VILLAS

We wrote this song “Strawberry Accident” years ago, cooking up some beats in the kitchen of our farm with while Mel simultaneously made a failed strawberry dessert (which ended up being delicious = 🍓 accident)

Last week, while working and recording with two youth we’re supporting in Atlanta with , we got to perform it at Outkast’s legendary Stankonia Studios after the rest of the crew went home🛸 Feelin’ fresh & clean y’all! 🛸

Thanks to for engineering and storytelling. You’re “welcome in” to cananda anytime

And to for being wild enough to come on these trips and leave enough gas in his tank to make weird stuff with us at the end of extremely long days

Big Ups to:

A lil teaser from a weird lil song called ‘Strawberry Accident’ written on our farm years ago and then recorded at OutKasts’ Stankonia Studios in Atlanta last week

Big love to:

We’re in Jamaica often, sometimes for play, but usually for work with our org

Over the next 4 months we’re traveling the globe supporting 24 youth who are part of - a one year Fellowship program rooted in community leadership, creativity and self-development

This week we took our VERSIONS youth to the legendary 💥

While everyone ate lunch, we stepped into the live room with our favourite guy and Tuffy engineer extraordinaire to do a little live pass of one of our songs - Up Against

This is the first of a series of live performances we’re capturing along the way...

A special thanks to and all the beautiful people who were a part of these sessions 🥰

“Up Against”
Live at Tuff Gong

THIS. JUST. IN.

For the past 18 months we’ve been researching, developing, executive producing and building this new program from the ground up for our organization Darkspark

Inspired by the Jamaican musical tradition of versioning, we’re so happy to introduce VERSIONS - a global anti-discrimination project that unites emerging youth leaders, recording artists, and cultural innovators to challenge prejudice and racism through collaborative creative expression, mentorship and direct community action. ⚡️

There will be many different activations over this coming year, but the first is the launch of the VERSIONS Youth Fellowship - a one year program supporting 30 emerging artists of colour from around the world.

If you’re between 16-24 (or know someone who is) head over to Darkspark to learn more or visit www.versionsfellowship.org to apply! ✨✨✨

Also! If you’re an artist that would like to mentor youth, or be involved in VERSIONS get at us!

Xo M&D

🚨Up Against🚨 out 2/22/22

Been a long time coming. This one’s for you, lovers. Or, for anyone who just needs to slow grind with someone while weeping