Dazed & Confused

It’s no coincidence that my fifth issue for Dazed happens to be the one most inspired by the life, times and energy that Virgil Abloh brought to the industry and world. Therefore, Issue V, as it came to be known during production, is an ode to the spirit he embodied. It’s a visual exploration of the ways in which we can push ourselves to the limits and create work that inspires, provokes and uses the imagination to tell truly global stories. This mantra has guided the team and me to put the following pages together. For our first cover story, A$AP Rocky reflects on his upcoming album, rediscovering his Bajan roots and, of course, fatherhood. True to the theme, he is confident that “I will always remind my children to never…

Hugging the southern banks of the Congo River, Kinshasa is the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the poorest countries in the world per GDP. For decades now, it has been home to vast mounds of industrial waste known locally as décharges pirates, open dumps that block drains, spark fires and spread cholera. A colonial hangover, cities like Kinshasa have become dumping grounds for superfluous production from the global north. But as waste heaps have grown, sending shadows across Kinshasa, so too has a groundswell for ingenious methods of transforming refuse into meaningful art and noise. Fulu Miziki are a music collective that began turning trash into instruments in the 2000s, but they only started formally recording their music during lockdown. As inspired by the traditional…

“I drew a Ukrainian warrior who protects us. We will win no matter what: we will go through missiles, tanks and bullets. And even though we have great casualties, our soldiers do not give up. They protect Ukraine; they protect me.” UA Kids Today (@uakids.today) is an online gallery created by Anastasia and Artem Bykovets, encouraging Ukrainian children to explore their feelings about the war through painting and illustration “All my life I have lived in beautiful Ukrainian Odesa: I went to school, attended a dance club, adored my family and loved the funniest cat in the world. I believe that this will be the happiest day of my life, when the bright rays of the sun will spread around me, when I will be able to put on my best dress…

In November 2012, 16-year-old Ahmad Matar and his friends were practising parkour on a hill in their hometown of Khan Yunis, Gaza when an Israeli bomb landed 500 metres in front of them. The boys happened to catch the destruction on camera, filming as they often did to show their YouTube and Instagram followers what it was like to train parkour in the world’s largest open-air prison. A moment of fleeting joy abruptly stolen by Israeli violence – nothing could have conveyed it better. Matar’s friends, brave as only children who jump off buildings for fun can be, hardly waited for the dust to settle before running to the site where the explosive had landed, to see the damage. Matar, having seen tyres and pieces of buildings burst into the air…

Every image tells a story. From culture to costume, dress codes to hairstyles and the nationalism we brush off as normal, symbols of shared heritage hold the power to shape the way we interpret ourselves. They tell stories of conquest and subjugation, power and resistance. When re-evaluated, they allow us to critically confront the past and our struggles for social justice, whether it’s destigmatising afro hair in professional spaces via UK campaign group the Halo Collective, or artist Hew Locke’s unpacking of Britain’s problematic past through thought-provoking portraiture. In our digital-first, image-obsessed present, it seems there are reclamations of heritage happening everywhere, every day, and at a faster and more frantic pace than ever. Symbols that were previously used to wield power over people are rehashed to assert some semblance…

FILIPPAK A TOAST TO AUTHENTICITY Clint has amassed a cult-like community in the five years since launching Corteiz, his British streetwear label. As its influence has expanded, the spotlight has turned inevitably towards the mononymous maverick behind the brand – a spotlight the 20 – something-year-old typically evades with ease and intent. Everybody wants a piece of Clint, but he’s only willing to offer a slice of the action This is not an interview, at least not in the traditional sense – a fact that Clint makes abundantly clear before I can even hit record on our conversation. “I’ve only agreed to this because I was told it was about Virgil, ” he asserts. Most questions outside of those parameters fall short of his approval, especially those regarding Corteiz. As inconvenient as it…