I named the album 'Otaku' to poke fun at myself and my love for anime/Japan. It also falls in line with Lofi Hip Hop's obsession with the anime aesthetic. I always joke with my friends that I'm a step away from getting a body pillow. I also wanted to explore the stigma behind it and question its definition. I don't think people should judge each other so harshly.

The album is inspired by many things: Anime (Mob Psycho 100, Re:zero, Cowboy Bebop, Golden Time, Durarara!!, Seven Deadly Sins, Neon Genesis Evangelion), TV shows (Freaks & Geeks, Stranger Things), certain genres like future (Quickly, Quickly, Lido), lofi hiphop (Knxwledge, sleepy eyes, O.S.L., ohbliv, bsd.u, SwuM, wuntwo, mt. marcy, Josh Hey, Beat Haus, Paxico Records, Stones Throw, dil withers, a.bee,), Funk/soul (Sade, Milton Wright, George Duke, Prince Phillip Mitchell), Jazz (John Klemmer, Shigeo Sekito, Larry Willis, John Coltrane), 80s/90s rap (Eazy E, Ice Cube, Queen Latifah, AZ, De La Soul), 80s acid house (Phil Fearon & the Galaxy), and 90s/2000s R&B (Xscape, Musiq Soulchild, Lalah Hathaway, Alicia Keys, Silk).

Certain rappers (Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Kanye West, Earl Sweatshirt, Max B, Skepta/BBK, Lord Apex), certain albums (Blonde by Frank Ocean, Freetown Sound by Blood Orange, JEFFERY by No My Name Is Jeffery, P3 by PARTYNEXTDOOR), food channels and respective foodies/chefs (Munchies, Matty Matheson, Eddie Huang, Sean Evans, First We Feast's Hot Ones, Gordon Ramsay, Morimoto's 'Momosan' on Lex), and other things like Akai, reel to reel machines (Akai 1720w), cassette culture, Roy Woods, Rihanna, Rick Rubin, Sven Libaek, Zen Buddhism, and a lot of other things that inspired me in one way or another. The album art is done by zomkashwak (instagram.com/zomkashwak) and is inspired by a past muse..

I took the summer off to study beatmaking and this is the culmination of that effort. I would watch videos for seven hours a day every day of the week. I probably watched upwards of 300 hours of video tutorials from legends like Matt Weiss and Echo Soundworks. I also read the Art of Mixing by David Gibson. I dedicate this album to my family who continues to support and love me unconditionally — more than I deserve. Thanks to everyone who helped make this album, especially dylAn for getting the interlude in on time and ISBA for providing dope background vocals. Big thanks to Jux Chemist for the art direction/helping me find the aesthetic of the album. Thanks to the Grifo Tapes family for putting me on, sponsoring my broke ass, and for being patient with me haha. Thanks to Inner Ocean Records for pressing the tapes and big up to zomkashwak for providing the trill album art. Finally, thank you to the fans. You guys telling me you vibe with my songs is the reason I do this <3

Love —

Bee