"Ain't no post-credits scene. We can all just leave." That's the refrain from Open Mike Eagle and Kenny Segal's new single "Watching A Movie Called Freedom By Myself." I don't think we're supposed to take that line literally. Similarly, I don't think this is a song about a solo viewing of Freedom, the 2014 film in which Cuba Gooding Jr. escapes slavery on the Underground Railroad. Or at least it's not just about that. I think the "freedom" here is more conceptual, and so is the "movie." Open Mike Eagle is a master of the allegory, and he's found a resonant one here.
The great underground rap fixture Open Mike Eagle and the extremely gifted producer Kenny Segal have been working together for a long time, and they'll release their first collaborative album Doomed! next month. We've already posted the excellent lead single "Unfinished Concrete Initials," which features Hemlock Ernst, rap alter-ego of Future Islands frontman Samuel T. Herring. The record is partly about the end of OME's most recent relationship, which evidently did not have a post-credits scene, metaphorical or otherwise.
"Watching A Movie Called Freedom By Myself" is a hazy, expansive six-minute track, and Open Mike Eagle delivers his poetically bummed-out frustration with thoughful weariness. The song's muted, jazz-informed instrumental is lovely, and Segal gets a while at the end to let the track ride. Elise Valderrama directed the video, in which OME watches his own breakup play out onscreen as a black-and-white cinematic melodrama. Check it out below.
Doomed! is out 8/14 and Backwoodz, with physical distribution through Rhymesayers/Secretly.
