serpentwithfeet’s ‘GRIP’ Is Not an Album, but a "Mosaic of Intimacy"

“How do you act when you’re in the club, dancing and trying to be hot in public, and you run into someone who knows you better than literally anyone else, who knows your mom, who knows what you’re allergic to?” serpentwithfeet ponders.

This is exactly the sentiment the enigmatic artist explores on his new album GRIP.

In his own words, GRIP is a “mosaic,” that assesses how we experience intimacy. Influenced heavily by the Black queer nightlife space, serpent surveys the different ways we feel closeness, both in the public realm – on the dancefloor, in the club, at the bar – but also in the more overlooked moments.

“There are so many moments in the album that aren’t literally about physical touch, but rather a symbolic closeness and how we grow closer to other people,” he explained, referencing “Spades” and “1 to 10” as two more metaphorical cuts that draw from impromptu moments that occur while making breakfast or in the grocery store.

Denzel Golatt

A handful of GRIP‘s 10-song tracklist was lifted from serpent’s Heart of Brick dance theater production he put together alongside award-winning poet Donte Collins, multimedia artist Wu Tsang and dance-theater artist Raja Feather Kelly. Housed at New York City’s Joyce Theater, Heart of Brick allowed serpent to tap into his multi-dimensional storytelling capabilities and childhood love of musical theater to tell these stories of the Black queer nightlife community in an enticing new medium.

GRIP‘s seventh track “Hummin’” is one of the cuts lifted from Heart of Brick, and focuses on the universal “Hot Neighborhood Mechanic” – but from the eyes of serpent himself. “We’ve seen these stories told in movies and TV shows, but I wanted to explore what they looked like in my universe, specifically,” he tells Hypebeast.

It’s these little, relatable moments – run-ins with the hot mechanic, the awkward goodbyes after a one-night stand or running into that one ex you’re not over while leaving the grocery store – that serpent wanted to bring to life. “I think GRIP is also a mosaic in the way that it’s a combination of all of the different things that have impacted me as a human and an artist whether I knew it consciously or not.”

The project comes with a stacked but trusted list of collaborators of artists and producers alike from across the industry. Featured artists include Ty Dolla $ign and Yanga YaYa on the project’s single “Damn Gloves,” Orion Sun on other single “Ellipsis” and Mick Jenkins – who serpent noted brought immense “power, wit and humor” to the album – on “Black Air Force.”

Denzel Golatt

In an industry where many artists are cutting their teeth to fit into the genre-less genre of experimental music, serpent confidently tells Hypebeast he is an R&B artist – but what it means to be an R&B artist, may as well be an infinite spectrum. “It’s such an expansive genre,” he said, citing artists like Missy Elliott, Pharrell, Timbaland, Brandy and The Neptunes as pivotal influences since his childhood – in which he listened to quite the “constellation” of different genres, ranging from gospel, classical and jazz to musical theater.

“I think about Tweet and Missy’s “Oops (Oh My)” a lot. That’s not a typical R&B song, but it paid off because they took the chances and pushed the needle. I think about the way Timbaland used to sample crickets in his mixes. This is what I’m trying to do: push the narrative forward like they did, in the most tasteful and elegant way I can.”

Stream GRIP on Spotify and Apple Music now.