Raised in a Christian household, going to church from a young age, having been baptised and confirmed. ‘Serving the Lord’, as an acolyte, a boat boy and a chorister. Growing older and increasingly detached from the fairytale stories of retribution, lack of reason, obsession with groundless faith. Most notably expressed by my Grandma, my Mother and my Mothers side of the family. Every query to every question would revolve around prayer and faith, every good, their god, every evil, their devil. This very black and white binary did not sit easy with my young enquiring mind. It was during this time at around twelve, thirteen, that Hip-Hop music became the rebellious doctrine I abided by, Tupac being the rebel I most understood. Not often or ever had I heard a man be emotionally vulnerable, open and afraid. Unlike Tupac however, there is a celebratory tongue in cheek approach to the chorus, playing with the impact of christianity as a colonial tool and how the holy wata very much hit many a diaspora.
A happy sad song, a playful, celebratory lamentation subverting the idea of Holy Water as protective and Baptism as positive renewal. The song touches on my personal relationship to Christianity, looking at what holy water could not protect and what baptism could not renew.
Have you ever thought about celebrating sadness so it's no longer sad… acknowledging the weight of the past so you no longer have to carry it around.
The song is also a reflection on the relationship between slavery, colonisation, missionaries and Christianities introduction to West Africa, specifically looking at the impact it had/has on the Krio people of Sierra Leone whom I'm of, whom I'm from.
lyrics
i got holy
wholly
holy water hit
i got holy
wholly
holy water hit
i i got holy
wholly
holy water hit
post chorus
bap-tizum
heat done turn cold
my blood lines
dey be lost in a limbo
forceps crush my aunts head
till life no longer she
know
the
priest can’t save me
andrew
nor peter
matthew mark luke john
mute button turn
on
no gospel for me me
me me me me
the
priest can’t save me
andrew
nor peter
matthew mark luke john
mute button turn
on
no gospel for me me
me me me me
chorus
i got holy
wholly
holy water hit
i got holy
wholly
holy water hit
i i got holy wholly
holy water hit
verse two
bap-tizum
heat done turn cold
my blood lines
dey be lost in a limbo
forceps crush my aunts head
till life no longer she
know
chorus
i got holy
wholly
holy water hit
i got holy
wholly
holy water hit
i i got holy wholly
holy water hit
verse three
best
d douse me in flames
mere water can’t save me
child of the nineties
yet feel like i’m eighty
old man with young bod
tears make my heart throb
got asthma from trauma
i can’t breathe lady
douse me in flames
mere water can’t save me
child of the nineties
yet feel like i’m eighty
old man with young bod
tears make my heart throb
got asthma from trauma
i can’t breathe lady
douse me in flames mere
water can't
save me save me save me
save me
chorus
i got holy
wholly
holy water hit
i got holy
wholly
holy water hit
i i got holy wholly
holy water hit
credits
from POOL,
released August 5, 2022
Written by Nadeem Din-Gabisi, Coby Sey, MettaShiba & Beni Giles
Produced & Mixed by Beni Giles at Iguana Studios, Brixton
I'm a bit anoid with my silf that I only just found this fantastic album yesterday, but also chuffed to fuck that I have at all. Love it so much what a wining collaboration 👊🔥🔥 Toblermone
Like so many others, this came like a bolt out of the blue and, even though it's well before payday, I had to have this astonishing album on vinyl to prove it exists. The feel of the tunes makes me feel like the Impressions do, Curtis Mayfield, the big spaces and instinctive horns and stuff drifting in and out. Great grooves and I can see lots of ghosts nodding along to this with big smiles on their faces. At last! Anthony Cottrell
Gaelynn Lea won NPR's Tiny Desk Contest, and it's easy to see why. Haunting, beautiful country songs, laced up with weeping fiddle lines. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 3, 2016
