The Geek x Vrv

Paris, France

Underwater

ElectronicInstrumental

Behind the Music

Whenever we’ve ventured out to sea on boats, we’ve always felt liberated and free setting out across the beautiful, endless expanse of the ocean. But for some, the ocean is a prison and the only way they can be free again is to commit themselves to a life of servitude. The ocean provides life to our Earth, and yet it is abused in so many ways, as shown by Ian - slavery, piracy, pollution. This project, this journalism and this storytelling is vital when it comes to informing as well as connecting people through a common goal.

The Geek x Vrv
About The Geek x Vrv

For The Geek and VRV, everything is a matter of time. Since they first met six years ago, the two beat makers have been broadcasting their music to all four corners of the world, and their collaboration is as strong as ever after all these years. Vanguards of the French instrumental hip-hop scene, they’re coming out today with their first album, “Time Machine,” a synthesis of the sounds and the ideas they’ve been working on from the very beginning of their careers. “Time Machine” is a trip back through time, as its name suggests, demonstrating the range of sound possibilities that they created in previous projects and on their international tours. In “Time Machine,” The Geek and VRV have turned on their time machine to bring us to the year of James Brown’s birth, and find the unstoppable groove of “Get Funky 1933.” With hip-hop always in sight, the explosion of disco inspired them to record “Roller Disco Party 1980,” and the film Back to the Future was the inspiration behind “Time Machine 1985.” The mixing of different time periods means that the styles, genres and atmospheres are channeled to perfection. The Geek and VRV have been preparing for this trip for five years now. With “Time Machine,” the time has come for them to begin their exploration, and to take us along for the ride.

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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