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With grace and gravity, Asha Imuno blurs and blends genres to great effect on his debut album, PINS & NEEDLES. One moment it's a '90s sultry R&B throwback, the next it's a hot pavement, bombastic rap worthy of early aughts Rawkus Records mixtapes. Versatile. A tuneful tailor with the ability to stitch together a multitude of genres. Whatever the words you choose to describe Imuno, one thing is certain, his excellence is emotive. The message always lands regardless of tempo and structure, and it's one of the most promising debut albums of the decade. For all these reasons and more, we’ve made Asha our Artist of the Month and asked him to lay out his debut album in his own words.

"AM i GETTING THE WHOLE MESSAGE?"

At the edge of the cliffs of PINS & NEEDLES, I found myself amidst a downpour of emotions, reflecting on the duality of his own psyche. From the ashes of a past self soured by shame and misdirected ego, a glimpse of a Higher Self emerges. A smoky haze marries sordid pianos to erratic punchy raps as we dive headfirst into an ever-evolving labyrinth of soul searching.

”Still waiting on you to learn the whole lesson / What do you do to deal with the pressure? / I know everybody feeling this weather / Like a car coming full speed at distracted pedestrians” - Asha 

"HONEY" (feat. bLAck pARty) 

A lighthearted moment in wake of a long lost love, with hopes to rekindle at the right time. As a bubbly chorus of brass and cartoonishly pitched vocals melts between the groove of a dancehall drumbeat, my heart falls down to its sleeve as I sing of reconnection on “the day that we realign in time and place again.” With help from LA-based artist bLAck pARTy, the track’s promises to make amends with a sour past leave nothing behind but windchimes and the warmth of a sweet aftertaste.

”How could I unbreak the vine? / Lil too much space and time / Another couple hundred words unsaid / Half of them I love you / Embracing my abrasive side in hopes that you mention me” 

"PHONICS" (feat. WESTSIDE BOOGIE & Tempest)

 It’s important to keep a level head in relationships. At this moment, however, I’m pissed off. Tempest is pretty pissed off too, and I mean, I get it! People playing on your phone, saying one thing but doing something totally different, basically testing you however they can? That would piss anybody off. Matter of fact, pass my keys. Time to blow off some steam.

”Out of bounds, in the way, giving space, tryna get it both ways, you crazy” 

— Asha

”Hate a n**** that's not about his word, ain't no going back and forth with that, no sir” 

— Tempest

"ROAD RAGE" (feat. Wakai) 

 I’m once again caught in the middle with someone who doesn’t fully know what they want out of a situationship that was meant to be nothing more than two people enjoying each other’s company. Joined by Baton Rouge native and hip-hop up-and-comer Wakai, the two of us swap bars about navigating the way out of flooded territory with a reckless driver at the wheel, unsure of the right time to bail before the inevitable crash. 

”Crossing lines that you made / Swerving out your own lane / By time you finally move it, we ain't looking both ways / How fast your mind is moving, I can feel your road rage”

"FLORIDA WATER"

Sitting across the dinner table from an old flame reunited, I realize that things ain’t quite what they used to be between us. Sweet as it is to sit in nostalgia, the realities of living our lives in the time spent apart have transformed us into different people. "FLORIDA WATER" gives way to clearing the air. 

“Tryna keep it player knowing well it's all bluff / cuz we was into something much more than love-lust / and me, I’m not no different guess the joke is on us holding hope the gold moments don’t rust, it’s no rush”

"DID I CALL AT A BAD TIME?" (feat. Rizz Capolatti)

DICABT? feels like a long night outside with me and Rizz swapping bars, just talking some smooth shit. Probably the most I get to feeling myself on the album, as I look at my life and think "damn I'm not on the same type of time I used to be on anymore."

"CLEMENTINE"

Heavily inspired by the classic Jim Carrey film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the dreamlike soundscape of "CLEMENTINE" transports us into the limbo of my richest, most sour memories of lukewarm love, starting with a voice memo wishing me a happy 21st birthday from across the country. The song’s chorus, “It’s never worth your head, even the worst thing you could have said,'' delivers an unwavering message of self-acceptance; an informal invitation to make peace with past versions of ourselves as we grow. Heavy bass and woozy, off-kilter trapnb drums entrance the listener as I reintroduce the motif of pitch-altered vocals and warm keys, played by close collaborator and PINS & NEEDLES executive producer, Zach Ezzy. 

"it's never worth your head" – we can never leave ourselves behind. 

The character Clementine was fucking insane in that movie. She was so hurt by some hangups with Jim Carrey that she chose to delete part of her own memory to escape the pain! This song came about in one of the most confusing times of the past year and it really hurt to push it out but it was one of the quickest songs I’ve ever written. When it was done, me and my friends couldn’t stop listening to it, over and over. It took us to a place where it felt like everything was okay and we could be self-contained. "CLEMENTINE" is more so a song about embracing change than it is about a breakup.

 "BULLSEYE"

"BULLSEYE" is about the complexity of my relationship to home, and the discomfort of feeling like there's something to prove to myself and my loved ones. It's an ode to the shadows of the men in my family, my vices, and inherited pitfalls.

"DO u WANNA BE HIGH?"

In "DO u WANNA BE HIGH?," I present a sharp question of his subject’s sense of self-control, turning the euphoric "love drug” cliché on its head. In this case, I shamelessly acknowledge myself as the dealer and even the drug itself, unable to break a cycle of dependency and self-sabotage. Entangled with a seemingly reluctant lover unable to separate from the comfort and care that I provide, I try to reason and even remove myself from the equation for her own good, much to no avail.

”Isn’t it obvious I’ll always be the one with the conscience / Pushing you farther from me in moments you just can't leave”

"visions (high)"

This is the smoke break—a short story told by my friend Mique about a time he got way too high, and what he did on the way down.

"WATCH MY STEP"

"WATCH MY STEP" is about moving with precision under pressure. Instead of traditional storytelling raps around what became the darkest moments of the album, I'm just telling you everything I'm seeing, thinking, and hearing, all at the same time, leaving the rest of the scene to your imagination.

 "PUSHING BUTTONS"

The beginning of me figuring out how to face my problems before I self-destruct, forgiving myself for my mistakes, and starting down the path to becoming who I really wanna be.

"OOZIN…"

Caught at an emotional turning point, I flow adrift into the current of his true feelings. After riding on a high for much of the duration of PINS & NEEDLES, a sharp comedown meets Asha with his anxiety to open up at the bottom of the wave. "OOZIN…" is a moment of catharsis and acceptance for the ugly feelings that sometimes arise in the process of self embracement; a reminder that even in discomfort, feeling is better than numbness.

 “Oozing… / The anxiety subsides in the moment the dream becomes lucid / And bruises that I can’t hide in this light quantify all the times I felt useless”

"HOLD A GOOD THOUGHT (rebuild)"

In spite of my own mistakes and the pain that may come with remembering, I’m holding out hope that the beautiful moments I’ve shared with those that I've since parted ways from would go unspoiled by heartache at the hands of bitter endings. 

“Though it’s a far cry from easy, hold a good thought for me baby / Recall the things we felt too deep to swear they can’t be so / Hold a good thought for me babe / Only good thoughts and memories that make-believe it’s not just me with thumbs between your pages.”

WHERE’s YOUR LIFELINE NOW?

"ALMOST HOME"

Am I putting myself and this girl through more than it's worth? Am I in over my head thinking I'm just gonna call it quits? I'm living in the beauty of a complicated relationship of push and pull. There's someone I love that makes me come alive, but we never fully feel on the same page, so I'm heading where I'm meant to go.

 "yasiel (+)"

 I’m grounded, at home with my family, knowing that I can't stay for long. Trumpets and solemn piano score my long-awaited embrace with my family as I kiss my baby nephew, leaving again with a promise I’ll be back home soon. Yasiel encapsulates the fleeting feeling of home; the rest stop of a journey that never truly ends, a nod to the cyclical nature of feeling. As well as appreciation for your journey as it changes, as we accept and release all the things. Accepting ourselves, accepting love, and as we become a higher version of ourselves, we grow freer.