Cleo Reed announces Is This How Empires Die? EP and shares lead single
The video for “American Dream” was filmed at the Demery Family’s annual Black rodeo in Beggs, Oklahoma.
New York-based multidisciplinary artist Cleo Reed has announced the EP Is This How Empires Die?, due out 12/4, and released its first single, “American Dream.” The country-influenced track arrives ahead of Reed’s scheduled appearance at London’s Pitchfork Music Festival.
Reed described the song as an “anti-anthem” with Afro-surrealist and anti-imperial themes. The artist said its premise imagines celebrating the Fourth of July before a storm arrives, likening the experience to abruptly waking from an idealized dream.
In explaining the song, Reed cited AI-generated music, flooding, surveillance and crisis, contrasting those concerns with occasional moments of joy around traditional holidays.
The accompanying video was shot on the Fourth of July in Beggs, Oklahoma, 30 miles outside Tulsa. Filming took place at the multigenerational Black rodeo that the Demery Family hosts annually. The forthcoming EP follows Reed’s 2025 album Cuntry.
