Anime DJ kai.wav has teamed up with chart-topping singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc to release “I Need A Dollar,” the first-ever official dance music rework of Blacc’s 2010 hit of the same name.
Landing on Central Station Records last Friday, the new track marks kai.wav’s official debut single following his debut remix of Norwegian favorite Matoma’s “The Power” in March, and captures the soulful feel of Blacc’s original record with a summery stutter-house-inspired twist.
kai.wav is different from most DJs. He’s not human. Rather, he’s one of three “metastars” from Hume, a web3 record label and visual arts studio dedicated to breaking the world’s first music-driven virtual artists. Though they don’t exist in the real world, these conceptual musicians come to life in the metaverse on Hume’s blockchain-based platform.
According to kai.wav’s backstory, the U.S.-based artist has emerged from an alternate world reminiscent of Venice Beach, California, and began producing two years ago when he found his late father’s record collection and started flipping samples from it. Drawing from this key element of his creative expression, he’s now inviting fans to “join the wave” and get behind a new genre he calls “Serotonin house.”
And plenty have. Since appearing on the scene only six months ago, kai.wav has amassed over 70,000 Instagram followers, 3.6 million listeners, and over 20 million views on his video content, which brings the abstract individual to life in an Anime world courtesy of Hume’s visual designers.
“kai.wav is an artist unlike any other. Aloe is an artist unlike any other,” says Hume co-founder and executive producer James Stolar, the real songwriter behind kai.wav. “When we started Hume the goal was always to define new genres and create new forms of entertainment. This song and the content around it achieves that, not just musically but experientially.”
Listen kai.wav and Aloe Blacc’s “I Need A Dollar” rework below.
Featured image from kai.wav.
