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music
Tommy Ca$h

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flaunt

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MARTIN ASBJØRN coat and pants, LIAM HODGES shirt, and EKRIA bracelets (worn on hands). ![MARTIN ASBJØRN coat and pants, LIAM HODGES shirt, and EKRIA bracelets (worn on hands).](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c346b607eaa09d9189a870/1534377897449-TS344U5QONZNV95RS3MW/Stella+Asia+Consonni_FILM3.jpg) **MARTIN ASBJØRN** coat and pants, **LIAM HODGES** shirt, and **EKRIA** bracelets (worn on hands). Last summer, Estonian rapper Tommy Cash was walking through the streets of Kiev after a show. It was the middle of the night, he was alone, and as he turned a corner, he encountered a crowd gathering on the side of the road—two gangs of big, tough-looking Ukrainian men squaring up to one another. But there was something unusual about the scene: there was no noise. Pure silence. In the middle, the ringleaders were having an intense argument, and as Tommy looked closer, he realised it was in sign language. He watched, hypnotised, as they gestured ferociously at one another with their hands. “There are some things in life,” he tells me, “that you know you will never ever see again.” BERTHOLD shirt and pants and LIAM HODGES top. ![BERTHOLD shirt and pants and LIAM HODGES top.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c346b607eaa09d9189a870/1534377929857-6SPDQHLE68MLCI6PPSPU/Stella+Asia+Consonni_FILM11.jpg) **BERTHOLD** shirt and pants and **LIAM HODGES** top. It was one of many moments that inspired his recent music video (Tommy conceives and directs all of his videos), for the song “Pussy Money Weed.” He wanted to find dancers that could express power in unusual ways, just like those deaf gangsters. The resulting video—shot in an abandoned elephant enclosure at a zoo that looks like something out of David Lynch’s _Dune_—features wheelchair choreography, dancers on treadmills, a group of men with cosmetic vulcan ears, and a female amputee with scimitars for legs. It’s a feast of abstraction, and unlike any rap video you’ve ever seen. Cash grew up in a poor Russian neighbourhood on outskirts of Tallinn, Estonia. He discovered rap music after signing up to freestyle dance classes at school, and spent much of his teenage years exploring street art and making music. He’s always been an eccentric character, and this is evident during our phone call. He speaks perfect English in a slow but imaginative way, and is more comfortable answering questions like “what did you do today?” than “what does this lyric mean?” Want to know what he did today? It was the birthday of his horse (Zaz), so he bought some carrots and apples and rode Zaz, then they relaxed under the sun and listened to Velvet Underground. Want to know how Tommy describes riding a horse? “Like flying a dragon,” he says, “magical, powerful, majestic.” Cash’s first big hit was the trap-inspired “Winaloto,” and the abstract music video that accompanied it, which sees Cash playing ass-cheeks and obese bellies like bongos amidst sculptural arrangements of mostly-nude humans, and is now rocketing past 5 million views. He has new ideas every minute of every day. But, unlike most people, he takes those strange flashes of daydream inspiration and immediately sets about making them a reality. Last month he imagined how visually cool it would be to see someone bathe in pasta—so, naturally, he bought a load of pasta, filled the bath and got in. Another time, he made a pair of Adidas loafers out of baguettes. SOULLAND jacket and pants, MARTIN ASBJØRN shirt, and WOOD WOOD bag.   ![SOULLAND jacket and pants, MARTIN ASBJØRN shirt, and WOOD WOOD bag.  ](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c346b607eaa09d9189a870/1534377996076-IGH8PXIQCHU77MHBN6Q0/Stella+Asia+Consonni_FILM14.jpg) **SOULLAND** jacket and pants, **MARTIN ASBJØRN** shirt, and **WOOD WOOD** bag.    “People say you should do something you've never done everyday,” Cash tells me, “and I feel like that. I want to experience a lot. I hate waiting to do ideas. I can't sit on the spot. I get adrenaline from doing these things. I don't know what to do with money, so I do very dumb shit. But I love to do shit that has never been done before. It is interesting for me.” On a balmy night in London in late April, I went to Scala in Kings Cross to watch him play live. Thousands of kids queued outside to get in, as Tommy’s warm-up act Hannah Diamond boomed out a mixture of hectic Eurodance and glitchy pop. Then Tommy appeared, pushed onstage in a wheelchair by a masked figure dressed like a construction worker in Hi-Vis. By the end, he was ripping off his shirt, turning out all the stage lights and conducting mosh pits that looked like tsunamis.     HI TECH X CHRISTOPHER SHANNON tracksuit and NICO PANDA coat. ![    HI TECH X CHRISTOPHER SHANNON tracksuit and NICO PANDA coat.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c346b607eaa09d9189a870/1534378047445-EJKZ8ZRUCO3ODJI8PTMB/Stella+Asia+Consonni_FILM17.jpg)     **HI TECH X CHRISTOPHER SHANNON** tracksuit and **NICO PANDA** coat. It wasn’t just a concert. It was something else. The music—which spans genres from Trap to Bass and Dance and Electro with a tongue planted firmly in cheek—was only part of the point. What you’re really there for is Cash himself. While he’s onstage he commands all of your attention. There’s no room for your worries or thoughts on your cashflow or what you were going to eat for dinner or even how you’re going to get home that night. You’re just fixated on the ridiculous wonder of the Tommy Cash Universe. “I feel a little like I am a chosen one,” he tells me. “I'm not doing this because of money or fame. I just love to create and make exciting things. I want to help people to escape from their worlds, or inspire them to go make something of their own.” * * * Written by Joe Zadeh     Photographed by Stella Asia Consonni     Styled by PC Williams Groomer: Afi Emily Attipoe Makeup: Amy Wright