Benji Reid

1 Our Lord Debussy by A Winged Victory for the Sullen

Every time I hear this music I have a need to create. There is a celebration of space in this work that makes it feel like a meditation, an offering to openness. In a world full of busyness and noise, one needs to find a moment to be quiet and still.

2 Red Room: Hiatus Kaiyote

Have you ever loved something or someone so much it hurts? Well, this is what this song is for me. It’s like crying at a sunrise because it’s so beautiful.

3 Masters of war by Odetta

Perfect protest song writing by Bob Dylan.

Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.

Odetta brings a beautiful sensibility to this song. I feel her pain and her disgust. Will we ever know peace?

4 One More Smile (Live at Electric Lady) by Yebba

I love to hear performers who become one with music. There is something deeply spiritual about this song. I get carried away by its simplicity and beauty. Some works just invite you to surrender and the song does exactly that.

5 Mother I Sober by Kendrick Lamar

This song is so layered. We have the painful truth of unresolved trauma, his raw and unflinching delivery and the song’s composition – they all work perfectly together. It is Kendrick’s honesty and vulnerability that gives this song its strength. Kendrick reaches into your soul and asks you to come on this journey with him. Mother I Sober is the complex struggles of black masculinity laid bare.