Music
D Smoke And SiR Testify In Their Worshipful ‘Closer To God’ Video
The Inglewood brothers share a simple video from D Smoke’s Grammy-nominated debut album. …
It has been nearly a year since D Smoke released his debut album Black Habits but fans were given a reason to revisit it (or discover it for the first time) when it was nominated for Best Rap Album in the upcoming 2021 Grammy Awards. To bolster its newfound popularity, D Smoke returned to the album once again to provide a visual treatment for one of its standout tracks: the ganja-praising anthem “Closer To God,” which is also a collaboration between D Smoke and his Top Dawg Entertainment-signed brother SiR.
The Inglewood, California siblings keep things simple in the “Closer To God” video, visiting a local church and giving testimony to the healing power of the ironically nicknamed devil’s lettuce. In the song, they wonder why they get high, concluding on the chorus “Maybe I’m tryna get closer to God.” The verses give D Smoke an opportunity to vent about the various stressors of life that prompt him to partake of the mood-elevating vegetable, from “corporations that fund genocide” to church sermons that “left me conflicted.” While the video only encompasses the first verse, it’s enough to get the point across.
Before making his critically acclaimed debut, D Smoke earned notoriety on Netflix’s Rhythm + Flow competition show, winning in the inaugural season after meeting West Coast legend Snoop Dogg’s early-season challenge and refusing to back down. Recently, D Smoke also appeared on fellow indie rapper Tobe Nwigwe’s “Headshots.”
Watch the “Closer To God” video above.
Artist Spotlight
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” finds a new direction through Ghost of Panama
Rearranging a song that carries six decades of cultural weight is a creative challenge, but Ghost of Panama approaches “Subterranean Homesick Blues” with clear purpose. The rock band radically reworks Bob Dylan’s counter-culture hit, reshaping its identity while keeping its rebellious spirit. It’s a tribute to musical heritage and a statement of artistic independence all in one.
This new interpretation is very much shaped by the production, made at Ghost of Panama’s home studio in West London. The setting allows an intimate approach to reinterpreting a familiar song and lets the group engage directly with the material, taking it in a new artistic direction.
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” centers on the tension between conservation and transformation. Ghost of Panama is true to the song’s rebellious spirit without adding to its legacy, and this approach gives the release an adventurous feel, grounded in countercultural energy but driven by a desire to see what the composition can become in a different musical context.
Their version of this 60-year-old classic shows that respecting a song’s history can also mean breaking the rules and finding new ways to express its spirit. Fundamentally, “Subterranean Homesick Blues” presents Ghost of Panama as artists who want to engage with the past without being tied to it. The release’s strongest identity is a familiar heritage reimagined through a singularly forward-looking creative vision.
Artist Spotlight
“NO MORE” by Amanda Holley connects healing, awakening, and survival
“NO MORE“ carries that kind of emotional weight, and some songs feel like they come from lived experience but reach for something bigger. Amanda Holley blends R&B and soul, turning a lifetime of survival into a vision of healing, awakening, and the determination to move beyond what caused the pain.
“NO MORE“ is a healing anthem for people who have gone through bad experiences and reached a place of higher awareness, but it’s also an emotionally charged protest. The duality is introspective and outward-looking at the same time, turning personal survival into a broader declaration that some experiences, conditions, or cycles should end.
Holley had a premonition of the song six months before the world went into global shutdown. In the vocal booth, working out melodies with her collaborators, she pictured people in the streets. Those images were hard to imagine at the time, but subsequent events would make them painfully familiar.
“NO MORE“ is given a particularly contemplative underpinning by the context. The identity of R&B and soul leaves room for emotion. The song’s themes link survival, awakening, resistance, and the need for change. Amanda Holley is an artist using music to process personal endurance and a broader sense of social awakening. It’s got a complicated significance, and its release feels like a glimpse of a moment when personal intuition and public reality collided in an unexpected way.
Photo Credit: Yulia Shusharina
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