Episode five: Backxwash

In this episode we spoke with Backxwash aka Ashanti Mutinta. She is a Zambian-Canadian rapper & producer based in Montreal, Quebec. She is most noted for her 2020 Polaris Music Prize-winning album God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It.

Her work is based in the horrorcore, hip-hop and industrial metal genres, and includes a culmination of themes around the intersection between faith, identity, and queerness. The poetry of her lyrics are the beginning of a cathartic healing process in which she is granting herself permission to be angry.

We spoke with Ashanti about her practice as a musician - we discussed sound as a decolonial force, rage as catharsis and sampling as a way to reconnect with lineage & place.