A Thousand Cuts

A Thousand Cuts is, without a doubt, a work of art. It starts on the album’s cover, which features an amalgamation of images submitted by fans that collectively form the artist’s face. Locksmith (or Lock), a 32-year-old, Persian/ African-American emcee from Richmond, has crafted a heartbreakingly honest, yet liberating, piece of art with his fourth solo album. ATC begins with the song “Who I Am,” a piano-driven introspection on the origins of his struggles as a “fair-skinned” black man: “When I was born, my mother was torn crazy/ They nearly gave me away to the wrong lady/ The doctor said, ‘Sorry, we didn’t see that coming/ But there’s no way in the world he came from a black woman!’” The album title comes from the phrase “a death by a thousand cuts,” and it’s built with masterful lyrics around the theme of how all the little moments in life shape one’s reality and self-definition. On “Hardest Song Ever,” Locksmith recalls one of his deepest cuts, being molested as a 5-year-old: “But you’re never truly free until you put this in plain view/ I know it’s like the hardest thing in the world to do/ But if you don’t, then the person who did it controls you.” Like a chilly Bay Area night, Locksmith’s album of truth cuts to the core.