Robert Glasper has teamed up with Masego for a new song titled “All Masks,” which will be featured on the forthcoming deluxe version of Black Radio III album. The deluxe edition will be released this fall.
“The song is simple and speaks to the fact that because of COVID smiles were taken away,” Glasper explained in a statement reported by The Line of Best Fit. “The very simple thing of looking at someone and smiling or smirking was gone. Who knew that at some point in the world smiles could be taken away. That’s how so many relationships were started because of a smile or smirk. A simple smile was a gift that would brighten someone’s day and would change someone’s day and those small little gestures were wiped away because we all had to wear masks. So I wrote that in the height of when people were wearing masks.”
Glasper released his celebrated Black Radio III back in February. To celebrate the end of Black History Month, Robert Glasper visited Ebro for a conversation about the latest entry in his Black Radio series, jumping between genres, collaborating with H.E.R. and Esperanza Spalding, winning a Grammy for “Better Than I Imagined,” the next Dinner Party album, and more. Watch the interview here.
One topic discussed centered around balancing fun and politics on Black Radio III. Glasper said, “Some people use music as an escape. You know what I mean? And I have to balance that and think about that. But with this Black Radio album, I haven’t done a Black Radiorecord in like eight years. And I was like, ‘You know what? I have to say something.’ Especially over the last three years, it’s been so much, you know what I mean? It’s been so much in general, but just like the last three years we’ve been able to really pay attention to it because we’ve been home, it’s been the pandemic has happened, so much has happened. So I wanted to just address a bunch of the elephants in the room off top and get it out the way.”