Christen Lien is an electronic multi-instrumentalist from Los Angeles, California. Paired with a viola, as well as the use of guitar effect processors and looping pedals, she creates cinematic instrumentals that tell stories through the build-up of sound alone. I got put onto Christen after seeing Ill Camille retweet a new song/video she was featured in, called “The Great Escape,” along with D4NGERBOY. Originally called “The Escape” and featured on Christen’s 12-track album, called ELPIS, Grammy-nominated producer Gordon “The Commissioner” Williams remixed the song with a hip hop edge and upbeat energy.
Slapping in some hard-hitting boom bap drums and vinyl scratches, he recruits emcees Ill Camille and D4NGERBOY who supply deep, conscious raps about the challenges of the world today through thought-provoking storytelling, clever metaphors, and strong deliveries. Being that Elpis is a reference to the personification of hope in Greek mythology, both emcees also slip in references to a few Greek gods in their hope-empowered bars.
D4NGERBOY kicks it off by spitting about the dark reality of being desensitized and controlled by things like money, false hopes, big pharma, consumerism, government bullshit, self-destruction, and, ultimately, losing sight of true freedom. Ill Camille swings her sharpened sword and warrior mindset by illustrating a great escape that involves breaking away from everything that keeps you afraid and silenced, as well as uplifting the youth and navigating a new way. Lastly, D4NGERBOY wraps it up by waking listeners up from slumber, encouraging real action towards change and a new life.
Directed by Danny Drysdale, the video shows Christen playing her viola in a desert, with Camille and D4NGER rapping in front of a colorful mural wall, and a TV that flashes things like a George Floyd mural, freedom marches, peaceful protests that are met with police brutality, guns, pills, people glued to their phones, home commercials, mass incarceration, US detained children, homelessness, fire outbreaks, and more. It’s such a dope song and video, so watch it below and then grab “The Great Escape” single for $1 on Bandcamp.
“Everybody trying to sell me a dream // Everywhere I look, I see the same thing // Everybody trying to sell me what they don’t see in they self, tryin’ to sell it on me (No escape) // I’m gonna tell you how it’s gon’ be (No escape) // Love you before you say you love me // Escape back to the real thing…”
Heard from the hook
PURCHASE
Follow Christen Lien:
