FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 23, 2021

Contact: Cullen Wade

fellowman@gmail.com

703-851-1062

CHARLOTTESVILLE RAPPER RELEASES STORY ALBUM AS PUBLIC ART INSTALLATION

Charlottesville, Virginia - Rapper and producer Fellowman has chosen a novel way to release his new album: as a site-specific installation, part public art and part scavenger hunt. The project, titled Walking Tours, seeks to link the experience of listening to its songs with the tangible locations that inspired or are otherwise significant to them.

The installation consists of eight different QR codes posted in various locations in greater Charlottesville. Scanning the codes with a smartphone will take listeners to private links for each of the album’s songs. The only way to hear the full album is to visit each of the sites and scan the codes one by one. Seekers can use the tracklist, released by Fellowman on his social media and website in the form of a map showing the general location of each song. “The map will give you a rough positioning, but some will be harder to find than others,” he warns.

The eight songs of Walking Tours are all narratives in the hiphop storytelling tradition, specific to the Charlottesville area and focusing on systemic inequities arising from its racial and class tensions. Encouraging listeners to travel on foot reinforces one of the album’s themes: the gulf between those accustomed to viewing the city from the sidewalk, and those who view it through the window of a car.

The unorthodox release strategy, inspired by museum audio tours, compels listeners to consider the relationship between physical space and the phenomenon of music listening. Fellowman wrote the songs during walks around the city, and he wants the audience to experience them in the same way: under an open sky, in the sites that contributed to their creation. “Music is not just vibrations in your ear,” he says. “It’s the sum of all the psychic and physical context surrounding both artist and listener.”

While Fellowman seems to be rejecting the common rapper desire for global fame by focusing on the hyper-local, he does have plans to release the Walking Tours album normally after the installation has been up for a few weeks. For now he is tight-lipped about the details of the physical release, but avows he has another twist up his sleeve. “Form follows function, that’s all I’ll say at the moment.”

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For a full press kit including downloadable music, email fellowman@gmail.com