Elijah Nang

London, England

The Sea Shepherd

DowntempoElectronic

Behind the Music

As an artist, I’m maturing — opening myself up to different genres, styles, ideas and projects to help me further develop in my craft. One of the things I enjoyed most about participating in The Outlaw Ocean Music Project was how it enabled me to grow more as a musician by leading me out of my creative comfort zone. 

With every track, I wanted to picture myself on the ocean with Ian and express it through sound. I tried to draw from a variety of samples and combine them together. For example, in my third track, “Nisshin Maru,” I took samples of rain and thunder and Ian reading prose and blended it with harp music to create a mysterious atmospheric fill in the beginning of the song. I was also able to work with spoken-word in my second track, “Cries from the Deep.” This was something I haven’t done in a while and it feels very refreshing to have the chance to show my audience some of my other talents. This project provided me with the opportunity to take a different approach to music-making. Being given the chance to experiment like this, as an artist, feels like having a superpower.

Elijah Nang
About Elijah Nang

An audio novelist/experimental artist born in London, U.K. Femi, aka Elijah Nang, was first introduced to music in 2006. He studied music technology and also received a BA Hon in Commercial Music. Growing up, Elijah played around with genres such as Grime, Garage, Hip-Hop/Rap, but it wasn't until 2010 that he created a niche of his own with the influence of Hip-Hop infused with East Asian and soft electronic elements.

With 5 albums under his belt, plus being featured under labels such as Chillhop Music, Hip Dozer and Jazz Hop Cafe, Elijah continues to further work on his craft, constantly learning and opening himself up to newly discovered genres.

Winner of the 2021 Scripps Howard Award for Excellence in Innovation in Journalism

The Journalism behind the Music

All music in this project is based on The Outlaw Ocean, a New York Times Best-Selling book by Ian Urbina that chronicles lawlessness at sea around the world. This reporting touches on a diversity of abuses ranging from illegal and overfishing, arms trafficking at sea, human slavery, gun running, intentional dumping, murder of stowaways, thievery of ships and other topics.

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