Sin with us

After getting a taste of Moose Knuckles’ capsule collection, “Seven Deadly Sins”, in NYC, we returned home hungry for more. So, we teamed up with the outerwear brand in the coldest of seasons to show you how ferocious and furious the sin WRATH—available exclusively at Verso in Antwerp—can be. To help us embody this fury energy, we reached out to R&B rising star Blu Samu and groundbreaking rapper Darrell Cole—artists trotting on unexplored territories in the urban soundscape.

The voice of Blu Samu, short for Blue Samurai, emanates pure poetic rawness. Born as Salomé Dos Santos, the artist moved from Belgium to Portugal, and back to Belgium once again. Through the wisdom gained, Blu flawlessly captures the turbulence of her young life, with her sound as a fiery mixture of funk, hip-hop, R&B, jazz, and neo-soul.

Can you remember your first conscious encounter with music? What was it like?

It was Adriana Calcanhotto and her song “Fico Assim Sem Você”. In Portugal, where I grew up, there was a little tiny village. Every summer, there’s a big karaoke in the park to which everybody goes, it’s fucking hilarious. I remember that was absolutely my all time favourite song when I was younger.

Does challenge play a role in your creative process?

Challenge is what really pushes me to be creative. It also gives me a lot of will to go forward. When things are comfortable, I can also be creative. But when life gets challenging, I need to be creative in every way and I need to vent more as well.

Your style seems both hardcore and cute. Would you agree? What is it about these two (seemingly) opposites that attracts you?

[Laughs] Yes, I do agree, thank you for noticing! Well, it’s just who I am, I can be extremely soft, extremely sensitive, I’m always hugging and everything. But at the same time, I also have this side of me that’s extremely hardcore. I think it’s something that a lot of sensitive people deal with, though; every emotion is just really extreme. When I’m sad or mad, I’m extremely sad or mad, you know. But I’d rather have the rollercoaster than a straight line.

What is the relationship between sound and words in your opinion? What role does each play in your creative process?

I think sometimes the sound will inspire the words to come, and that’s very powerful, because then I feel like I’m not really in control of it. It’s the beat or the instrumental that’s telling me what the fuck to write about. And then sometimes it’s the other way around, so you have to look for the perfect sound for the words that you already made up. That’s harder and more complicated, but I have great producers that I work with, so luckily that also works out.

Björk invites you to her festive Christmas dinner. What are you wearing?

First of all, wow yes, thank you Björk. I would definitely wear LĒO by LEO, it was the brand that I was rocking today. It’s my favourite brand. They always have the most exciting and original outfits that match my craziness. I would wear their latest collection. They have this dress that’s all the way open in the middle, with this crazy print on it and a matching jacket. That would probably be my Björk outfit.

If you weren’t making music, what else would you be doing?

Maybe I’d be a video editor or an actress. I have a lot of different things I’d like to do, but definitely something in the creative industry, working with other creative people.

Rapper Darrell Cole is working on a different type of potion, one made out of Golden Age hip-hop beats mixed with modern day trap. The artist was born in London, with Sierra Leonean roots, and moved to Belgium later on. His mother made sure there would always be some musical vibrations floating around the house, so it didn’t come as a surprise that Cole became enthralled by sound. Music has been the only constant factor in his life, which has always driven him forward, although others may have not always acknowledged it. At the beginning of this decade, Cole had already reached milestones, but discouraged by the lack of recognition, he left for Barcelona. Although times were tough, he rose above it, setting an even higher bar for himself, and surpassing it. After posting new work online, he eventually got signed by Sony and returned to Belgium, where he keeps on drawing attention.

Can you remember your first conscious encounter with music? What was it like?

My first encounter with music has to be when my parents bought me my first MC hammer and Michael Jackson vinyls! Changed my whole life.

Does challenge play a role in your creative process?

Challenge plays a major role in my creative process. For the past year I’ve been working on a sound together with Samuel Kareem that no one has heard of. It took us a full year to figure that out. We’ve tried to create our own genre, and next year we’re bringing it to the table. I’ll let y’all be the judge on that, and let us know if we’ve accomplished it.

And do the surroundings you find yourself in (cities, for example) influence the sound you wish to make?

Yes, I tend to take a bit of every city with me when I go back home. Usually, my trips become lyrics, those lyrics end up in a song. So, these songs are like the soundtracks of the trips we’ve been on this passed year: the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, the USA. And the African in me has been very active sound-wise.

Your personal style seems to unite casual and classic items. Can you elaborate more on this?

I’m a middle child, cut from that cloth. I’m a student of the Jay Z’s and the Nas’s of the game, not too flamboyant when it comes to style.

Is there a person, dead or alive, who would be your dream collaborator?

I think I would love to work with Biggs Burke, simply because he was the quiet one of the Roc-A-Fella days. I always watch the quietest person in the room, they usually know the most.

If you weren’t making music, what else would you be doing?

If I weren’t making music, I’d probably be doing something I’m not supposed to do, or at least what the law forbids.