No frills, no long intro paragraph, let's just hippity hop into a brief breakdown and explanation of each track on my upcoming projects! An Album and an EP both releasing on September 26, 2024. We'll start with the, Vegas Baby! album:
"Vegas, Baby!"
The title track on the album, which features Lurk Franklin and Hutch Wordsworth. The idea of the song mirrors the album (not so coincidentally) as it is an ode to my home (born and raised, still hanging on out here) and a celebration of the local musicians. My verse amounts to references to other local bands/artists (multiple of which appear on the album.) SECOS, White Noise (no rebranded as Twist Off!), Elevated Undergrounds. Chef Pants, and more! The instrumental comes from iLL Fortune (all but one producer on the project are not locals, only the vocal features worked out like that) and it really is a banger. More of an old school, boom bap, gangster rap type of beat. I feel like it's a good one and has some gravitas to it, so I made sure to deliver on my verse and I knew I had to get some badass MCs on it with me. I met Hutch Wordsworth through my business partner/best friend, Kaesen in the past couple of years and he is.... a rapper's rapper. This guy oozes confidence and skill, so I knew he could make an impression on this track and that he did! Lurk Franklin is someone I met only a couple of times when he was involved in promoting shows and acts for First Friday in Downtown LV. He has a successful podcast now (Planet Lurk.) I thought he could bring that a certain edge to this track and he delivered! Being able to release this one makes me feel like an actual rapper... Like, to have two high powered features on such a great beat? We nailed it.
"Doja Cat"
This is one of my favorites (they all are, let's be real,) but there is something so.... Cool about this one. Produced by SXINT, the beat has a really fun flow in and of itself that feels like it's always driving forward (if that makes any sense.) I wrote it not being exactly sure of who would hop on it, so I think the track is very me. The bridge is more like a bar from a verse, but still catchy and the hook just keeps it nice and simple. It's about celebrity culture; How we prop up stars and why, and who, and all that. I eventually settled on asking my boy, Chef Pants (of the THT Collective) to do his thing on it and I think we combined to make a really solid track. I will say it again, but most of the features on this album did such an awesome job at molding a bit into my sound and style so it's nice and cohesive. They still do their own thing and weren't bound by anything and my engineer, Artesano, is a humungous reason for that! Still, most artists really did try to cater a bit to what I was doing (at least it sounded like it to me) and I really appreciated that about working with them!
"Party Everyday"
BANGER! This beat comes by way of Eskry who has absolute BOPS available at all times. I reference it in the lyrics, but I feat this may be too basic of a premise. It's simply about the fact I'm getting burnt out by society. I have so much to be thankful for in my life and I'll always appreciate where I am compared to where I could be... But it's still not that easy being cheesy. Nine to five life can and does beat the crap out of a lot of us and it's only getting worse with the social upheaval and economic situations. This was one I planned on doing on my own, the song only has an 8 bar verse, a chorus, and then a 4 bar verse/outro, but when I got to writing the outro I decided NOT to write it. I met Figgy when he went to a show I opened at and it took a few months, but we ended up connecting and hanging out. Great guy and a hell of a musician. He was the first person I thought of for this track and he made the absolute most out of a 4 bar verse. He chopped me up. I like to think I can rap fast (because I can,) but in this case I slowed it down and focused on delivery and a certain feeling. Figgy comes in with the heat and closes the song out in such a fun fashion, I really love this one!
"Factory"
Now this? THIS is Pathogen. Another very me track. Produced by iLL Fortune again, this a dark, horror-ish, boom bap beat. I've had it in the chamber for a while, I contemplated finding a spot for it on my previous two albums actually. That didn't quite workout, so it was tracking to show up on my next Halloween Town album actually. Once I decided to do this project and put off another Halloween Town one until next or the following year, I figured I could still have that element present. I'm really at my best on darker beats and writing about horror and sci-fi movies. This one is referencing Willy Wonka/Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. Not horror movies obviously, but we all know there are some very.... Wild aspects of those movies. I (not an original thought unfortunately) see some parallels to Dante's Inferno and these movies, so this track is like talking about those movies through the frame of Dante's Inferno. If you ask me? Pretty badass concept. Plus, I rap my ass off on it. One of the few tracks I planned on being a solo vocal venture from the very beginning.
"I Do No"
I kind of sat on this instrumental for a while. I bought it from K-Oddic with a certain idea in mind at one point and I couldn't really bring that together. In putting this album together it organically became one of my, "multi-verse," projects because a lot of the vocal features I wanted are not hip-hop/rap acts. For better or for worse, I haven't been able to find my way into a local hip-hop scene yet, but because I'm in with Kaesen from Twist Off!, I know a lot of the rock and punk acts out here. So, even though this track is just a straight hip-hop track really, I thought it fit in with the overall vibe of different genre influences due to the instrumentation. The title is a play on words based on the memes that go like, "I be acting like I don't know... But I do be knowing." I really wanted someone to do the second verse, but it didn't work out. I wrote the verse pretty quickly and the song sat like that for a while. It sat until I decided I wanted Priscilla Peaceful to write and perform the chorus, plus a bridge towards the end of the track. I quickly wrote a second verse when she agreed to it. Once I had the song mastered it really hit me just how awesome this one sounds! Super cool track, great summer vibe.
"Feeling"
One of my best so far. Seriously. I really wanted to pick a softer sounding instrumental because it's just something I don't do quite often. Also wanted to do a love song. I've done a couple before, but I had an idea of really painting a picture of just being in absolute bliss, like how Heavenly it can feel when you're in love with someone (or infatuated with them I suppose.) I always planned on having someone on the chorus and someone else on the second verse. I wrote a chorus concept, but that's it. Kevin Bessey is a wonderful artist who I just met at a show at one point and we aren't best friends or anything, but every time I get to speak with him or hear his new music (live or on streaming services) it's a great time. So, he did me a favor by re-writing and recording an awesome, nearly ethereal sound for me. It took me a while to settle on who I'd ask to do the second verse, and I realized I'd be dumb and stupid if I didn't ask Kurian. I met through his work with the former members of a former band, Elephante King, in a podcast that they were doing as well as his work with The Pigeon Hat Collective. This is not a style of instrumental he would normally hop on, but as skilled and talented as he is he ate that verse for LUNCH! Really a beautiful joint for all of us to have made together.
"Back To The Multi-Verse"
Maybe I am just insecure, but this isn't the most polished/best bit of music we've probably heard as a species. Still, it's important to me because it's the first track that I produced all by myself! I had the concept for this song, which I wanted to include to connect a previous album of mine, Welcome To My Multi-Verse, with this one. The point of my, "multi-verse," projects is me mixing genres. It's almost always ends up being a hip-hop/rap beat with the influences of other genres or me rapping over something that isn't particularly a hip-hop instrumental, but still. We'll get into it in a few tracks, but I actually bucked that trend a little bit on a couple of tracks, going a bit further from straight up rapping. But yeah, genre mixing! I haven't been making beats for very long and I haven't fully put together that many beats, so it only goes up from here. Still, I've been doing some practice and working to get to this point in which I am comfortable actually releasing a beat I made. First verse is interesting because it's not something I usually do, it's just a bit of talking about myself. Flexing a little and what not. The rest of it fills out as a sort of explaining the multi-verse concept and just enjoying the little world I created with the song.
"Food"
I LOVE this track, man! I still have work to do when it comes to how I sound when I'm trying to do more rock inspired tracks, but still I love to do it. There is (no matter how it comes across in the end to the listener) always a sort of raw energy that comes out. This is a cool post-punk/electro type of instrumental and I had high hopes for a couple of features, but it didn't end up working out. I had two verses written and recorded for eons as I attempted to work out the feature, so it was a little odd coming back around and working out the chorus and some bridge/verse material. It all came together well and quickly though and I really think I caught a good emotion and dichotomy between some of the deliveries. The song is simply about loving FOOD. The food that's horrible for you and then just in general eating too damn much, like, every single day. It's tough out here because food is delicious.
"Clinically Insane"
This is a pretty cool track to me that is about how angry I always feel. Showing anger as a stress response is pretty common in males, especially younger and it definitely runs in my family along other depression/anxiety related stuff and things. So suffice to say that I have spent a lot of my time in the past 10 years losing my shit. I never let it go in front of people, but when I'm alone I tend to have a god damned meltdown when dealing with stuff. This is a track produced by Deville who I have bought stuff from before. They have a wide array of really high quality instrumentals of varying genres and this is a nu-metal one. I took it as a chance to try and write a rock hook (which would have come out way worse without my engineer's production), rap fast and in a different manner than usual, and try to create a good composition on something new and different for me. I'm not sure it'll hit hard with a lot of people, but I think this might be an interesting track for some to digest.
"No More Gods"
Rock Opera. I had the concept the moment I heard this instrumental (also produced by Erlax) and within a few minutes (the length of the track) I had the structure figured out. I wrote the verse, chorus, and the ending, "bridge," (we'll call it) ASAP. I had an idea for a vocal feature early on, but they unfortunately didn't get back to me so I let it bake for a while and ended up enlisting the help of Kaesen from Twist Off! and the lovely Jennie Menchaca to fill out the vocals. The song is really pretty simple: It's about both the fact that we live in a society and it's interesting how media (movies and TV specifically) are so focused on God's and creating, plus the escapism that dominates a lot of popular/widely released projects. Overall, super cool track that I think is unique in terms of beat selection, structure, and vocal styles.
"Beautiful"
The past three tracks were the rock section of my return to the multi-verse and this one begins the pop/indie section. I picked this beat pretty late in the process, I had been looking for tracks akin to the style that one of my favorite bands, ¡MAYDAY!, and it took a while but I found this (no pun intended) beauty! This is one of a couple songs where I really truly tried to focus and do some singing and better melodious work. Not to eat my own ass, but I do have some good, melodic rap hooks in my discography, but I can't sing very well on a consistent basis. This time turned out okay-ish, but one thing I have on my side versus my first multi-verse album is my engineer. Artesano is really good at tuning my vocals in a way that improves them, but is hard to hear most of the time. In the end, not everyone will be able to get past the janky singing, but if they can I think this is really nice track because I can't name too many songs (any right now) that are about the natural beauty that Nevada has to offer.
"Up"
The verses on this thing? Badass. This is by the same producer of Beautiful and it's even more (to me) similar to my guys in ¡MAYDAY! with the combo of rapping and singing over a pop/rock instrumental. It's a pretty simply about not remembering things and anxiety. Since mid-last year I have just been bogged down with things to do I am an adult, I own a house now, I'm trying to get my Media Business off the ground, and I pretty much write music at a full time rate on top of my 9-5 job.... So a lot of stuff slips through the cracks. They say it's the little things that make life worth it, but I think it's the little things that send me over the edge. Little, small things I forget or don't do (or whatever) just really chip away and build up over time. I think it's something we all know, it's just particularly magnified for me right now. It's fun to get out the frustrations (temporarily lol) in a track like this where I'm actually having a lot of fun and really trying to push for a faster flow overall. Similarly to Beautiful listeners will have to get past the janky singing, but hopefully they do because the verses are badass.
"Hole"
This is the indie part of the section. The instrumental is unlike anything I've used before, but I really love the melody and emotion it has and provides. It's another instance (similar to literally uhhh... the past 5 tracks) in which it's not a hip-hop/rap instrumental. I did make a conscious effort to stay make the verses and bridges melodious and closer to singing than usual. The chorus took... Months to come together because I had designs for a band to hop on and do some gang vocals, but that didn't work out. I attempted a couple of other avenues to a feature on the chorus, but I couldn't make those happen. So, in the final (metaphorical) hours of writing/recording this album I came up with something. I said in a previous paragraph that I have some pretty catchy and good melodious rap hooks, but this one is different. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's an interesting sort of contrast to the verses and bridge/outro I have going on. Another simple song, it's about being stuck in a depressive state and isolating yourself (subconsciously or otherwise) and how that experience is. A cliche sort of song, but part of making music is putting your feelings on the page, so shiiii. You know?
"Will I"
Hole and this one here are the real sad guy hours part of this project. If I'm being honest, I am still trying to get the sad song right. I think this one is cool as hell and there is a particular part of the second verse that I think I captured what I wanted, but I'm still working on it. My biggest inspiration for these vibes are songs I've heard from Sadistik and Tech N9ne, two of my biggest inspirations and favorite artists. In fact, HXRXKILLER is the producer on this track and he did some production for at least one (if not more) tracks on a couple of recent-ish Sadistik EPs. I was in a particularly bad depressive rut when I was formulating this one and that's where the concept was born from. basically asking myself what if I was dead, would it really solve anything and what affect would it have on the people in my life.
"Jumpshot"
Last, but nowhere close to least is Jumpshot. This track is like my magnum opus! I heard the beat eons ago, it's the same producer as, Summer of 69 and it took me a long time to get to writing the track, but the moment I heard the beat I knew what I would write about. It's basically the antithesis of, Hole. That was about being stuck in the depressive state and isolating myself and what not. I have been on the, "threatening to kill myself half sarcastically whenever something simple goes wrong" train for years now. It's so prevalent in SOCIETY to joke like that and if you live in that partial sarcasm too long it really does aid in weakening of the mind and spirit. So, this is about knowing I have that support out there and appreciating life as well as reflecting on how I have been thinking about life and myself for so long. The chorus is also an inside joke of sorts. I have a t-shirt that says, "If I miss this jumpshot I'll f*%^ing kill myself," that I wear when I perform sometimes and I always thought it'd be funny to have song called Jumpshot without saying the rest. You know, the implication.
That covers the album, so we'll rip through the three track EP, I Love My City, releasing on the same day!
"I Love My City"
The title track of the EP is a solo mix of the title track of the album, Vegas, Baby!. My initial idea was to have about 5 tracks for this EP, all remixes of songs from the album with out of state artists as the features. I ended up not being able to corral anyone for this track, but I did realize that the irony of having a solo mix on the project was absolutely worth it. Pus, it gave me a chance to update some references in my first verse, add some in a second verse, and I ended up really creating a nice image with the third verse and it allowed me to do a bit of soul bearing or just explaining as opposed to the one verse full of references on the original. Also helps for concert purposes to have a solo version!
"I Do No (Remix) ft. ¡MAYDAY! & Priscilla Peaceful
This is an all-timer for me... Unbelievable that I get to continue to say and type that I have two emcees from one of my favorite bands of all time on a track with me! The original track turned out really great; Priscilla Peaceful and I made a great combo on a cool beat by K-Oddic. I didn't intend this to be remixed at all, but there was an opportunity to send a song to the guys in ¡MAYDAY!. I initially wanted to send them the instrumental for, Up, but I was nowhere close to having my verses ready (had a bad experience previously sending a track that wasn't totally ready to an idle of mine), so I pivoted to this song. Plus, Priscilla Peaceful and them are already connected, so there was some synergy there as well. Truly a dope song and both Bernz and Wrekonize slot in really well here!
"What's Up"
The final track.... I LOVE THIS SONG! The beat was in no way intended to go on the album because it didn't fit with anything I was really going for. I thought about maybe fitting in some sort of EDM section to the album with a couple of tracks, but decided against and this track wasn't going to fit that. I bought it as soon as I could after hearing it. PANDEMXNIUM produces some unique and badass stuff I've used his beats for a couple of my best trakcs inluding, Power. When it became clear (late in the process) that I was not going to be able to secure the features from out of state that I was attempting to; I shrank the number of tracks on the EP to three and I decided I could throw this track on there! The writing came together pretty quickly and once I found the pocket for my flow it became one of my favorites that I've written! Simply put, it's about how we're all a little weird. Do weird things, say weird stuff, think weird thoughts, make weird jokes. I live alone currently and never have until this year and you realize what a weirdo you can be when you do.
So, that's it! If you read this whole thing, you're a champ, a rockstar, and a badass!
You'll be able to stream and purchase the digital album on September 26, 2024!
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