“sTARbaby: NATIONAL ANTHEMS” is the second solo album completely self-produced by ATLAS B COMPLEX. This project compiles three years of material written and recorded across New York, London, Georgia, and Washington D.C.

Dropping on the 4th of July, the album confronts the violence of the American Empire and exposes the lie of freedom it sells. sTARbaby: NATIONAL ANTHEMS is counter-propaganda designed to disrupt the celebration of imperial violence.

ATLAS created this project as a way to process and articulate their experiences navigating the violence of the American empire, and the complex intersections of capitalism, race, gender, and the environment; an existence marked by perpetual survival mode and acute awareness of systemic exploitation. This album confronts the commodification of Blackness, exploitation of labor and earth, and vividly captures the sounds and scenes of the capitalist Amerikkkan hellscape, while simultaneously envisioning an alternative pastpresentfuture.

The album is part of a broader constellation of sTARbaby artworks by ATLAS B COMPLEX, encompassing performance art, dance, multimedia installations, video, sculpture, graphic design, and sound (atlasbcomplex.com).

sTARbaby is a bio-mythical, polymorphic non-binary character existing across the past, present, and future African diaspora. The album unfolds as an abstract narrative, following sTARbaby’s journey through the labyrinthine capitalist hellscape of New York City, confronting relentless exploitation and extraction of its body and spirit.

Cinematic in scope, the album draws inspiration from Afro-futurism(presentism)/ sci-fi/fantasy films such as Neptune Frost, Metropolis (anime), The Wiz, Nationtime, Space is the Place, and The Yellow Submarine. It also reinterprets the euphemism from the Br’er Rabbit Uncle Remus stories through an Afrofuturist lens, weaving in elements of fountain-of-youth mythology and African American iconography, including figures like Aunt Jemima.

"sTARbaby: NATIONAL ANTHEMS" directly addresses the dissonance inherent in the American National Anthem. It asks crucial questions: What would national anthems sound like if written now by the people fighting against oppression? What does the collapse of Empire sound like? What becomes possible when we reject nationalism entirely in all forms?

Sonically, "sTARbaby" is genre-defying, echoing the expansive soundscape of the Black Diaspora. Influenced by artists such as Outkast and Alice Coltrane, and touching upon rap, free jazz, techno, psychedelic funk, and Gil Scott-Heron's sharp poetry, ATLAS B COMPLEX crafts a dense, richly layered sonic experience.

This album was entirely written, recorded, mixed, and mastered by ATLAS B COMPLEX, enriched over the years through conversations, collaborations, and support from Makolo (makolomakes), YahYa (@yahya_melon__), Christianne Kenrieke Elise Karefa-Johnson (@donormaal), Al Amos, and Sarah Bobrow-Williams. Special thanks to Public Assistants and everyone who supported the album and broader project throughout its creation.