CMMND

Based in Los Angeles, CMMND is a collective founded in 2008. Their mission to promote creativity involves blurring the line between different artistic mediums, such as music and fashion. The five-person group uses their individual talents to make projects from fashion apparel collections to full-length Eps. The apparel collections have sold shorts, shirts, hoodies, tank tops, and bags. They believe that everyone is creative and want to promote that message.

The music part of CMMND consists of the trio, okay coleman!, Seiji oda, and sleepyboybryan. They released their first single of the CMMND EP in May 2019, titled ‘The Way.’ The collective’s music has a low-fi vibe with a fresh take on the sound popular in the Bay Area. Their sound is unique for the California rap scene. They work with visual artists, computer programmers, and people from different fields to support cross-collaboration.

The group came together in UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) through Karl Perkins, who was friends. Perkins is the creative director, Bamidele is the lead designer, Syd is the videographer/photographer, and sleepyboybryan is the graphic designer of the collective.

The members express their art in unique ways, such as photography, videography, graphic design, creative direction, fashion, and music. The exchange of art between the group makes CMMND a multi-talented collective. They use their diversity and individuality to create unique pieces and foster a community experience.

The trio in the music group plays different roles. Seiji has airy vocals and works on the instrumentation and production to give music the feel. Bryan tests out beats with his mellow voice, while Coleman and his raspy sound work on the song concept. The group writes lyrics together and bounces ideas off of each other to come up with unique themes. Their sound can be described as new-age R&B and lo-fi west coast rap.

CMMND released their single Celica (Show Me Luv) in February 2021. The track hits at the early 2000s nostalgia with the song based on the car Toyota Celica. The soft sexy vocals combined with the chill beats make this the perfect funky car ride song. The feel-good romantic track was inspired by Seiji’s car. The purpose was to make people feel better about what they have regardless of their societal status.

CMMND’s ‘2’, their latest EP, is a seven-track project that invokes a nostalgic feeling in the listener as though jamming in the car with the group. The album is meant to be about carefree times blasting music in your friend’s car, as stated by Karl Perkins, the group’s creative director. The first track, ‘summer21’, is a synth-heavy dreamy pop song, ‘nothins free.’

The laid-back track’ Slippin’ featuring Asi Kemara is a conversation between two vocalists and embodies the project’s carefree theme. There is more to come from this unique collective, talented in writing, production, and art. Be ready to dive into their world of laid-back hip-hop tracks.