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For the last 24 years, Tunde Adebimpe has largely been known as the co-founder, co-vocalist and principal songwriter for TV On The Radio. The mostly-black, art-rock band triumphed through two decades of volatile cultural change to become one of the most beloved, enduring and influential groups from New York City’s early-2000s rock scene. Though Tunde’s poetic songwriting and transparent, towering vocals are central to the band’s dissonant sound, TV On The Radio, has and always will be a collaboration between a group of singular musicians.
Tunde’s personal story exists on a parallel path, as a sort of creative polymath. He is a musician but also an illustrator and painter. He’s a former animator and one-time stop-motion filmmaker. He is a television and film actor. And now he is also a solo artist, with his first-ever formal solo album, Thee Black Boltz (Sub Pop, 2025).
Tunde initially conceived of the album in 2019, while TV On The Radio was on a break. Two years later, as the world was emerging out of the global Covid pandemic, he started to put ideas down on paper; specifically, a notebook, which captures a free-thinking mix of words, illustrations and ideas. It is how Tunde begins most of his projects. Included in this notebook was a list of musical references and visual sketches that constituted what he calls, “mixtape of emotions the music could evoke. A feeling map of sorts.” He started capturing those ideas in 2021 with the help of multi-instrumentalist Wilder Zoby (Run The Jewels), with whom he shares a studio with in Los Angeles.
A child of Nigerian immigrants who came to America for a better life, Tunde split his youth between Nigeria and Pittsburgh. His father was a medical professional who loved to doodle and draw, and in doing so, ignited a passion for visual art in his children. “I remember the first time I saw that he could draw, like really draw,” Tunde remembers, “it wa.......
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