On November 2, 2021 Anderson .Paak announced he was launching a label, Apeshit Inc., “a disruptive platform for the most captivating talent in the world” — or, as he says in the announcement video, “people who can play and perform at the same time.”
The first and currently only act signed to the label are DOMi and JD BECK, a drummer pianist duo, who play the type of free jazz I think my dad would’ve liked (he was a drummer himself).
I played the flute in jazz band from 3rd to 8th grade. I loved being part of a wall of sound that made people groove, but I was always drowned out by the horns and I internalized the instrument’s maximum volume as the limit to which I could ever be heard, literally and figuratively. So I stopped playing.
Then .Paak launched his label. Six months later I saw him perform as Silk Sonic in Las Vegas where Maurice Brown and Mateus Asato each performed during the show’s two intermissions, completely shredding on the trumpet and bass respectively, and I thought damn, that’s what he means by playing and performing. I want to do that. Those guys did not stop playing their instruments in 8th grade.
And most recently, Lizzo got up on the stage at the Capitol One Arena in DC and played James Madison’s crystal flute, driving all sorts of people absolutely mad with the audacity of her talent. And I thought: what if I could make people feel that much — anger or otherwise, really anything at all — with my flute?
So I’m picking it back up again, fifteen years later. Here’s how it started: