Lord Fess: Rebellion EP release

Wednesday, Nov. 20, 9 p.m., freeโ€“$5

The Pinhook, Durham

The Durham rapper, producer, and songwriter Lord Fess has been buildingย as a recording and touring artist over the last few years, but theyโ€™ve been rough, too: He broke his leg, lost family members to cancer, and reckoned with depression and anxiety.

That kind of struggle takes a toll on the people around you, perhaps especially your significant other. In the video for โ€œStress,โ€ which weโ€™re premiering today, Lord Fess wrestles with how those hard times affected his relationship and his partner, with a laidback urgency in the singsong cadence he threads between SoundWavveโ€™s wistful synths and spitting 808s. It’s a dark night of the soul with a strangely soothing, resilient energy.ย 

Set in Durham, the video is a polished production,ย directed and edited by Patrick Lincolnย of Raleigh’sย Torch House Media. The song comes from Rebellion, the EP that Fess will drop on Friday, November 22โ€”but the release show is at The Pinhook tonight (withย Kelly KALE, The Lost Generation, and 3Fourteen).ย 

Rebellion, he told the INDY, is the result of a couple of years under the tutelage of Dreamville-associated recording engineer Juro โ€œMezโ€ Davis; the EP features Fess’s own production alongside work from people he met along the way, including Soundwavve, Nick Sanborn, Chaka Harley, and JD Wilson.

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