The Urban Renewal Project is a sixteen-piece collective known for its genre-bending original music combining elements of jazz, hip hop and vintage soul. As the group was preparing their next full-length release, recent events rendered large ensemble recording and live performances impossible, so the musicians spent the past year adapting to more intimate, home studio-oriented creative projects, including new multimedia series Pᴏssᴇ Cᴏᴍɪᴛᴀᴛᴠs. For the first single for the project, URP teamed up with rapper Vic Mensa for the track “Will to Survive”. And ahead of the track’s release on streaming services, the group has shared a video for the track.
The track finds Mensa trading thoughtful verses with the URB over a soulful, jazz-inflected groove, and for the beautifully shot video, the group put focus on the performance. Filmed out in the desert, the video finds a small portion of the URP performing with Mensa at different times of day. The full band shots as the sun sets over them are especially stunning, and fit the vibe of the song perfectly.
Accompanied by an original manga chronicling the adventures of a young recruit from North Africa in the Roman Legion, this series premieres with a 7-inch of “Will to Survive” exclusively on Record Store Day June 12, and digitally streaming June 18.