for the third #lucidteamood playlist, we sent Thanks Joey some mango rose vanilla black tea, asked him to vibe out + make a playlist for the lovers. and (of course) he did not disappoint. 

Thanks Joey is a music producer + Creative Director of Colours of the Culture, a label dedicated to providing culturally curated music, visuals, + experiences including works from label ambassador, NIKO IS.

"I grew up around all sorts of music. Born in Brooklyn to Syrian immigrants & having a classical Arabic musician as a grandfather already set the palette for what my ear would be exposed to - Fairouz, Om Kalthoum, Abdel-Halim Hafez with a little bit of Jay Z, BIGGIE SMALLS, Nas etc.

When I moved to Florida at 11 years old, southern Hip-hop immediately became part of my DNA. When I met NIKO IS at 13 years old, we would hang out and talk nothing but music...eventually he started rapping & I started to make beats on a makeshift windows computer tower I had built myself at 14 years old. I remember he gave me a stack of CDs he took from his mom - all Brazilian joints - Tim Maia, Tom Jobim, Elis Regina, etc. And it changed my life. I fell in love and have been sampling Brazilian music since then.

In the last few years I've developed an even deeper passion for vinyl - finding rare samples and grooves I couldn't find anywhere else. Traveling the world has given me the opportunity to dig for records most people don't even know exist. My goal with creating music is to sample these types of records to recontextualize their history as part of our own - to make someone wonder 'damn, what is that sound? Where did it come from?'

There is so much music in the world and the beautiful thing about making hip hop is that all other genres are at our disposal to use, to create something new from.. to tie our music, our history with theirs, and above all else, to teach and to learn from. I want people to ask questions, dig deeper, and learn from my music as if each song is a history lesson. It's part of why our brand is Colours Of The Culture - there are all sorts of sounds, colours, people, that make up this beautiful Hip-hop culture, and you're one of them."