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070 Shake invites you to a night at the ballet with her latest album Petrichor. The rapper and singer’s junior album hit streaming services last week, but not before some listeners got a chance to experience the music in a totally unique way. Audience members arrived to the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles on November 7 in formal attire for a ballet performance accompanied by the music of Petrichor. Those who attended might recognize the pianist from that night as Johan Lenox, an artist and composer who was a primary collaborator on the album. In between studio sessions and flying to Thailand with A$AP Rocky, Johan let us in on a little bit of the behind-the-scenes from the ballet, his work on the album, and what folks can expect to hear on the upcoming Petrichor tour.

OnesToWatch: How did the ballet come together? What was your role in that?

Johan Lenox: Shake mentioned wanting to do a ballet for this as long as maybe a year ago. Having done a lot with live theater, opera, and some ballet music in my life, I let her know I really wanted to help with that. I just love big theatrical productions. Ultimately I took on sort of a music director role in it, helping arrange the song sequence, placing the interludes, and ultimately performing them. Some of the interludes were written just by me, while others were a collaboration between me and Shake. Some of them were based on stuff we’re working on for the future.