BRAINROT” exemplifies an empowering next step for grandson as an artist and songwriter, operating on his own terms and speaking truth to power. Of the track, grandson says, “BRAINROT is about the distraction of the internet, the way our attention span is weaponized and attacked by technology companies to prevent any real momentum building on the pressing issues of our generation. The music was written with two of my best friends in their flat in East Hollywood, and produced and mixed by the legendary Mike Crossey, who has done some of my favorite records. He pushed me to a level of artistic focus and quality control I’ve never been pushed to before. It’s the first grandson song ever recorded exclusively with live instruments- drums, guitars, vocals and marks the next chapter of my career as a recording artist, in pursuit of an authentic feeling, an analog sense of anger and energy that only rock and roll at its core, primal form can touch.”
The music video for “BRAINROT” was directed by Joe Weil, who has worked with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, YG, A$AP Ferg, 21 Savage, among others. The video amplifies the track’s themes, blending sharp social commentary with humour and introspection. Already an artist admired for both his searing social commentary (see the breakthrough hit ‘Blood // Water’) and heart-breaking true-life stories (the fan memorial ‘Heather’), grandson is going darker, harder and more uncompromising than ever before as he prepares to release his third full-length album INERTIA. INERTIA is the sound of grandson becoming lean and ferocious. The overarching theme is a clamour for what he calls a “growing need for class solidarity that can be achieved by seeing that across any political spectrum, people stand to benefit from the consolidation of power in the hands of the many against the few.” That concept is set to music which pumps the heart before engaging the mind: colossal heavyweight riffs, raging, blood-vessel busting raps, soaring hooks, and the philosophy that music that fights for social justice should sound like a rallying cry. grandson’s ambition for INERTIA was to pack it full of songs that demanded a place on future setlists. As such, it’s an album that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go, defined by full-throttle blasters, punchy rap-rock grooves, and more. INERTIA is a different path to walk that will ignite mosh pits while provoking further examination of its themes, and one in which American politics is the context to connect with a broader, progressive international audience. “So many people are fighting for different things,” he concludes. “I believe that finding connection with one another, through music or otherwise, and making collective demands for a brighter, better future, can lead us to a more holistic way of living, thinking, and consuming. It all starts with a cathartic release of energy. |
