In October, Kokayi dropped Robots & Dinosaurs, a captivating opus that discussed childhood love, suicide, and agism with refreshing maturity. Now, the Northeast D.C. resident has enlisted eight notable producers to recreate the LP. On the remix project, those chilling themes have been repackaged under bouncy dance beats, resulting in an upbeat sound, even if the message remains the same.
“Autumn Rules” is perhaps the best example. On Robots & Dinosaurs, Kokayi uses a sullen instrumental from Oddisee‘s Odd Autumn project to craft a chilling tale of depression. Here, the acoustic guitar is still intact and pieces of the canned drums remain, but the backdrop is much quicker, and the vocals are chopped and dispersed intermittently. While the pace of “Over There” is still midtempo, producer ManMantis’ piano-laced mix gives the song a comfortable edge.
R3TS&DNSR5 RE1MAG1NED is available for free.