Tucson’s Black One is releasing a new record, and according to the raspy rapper it’s not just an album, it’s a “multimedia event.” The pugnacious M.C. says that it is going to be an ongoing project that will feature short stories, photos, contests, secret shows, and interactive events as well as music — all with the intention of making the listener a bigger part of the creative process.
“The idea is to give the fan more than just music and also give them a chance to influence and shape the album if they want,” says Black One (real name Jaron Ikner). “I consider myself a multimedia artist, meaning I’m willing to use any media outlet that I am capable at to get my story across. For me, the idea of combining multiple mediums together is progressive and fresh.”
To begin the extensive release of Project Equinox, Ikner dropped the video for the album’s lead single “No Way.” The only person who appears in the video is Black One, but it is shot in such a way that the barren Phoenix landscape behind him is still quite visually pleasing.
“I had a hard time trying to decide the exact process of how I was going to roll it out. Originally, before I had decided on doing this project in this format, “No Way” was always going to be the lead single. I wanted to reach a wider audience, and it made sense for that track to be the jump-off point for the whole thing,” Ikner says.
Now that Project Equinox has further evolved, “No Way” is just a small part of an overarching story that Black One is going to tell piece by piece over the next few months. He says that he considers the release to be 33% complete with the appearance of the new video along with three completed songs, a short story available on starstruck.com, and another short story and secret song yet to come out as part of this phase of the project.
The 66% version will be coming this winter and will include six more songs, three unfinished versions of songs, more music videos, and more short story chapters.
“I really appreciate the power of a story. There are so many ways to tell one. And we as humans gravitate towards that. That’s why we love movies, music, and TV the way we do. For me, I never wanted to be put in a box; I know that I am capable of being pretty much whatever I want to be, and I just want to be a dope storyteller,” says Ikner. “I think that has always been the goal. As a kid, I was obsessed with making movies and writing short stories. I got into rapping in high school, and that kind of took over for a while, but I always knew in the back of my mind that I would come back around to doing film and writing stories. It makes the most sense to just try and find ways to combine the efforts.”
