STIMULUS is a rising Brooklyn-born, Berlin-based artist, DJ and event curator. And if you were frequenting this site earlier this year, you might recall that I wrote about “swiTCH,” a collaboration with Malik Work, Greg Paulus, Taylor Bense and Swim Good that to my ears sounded a bit like a synthesis of Stereo MCs and C+C Music Factory with Larry Levan — but with a modern, self-assured swagger. 

His latest single, the K, LE MAESTRO-produced “SeMi” is a woozy, genre-defying track that pairs the Brooklyn-born, Berlin-based emcee’s swaggering yet deeply introspective, heartbroken flow with an eerily brooding production featuring a looping and twinkling piano sample and skittering trap beats. The song sees STIMULUS completely turning the concept of “keeping it 100” on its head by exploring the beauty and truth in being “semi” — kind of messy, and yet fully human and proud of it.

 “Keeping things ONE HUNDRED is the new keeping it real,” the Brooklyn-born, Berlin-based artist says. “100 is also a popular emoji representing 100% authenticity and 100% certainty. In the song I admit all of the ways in which I am not 100%.”

STIMULUS continues, “sEMi” is about inner struggle, social alienation, and the pursuit of identity. “

The accompanying video is part of a short film associated with the music, which has already won 7 awards at film festivals around Europe. And as you tell is part of a dystopian, near future in which the film’s protagonist goes through a bizarre procedure that gives him odd super powers.