ThankGod4Cody is a talented producer and artist and is well known for his work with SZA on her Platinum “CTRL” album, which includes producing “The Weekend”, “Broken Clocks”, and “Love Galore” featuring Travis Scott. ThankGod4Cody embarked on his solo career in early 2019 with his first album release, Cody of Nazareth, a fantastic, genre-bending work of art. On May 28th, ThankGod4Cody released his first song in nearly a year, “Light My Way”, and last week, accompanied it with a spacey visual featuring beautiful nature scenes, Cody on his bike, and many lit joints. “Light My Way” is an airy and uplifting song, perfect for 2020, a time in which many of us could use some “Light” in our lives. On his Instagram, he alluded to the fact that it would be his first offering of many in the near future. 

Releasing the “Light My Way” visual wasn’t the only thing that happened to ThankGod4Cody last week; he was also arrested at a Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles. He was among hundreds of Black Lives Matter protestors who have been arrested in Los Angeles over the past two weeks. I had the chance to talk to Cody about his experience with LAPD and how it relates to his inspirational new song. 

LOADING MAGAZINE: “What inspired you to protest?” 

ThankGod4Cody: “I saw the Ahmaud Arbery video, and then I came across the Breonna Taylor story. Then, I woke one morning and saw the George Floyd video going viral. All of that shit just indescribably hurts to see and read. I would see people protesting on my phone everyday and I just got tired of watching other people fight for change while I’m just sitting there feeling helpless. That could’ve been me, a friend, a family member, etc. in any of those stories. I felt it was my personal responsibility as a young black man to go participate. That was the least I could do.” 

LMG: “What happened to you at the Los Angeles protests?” 

ThankGod4Cody: “I had just finished marching for some hours and was tired because I was still up from the day before because I just couldn’t sleep. So I was actually on my way home and was walking back to my bike [motorcycle] when I ran into what seemed like a war zone. Flags were on fire in the middle of the street. Police cruisers were on fire. The cops were shooting rubber bullets just into the crowd trying to get people to disperse.  

“I was trying to find a safe way to my bike. I was about to head down this alley to try and avoid the cops and hop on my bike and dip. When I was about to hit the alley, it was about 50 cops coming up the alley military style telling me to leave the opposite way. I turned around and it was now another line of like 50 cops telling me to leave the alley way that I had just been turned from. So then I turned around again and there were guns pointed at me and random bystanders that were around. They were yelling at us to get down or they were going to shoot us and that we were under arrest. It was pretty wild that they could just arrest us for being there. But it was crazy because after I was zip tied and the bus pulled up to get us, I got on the bus and it was a prisoner transfer bus. Like they put us all in individual cages with our hands zip tied behind our backs for hours. It was a fucked up experience but I was released later that night.” 

LMG: “What was your creative process for ‘Light My Way’, and how does ‘Light My Way’ tie into what’s going on in the world right now?” 

ThankGod4Cody: – “Man I wrote the first version of  LMW just walking in my backyard. It was crazy because the words just came to me while I was just walking back and forth. I didn’t even have a beat for it or anything. I was literally doing the whole process in my head right there in my backyard. Making the beat and writing the lyrics at the same time. I ended up recording the official version in London at Church Studios.” 

“And if definitely ties in with what’s going on right now man. 2020 has been so fucking dark. Like for everyone. All of us as human beings. It’s been so much negative that it’s sometimes scary to think what more this year has for us and if there’s any damn light at the end of the tunnel. I need my path to make it out of this shit [2020] lit up. It’s asking a higher power to light my way out of this bullshit.” 

Find “Light My Way” on Apple Music, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, and all other major streaming services.  

Follow ThankGod4Cody on Instagram here.