ILL DOOTS reflects on the times and timelessness on funkedelic new single “COVID-1999”

Making a quick followup to their July EP The Mess, Philly hip-hop / funk / rock collective ILL DOOTS returns with a new single for the pandemic called “COVID-1999.”

It’s both timely and about timelessness, with vocalist and multiinstrumentalist US spitting bars about the temptation of trend-riding versus transcending — about the goal of making songs that work at a higher level and can’t necessarily be pinned to an era or wave.

In that sense, the downbeat “COVID-1999” does feel out of time sonically — its cosmic production reaches across generations, calling to mind psychedelic funk of the 70s and 80s as much as indie rap of the early 00s and experimental beatmaking of today — but it’s a digable entry into the ILL DOOTS catalog, whether it be a quarantine one-off or a taste of another project we’ll hear from the band later this year.

Watch the music video below and listen for vocals from Elle.Morris and a trumpet solo by Jon Persson.