Acclaimed TV On The Radio frontman and multi-hyphenate talent Tunde Adebimpe has released a new video for “Somebody New,” from his highly anticipated debut solo album, Thee Black Boltz (Sub Pop). The album is set to be released this Friday, April 18, 2025.

The album’s fourth pre-release, “Somebody New”, is a synth-heavy, dancefloor-ready track, and the video, directed by Adebimpe, is a trippy time capsule of neon, glitter and what can only be described as no-holds-barred, stark raving puppet glam.

Of the video, Tunde says “I’m positive I fell asleep on a couch with the TV on sometime in 1982 and fever-dreamt this exact thing.”

Tunde Adebimpe will perform at Los Angeles’ Zebulon this Thursday, April 17 in an intimate record release show. Tickets are sold out, but fans can join the waitlist HERE. This announcement comes on the heels of the release of “God Knows” a track about the complexities of a bittersweet breakup, the vivid and introspective “Drop” earlier this year, and last year’s lead single “Magnetic”.  Thee Black Boltz is produced by Tunde Adebimpe & Wilder Zoby, and executive produced by Zoby, with additional production and contributions from Jaleel Bunton & Jahphet Landis (of TV on the Radio), and more. Showcasing visionary soundscapes, the album is a nod to Adebimpe’s propensity to write and sing about the human condition – in all its forms, under all its stressors, both big and small. Pre-order the record HERE.

Thee Black Boltz is not a TV On The Radio album. But in a lot of ways, the excitement of doing something on his own for the first time ignited a similar spark in him as during the early TV On The Radio days. The songwriting process is the same, he says, but with his TVOTR bandmates, Adebimpe knows he doesn’t always have to complete his ideas. “I’ve been doing this thing with this group of people for so long, that I can just have a vague sketch of a concept and I know Jaleel or Kyp will have five brilliant ideas on where it can go,” he says. “But for Thee Black Boltz, I didn’t have that scaffolding to hang on. That was both terrifying and exhilarating.”

At the heart of the album is its title. It is his response to the macro unease of a post-pandemic world careening towards violent authoritarianism and the personal grief that has come from loss in recent years, specifically the sudden passing of his younger sister while making it. Thee Black Boltz is Adebimpe’s desperate grasping of small moments of joy amidst the dissonance and sadness, any way he can. Making this album, he says, was his way of processing everything: “It was my way of building a rock or a platform for myself in the middle of this fucking ocean.”

And thus, Thee Black Boltz. As he writes in his notebook, “The sparks of inspiration/motivation / hope that flash up in the midst of (and sometimes as a result of) deep grief, depression or despair. Sort of like electrons building up in storm clouds clashing until they fire off lightning and illuminate a way out, if only for a second.”

“Also,” he adds. “it’s a good name for a cool metal band, and I think that most people would describe me as akin to a very cool metal band.”