Kenna - Sleep When We Die (Prod by Danja)

Time flies in music-land. It seems like yesterday that we broke news of a forthcoming collaboration between Danja and fellow Virginia artist Kenna. Well, after a few hiccups in the space-time continuum, we finally get to hear the result of the unbelievable 2013 Kenna-Danja galactic collision.

Today, Kenna's newest track, "Sleep When We Die," debuted on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 program around 1pm Eastern Standard Time. Here it is in its entirety:



Some longtime Danja fans may be taken aback by the production, which initially reflects a more traditional alternative style reminiscent of his work with Duran Duran ("Box Full O' Honey," anyone?), Cody Simpson ("Crazy But True"), and Jennifer Lopez ("Starting Over").

Over the past few weeks, Kenna has been leading up to the release of his Land 2 Air Chronicles III with annotated editions of past recordings and impassioned posts on his Facebook page. In one, he mentioned Danja:

L2A Defined (4of6) The Imitation Is Suicide Chapters were a homage to my influences. David Byrne, Rick James, Bowie,...
Posted by Kenna on Friday, 10 July 2015

Sure, it's not the track we heard on Instagram, but that only means that there is more in store from Danja and Kenna. Hopefully much more, since Kenna insisted today that his next release will not be another EP.

Kenna and Danja Working Together?

Some of you may be familiar with Kenna, the musician/philosopher/philanthropist long-associated with The Neptunes. Kenna's still at it with Chad Hugo, but it appears he's landed his spaceship at Danja's doorstep to get a taste of our favorite producer's far-out sound. Last week on Instagram, Danja posted this image of Kenna and one of his NARS-affiliated mixers/engineers, adabeasie, in the studio:



Later that night, Kenna briefly posted a snippet of an upcoming track on Instagram. I downloaded it before it came down. Have a listen:



Coincidence? I think not! The song will probably be called "Walk the Walk" or something similar once it's released, but you never can predict song titles. Perhaps we could look forward to this track on Kenna's next Land 2 Air Chronicles release, or on the mysterious #SFF project he has teased on Twitter and Instagram.

LAX -------> MIA - #SFF w/ theonlydanja #epic @ LAX http://t.co/f9X1820nvh
— Kenna (@OKKenna) September 25, 2013