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My guest this week is Bronx-based rapper, singer, producer, co-host of Victory Light with The Kid Mero, and tattoo artist Rainey Ovalle. We spoke about the shadiness of the music industry and Spotify numbers, the Japanese crime thriller Battles Without Honor & Humanity, Tarzan, Sinners, listening to Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx for the first time on 9/11, evolving from slam poetry to rap music, his love for reggaeton and darkwave music, his feud with Alchemist, and the creative process behind his latest album Cigarettes With Dead Men and his latest single “Malona.” Come fuck with us. 

Cigarettes With Dead Men and "Malona" are available wherever music is sold, streamed, or stolen. Follow Rainey on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok: @RaineyOvalle. Listen to Victory Light on YouTube or wherever else you get your podcasts. 

My first book, Reel Notes: Culture Writing on the Margins of Music and Movies, is available now, via 4 PM Publishing. Order a digital copy on Amazon.

Reel Notes stands in solidarity with American immigrants against ICE and the oppressed peoples of Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Tigray, and Haiti. Please consider donating to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, the Palestine Children's Relief Fund,  The Palestinian Youth Movement, The Zakat Foundation, HealAfrica, FreeTigray, and/or Hope For Haiti.  For information about contacting your representatives to demand a ceasefire, finding protests, and other tools, check out CeasefireToday!

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