Stay informed on our latest news!

Are you up for the challenge? If you’re reading this, Tama Gucci has hand-selected you as his opponent in a duel to the death (drop). The location? The dancefloor. The mission? dance.

This quest is not for the faint of heart. It requires courage, bravery, and being unapologetically yourself. It rejects superiority, inhibition, and fear of embarrassment. It is easier said than done. 

Your opponent, Tama Gucci, the hot-pink-haired Leo has never shied away from center stage. In fact, he’s stepping into the spotlight as we speak. After years of daylighting behind the reception desk of a hair salon, and moonlighting behind the DJ booth, it's Tama's time to shine. His newest single, “Challenge” is a glowing introduction to his unique style of floating sweet, sensual melodies over blood-pumping beats, and is only a taste of what’s to come. But don’t be shy, his challenge is more collaboration, than the competition–an effort to push people out of their heads and into their truest selves.

To complete the challenge, you must remain in constant motion for all two minutes and thirty-three seconds of Tama Gucci’s newest single “Challenge.” For each two-step you take, you receive one point, for each risk–like talking to the cute person at the other side of the party who’s been eyeing you all night–you receive two. A kiss is worth five bonus points. A giggle-filled trip to the bathroom together: ten. Should you choose to fly solo, bonus points can be unlocked for each enactment of That Bitch Behavior (i.e applying lipgloss, knowing all the words to Roman’s Revenge, telling the girl crying in the bathroom to break up with her boyfriend because she deserves better). She does. And so do you. You deserve a night without FOMO, without proving you’re having fun, without jumping through hoops to get that one certain someone to notice you, while dodging the advances of people who can’t seem to stop noticing you.

The objective is clear, the intentions are pure: have fun, you deserve it. So…do you accept?

Stream "Challenge" here, and check out the office PREMIERE video and exclusive interview below. 

Is this your first official interview? How do you want to introduce yourself for your debut?

I don’t really do many of them. I’ve done interviews where they send me questions and I answer it, but never really like this. And well, I’m Tama Gucci. I’m like how old am I?

What grade are you in? What’s a fun fact about you?

One fun fact I would say is… It’s the worst question in the world. Honestly. It’s really such a hard thing because I’m such a weirdo. I feel like I have so many fun facts. I would say one fun fact about me is I love burgers. If I go to a restaurant and I see a burger on the menu, it could be a restaurant known for having the best steaks in the world. I’m still getting the burger. But, generally about me, I’ve been living in New York for about three, four years now. I was working at a salon part-time as a receptionist. Now I’m doing full-time music. And I have Tamascorner which is my merch site.

Tell me about the name Tama Gucci. Where did it come from?

So my dad used to take me every Thursday morning to go by Tamagotchis, because he got paid on Thursday. So I would go to Wallgreens where they were like $15 and buy one very single week and then go to school. At some point he was like, I'm not buying you these anymore, so I bought them for myself. I probably had like 30, but I was killing them. I had a couple for so long that the battery died and I was devastated. I had one that died of old age, but I never kept them all alive. But Tamagotchis were a big part of my childhood, they were my favorite toy. And before I started making music I wanted to be amodel, and I was like "I'm gonna book something for Gucci" because I just loved the brand Gucci as well. And then, well I'm a barb, and like Slumber Party with Gucci Mane came out, and I was just kind of like Tamagotchi, take the gotchi and put Gucci and I was like, oh my god, this is genius, and i'ts just been that ever since. 

Where were you before New York?

I was in Miami. So I was born and raised in Miami. Which is such an interesting place to be born and raised because there's not many. I guess there's not many things from your reference as far as like what I'm doing now growing up in Miami. So it was kind of fun because I could kind of do whatever I want.

What was the music that you heard there growing up? How has it informed your music now?

Definitely a lot of Daddy Yankee. You get so much Latin music. That and also Haitian music. Miami is such a big culture pot. It’s like Cubans, Puerto Ricans, a lot of Haitians and Jamaicans so it was just all that like Caribbean music. And then in Florida, we love like music that’s sped up. I think it has a name now, it’s something hardcore something like that–

Yeah, that’s what it is. But I don’t think we called it that. Miami definitely shaped my taste in music because a lot of the time when I'm making music, without even knowing it, it sounds very Caribbean and I love singing slow over fast beats. Kind of just gliding over it but it's so much going on in the background. I like when there’s so much happening in the background, but It’s just smooth with the vocals. The sound I go for is definitely sexy. Not to be like tooting my own horn, but I tend to describe things a lot that people are too polite to say when it comes to like being interested in somebody or feeling yourself. I'm also a Leo so all of my music or anything I make has Leo aspect. There's When I say I’m a Leo people will be like “I know” because of what I’m singing about or they'll be like I just know you're a Leo because of what your music. So it definitely makes anything that I touch bring a sense of confidence when you absorb it. And then there's also something romantic about it as well. Or it’s like sassy and kinda brooding.

No that’s cool, like there’s a vulnerability to it or a boastfulness. That feels so true for “Challenge.” Can you tell me a bit about the song and how you came up with it?

I made Challenge right before everything locked down. The whole idea was basically like, you go to a party. You're not there with anyone and you don't have any intentions of getting with anyone. You just know that you look really cute and that you want to dance. And if you see somebody else's cute and they want to dance as well, it’s like challenging them to meet on the dance floor and just escape everything else. Just dance. I think nowadays everybody takes themselves seriously. I would try don't blame them. I believe that social media has been a big part of that because people make money literally off of just posting pictures of themselves. So they start to take themselves very critically. You know, they start to overanalyze everything and that can affect them just letting loose on the dance floor. Or also when you go out to dance or you say you're going to a party, a lot of people are worrying about capturing moments and going there with the intentions of leaving with someone or being seen by someone instead of just going with the pure intentions of dancing, and feeling cute with yourself.

How do you prepare for a party?

I always, always, always, always have a joint. I don't know how I've gotten into the habit, but I always have a joint in my bag. And I smoke a joint before I go. I order my vodka cranberry. I call it a pretty girl drink. I saw a tweet the other day and it was like men used to build houses and now they order vodka cranberries. And I was like that is so true. It's just like that's my go-to drink. So I'll have a vodka cranberry. Those are the things that I need to like have fun and it's pretty simple.

The music video for “Challenge” is also a really cool party scene. What was the concept and process of filming that like?

I think it's “Slave 4 U by Britney Spears. Where it's like she's kind of like in this warehouse moment and it's like you don't know where they are, but the whole idea was that we own this huge building, which was the Market Hotel, and everyone here is–maybe they’re in the K hole or just coming out of one–but everyone is just dancing having a drink chillin like and then there's music playing as well and if you want to dance and escape you can. That was the vibe and something that we visually referenced before we made it it was that Britney video. So that was kind of like the vibe of it.

So it seems like Britney is a theme. Let’s talk about Britney.

She’s actually the blueprint. like a lot of ways people don't realize that they're referencing her and I know who Britney references are in there and that's like actually special to like Janet Jackson is like a part of it but like Janet Jackson also was inspiring Britney as well. So you know, like there's, those are the two I will say main focus points as far as like references go because their whole thing was dancing and like feeling yourself and escaping.

I feel like they’re both pop icons who had that vulnerability and that boastfulness too, especially during a time when women weren’t really allowed to express that in pop culture.

Exactly. That's perfect that you said that because that's really why I naturally gravitated towards it. But it was Jonathan's idea to like a reference that video specifically just because of how well they're synced up. You know, you can take the Slave 4 U video and then put Challenge on it and it's like, oh my god, this makes so much sense. You know?

What are some of your other favorite Britney songs or music videos you grew up watching?

Oh my god. “If You Seek Amy” When I heard it, I was obsessed with listening to the radio at that time. And I remember hearing it and being like If You Seek Amy… and I was like, “all of the girls and all of the boys are begging to F U C K ME . I was like, this is the most genius thing ever. And then I dug into some of her albums, like the whole Circus album. My favorite. She’s got this one song called “Mannequin” and yeah, there are just so many classics by her but “If You Seek Amy” was like my favorite.

So what do you challenge people to do when listening to the song?

I challenge people to stop worrying about what other people are doing. Just focus on yourself. Go and dance and have fun and show up to places with a purpose of having fun and doing it for nobody else but yourself. That’s the challenge.

CHALLENGE - TAMA GUCCI @tamahoochie

PRODUCER / AD : Max Pavlichenko @maxpvlchnkok

CREATIVE DIRECTION: Matthew Flatley @delinquent.t

CHOREOGRAPHER / PRODUCER: Robert Vail @vailrobert

PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Chazz Foggie @chazz_._

MAKEUP ARTIST: Anna Kurihara @annakuriharabeauty

EDITOR / 1st AC: Pierce Pyrzenski @piercayy

TITLES: Sebastian Chicchon @jager.noon

2nd AC: Chao Xue @xuechaoming

KEY GRIP: Nico Vallejo @nicovallejodp__

COLORIST: Josh Bohoskey @breezus_christ

LOCATION: Market Hotel @market.hotel

MUA ASSIST: Nanase @nana7se

Brooke Candy, cultural icon-slash-musical artist has been on hiatus. For three years, we've seen the creative dabble in all sorts of undeniably cool and on-brand endeavors — spanning all walks of the arts from fashion to tattooing. And we've loved every minute of it. But today, we can't say we aren't excited to announce that she's back in the business, with a brand new music video and single, titled Flip Phone. 

We can be sure that with Brooke Candy, she isn't just teasing us or dipping a toe in the music world. She's back at it, diving into a whole new "era" of her work and creative exploration. For the exciting debut, the LA-based artist has self-directed a music video alongside Gentle Monster inspired by the iconic Pamela Anderson Barbed Wire character to accompany her addictive single.

From sunny California, Candy tells us, "It’s been three years since my last music release so this moment doesn’t feel real. Not until I hear it blaring in a club or I’m performing it in front of people. I can’t wait for that. This song is my favorite to date, and there’s so much more coming. I’m in the driver's seat… or when you watch my new video, on top of the car."

Find an exclusive look behind the scenes of Brooke Candy's Flip Phone, and the brand new video below. 

Mixing sonic and subcultural elements of hardcore and metal with electronic music, the group is proving to be a force we're all reckoning with — whether we're fans of the heavier stuff or not — breaking the boundaries of stereotypical guitar or rock music in a unique and avant-garde way. And this summer, they continued to impress us with their debut with Relapse Records, releasing their latest album Heaven is Here.

From the name of the band itself to their new album, Candy has as much in common with millenial pink skies and sugary pop sounds as Taylor Swift has with heavy metal: nothing. What's more, the topics touched on lyrically are anything but light, ranging from environmental destruction and collapsing societies to corrupt governments.

The group, consisting on Zak Quiram on vocals, Michael Quick and Andrew Stark on guitars, Kaleb Perdue on bass and Steve Digenio on drums, has created an almost uncomfortable, anxiety-inducing and cutting-edge record, and we'd argue their best yet. Michael Quick, guitarist and mainly responsible for the electronic production, sits down with us to chat about how Candy is in the business of crossing over: merging the electronic with the punk crowds. Their project pushes the overlapping of principles and values from DIY and its anti-establishment attitude with electronica's technical fixation, bringing both audiences closer together than anticipated, and turning their concerts into the best of both worlds picture a rave with a wild mosh pit. 

Continue reading below to learn more about the band that we've become addicted to, even if they may not be so sweet.

When I was looking at your album for the first time, it really reminded me of Dante's Inferno. Does heaven actually mean hell in that case then?

I think it's sort of playing with the same theme as the band being named Candy, but the music being really intense or unpleasant, I guess. It's kind of the thought that there are a lot of leaders in our society who are trying to argue that they're selling us this version of utopia - some big tech and specific political messages and stuff like that. They have their own brand of utopia and heaven. All these people cycle through control of the society we live in. If you look at the ground level of how most people in modern society are living, it doesn't look much better than something like our artwork.

The last song on the album, Perverse, is 10 minutes long, but the other songs on the album are not longer than two minutes ish. What was your reason behind that?

Some bands that we liked in the past in hardcore and punk music have done similar things. We just wanted to bring in all these electronic and noise elements and all these things to kind of increase to sort of knock people off their balance whenever we could. So, if we had a straightforward punk song, like in the sequencing of the album, at the end of that song, there might be some crazy noise interlude that goes on for 15 seconds or something like that. The goal there was just to knock people off their balance and never get a sense of comfort within the album. I think that song was kind of a longer version within the whole album - a way to do the same thing. You think you got to song ten, and it's going to be a two-minute fast punk song, but you're just stuck there for ten minutes listening to chaotic noise. We were just playing with the structure of the album.

Why did you choose to include electronic elements in your album in the first place? I mean punk is not really known for having any electronic bits at all.

Yeah, it's not. I grew up kind of in hardcore punk culture, but I like a lot of other music besides just guitar music and punk, specifically DIY culture. The main type of shows I went to growing up and still do was going to shows at warehouses and under bridges and stuff like that. I've always been interested in electronic music, and the more I read into it and dug into it was essentially the start how rave culture started. They also had DIY spaces and they also were anti-authority and anti-police. When you compare them, you can see that they have a lot of the same cultural ethics and values.

Punk and electronic music maybe don't necessarily go hand in hand in regard to history, but there is a lot in common. That's what sparked the initial idea. Then going deeper into it, if you look at a crazy rave, or look at a crazy hardcore show, people are putting out a high level of physical energy at both.

I wanted to see if we can make punk songs with electronic instrumentation that maybe could scratch the itch of wanting to dance for people that are used to going into more electronic-based raves. Or maybe if you want to mosh in a mosh pit or stage dive. I just tried to bring those things together because I do think there are similarities despite it not being seen as going hand in hand.

Do you think the techno audience is very different to the punk audience? How do you bring them together?

Yes, and no. I think for the punk audience, the downside is that it's very homogenous. It can be just straight white males. That's historically how people see hardcore, punk, and metal, and that's not wrong. Over the years, even since I got into hardcore when I was 14, or 15, it's becoming more and more welcoming. It just looks different than when I got into it, which I think is a good thing. Trying to bring in some of that electronic stuff, hopefully, that welcomes more people. I think punk should stay anti-authority and DIY, but I don't think it should be a thing that anyone feels excluded from because of how the crowds look. Maybe if you bring in elements of other kinds of music that can hopefully bring up the comfort level of other people so that there's just something for more for people to understand, more for people to grasp onto.

And because of that, do you think the genre of hardcore and punk needs to be redefined?

I think about the genre definition so much, especially hardcore. I think that the boundaries of the genre of hardcore need to be looked at differently. A lot of hardcore traditionalists and purists would say that what we're doing with electronic music makes us not a hardcore band - I get that, but I disagree with them. If you look back to the people who started hardcore and punk music, they were not trying to uphold any genre standards. So, people that were starting hardcore and punk, weren't trying to uphold any strict genre definitions. I think that's what I value about hardcore. At this point, people are making music that is as aggressive as metal and punk without guitars only with synths, drum machines, and samples. It would just be crazy for the genre not to grow with it.

Your lyrics cover quite heavy topics such as environmental destruction, the collapse of society, or corrupt governments. How does your music relate to politics and social issues? 

Just on a personal level, we care about that stuff and try to stay engaged with it. That's really where we start with all of the music we make - it's just personal expression. Then we try to add things on top of it. I think in the bigger picture, it's a small platform, but we do have a platform where people are paying attention. It would just feel wrong, not to be addressing that stuff. If you're listening to our music, maybe we can lead you to think about some things, and eventually that could lead to helping some of these issues hopefully. I think it would just feel wrong not to use the small platform.

Not every artist gets the chance to hear legendary producer Shlomo claimed their demos, off the bat, as "captivating and directive". But the "massive vision" he heard in rising artist LST's rough cuts got such treatment.

And it's well deserved, we now know, after hearing the debut EP by the Woodstock, New York-born artist — otherwise known as Lauren Tischler — titled Closer, which was released last week on WEDIDIT Records.

Though perhaps Tischler's work falls under the category of "bedroom pop", to place it under any umbrella would be a disservice. 

There's a Joni Mitchell singer-songwriter quality to her heavy, lyrical ballads of heartbreak, though the folkiness gets flipped on its head with the use of auto-tune and eerie, minimalist guitar. Sticky pop hooks and digitized vocals crooning psychoanalytical lyrics is a surprising and powerful paradox, standing up to any cliche about pop music being trite or firmly formulaic. Having listened to the ethereal and unexpected EP on a loop since it's release, I was grateful for the chance to dig deeper with the artist herself, and uncover what I could about Closer, as much as where, and who, it came from. 

Is being a musical artist something you always saw for yourself?

I think that I have always wanted to pursue music but I was too scared to admit that to myself because I didn’t believe that it was an option for me or something that I could be good at. I’m a perfectionist and I didn’t allow myself to even attempt to write music for a very long time because I was so scared of writing something bad. I had to get over that ego part of it, and I wrote a lot of bad songs before I started to feel like I was getting to some that I liked, but I’m so happy I pushed through.

What are your inspirations and reference points? The aesthetics and sound itself seem dichotomous almost, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s a compliment.

I'm happy you say that because I also feel like there is a feeling of dichotomy and opposition in the music. Like the use of autotune and some of the hyper pop elements in the production feel in contrast to what I hope is a feeling of authenticity in the songwriting. I reached out to Charles of Planet 1999 about working together because I love PC Music and I loved their album Devotion. I sent him over the stems for the first version of the song, which was a really stripped down demo, and he sent me back the version that’s on the EP now. It was the first time I had ever heard my voice with auto-tune on it and I was pretty adverse to it at first, mostly because most of my favorite musicians and influences — like Mazzy Star, Fiona Apple, Cat Power — all have this really strong feeling of honesty and vulnerability in their work that I admire and hoped to emulate, and I was afraid that by using something so ultramodern I would be taking away from the deeper emotional content of the songs. But I sat with it for a while and ended up really falling in love how the two elements, this synthetic feeling and a sense of genuineness, worked together.

What was the hardest or most fear inducing aspect of this process? 

I think the hardest part has actually been releasing the songs after keeping this part of my life private for so long, I think I had forgotten that releasing was actually a part of the process. It feels really scary to have them out into the world, but really rewarding, and exciting to think that people might be able to connect and relate to the songs.

Are there specific people, places and things that have grounded you? 

Where I grew up in Upstate NY, Woodstock, has always been really grounding for me. I wrote most of the EP while living with my parents at my childhood home during the pandemic, and I shot the cover art there with Eric Chakeen which felt really right and like a true representation of the project. I feel best and most creative when I am surrounded by nature and have space to think. And I do a lot of prayer and meditation to feel sane.

What’s it been like working with WEDIDIT and Shlohmo on your first EP? 

Working with them has been the best experience, they’ve been so supportive since the beginning. I’m definitely a control freak and have a hard time trusting anyone else with something I’ve written. The first time I met Henry (Shlohmo) I played him all of the demos I had, which had been sitting in a dropbox folder for years because I couldn’t figure out where to go with them, and he knew right away how to finish them. When a producer understands what you are trying to do and is able to add to your vision without compromising it it feels like a really special thing. I feel very lucky to have worked with Henry on all of the music I’m putting out, as well as Ben Morsberger (Juice Jackal) and Jasper Patterson (Groundislava) who both contributed to the EP and my upcoming album and are so talented.

How do you think you have changed in the time since starting this album? How do you hope to going forward? 

A handful of the first songs I ever wrote are on my forthcoming album. When I started writing music I felt really lost and had a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms. I didn’t know who I was at all then and I feel like I am able to listen back to those songs now as a sort of a diary of the last almost decade of my life and that can feel both painful and therapeutic. Including a lot of my early songs on the album feels scary but also like I am giving that part of my life a sense of closure. It’s been really nice to finish these songs and to be able to write from the place I am at now and see how different I am as an artist and how I have changed as a person. I feel like I’m always changing and growing so I’m excited to see how my music continues to evolve along with me. 

Which song do you feel most personally attached to?

I think I’m most personally attached to "Not Enough", which is funny because it’s the only song I’ve ever written from start to finish with another person. I usually write alone, but I wrote this one with my friend Jeremy McLennan the first time we met. I usually tend to write about myself or my feelings or experiences in relationship to others, but this one feels really solitary and vulnerable.

But my favorite track on the EP is "Running". It’s my favorite sonically, and I like that it sounds like a love song but it’s really a break up song about wanting to run away from someone who you used to want to be close to.

If you had to pick a "rose and a thorn" of your experience making the EP what would they be? 

The rose would definitely be meeting and working with amazing collaborators. I feel really lucky to be surrounded by so many talented and creative people. The artist Sara Dibiza made such a beautiful and ethereal lyric video for the first single, "Walking Away", I am a huge fan of her work. I don’t have any thorns. Even though these songs and the ones on the way have taken years to finish, I really think everything has happened when it was supposed to There were definitely painful periods over where I felt lost and discouraged, but I am so happy I waited until I found the right people to take on this project and to help me to finish it, instead of giving up on it or settling on my vision. I don’t have any regrets or things I would change about the process.

Many artists have an alter ego when they perform, do you feel like you truly are LST or is LST a creative persona?

Hmm. I feel like it’s me! I am pretty shy though so I feel like when I start performing I will have to adopt some sort of a persona to get me through that, but the music aspect feels like it comes from a very personal place. 

What’s next for LST? 

Live shows and touring! My first full-length album will be released before the end of the year on WEDIDIT!

Please confirm that you are at least 18 years old.