He has a burning anger against racism and injustice: Who is Pink Siifu?

The ever-transforming sonic universe of rapper and producer Livingston Matthews, who records and performs under the pseudonym Pink Siifu, has created a fresh platform for him to share his artistic and political expressions since 2014. The driving force of the Alabama-born musician is who takes an adventurous approach to production and poetry; His passion comes from his pure love for music and what is experienced socially.

Pink Siifu's path to music was shaped by his family. His father is a jazz saxophonist. His mother was always spinning 90s R&B albums at home. But behind Pink Siifu's interest in rap music is his older brother Hardy. Although the first instrument he learned to play was the trumpet, he decided to play the drums after watching the movie Drumline and joined his school's marching band. On the cover of his latest album, Gumbo'!, there is an illustration depicting Pink Siifu in a marching band costume.

Livingston Lemorie Matthews, known professionally as Pink Siifu, and occasionally iiye, is an American rapper and singer from Cincinnati, Ohio, and Birmingham, Alabama. Pink Siifu has been described as having a slow and lackadaisical delivery to his vocals, a quality he attributes to the influence of Mos Def, Lil Wayne, and Outkast.

Listening to just a few of its tracks is enough to realize how wide the pool of inspiration in Pink Siifu's musical world sprouted from different times and cultures. Sun Ra's Afrofuturism, Amiri Baraka's inspiring political activism, and Ras G's production approach are seamlessly integrated into Pink Siifu's tracks. Pink Siifu often pays tribute to these names in his songs, videos, and performances.

His burning anger against systemic racism and injustice has been evident since the beginning of his career. One of the slap-in-the-face albums of its time, 2020's NEGRO was a distortion-soaked, noisy, and hardcore manifesto supporting Black solidarity. Gumbo' a year later! He came up with it. An 18-song love letter to the history of black music; A catchy fusion of spoken word, soul, and R&B. Pink Siifu explained the emergence of the album name as follows in an interview with Stereogum: “I'm always asked what the style of music I make is. I usually answer to Black music. One day I started calling my music 'gumbo'. This is my genre!”

“Like thunder” would be the right choice to describe Pink Siifu's stage energy. But you can also use adjectives like “hot”, “enthusiastic”, and “dizzying”. To witness their unadulterated outbursts, it is recommended to check out the video "NEGRO's 6; a balance a Peace", directed by Matthews himself.