In the popular TV series, SWARM, Dominique Fishback\u2019s character, Dre, is asked whether or not she believes in God. In return, she states that \u201dGod is just an echo.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an era that places so much significance on the omnipresence of technology to help us define ourselves as a species, the idea of what God is or isn\u2019t seems to be brought up less and less often. For many, the standards society holds itself to is often defined by what the majority \u201clikes\u201d most; the way we navigate our relationships seem to become more and more self-serving and our moral failings become fodder for Netflix specials rather than deep reflection on how far we\u2019ve come \u2013 and how far some are willing to go bring themselves power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Yannick Ilunga, also known as Petite Noir, God is everything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last few years since his 2015 La Vie Est Belle<\/em> (Life is Beautiful), music has taken Ilunga to Paris, London, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Los Angeles, in search of a new way of seeing himself and his highest power. Already growing up with a prismatic identity, Yannick was born in Belgium to Congolese parents and raised in South Africa, where his musical identity took shape. In a unique and brazen string of projects and collaborative works that assess darkness in the physical and emotional sense, Petite Noir has carved out a singular voice that is full-bodied and proud as well as sonically and visually lush. Today, in Mother\/Father<\/em>, he explores his spirit, the nature of God, his relationships and his hopes to, in turn, explore his own true nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I guess there\u2019s been a sort of African renaissance happening. For an artist like me now is the best time to be yourself, and I definitely feel that when I was just starting out it wasn\u2019t necessarily the best time to be an artist like me. It\u2019s been amazing to watch artists like Burna Boy<\/a> and Steve Lacy pierce through the market, and I think right now as a human race we are starting to accept a bit more; we\u2019re moving into a paradigm where it\u2019s ok\u2026 things aren\u2019t as ruled by race and where you\u2019re from, but at the same time for example the media still use these types of things for control. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSince the pandemic began in 2020, it seems that there\u2019s been a shift in how Africans see themselves and are being seen. Have you felt that change? What is your experience of being the African man that you are and how people viewed you?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n