Blood Orange is an R&B mastermind with a political edge

Dev Hynes is a musical nomad. He started out making disco-punk in the band Test Icicles. Then he took a sharp turn to orchestral folk music as Lightspeed Champion.

But now the U.K. artist has found his true calling under the name Blood Orange, a project that proves he's an R&B mastermind.

His cinematic and topical new record, Freetown Sound, is a lush collage of R&B, hip-hop, new wave, and jazz. It features an all-star cast, including Canada's own Nelly Furtado and Carly Rae Jepsen. 

In a wide-ranging interview, Blood Orange joins Shad to discuss his powerful new collection, one loaded with pointed statements about being an outsider in America. He also reflects on everything from religion, to his songwriting process, to his participation in Black Lives Matter protests, to his comfort with gender fludity. 

"It took a while," he says. "Honestly, probably just having a lot of bad situations pushed me to a point of not really caring about any negative responses in regards to me or who I am, and only trying to think about only making myself happy, and people I care about happy, and anyone else that could be reached."