Ashanti Mutinta is the Zambian-Canadian rapper and producer behind the moniker Backxwash: an industrial hip-hop project exploding with brash, maleficent intensity. Her latest album His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering (2022) is the final release in a trilogy that includes I Lie Here Buried with My Rings and My Dresses (2021) and her Polaris Music Prize-winning album God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It (2020). Her most personal release yet, His Happiness Shall Come… looks at the overlaps between faith, identity, and queerness. Speaking about her music and its auto-biographical dimension, she has said, “My whole existence is political as a Black trans person.” This political element is not only heard in her anarchic lyrics but also in the confronting noisiness of her production: distortion and bass are at the forefront of Backxwash’s strident and cathartic music. Ignoring genre conventions, Backxwash chooses to take hip hop down her own path: one laden with metallic aggression, grainy texture, and near villainous rancour. Backxwash will perform a show of music from her forthcoming Only Dust Remains (2025) album at Rewire 2025, setting the stage for what comes next in the wake of her prodigious trilogy of albums.