Today, GAIKA launches The Spectacular Empire, an ambitious, sprawling story of biker gangs, government breakdowns, and a world – our world – on the brink of collapse. “I’m in this for the immigrants,” the London musician explains. “The Spectacular Empire is a view of tomorrow as seen through those eyes, looking from ground up, rather than some highbrow museum thing. Technology impacts us all, and this fifth column of angry black and brown people they talk about – I’m all for it. We need to use the technological means we have to fight those people who are trying to kill us all. As such, the music I’m looking to put out simply exists in that context as opposed to some current abstract middle class scene.”

The multi-media narrative is illustrated by visuals from GAIKA created with Sam Bailey and AAA that plunders from “many bootleg sources”, as well as music by GAIKA, God Colony, BON, and Wildlife. “Practically, The Spectacular Empire functions as infrastructure for forward-thinking black art and music, recorded or live,” GAIKA adds. “I guess it’s an attempt to express my aesthetic and that of the people I rate in as many degrees as possible. Thematically, though the the work is generally still about normal everyday hood things – just filtered, in a sense. It’s still gotta bang.”

One of the videos, the atmospheric “Loot”, is a collaboration between God Colony and GAIKA centred around a not-too-subtle bootlegged Rihanna vocal. “The video concept is inspired by something my brother is working on, a crime story set in the future,” GAIKA says. “The video started as a proof of concept for this. After that, the tune’s called ‘Loot’, so I went online and filled my bag.”

Watch the “Loot” video below, and read The Spectacular Empire here.