VLNRBL CD

VLNRBL is the second mixtape and third project by Yindé, culminating a variety of genre's in it's makeup; from Trap and RnB, to Afrobeat and house. The following is a concept explanation from Yindé:

I decided to take out the vowels in the word “vulnerable” because it’s both a symbol of lack and a language for people.

As black men, we grow up in a society where the lack of communication (vowels) is the norm… It’s almost taught for us to NOT be vulnerable; to NOT have feelings, let alone express them. This causes holes and rifts in both communication and identity, how I identify as a man. So taking out the vowels is my way of saying, “Hey, I recognize that I lack the resources necessary to truly communicate thoroughly and effectively, but I’m doing the work necessary to get to that point,” and each song is my way of reclaiming those “vowels” that have been lost, specifically in the black community, for centuries.

On the flip side of that same coin, in hieroglyphs vowels were never used in the first place lol. Based on context and imagery, however, one could still read these ancient articles and understand what was meant by the expression alone. To me, this project is written in a way where I understand that even in me reclaiming something I was never set up to have in the first place (my vulnerability) I’m expressing myself, these thoughts and feelings, in a way where those who live under the same context will understand it, even if they never go to claim it for themselves. Ultimately, this still becomes a language of communication within itself, though it stems from an apparent lack thereof with the rest of the world, and so, as we say, “if you know, you know”.