Carter Wilson’s debut masterwork “!!!!!” demonstrates how the cliched celebration of juvenile ignorance is carefully woven into an urgent, yet subtle, reflection of one’s personal and generational journey towards disillusionment. Thirteen minutes in and the listener encounters a voice sample reminding us that “when you live in an illusion, you remain in a state of perpetual infantilism, childishness. . . you never grow up!” This is the conceptual backdrop of the entire album; in fact, one word that was thrown around during the creation process was neoteny, a term which is defined as “the retention of juvenile features in the adult animal”. The album is an exposition of this phenomenon in the context of human psychology, an auditory illustration of neoteny on loop.
Carter Wilson (born March 7th, 1994) is an American artist from Oakland, CA. He creates heady music, blending vivid lyrical imagery with intricate rhyme schemes and colorful melodies. His early musical influences include Lil Wayne, Kendrick Lamar, and Andre 3000.
Raised by two university trained sociologists, Carter operates with a sense of urgency. He understands the power of expression and the role that it plays in the liberation of consciousness. This understanding is the foundation of his creative intention.
His smoke-stained voice is delicately jagged, slapping across the walls of his small bedroom studio. He’s wearing a burgundy KOMPANY hoodie featuring a logo he designed himself. His low eyes are green and glossy. The energy is peaceful and deliberate, dipped in the reddish glow of the multi-colored lights strung up around the window.
Having spent considerable time in a variety of stifling contexts, Carter learned from an early age that the only safe space was his own mind. At age 15 he began actively manifesting his development as an artist under the moniker CAPTAINCY which helped him identify with his creative autonomy. In 2017 he decided to create under his given name, an act he describes as “living as the artist that I am”.
His desk is covered in cannabis containers, various colored bus transfers, a cup of pens, empty Yerba Mate bottles, a Pax vaporizer, a box of pastels, a hand-carved wooden mushroom, and a thick book titled The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes.
He doesn’t seem to mind the mess as he stares at the ceiling like he’s watching clouds. An instrumental loops loud in the background. His left foot’s been softly tapping on beat this whole time.
