3 Feet High & Rising: Stones Throw's Latest Signee Sudan Archives Unleashes Impassioned Bare-bones Violin-assisted "King Kunta" Cover, "Queen Kunta" (Kendrick Lamar)

"Meet Sudan Archives, a 22-year-old self-taught violinist/vocalist who writes, plays, and produces her own music. In this live performance video, she flips Kendrick Lamar’s “King Kunta” with just her voice, a violin, and a loop pedal. She'll be performing at Stones Throw Superfest in Los Angeles, November 5th," Stones Throw Records wrote on their Facebook page Thursday afternoon. Their latest signee, formerly know as Sudan Moon, "began playing the violin at age eight in her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, where she also played in various school and church choirs. Her [2014] debut EP, GOLDENCITY, was self-produced on an iPad in her parent’s basement." Now, just two short years later, Sudan Archives is currently preparing to release her proper self-titled "debut" album, which it appears as though, was completed long before she recently signed a deal with Stones Throw. "While classically-trained, Sudan finds inspiration from the various fiddle styles of Africa and aspires to lead an all-female orchestra" and her Facebook page lists West Aisha El Falatia, Issa Mbaye Diary Sow, African Folk, and Traditional Sudanese Music as Artists [She] Also Likes and Influences. Aside from the aforementioned assorted tidbits of information, little else is known about Sudan Archives; although, I can undoubtedly say this much, she's indeed in a league of her own, even on a label that's become increasingly left-field or even non-Hip-Hop in recent years!


Sudan Moon has seemingly assembled an as-yet-untitled "Quartet" in preparation for for her upcoming Stones Throw Superfest appearance, which consists of herself, Iridas & Yvette Cornelia, and Max Kaplan on keys. While it's currently unclear when exactly her Stones Throw debut might end up materializing—fingers crossed, before the end of 2016—Moon is additionally preparing for her first international trip to Ghana, Africa this upcoming December "to teach Electronic music production to the children of The North Star School" with an array of donated equipment from Pandora and Ableton. "Your generous donation today will help our team cover the logistics costs associated with producing this magical workshop. This 3-day workshop will prepare our students for an increasingly tech savvy world. Please share or donate [to] The Taiwo Fund," Sudan Archives wrote on her Facebook; donations can be made to The North Star Beat initiative on either The Taiwo Fund Facebook page or GENEROSITY.COM. Ahead of Sudan Archives self-titled full-length, Stones Throw has uploaded a spine-tingling sparse, impassioned cover of Kendrick Lamar's (already gripping) To Pimp a Butterfly stand-out, "King Kunta," now, for all intensive purposes, fittingly re-titled "Queen Kunta" recorded "with just her voice, a violin, and a loop pedal" and filmed by in-house photographer and director Eric Coleman.