6.14.2024

Mach-Hommy Continues Rollout of His Critically Acclaimed Album, #RICHAXXHAITIAN, with Historical Video, “SUR LE PONT d’AVIGNON“

Mach-Hommy Reports Live From Haiti’s National Landmark and UNESCO World Heritage Site, La Citadelle Laferrière

The Video:

Mach-Hommy, continues the rollout of his critically acclaimed album #RICHAXXHAITIAN, The video for one the album’s unexpected standout cuts, “SUR LE PONT d’AVIGNON (Reparation #1)“ ft. Sam Gendel, drops this evening at 7pm EST alongside a limited-edition drop of thematic merchandise. The video, directed by Lasheef Ecks, was filmed at Haiti’s National Landmark, La Citadelle Laferrière, a 19th-century fortress located in Milot, in the northern region of the country. Built by the island nation’s first president and only king, Henri Christophe, in 1820 and designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, La Citadelle remains a marvel of engineering, history, and resilience. The video captures majestic aerial views and panoramic backdrops as Mach performs atop the fortress’ centuries-old architecture. “This is an exact visual representation of how I felt when I wrote this song and how I feel every time I hear this song,” says Mach.

Hinting at the song’s parenthetical title, Mach notes, “They’ve been rocking us to sleep with that shit for so long. My turn now.” Despite the fact that the song itself weaves in the well-known 15th century French nursery rhyme, “SUR LE PONT d’AVIGNON” is no lullaby. . This melodic venture sees Mach floating between English rhymes, French melodies, and Arabic prayers, atop smooth production from Grammy-winning beatsmith Conductor Williams. The track also features burgeoning and flourishing saxophone, courtesy of elusive composer, Sam Gendel.

Watch “SUR LE PONT d’AVIGNON (Reparation #1)” ft. Sam Gendel here (live at 7pm EST on 6/14): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A6ApDZkdzc

Along with the new video, Mach will unveil a limited-edition merch capsule in the theme of #RICHAXXHAITIAN. The capsule includes designer t-shirts and water bottles that feature Mach’s proprietary camouflage. Designed by Mach himself and inspired by the album, the T-shirts include quotes related to Haiti. The limited-edition, handmade, designer vinyl pressings include options such as sand-filled and money-filled.

The capsule is available for purchase today (6/14) at billy-z.com at 7pm EST.

The new video for “SUR LE PONT d’AVIGNON” is the latest visual offering from #RICHAXXHAITIAN, the fourth album in a tetralogy of albums that examine Mach-Hommy’s relationship with his homeland, following 2016’s H.B.O. (Haitian Body Odor), and his two acclaimed 2021 albums, Pray For Haiti and Balens Cho (Hot Candles). #RICHAXXHAITIAN is a small musical panacea for his homeland amidst poverty and political strife, combating the public’s negative images of Haiti by focusing on the greatness and prosperity of the country’s diaspora. Over the course of the album, Mach-Hommy emphasizes the country’s potential, strategizing ways that his troubled homeland could become an exemplar of Black cultural and economic excellence.

#RICHAXXHAITIAN garnered massive acclaim upon its release, earning coverage from the likes of Pitchfork, HYPEBEAST, NPR, CLASH, and many others. The album welcomes collaborators new and old to help flesh out Mach-Hommy’s sound, including Black Thought, Roc Marciano, Tha God Fahim, Your Old Droog, Drea D’Nur, and Big Cheeko, plus producers like Grammy-winner Conductor Williams, Grammy-nominated producer Quelle Chris, longtime associate Sadhu Gold, and others.

Attempting to transform our modern dystopia into a utopia using only his rhymes and force of will, Mach-Hommy invites us all, from his most loyal investors to his freshest fans, to imagine a brand new world. With #RICHAXXHAITIAN, that seemingly impossible dream creeps ever closer.

“I’ve always wanted to rep for Haiti and the cultural and intellectual richness we’ve provided the world,” Mach-Hommy says. “From our musical styles like kontradans that have influenced world music, our natural resources which provide so much raw material for so many important advancements in technology, our thinkers that pioneered philosophical movements and Black pride, and our spiritual leaders who kept the religious traditions of Guinea alive and intact, the religious traditions of Ayiti….”

Stream #RICHAXXHAITIAN: https://too.fm/kxjk19e

Buy #RICHAXXHATIAN on vinyl, CD, and limited-edition merch at billy-z.com

The Background:

Defying convention and transcending interpretation as he blazes his own path through the music industry, Mach-Hommy is a true original. The prolific Haitian-American artist can be hard to track, physically and metaphysically: his face and birth name remain a mystery, he does not use social media, and his Machography spans more than 50 albums, some only available in limited-edition physical formats, some gone forever as limited-edition digital releases. When they’re out in the world, Mach exhibits them like high art, selling them at prices that reflect their true value, not the artificially deflated value imposed upon music by the streaming age. Mach-Hommy’s incisive lyrics probe the frailty of the human condition, arranged into alchemical verses that draw instant rap hands from even the most-seasoned hip-hop head (“…every bar is rap chemistry” – Rolling Stone; “Over the past five years, Mach has made some of the strangest, most incisive, most tantalizingly intertextual rap music in the world” – GQ).

Exclusivity has been an integral part of Mach’s brand, giving off the aura of a man rapping from the penthouse of a billion-dollar high-rise complex, covered with spray painted Basquiat tags, hidden in the middle of a magic forest only accessible by solving age-old riddles. But now, Mach-Hommy is interested in being more forward-facing. “I’m on my Hommy Appleseed shit,” he says. “Now that I’ve done the so-called impossible, the next thing for me to do is make sure this music spreads all over—making sure samples are cleared so the music can play wherever I need it to play. I may have been contracting before because that was what was good for me in that place. Now I’m in a place where I should expand. But don’t expect to see anything weighing down the impact and the style of how I present material. I’m still gonna be Mach-Hommy.”

#RICHAXXHAITIAN, Mach’s new album, is now streaming on all platforms, and is available for purchase on vinyl, CD, and cassette at his official store.

Critical Praise:

Read Mach-Hommy’s 3-Part FADER Cover Story (written in part by Mach himself): 1 | 2 | 3

“an opus executed with a level of precision that’s come to be expected of the prolific rapper.” – Pitchfork on #RICHAXXHAITIAN

“With this push to demystify himself some comes a need to be less hidden, and a challenge to do so without sacrificing the cult-like air of secrecy from which his aura is drawn. For Hommy, making such a reality possible means leaning into the aspects of his identity that have already been at the fore of his music…” – NPR on #RICHAXXHAITIAN

“#RICHAXXHAITIAN, his latest full-length, flexes cultural versatility and erudition to match its musical chops….The effortless melodies in “Holy ____” and the title track, and the hair-raising internal-rhyme wizardry in “Copy Cold,” “Sonje,” and “Lon Lon,” all make #RICHAXXHAITIAN a pointed expression of craft and politics.” – Vulture

“Mach-Hommy has been building one of the great catalogs in underground rap history, in volume and in impact.” – Complex

“Over the past five years, Mach has made some of the strangest, most incisive, most tantalizingly intertextual rap music in the world…He has a pliable voice that effectively communicates contempt (often) or longing (selectively); his writing seems like collage until it doesn’t, breaking from interpolated lyrics and allusion into richly rendered scenes from his own memory.” – GQ

“…every bar is rap chemistry” – Rolling Stone

“The charms of Hommy’s music are on full display as he moves slickly, with casually clever wordplay, through well-curated soul samples.” – The New Yorker

“Hip-hop heads love to talk about that feeling. It’s a nebulous concept, at times an old-head argument to dismiss new folks, and in other instances a passionate plea to try and articulate what can be so powerful and transformative about hip-hop. That feeling, while oftentimes trite, is the best way to convey to a latecomer what makes Mach-Hommy the most exciting MC today.” – Billboard

Links:

Mach-Hommy: official site | zotanica | youtube | spotify | apple

“SUR LE PONT d’AVIGNON (Reparation #1)” Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A6ApDZkdzc

“#RICHAXXHAITIAN” ft. KAYTRANADA & 03 Greedo Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfZhtaL-pwU

#RICHAXXHAITIAN: https://too.fm/kxjk19e

“#RICHAXXHAITIAN” ft. 03 Greedo & KAYTRANADA: https://too.fm/zqqamx7

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Mach-Hommy Reports Live From Haiti in Cinematic “SUR LE PONT d’AVIGNON” Video

6.14.2024

Mach-Hommy Continues Rollout of His Critically Acclaimed Album, #RICHAXXHAITIAN, with Historical Video, “SUR LE PONT d’AVIGNON“

Mach-Hommy Reports Live From Haiti’s National Landmark and UNESCO World Heritage Site, La Citadelle Laferrière

The Video:

The Background:

Critical Praise:

Links: