"His album from that spring, At What Cost, treated Washington, D.C.'s local hallmarks like psychic landmarks in an effort to stave off the erasure he saw encroaching, brought on by the gentrification overtaking the area. "I feel like we're long overdue for our story to be told," he told The Washington Post. "If it doesn't happen now, then everything we had is going to be gone, and no one will ever know about it it'll be like a lost city.""
"Eight years later, GoldLink's concerns are even more valid, and yet Cousteau's rise feels like an affirmation that the city's essence can never truly be lost. Spend a little time with his songs and it quickly becomes clear where he's from and how he takes that history with him. As his name implies, Cousteau is an explorer in his music, a jetsetter and live wire "Spin around the world twice, came back with a straight face," he quips but he's never too far from home."
In 2017 GoldLink lamented a vanishing Chocolate City and worked to preserve its culture. His album At What Cost treated Washington, D.C.'s local hallmarks as psychic landmarks to resist erasure from gentrification. He warned that the city's story risked becoming a 'lost city.' Eight years later El Cousteau's Dirty Harry 2 provides an affirmation that the city's essence persists. Cousteau's music reveals clear local origins and transports D.C. signifiers to global settings. His lyrics map Bladensburg Road, the 15th, uptown and Wheeler Road while shifting between reminiscences about a compact .40 1911 in high school and lavish trips to Venice, marrying hometown loyalty with worldly exploration.
Read at www.npr.org
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