Zayde Buti (b. 1985) is a musician, performer, and writer from Boston, Massachusetts. His debut album, “i’m lovin’ it”, features subversive and amusing social critiques set to dynamically arranged electronic beats. Zayde has been performing his work throughout the Northeast U.S. since 2007, with appearances at UMass Amherst, New England Conservatory, Brandeis University, Beat Research (Enormous Room) and Mobius Arts Space. In addition to established venues, Zayde activates the public sphere with guerrilla street performances. He has taken his portable act into stores, malls, supermarkets, public parks, private homes, trains, neighborhoods, and campuses in the Boston area.
“i’m lovin’ it” marks Zayde’s first collaboration with musician/producer Universal Tongues, and reflects the meeting of their styles, sounds, and imaginations. With a pop sensibility, Zayde unites musical influences ranging from punk rock to Middle Eastern music into dense and catchy songs. His vocal delivery straddles the worlds of singing, speak-singing, and spoken word. As a lyricist, he often uses words as samples, having done so nearly exclusively in “Hot ‘n Juicy” and “DD”, both of which appropriate and recontextualize advertising language. Zayde also uses humor to deflate rhetoric surrounding issues of addiction, consumption, poverty, and war. Based on a sadistic boy solider, “Supersoaker”, for instance, samples the Yankee Doodle marching tune and features lyrics appropriated from Super Soaker water blaster advertisements and a Soulja Boy YouTube video.
Combining music, theater, and performance art, Zayde’s most recent one-man show, “Hungry”, satirizes consumer culture language and behavior through the use of multiple characters, including a talk show host, Dunkin’ Donuts employee, homeless man, and cross-dressing solider. “Hungry comments on human nature and American culture in a humorous—sometimes bawdy—but always incisive way,” writes choreographer/performer Dawn Kramer.
Visit www.zaydebuti.com for videos, photos, and links to his work on MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, and SoundCloud.
Listen to “i’m lovin’ it” here.
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