General Articles – Extraordinary Nobodies

A Quick Artist Spotlight

As you can see by the date of my last posted article, we decided to take last year off. This has made it difficult for me to decide on how to approach my first posted piece in 13 or 14 months, despite the fact that I’ve got a litany of unfinished works in progress. I figured that something fairly short and sweet would be the easiest reintroduction.

I would say that over the course of our hiatus, the underground hip hop scene that I spent 2017 and 2018 raving about has effectively come and gone. It’s no longer the exciting step in the evolution of hip hop that I once saw it as. The entire lane got watered down by wannabe rappers flooding Bandcamp with low-effort projects. Verses were clearly one-take freestyles over lazy production. The rap styles and ears for beats of actual great artists (think Roc Marciano/Planet Asia/Hus Kingpin/Westside Gunn) were bitten and sucked dry by parasites with no true creative vision, creating cheap knock-offs. Cover art went from eye-catching and unique to the same old Google image searches of mafia movie characters with paint splatters on their faces and/or black strips over their eyes, with massive parental advisory logos plastered on. Rappers press 25 copies of cassette tapes, CDs, and 12” vinyl (not even LPs) and sell them under the guise of rare art, charging $100 for a 15 minute project. It’s been a quick but very painful and unceremonious death of a scene that was once luxurious and mysterious.

Outside of Brown Bag Money/Gold Era-affiliated artists, Rome Streetz, Eto, Rigz, and Ty Farris (who I’m not sure I even consider part of the same scene honestly), I can’t really say I listen to very many underground artists who have risen to prominence in recent years often at all anymore. That said, there have been a few more I’ve found recently who care more about creating good music than they do making money off rich white kids who want to flaunt their “esoteric” music taste on Instagram. So rather than continue exposing myself as a hypocrite and bitching about music on the internet, I’d rather shine what miniscule light we may have on these artists. Absolutely none of them are artists that you haven’t heard of, but I really believe in them and I haven’t had the chance to talk about them on this platform yet.

I would like to start off with Ché Noir. I first heard about her about a year and a half ago, but if I recall correctly her projects were limited so I didn’t have much to dig into. What I did hear was decent, but I felt as though there was a bit of potential she had yet to tap into. I believe part of the reason is because of the beats she was rapping over. Being signed to T.C.F. Music Group, she was getting beats from 38 Spesh, who makes good beats but wasn’t supplying her with beats that I personally feel meshed with her style overly well in my opinion. I kept my ear to her though, having a feeling that sooner or later she’d hit the level I felt she could hit. That point came last summer when she released an album with Apollo Brown called As God Intended. That record clicked with me immediately in ways her previous material hadn’t. Ché Noir’s voice perfectly matched the feel of Apollo Brown’s beats. It was very relaxing and hypnotic, almost betraying the fact that what she was rapping about was supremely brutal more often than not. That album ended up being one of my favorites of last year – and she wasn’t done. A few months later, she released an entirely self-produced EP called After 12. She showed a natural inclination for production, making me really hope that in the future she produces a full-length album for herself. I consider Ché to be the best lyricist of the handful of emcees that I am talking about today, personally. Her lyrics are incredibly poetic and thoughtful, adding a level of poignancy to topics that we’ve heard much about. I honestly think this year was just the beginning for her. She seems like she’s hit a consistent stride, and I see her only getting better as time goes on.

Next is Stove God Cooks. Cooks is a little different than the other artists here, because I’ve actually been aware of him for about 5 years or so now. I recall that he signed to Busta Rhymes’ label The Conglomerate Entertainment a while back and showed up on a few mixtape tracks. I was always impressed by him, so I was curious as to why he wasn’t dropping anything. Fast forward to the end of 2019, and out of nowhere he popped up on Roc Marci’s album Marcielago on the standout cut “Puff Daddy.” Not too long afterwards, there was word that Marci was producing his entire debut album, culminating in Reasonable Drought. This record was another one of my favorites from last year. Roc Marci’s beats are typically quite minimal, which only works with a select few artists at this point in time. Stove God is one of those artists. He raps like a force of nature, driving the pulse of the song himself while the beats generally serve more like soundscapes behind him. The song “Crosses” is one of the most breathtaking songs from last year, from the sample down to how bloodthirsty Cooks sounds over it. He’s also got my favorite verse on the huge cypher track “Frank Murphy” off Westside Gunn’s Shady Records album Who Made The Sunshine, setting the track off on a supremely high note. When people rap on beats without drums nowadays, a lot of them get way too loose with the flow to the point where they sound like they’re just talking. Cooks makes sure the music never loses a sense of rhythm, and keeps things engaging at all times. I think of the artists I’m talking about, he’s the one who’s made the biggest impression on listeners, and while I feel like they all deserve equal notoriety, there’s absolutely a reason why people are paying attention to him.

Finally, we come to 7xvethegenius (pronounced Love the Genius). This is somebody who I saw covered on a bigger hip hop site about a year or two ago, but I didn’t get the chance to check out. Recently, she has signed with Conway the Machine to his new label Drumwork Music Group. The first time I had the chance to listen to her properly was when Conway released the deluxe edition of From King To A God, where she featured on the track “Crack In The Nineties.” To say the least, she absolutely bodied the song. Her verse is not only damn near twice as long as the others are, but more consistently passionate and hungry. On that verse, she demonstrated that she knows exactly how to build a verse so that you’re constantly hanging onto everything she’s saying. She doesn’t give you a chance to tune out because she only sounds more urgent as the verse goes on and forces you to pay attention from beginning to end. Not long after that guest appearance, she released her debut single under Drumwork, “Break Soul.” The same thing applied to that song. Structured as essentially one long verse, the track’s intensity continuously increases with her vocals sounding hungrier and hungrier as it progresses. If I had to try to sell her as a talent based off these two tracks, I would say that she is almost like the concept of momentum personified as a rapper. By the end you feel like you’re listening to some of the most important lyrics you’ll hear all day with how convincing she sounds and how commanding her presence is. Before signing to Drumwork, she had released two projects – 7xve is Love and Self 7xve. Admittedly, I haven’t listened to them yet. I am intentionally waiting until I hear what she does under Conway’s guidance before looking at what she did beforehand so I can judge her artistic development with no prior expectations on what I think her first Drumwork album should be. I’m very excited about her though. I genuinely feel like she could be a star if she’s guided and promoted the right way – the raw talent is more than present.

I don’t want to act like a tastemaker or say that nobody else out is bubbling or making good music via exclusion from this piece. My intention here was just to update any readers we may have retained over the past year of inactivity of who’s caught my ear, and to offer my suggestions if for whatever reason any of them haven’t hit your radar. I’ll be watching their careers with interest, because I’ve been super impressed with what I’ve seen of them already. I’m always looking for more artists to listen to, so hopefully I can find more to talk about as I settle back into writing.

My Thoughts on Current Music Discourse

by Rajin

While Dustin writing again after being pretty silent for nearly the entire year thus far is a big deal, I’ve had such frequent breaks from writing that I’m not even sure if this one was the longest. Thankfully, this time around it wasn’t due to writer’s block or mental burnout; essentially everything Dustin covered in his piece addressing why he stopped writing applies to me too.

There is something else that’s tangentially related to what Dustin spoke about in his reintroduction piece though. During the site’s hiatus, I spent more of my time observing than commenting. In doing so, I’ve come to really see how horrible some people can be when they speak on certain artists or music that they personally dislike. It’s something I was always aware of, of course, but it’s been driven home to me just how widespread this sort of attitude has been recently. Dustin said something in his article that stuck with me, but for reasons different than what I believe he had intended when saying it.

The people you’re talking to behind the monitor are people too.

In this age of constant accessibility to music and artists through social media, artists have become circus animals. When the routine isn’t what they want it to be, the audience throws peanuts because they think it’s funny. This isn’t a new or original observation, but everything is treated like either unequivocal fire or trash. No nuance, no middle ground. It’s all just perpetuated by lazy hip hop publications on social media, asking fans to drop a shit emoji or a fire emoji in the comments, reply with a .gif of how they feel about something, or whatever else to fish for engagement in the most shallow of ways. And when it comes to the fans, when you can quantify “how right” your opinion is through likes and retweets, it gets really easy to start spouting aggressive, intentionally contrarian, half-baked thoughts because of people mindlessly scrolling and interacting with it. These stupid hive-mind opinions start to spread, artists become easy punching bags, and a lot of the time, music gets reduced to a joke in certain circles. It’s a counterproductive practice, because there are people who put their whole selves into the music, as well as listeners who genuinely resonate with it on a personal level.

It’s become so easy for people to voice whatever opinions they’d like to and not have to worry about the consequences behind their words. Due to the fact that nobody really needs to see anyone else face-to-face in order to instantly communicate with them, a lack of respect has developed over the years that – while not exclusive to hip hop’s artists and audience – pervades the social dynamics between people who engage with music and people who make it. You don’t need to really think about what you’re saying, all you do is send a tweet out to virtual space and go about your day.

I don’t think there very many fans who really treat music like it’s art anymore. Music has been something so accessible for so long now. Not to sound like an out-of-touch old man, but kids are growing up in an era where the idea of spending money on music is an entirely alien concept. And why wouldn’t it be? Why on earth would someone spend money on something they can get for free? Adults who grew up buying music don’t question it so why on earth would an average teenager, for whom streaming is all they know, question it too?

But it’s still a problem, at least in my view. There’s no way that this hasn’t shifted the way music is thought about. I’ve seen somebody actually criticize somebody else for buying vinyl LPs of a few albums that they considered bad – it didn’t even seem to occur to this person that the album was a product that was meant to be purchased. Setting aside how silly it is to criticize a stranger over the internet about how he spends his money, this person couldn’t fathom the idea of financially compensating an artist for the product that was consumed just because it was perceived as “bad”. As though buying a bad album is any different from buying a bad video game or paying to see a bad movie in theaters…yet nobody would bat an eye at somebody doing the latter two.

The change in perception of music from art that’s meant to be paid for to essentially an entitlement is also part of what I believe has fueled the treatment of artists lately. The human element of an artist creating something is lost on people. I think that’s what makes it easier to trash something with no regard for the language being used. The degrees of separation that have arisen with the way music consumption has developed as well as the personal disconnect through social media honestly makes it understandable why things happen the way they do nowadays. Of course, trashing music isn’t a new phenomenon; there have always been assholes out there who are either trying to be funny or are insecure elitist fools who think they need to tear someone or something else down to look good. But at the end of the day, it’s just something that I’ve noticed more of, and it’s been bothering me.

I know it looks like all I’m doing is yelling “SOCIAL MEDIA BAD” in this piece so far, but please don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to chastise anyone or preach. I’m certainly not guilt-free. On sites that I used to visit, I would be just as bad as the people I’m talking about right now. To this day, I can still be pretty harsh against my better judgement. I just try to keep it confined to private conversation rather than public trashing. Even so, I’m sure someone could dig up pretty disrespectful tweets that directly contradict what I’m saying now. So I get it. It’s just something that I feel is worth keeping in mind when discussing art. I’m not saying I want to see people pretending they like something when they don’t. Negative feedback to sub-par music is essential for an artist to grow. Sometimes an album is going to miss the mark. It happens. Artists are people, and people fuck up, no matter their profession. But musical discourse has gone from fairly thoughtful to almost entirely reactionary. It’s disrespectful to artists and frankly pretty boring to engage in as a fan. There are so few people whose opinions I respect or care to hear at this point in time and it sucks.

However, none of this is as egregious as what a lot of “professional” music journalists do. I have very little, if any, respect for the vast majority of them. I want to make something very clear though: I’m speaking mainly about writers at big publications like habitual offenders XXL or more recently The Source, and not necessarily people at smaller blogs (at least not the ones who value thoughtful writing over click-baiting everything the fuck out). Publications without integrity. Writers who will happily trash an artist in reviews that spend more time talking about the artist’s age, past hits, problematic behavior, and promotional buildup than they do the actual music. They drag the artists through the mud in reviews, but they’ll never shut up about them. They’ll cover every move they make, every tweet they send out, every affiliate who gets shot or locked up. They’ll expect these artists to sit for interviews…and then they’ll go right back and write another lazy review with no effort made at showing respect to the person who has supplied them with exposure and ad revenue or his/her creative process. I mean, I suppose it makes sense. People are going to click on the review regardless, so why bother putting effort into it if you’re getting paid either way, right? Plus, if you have a few snappy sentences insulting the artist, you can always rely on somebody to screenshot it and post it on Twitter for extra clicks!

None of this is a secret. It’s fucking disgusting. These writers, being the parasitic scum they are, don’t even hide how obvious it is. It’s getting worse as time goes on. It’s really not that hard to give an album a respectful and thoughtful critical write-up while without turning it into a personal attack, but that causes less of a reaction so that’s obviously out of the question.

On that note, I do want to say that I personally don’t feel comfortable writing reviews anymore. My writer’s block last year was directly due to the fact that I had shifted my focus to writing reviews. The site as a whole had trended in that direction in general, and I struggled to write anything that I felt truly did the albums I was reviewing justice. I don’t have the skill required to break an album into its components, speak about each, then bring it all back together to speak about it holistically. And giving an album a numerical grade seems like it’s very reductionist. Doing so works as a shortcut to people who don’t want to actually read about the album, but rather look for reviewers whose opinions validate their own. I don’t find reviews fun, and at the end of the day I only started posting here because I thought it was fun to talk about music. I am proud of my last couple of reviews, but they were exhausting and I still feel like I could have and should have gone further with them. So I’m probably done with that for the most part.

I understand that this may come off as needlessly bitter or preachy. But it bothers me how carelessly hip hop gets handled by music media, just because it runs pop culture and is therefore the easiest genre to cover. I’m tired of seeing kids who don’t understand or care about rap music or hip hop culture profiting off of something they don’t know and will never take the time to learn about. And while I’m not getting paid to do this, I know that to a lot of readers, I’m not any more qualified to talk than they are. The thing is, I know that’s not inaccurate. I’m not a voice that can speak on behalf of hip hop. I can’t dictate what hip hop should or shouldn’t be. I’m not a tastemaker, I’m not a gatekeeper. I’m a nerd who grew up fascinated with hip hop culture and rap music. I’m an outsider looking in. I write because hip hop has shaped so much about me, from my worldview to my sense of humor and beyond, and I would like to pay tribute to that. And that’s why it grates on my nerves so much to see people treat hip hop and rappers like they’re a commodity for anybody to get in on. Hip hop deserves respect and it’s about time the people who exploit it for a paycheck realize that, and do better.

Discussing the Crowdfunded Leaking of Eminem’s Music

by Dustin

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Fan entitlement isn’t a new concept by any means, particularly in the music industry, but it does occasionally cross the line into total lunacy. The Eminem fandom has toed that threshold for years upon years, but lately it seems to have spiraled into something quite sinister from the perspective of a collective that believes in supporting the artist: crowdfunded group-buys of vaulted material never meant to be released. Leaks are somewhat of an expected evil for mainstream artists of course, but what makes this different is the individuals behind the process: a group of fans one could rightfully call Stans due to their adoration of the rapper they’re stealing from. Making it even more pathetic is the fact that their idol, Eminem, is an artist who has loudly spoken out about his music being leaked in the past while emotionally detailing how protective he is toward his art.

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For a bit of history, Eminem has faced leak issues in the past as well. Apart from the notable Encore situation back in the day, StudioLeaks ran amok in the early 2010s, releasing a handful of songs from (presumably) 2006-2008. This article in particular isn’t discussing these cases as they were different and happened a long time ago, but something relevant did happen during the StudioLeaks saga. During this particular time period a snippet for a Relapse-era song titled “Nut Up” was released. It wasn’t much, just an underwhelming hook and the beginning to an equally mediocre verse. Nothing much came of it and to most it was likely entirely forgotten; however, earlier this year a group of Eminem fans were presented the opportunity to purchase the entirety of “Nut Up.” Easily enticed by the idea, a group buy was organized through discord with rabid support from the r/Eminem subreddit and other general hip-hop forums. It was successful, at least in the sense that a bunch of entitled fanatics were able to raise several thousand dollars to steal a song from their own greatest of all time. This may have been slightly more excusable had it just been a one-off, unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case.

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Only a couple of months after the “Nut Up” group buy, a few other snippets were released to the public. Among these, a rather questionable song featuring Eminem on a Joyner Lucas cut rumored to be from the latter’s days with Atlantic. Subject matter aside, it was clearly not meant to have seen the light of day presently for one reason or the other. Whether that be due to an artistic choice, contract disputes, or that it was due for future release, can’t be said for certain, but what is undeniable is an Eminem Stan’s inability to leave well enough alone. Yet another group-buy was organized, setting a goal of $1500 to purchase the full version of the track. In an astonishingly short amount of time, pledges from the depressingly desperate and thirsty reached close to a grand. At the time of publication, the crowdfunding effort remains open and growing. All to rob someone else of their property.

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Honestly, it has long since ascended past the point of wack hyper-fans and grown into a legitimate issue.

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Another human’s art is not public property. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a fan, what their musical output has been like, how rich they are, or how tempting you find that forbidden fruit. Music is an immensely personal form of expression, and nobody is in the position to decide what gets released aside from the original creator. Flat out, bottom line, this type of behavior is unacceptable and it you call yourself a fan of an act while simultaneously jacking their work, you’re a scumbag. Appreciate what you’re given, and learn some respect for other people. If you spend all day posting on an Eminem subreddit and then turn around and contribute financially to theft of his product, what fucking thought process goes through your head to justify that? If it doesn’t amount to much more than “because I want it,” then all of us here would like to leave you with these few parting words: grow up, and support the artists you care about.

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This childish attitude needs to change.

A General Commentary on this Writing Thing

by Dustin

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Hey, hello. It’s been quite a while since Rajin or I have put together any semblance of writing for this website. To be exact, our last published article was all the way back in February of this year. Eight whole months have flown by in the meantime, and it’s been quite an adventure to say the least; however, it would also be inaccurate of me to blame our hiatus on life. To put it bluntly, I think we’ve both been extremely burnt out on the whole process of running the blog. While interacting with artists and shining light on their music never grew stale, maintaining relationships with readers and other writers quickly became as insufferable as humanly imaginable. Quite honestly, I think this particular set of annoyances needs to be aired out for a couple of reasons. Primarily because it irritates me and I feel like complaining, but additionally for the sake of anybody else thinking about starting a blog, podcast, or anything similar as a precautionary tale of some of the trash you’ll deal with.

It gets old.

I will say that although it’s easiest to point fingers at emotionally charged readers (which we’ll get to a little later), dealing with other bloggers and writers can be an experience akin to pulling teeth with no anesthetic. It’s not terribly uncommon to get approached by other bloggers interested in hosting you on their site for a review of a particular album. In concept, it’s pretty cool, music blogs aren’t as prominent as they once were and I do believe that we should support each other. In reality though, it doesn’t seem to work that way at all. For example, I spent a lot of time working on a review for another website only to be told I needed to make it “more positive,” even though that wouldn’t have been genuine to my thoughts. I refused to make the changes, and took my article here to release it on my own. The same guy proceeds to spend the next while alternating between asking me to collaborate “again”, and tagging us alongside every artist under the sun in Instagram and Twitter replies. Having never been involved with his shit in any way, being roped into the attention baiting was incredibly irritating. While I’m sure he had good intentions at heart, that’s not what we’re about and it’s just something none of us were okay with in practice. Mixing bigger problems like this with the standard group of people who want you to write their content for them rather than contribute your own style just absolutely killed the beauty that could be collaborative writing.

Shout out to MJC of FilthyBroke for following through hosting an article of mine at his blog when he was dabbling with it, though, you’ve always been an absolute pleasure to work with. Thanks for letting me be me.

Now, to the readers: I love most all of you from the bottom of my heart. If you’ve ever taken an interest in anything on this site, sent an email suggestion, contacted me on twitter, or any of that, then thank you. Aside from the artists, you make putting time and energy into this so very rewarding; however, a smaller but louder minority have some of the most volatile misplaced anger and musical insecurity, and I really think they need to check how they conduct themselves. Nobody should be sending death threats, defamation of character, slurs, or telling somebody to kill themselves over music discussions. It’s stupid to the point that it becomes more than a routine annoyance than anything serious, but it’s a huge drag. We’re chatting about hip-hop because we adore the genre and want to be able to share it with others in a fleshed out way. Even negative reviews and articles are written because one of us took enough interest in it to want to spend that time talking about it. It’s not an assault on individual taste, and nobody is trying to dictate what you can enjoy listening to. If having someone else validate your personal taste is important in your eyes, I would recommend you shop around until you find a publication that leans your way. It’s that simple, stop wasting your time harassing people on websites that are likely never going to make you happy. It isn’t going to change their content, and your opinions aren’t going to change their mind. What are you accomplishing, really?

I don’t have much else to say, so I’m going to cut myself off here. If you think you recognized your own behavior in this article, maybe reflect on it a bit. The people you’re talking to behind the monitor are people too. None of this is really that critical, but at the end of the day, paying a little more attention to conduct both as a blogger and as a reader can go a long way. Rajin, myself, and everyone here sat on the sidelines for quite a while trying to figure out how to proceed, and we’ve decided to keep it alive. At the same time, it’s going to be zero tolerance from this point onward for most of the nonsense discussed here. I really don’t have the energy for it anymore.

On a more positive note to end things: thank you for your patience, and we’re happy to be back.

Much love.

A Few Tips for Cleaner Musician Media Packages

by Dustin

pleasereviewmymusic — This is an exact quote from an email I received in March of 2018.

This is a topic I don’t see discussed too often, so I wanted to take a minute to talk about it here. As we preach, we really like to give small independent acts an opportunity to be spotlighted on Extraordinary Nobodies. Primarily because we love to be able to help provide coverage, but also due to the fact that smaller fan-bases tend to be more loyal readers. It’s just one of those situations that can work out to be mutually beneficial, and I know plenty of other blogs feel similarly; however, the internet being as open-ended as it is means there is a lot of noise in the music scene. Rarely will your music be stumbled upon randomly, rendering submissions to blogs and other publications invaluable. We love music submissions, yet it’s become fairly apparent to me that many have little clue how to present their art in a professional way. I thought maybe it would be helpful if I offered a few tips based on personal preference and experience, as an individual dealing with such emails on a weekly basis. They’re not overly challenging, simply a few minor things to consider when aiming to prepare a cleaner media package.

First and foremost, please remember to actually send your music in the email. I know that sounds stupidly obvious — and trust me, it should be — but in three years of operating this website, I’ve received seven different music submissions with no actual music submitted. No links, no attachments, nothing. It is basically impossible to take an artist seriously when this happens, sorry to say. If you realize you forgot though, don’t be too embarrassed to send another email. Accidents happen, we’re all humans here.

Ideally, you’re also going to want to provide a little information about yourself. This doesn’t have to be extremely personal if you’re looking to maintain some sort of anonymity, as many prefer to in this day and age. That being said, if you’re a new artist there is a good chance I am not going to be able to research anything about you. To be totally blunt, it makes it impossible to build an interesting introductory paragraph and I won’t even bother to pursue the music further at that point. Even just going as far as when you started making music, who your influences are, and what general region you’re from are more than enough to make you easier to write about. Only including a single line asking me to check your project out with nothing else is probably going to land you in the recycle bin rather than the folder of interest, just to be transparent.

In addition to the above, try not to force cockiness in your message. Confidence is great, but nearly every act to tell me “I’m one of the best young artists in my area, you don’t want to miss out on this insane hidden talent” has ended up being absolutely awful. I truly want you to believe in your abilities, but the ego-masturbation looks like overcompensation for subpar talent.

Social media is also an invaluable tool. I can’t really understate the importance of including the link to your socials in your media package. Even if we don’t get the chance to write about your music right away, we actively want to be able to keep up with your career. A few times I’ve had artists with impossible-to-search stage names (such as using their real name) send me quality music, leaving me unable to follow them in the future as they did not add any social media links. It’s frustrating and sort of off-putting. Obviously this is less important than a few other things I’ve spoken about, since some people don’t even use social media to begin with; however, if you do have accounts for your music persona, I would urge you severely to do so.

Many of us writing on independent blogs are doing this purely for the passion, just like you and your music. It’s a love that we pursue as a form of leisure, so I’m sure the demand for professionalism seems over the top to some extent. Honestly, that’s a fair perspective and I could understand anyone feeling that way upon reading this article. In the same breath, like you we run on limited time when it comes to content creation. We have jobs, family affairs, and outside responsibility constantly draining on our attention. While we want to be a platform for the DIY-at-heart, we simply cannot handle having to dig for information on every musician we want to cover. If you can take the extra time to teach us what we need to know, I have a lot of confidence you’ll be received more positively almost anywhere you submit. It’s your first line of connection, and I think it’s more than worth the effort to show you’re serious.

Final edit: Rajin – Additional direction: Isaac

Dustin’s 2018 Most Recommended Album List

by Dustin

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Being a fan of hip-hop in general, I find year end list season to be a particularly special level of hell. While most publications crank out relatively harmless and generic top tens with whatever charted best in the past twelve months, there’s always a few outlets that decide to get holier-than-thou about their opinions through numeric rankings. Case in point, my favorite aggressive group of travelling trend chasers, DJ Booth talking down to people for enjoying an Eminem album.

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Now, it obviously doesn’t matter if Kamikaze gets left off a top releases list, but it’s all in the presentation, right? If we’re going to play the taste-shaming game, I will take the opportunity to point out the fact that they’re up their own ass about a list that includes Drake’s Scorpion and Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy; however, just like them, that would be nothing more than dumping on others for enjoying things I don’t like. I suppose I just wanted to take a quick second to dig at DJ Booth for thinking their opinions hold any weight, when they’ve already proven to be more out of touch with rap than the artists they dub irrelevant. Maybe next year, you can put people onto some new things without desperately trying to stir up controversy-based discussion on Twitter. Given the level of quality control, I doubt it’ll happen, but I’m a dreamer.

At any rate I’m not going to rank my top albums this year, take this as more a list of recommendations that I see as an essential snapshot of hip-hop. Thirteen favorites which I feel strongly enough about to say, “you should give this a try.” No rankings, as I stand behind each and every one of these records as worth your time to a degree that I don’t need to quantify. 2018 was amazing, but this is my personal cream of the crop.

Blueprint – Two Headed Monster: I can never help but feel like Blueprint is one of the most chronically underrated artists in hip-hop. He’s been around forever, standing alongside artists in the Definitive Jux and Rhymesayers camps since their haydays. To make things better he seems to only improve with age, and is perhaps one of the most thoughtful craftsmen in the genre. Two Headed Monster carried the spirit of acts such as A Tribe Called Quest in the most respectful way I’ve ever heard. It clearly pulled from that era, but it was handled with such care that it ended up like a heartfelt tribute to rap music. Front to back nothing stands out or steals the spotlight, yet still it was impossible to walk away from without feeling insanely happy. An album for the head-at-heart that avoided being condescending.

LARS – Last American Rockstars: The first wish fulfillment I received this year was seeing The Davidians finally materialize. See, back in the mid-2000s King Gordy and Bizarre formed a group under that name. Being heavily into Detroit rap at the time and a big King Gordy fan, I spent forever waiting for a release. After a bit of time, I started to assume the project had met the same fate as Detox and Jon Connor’s Aftermath debut. I was however, wrong (which will become a bit of a trend on this list) and the pair’s LARS rebrand started work under Majik Ninja Entertainment. The album ended up being an absolute bombastic joy. I can only really summarize it as having been a rollercoaster of debauchery that I never wanted to get off. If you want to read a little more about it, I wrote a review of this one. It was certainly a unique beast.

Eminem – Kamikaze: I’m sure there is going to be a faction of readers who will absolutely loathe the fact that I have placed this album on my 2018 most-recommended list, and that’s okay. Fortunately for me, this is my list and not yours. To me, Kamikaze was the first Eminem album to feel like an actual Eminem album since Encore (which was pretty weak). He sounded larger than life, angry, and immature in the way that made his music so engaging over a decade ago. While I’ve seen it be panned for lacking “emotionally mature” content, I felt as though the route of violent braggadocio taken worked out for the best. If I’m being honest, Eminem’s dramatic gut spilling of personal issues had long been majorly played out for me. I was refreshed simply to hear him rapping with a big personality on top of enjoyable production. I found the critical reception of Kamikaze to be an unfortunate byproduct of the perception that Eminem is “lame” to praise or enjoy, at least in comparison to my experience. I had all but given up on him after the dumpster-fire that was Revival, but this was actually quite a pleasant effort.

Hermit & The Recluse – Orpheus vs. Sirens: Ka has been a favourite of mine since his 2013 release The Night’s Gambit. I was quickly tantalized by his scripturesque lyrical style, and how it was built upon with distinctive and often drumless production. When he unveiled “Hermit & The Recluse” as a project with producer Animoss, it seemed like a match made in heaven. If you’re familiar with Ka at all, Orpheus vs. Sirens really wasn’t far removed from what you would expect. It fell a little short of Honor Killed the Samurai (and perhaps even Days with Dr. Yen Lo) for me, but it was for all intents and purposes a splendid piece of art. I’m sure this sounds as if I’m dismissing it as “more of the same,” but when you have the track record of consistency Ka has, that’s far from a negative.

Royce da 5’9” – Book of Ryan: Rajin and I both avoided writing a review for Book of Ryan, even though we loved it; given the highly personal nature of the subject matter, it didn’t feel right to dissect. I stand by that decision. Book of Ryan was more of an audio confessional with Royce da 5’9” opening up about the darkest and most private aspects of life. I could see this being an album that not everybody will enjoy, as it lacked any sort of pace or energy. This wasn’t an issue for me though, and those who enjoy melancholic introspection will likely really vibe with the atmosphere and vulnerability.

Knowledge the Pirate – Flintlock: Knowledge the Pirate — a long standing associate of Roc Marciano — created what was probably the most old-school east coast flavoured rap record this year. Flintlock was no-frills, no excessive flair, and perhaps slightly one dimensional; however, none of this held it back from being downright fantastic. From front to back his debut release gripped the part of me that grew up on grimey 90s music. If that sentence could also describe your lineage in hip-hop fandom, you should definitely pick up this one up as soon as possible.

Roc Marciano – Behold a Dark Horse: Admittedly, I was not huge on Rosebudd’s Revenge 2: The Bitter Dose when it released. I felt it to be a little too minimalistic, and a sequel that didn’t live up to my enjoyment of the original (though Rajin disagrees with me entirely on that). With that in mind, I was genuinely a little conflicted when Roc Marciano announced Behold a Dark Horse as his second major drop set for 2018. I was, unsurprisingly, very incorrect in my hesitance once again. Behold a Dark Horse ended up a fantastic display of off-kilter bold production, and Roc Marci at his weirdest and most energetic. In the future, this album will likely remain near the top of his discography for me. It had every single trait that I felt the second Rosebudd’s Revenge lacked, and was ultimately and extremely satisfying listen.

Black Milk – FEVER: I view Black Milk as a gigantic talent, and one of a small handful of artists I am comfortable pre-ordering new music from. I had truly unfairly high expectations for the follow up to If There’s a Hell Below, yet somehow he surpassed my hopes. FEVER was a luscious and beautifully smooth progression of the jazzy sound Black Milk toyed with on the Nat Turner collaborative LP The Rebellion Sessions. I feel as if this album never really received the attention it should have, likely due to coming out at the very beginning of a well saturated calendar year. If you did happen to miss FEVER, give it a chance. I think it has the potential to appeal to a wide variety of fandoms, while being challenging enough to please even the snobbiest of alternative music nerds.

ANKHLEJOHN & Big Ghost Ltd. – Van Ghost: On the lead up to June 18th, Van Ghost was probably my most anticipated drop of 2018. Ankhlejohn was on a furious hot-streak of quality tapes, and Big Ghost was showing to be a rising star in the modern boom-bap circle. Having them come together felt no less than a recipe for success, and it was. The Van Gogh-inspired Van Ghost was dark and gnarly, but with a distinct undertone of delicacy. It was anghellic in ways, but not afraid to kick the listeners ass when confronted with unpleasant reality. I really cannot recommend this enough, nor can I properly word just how wild it was stylistically. I can, however, promise that Van Ghost will not let you down.

Denzel Curry – TA13OO: Denzel Curry is one of those rappers who’s seemed on the cusp of dropping a individual masterpiece since his career launched. 2016’s Imperial came close, but this was the year it fully came to fruition. TA13OO saw Denzel finally apply his wonderful toolkit and raw skill to a well thought out concept, and it was gorgeous. I might even go as far as saying that TA13OO will be looked back on as the definitive record of its scene. I did review it, but it’s an album that you need to hear for yourself to appreciate properly. Whether you’re a fan of the old-school or the new generation, it would be a disservice to your ears to not give it a fair shake. It was phenomenal.

Daniel Son x Asun Eastwood x Futurewave – Physics of Filth: A little earlier this year I discovered Asun Eastwood’s project Hollywood Briggs from 2017, and gave it a spin with Rajin. We were mutually impressed, to the point that I ended up ordering the CD version of the release; however, the tracks featuring Daniel Son really stood out. His presence pushed Asun to elevate himself to unbelievable heights, leading to spectacular toe-to-toe rapping. Immediately we began to talk about how hyped we would be for them to form a duo. As it turns out, we would get our wish and then some. The duo formed a trio with super-producer Futurewave (more on him in the next blurb), and released one of the nastiest barrages of hip-hop I’ve listened to recently. For anybody hungry for more grit in the modern rap scene, this album is for you.

Daniel Son & Futurewave – Pressure Cooker: The second consecutive entry on this list for both Daniel Son and Futurewave, and an absolute monster of a record. Rajin reviewed this one already, and he said a lot more than I’m going to be able to in this format so I recommend giving that a read. What I will say though is that Pressure Cooker is the result of an emcee firing at all cylinders alongside a highly skilled producer with a clear vision of soundscape. Much like the works of duos such as Eric B. and Rakim or earlier Atmosphere the chemistry on display was almost unfair, resulting in a nearly flawless end product. If you dig the Roc Marciano lane, but want something with more snarl, Pressure Cooker is likely the perfect choice. Don’t get it mistaken though, Daniel is far from being another Roc clone. He is a breed of his own, and Futurewave has the chops to match.

Shad – A Short Story About a War: The only way I know how to properly express my adoration of A Short Story About a War, is to say that attempting to review it in the light it deserves sent me into an awful writers block spiral for several weeks. I could not find the words to capture just how incredible it was, and felt as if anything I could write would still misrepresent it to the reader. This album is not only musically enjoyable, but the heavy themes and ideas it carried were presented with a perfect balance of delicate tact and reality grounding shock. Seriously, if you’re a music writer who maintains the opinion that hip-hop lacks “content” currently, get your head out of your backside and look a little harder. In my opinion, one of the best social-political rooted albums of all time dropped this year, and you have missed out by not doing your due diligence. It nearly killed this website by being too good, and that’s coming from an immensely stubborn human. I wish I was kidding.

To conclude my 2018 list of recommended hip-hop records, I’d like to thank a few people. First and foremost, thank you to Rajin and Emily for their contributions to Extraordinary Nobodies. We all had a rough stretch in terms of activity, but I am extremely proud of what we did accomplish. Additionally, I’d like to shout out my friend Isaac for regularly offering me feedback on articles. Thank you to Michael (of FilthyBroke Recordings), Ramon (also known as MCrv), and Ben for listening to me vent multiple times about difficulties balancing life and writing. To all the artists who we featured in some form or another, thank you for doing what you do and giving us a reason to write. Finally, a massive thank you to everyone who has supported Extraordinary Nobodies in 2018 and years prior. We’re an artists-first site, and knowing people appreciate that is beyond special. Let’s hope for another strong year of hip-hop in 2019. We can’t wait.

Album Review: City Morgue – CITY MORGUE VOL 1: HELL OR HIGH WATER

by Dustin

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7.5/10

Though time has seen the gradual erosion of definitive regional sounds within the landscape hip-hop, New York has always seemed to exist on the cutting edge. The state has produced some of the sharpest and most unique artists, each carrying the drive to lay claim to their slice of the east’s illustrious history. The results of this progressive spirit have been, at times, shockingly unpredictable. Case in point: City Morgue. Formed by ZillaKami and SosMula, the enigmatic duo wasted little time in working to establish themselves. Armed with the production talents of THRAXX, they began working on music a mere three days after SosMula’s release from prison. Ultimately City Morgue landed on a hyper-aggressive punk and metal inspired sound and dropped a couple of singles notable for their extremely explicit lyrics and controversial videos. This, along with ZillaKami’s impressive feature on Denzel Curry’s TA13OO album, garnered a good deal of attention for the group. A full-length project to capitalize seemed inevitable, and it came in the form of CITY MORGUE VOL. 1: HELL OR HIGH WATER on October 12th.

Absolute facemelter.

While it became apparent from the early stages of City Morgue that the bulk of both ZillaKami and SosMula’s appeal would be in their energy, they did make this project lyrically interesting. As expected, their writing throughout was graphic and often painted a picture of an extremely gruesome lifestyle. Whether it was drugs, murder, gunplay, or physical violence, there were no punches pulled; moreover, in spite of the fact that HELL OR HIGH WATER never went full blown horrorcore, it did blur the line between reality and fiction just enough to make it pleasantly uncomfortable. Both artists had such a degree of conviction behind their vocals that it made even the most outlandish lines seem believable. It truly felt like a rap snuff film at times. On top of that, they played off of each other’s styles incredibly well for such a young group. ZillaKami’s rock inspired semi-melodic scream rap was balanced out perfectly by SosMula’s much more traditional hip-hop grounding. At surface level, it would have been easy to declare Zilla the standout on most tracks due to his impressive hooks and loud delivery, but the release would not have worked nearly as well without his counterpart. Additionally, they created a dynamic in which both had ample opportunity to shine. Occasionally one member would contribute to a song in a much smaller role, such as providing a refrain, to allow the other a solo moment under the spotlight. Good chemistry is an important intangible for any group or collective, and City Morgue proved rather quickly that they have it. It elevated the entire listen, turning what could have been a bland assortment of bangers into a wildly fun slugfest of dissipated living.

The aforementioned THRAXX provided the bulk of HELL OR HIGH WATER’s production, with Ronny J tagging along for spot duty. The instrumentals could have easily been described using only the words loud and angry, sounding more like something out of Florida’s underground scene than New York. Featuring distorted guitars atop of heavily bassy trap, there was a certain industrial flavor to this album which fit the prevailing themes quite well. Matching ZillaKami and SosMula’s relentless rage fueled vigor was no issue; however, where the production did lack was in its range. There were definitely standout tracks instrumentally — “Gravehop187,” “So What,” and “SHINNERS13” in particular were monstrously hard hitting — but a lot of the deeper cuts sounded very similar despite being consistently solid. This didn’t hurt the listening experience per se, but some variation may have allowed for the more notably truculent songs to be more impactful. That being said, a debut project having had no blatantly bad beats was rather special in itself regardless of any nitpicking.

Laying the foundation for a new wave in a genre as fluid as hip-hop is never an easy task, but City Morgue did admirably with their freshman effort. Openly admitting in their “The Way Out” documentary with Mass Appeal that their sound is “a work in progress,” the potential for growth within the group was palpable. What was really astonishing though, was their ability to a bring an accessible familiarity while still being a breath of fresh air. For example, some of the SosMula focused moments on this album harkened back to early Three 6 Mafia, yet they were different enough that it felt entirely new. The lack of variety was noticeable and problematic to a degree, but it didn’t totally take away from what was accomplished here as far as instituting a groundwork. They’re self-aware artists, and it’s evident in the way they speak that they know this was the starting point and not the finish line. City Morgue’s genuine ambitious nature and confidence may just make them a force to be reckoned eventually. They may not be there quite yet, but HELL OR HIGH WATER was very much a best foot being put forward.

PopCulturePirates Gives Raw Perspective on Music, “The Creative Scene,” and Growth as an Artist

by Dustin

pcp

It’s impossible to not feel excited when meeting an artist with a clear passion for music. No lust for popularity, just a burning desire to be the best they can be. PopCulturePirates is one of those people, and a candid human to speak with. Pulling no punches with his perspective, it was a thrill to be able to interview PCP. We won’t hold you up on introductions, though, as this interview has been delayed enough as it is. Let’s jump straight to the meat.

EN: First and foremost, thank you for being a part of this! We have a bit of a tradition in interviews. We always start with asking the artist to write a little about themselves, because it’s always more genuine than anything I could ever write. So, if you don’t mind, that’s what I’m going to ask of you to kick things off.

PopCulturePirates: About myself? Hmm… I don’t tend to talk about myself often. Let’s see… I was born in South America. I currently reside in Dallas, Texas. I picked up guitar after graduating high school. I don’t really know what else to say without guided questions [laughs].

EN: [Laughs] We’ll just jump into it then! You mentioned to me prior to the interview that you are a part of a band as well, but what made you interested in starting the Pop Culture Pirates side project? Was it just a desire to explore different avenues?

PCP: Actually PopCulturePirates has always been my project since I began learning to write music. My band came together fairly recently, in relation to my solo project. If anything, you could probably get away with saying my other band is my side project (but not really). My writing started to be more directed towards what I would want to see live. Which is where the band came in. I wanted to be in a band all my life (even when I was still too lazy to even dedicate time to learning guitar). However, I started to learn to do everything on my own because when I actually wanted to join friends and other people’s bands, I would get rejected because of my lack of talent.

So, it was sort of a “I’ll show them, they’ll see. l can make music too.” Kind of thing. But the actual band, being part of a group of tight friends and playing music and hanging out afterwards, that was always sort of the dream. But with more people, more bodies and hearts, come more voices, more opinions, and more bullshit. So any writing that wasn’t generally accepted, or didn’t follow the band’s sound, I would keep in the backseat and develop those ideas whenever I had time.

EN: Do you feel that having the PopCulturePirates project in your back pocket from the very beginning helped your development a lot as an artist? Because it sounds like, since you were never forced to prematurely abandon an idea, that you were able to grow a lot more naturally and freely.

PCP: Even though PCP is my “solo” project, that really is just the identifying label I slap on anything I make that is somewhat guitar driven. So, to answer that question, yes, I think being Solo from the beginning allowed me to really explore anything I wanted and absorb everything I came in contact with, and make it my own instead of trying to mold it to fit any limiting “project” I could’ve been a part of.

EN: Right. So, instead of being like some side projects that have a clean cut distinct sound removed from the artists other works (like The ILYs are to Death Grips), PCP is more of a sonic scrapbook of ideas you didn’t want to throw away? I say side projects very loosely at this point, since you clarified earlier. I just can’t think of a better word.

PCP: I would flip the table and say PCP is my music and the band is my “group” project. But for the sake of not sounding pretentious, let’s just keep referring to PCP as my solo project. Also, I really enjoy Death Grips. There’s a couple bands that just ignite inspiration in me, and that’s one of them.

Anyway, I am constantly writing music, like all the time, not even joking. Some people might think I’m trying to sound like “oh look at me I got music coming out of my hands, and feet, and kisses” (Julian Casablancas reference, by the way) and some people might think, “that’s just sad, mediocre music is all this guy can do? Pathetic.” But whatever the people’s thoughts are, the fact it I am always constantly writing melodies and lyrics and stuff. I’ve got over 11GB of demos and snippets I’ve recorded and have backed up. So it’s not really like a scrapbook, it’s more like I’m sort of rationing out my creative output.

At one point the band was all that I was writing for, but the progress of four people learning songs and getting them tighter can only go so fast and agreeing on changes and ideas. I became frustrated (not in a bad way, i just felt like I had to keep going) so I went back to writing for myself (PCP).

Oh, man, it’s really not my intention to sound like a pretentious piece of shit. I want everyone that might read this to know what I aware of my creative capabilities, I know I’m not that good making music. Or, I don’t think I am, but I am constantly getting better and one day I will be great. And then maybe I will be a pretentious asshole, when I have the skills and discography to back it up [jokingly anxious laughter]!

EN: [Laughs] don’t sell yourself short either. On that note though, do you think the current DIY scene is the perfect sort of environment for an artist like yourself? There’s such a fascination with eclectic, homemade, music. And the stuff you release under the PCP banner definitely fits that. Whereas I think some time ago, it may have been harder to have that freedom.

PCP: I think for the laymen, or just casual listeners, it’s great. There’s so much variety, so much content, they’re happy to be thrown all this cool music. Today everybody is a musician and everybody is a producer. Like the lyrics on my single Everything Is Forever say: “…Everyone with a pen is a poet, and everyone with a canvas is an artist…” Anybody with a laptop can make a shitty recording and people go wild. I don’t know if I’m happy to fit in there, to be honest. If I could make way better sounding music I would. I would love to be writing for or working with huge bands like the 1975 (I’m not a big fan of them) or Arctic Monkeys, but instead I’m making weird Lofi diy indie pop goodness. But I’m hoping to get better. I do think my material gets more and more refined the more I do it. Maybe I’m just a slow learner.

But nonetheless, i am grateful and blessed to have received the attention I have. I am very thankful to people like you, taking the time to actually listen and recognize the work I put into what I do. And yes, now that that Lofi sound is what’s sort of “in” I am able to receive such positive response. In the past it would’ve probably been met with, “you sound like you just recorded through an 8-track, what are you doing with your life? Making the wrong choices obviously.” But I recognize I do have to thank the current DIY Lofi global phenomenon for even making it possible for me to reach as far as I have. I might not even be making music today if it wasn’t for it, i probably would’ve given up long, long, ago.

EN: I definitely understand what you mean, and unfortunately I think there is a crowd that uses that LoFi sound as a crutch. That being said, I think my interest in it is less as an aesthetic and more with the people in your sort of situation. Where it’s not LoFi for the sake of being LoFi, but it’s that way for the sake of actually being able to release music. I think there’s something beautifully genuine about that sort of never quit attitude. You know what I mean? Like, I would argue even acts like The Voidz carry that sort of spirit into more refined places. It’s not limited to LoFi.

PCP: I think Julian’s work has always carried that sort of grittiness, aside from his first solo and his Daft Punk collab. He has always tried to push that outlier music to the forefront. I guess Lofi can translate in many cases to rawness, which that in itself can translate to pure emotion through various states of sonic synthesis haha. I don’t know. I think you’re right. I think Lofi is a phase and it’s more important when it becomes forgotten and moved away from. It makes it so much more important. If you’re a lofi artist and all you do is lofi, i think that’s kind of dumb and takes away from it. Lofi is like the birth sound of one’s musicianship. It defines your beginnings, but if you’re doing Lofi because that’s what’s popular now, I feel it blurs the lines of what Lofi could mean in a musicians career.

I don’t know. I think I might be contradicting myself and talking out my butt. I think Lofi, like indie, shouldn’t be recognized as a genre.

EN: You think it’s more of a state of being? Like how you wouldn’t consider “clean studio recording,” a genre. It’s a trait of the music but not a genre.

PCP: That’s pretty much it. But I’m not mad about it, I just feel like that’s what it is to me. It’s all subjective I suppose.

EN: But, you would prefer if people took the nature of your sound as a reflection of where your career is and less as a reflection of what kind of music you’re trying to make. Would that be accurate? Say, in ten years. You’d rather look back on it like “these demos showed a lot of promise even though I didn’t have full studio access,” than “I used to be a lofi artist.”

PCP: Yes. But they would be demos really, they were final products that reflected my mental state, my physical skills, my financial level, etc. For everybody else it’s just a song but I guess for my it would be like “diary.” They would **not** be demos really. Like if you keep a diary, and you started when you were little and wrote on a crappy notebook; when you look back, it wouldn’t just be about what you wrote,It would also be the feel of that sheet of paper to the touch, the smell of it, the way it crumpled up, the teardrops, or blood stains, or food droplets, or anything and everything on it, it brings you back to that moment. You can “digitize” it and copy it into Microsoft word to save it forever and it would have the same legible content, but it loses the importance of what that original object was.

EN: I’m kind of understand more what you said earlier now. When you make LoFi a genre, it strips a bit of the intimacy the artist has with those older projects away. Right?

PCP: I think so, but pop culture takes anything it wants whenever it wants it. And this is not only evident with the topic we’re on but a lot of other things going on in the world that I’d rather not delve into.

EN: Is that sort of sentiment where the name PopCulturePirates came from?

PCP: Yeah, sort of. It’s like going against pop culture, being an outsider… Culture is so much bigger than just music and fashion. But that’s the theory, not the practice. I wish I would’ve been more strict with the ethos the moniker carries with it, but I ended up making music that could be considered “pop” right now anyway. Now I’m going against myself, and what my moniker stood for. I was younger and wanted to make something that would be huge, bigger than myself. Something that could mean something philosophically, politically, socially, that people could relate to. But it never got to that, I was never able to get to that point. I think I was simply limited by my most basic musician skills. And I just couldn’t create something that big. But I’m not mad nor disappointed, it’s just a little embarrassing admitting that, but beyond that, it’s whatever.

EN: I think the name is one of those things that’s vague enough to move past your original intentions though. Don’t you think there’s a lot of potential there for listeners to interpret it in various ways?

PCP: There is, but people don’t really pay any attention to the names. I feel even musicians at this point don’t even care about the names either. Porches? Bleachers? Quilt? Even Car Seat Headrest (I’ve read the reason behind the name, but still). Those are all stupid-ass names in my honest opinion, but I love all those bands. Except Bleachers… Bleachers is “meh” to me. But Porches is amazing. Car Seat’s song “Vincent” is my latest favorite song. Quilt blew my mind the first time I heard them. But people might think that of PCP too, it has 3 very “evoking” words. I’ve been trying to push my single to a few people, and some reactions to just the name have been “that name really turned me off, I almost didn’t listen to it because of the name.” At the same time some others say that it was a great name choice, as it makes you guess what direction it’s going to go, as opposed to naming the project something mundane like “Chair.” I have no fucking idea what that means, nothing comes to mind if someone would mention a band called “Chair,” you know? But with PCP I feel like those 3 words in different combinations call to mind very different things. I realize that the “pirates” could make people think of hard punk or gypsy folk. But nonetheless, I like the name, it meant something at one point, it’s catchy, and interesting. A bit original. At least I think so.

Though, now that I think about it. “Chair” would be a very interesting name. Poking fun at all the stupid names out there right now. Might make it an album name at some point.

EN: At the end of the day though, you want the music to speak for itself, yeah?

PCP: I’m sure everyone would agree to that, yes.

EN: We touched a bit on a few acts that inspired you, but who else did you listen to that really made you want to be involved in creating music? Inspirations, so to speak.

PCP: I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but The Strokes were the ones that made me go, “hmm… that’s cool. I wanna try doing that.” I hate admitting that because I feel they inspired pretty much everyone who listened to them, sort of what they say about The Velvet Underground. They might’ve not been as commercially successful, but every single person that heard them went home and started a band. They were very influential. That’s where the “dream” of starting a band came from, after watching their first tour documentary, “In Transit.” They looked like they really loved one another and they were brothers and best friends conquering the world together. That shit was beautiful to me. That’s what I wanted. But finding a band was very hard so I ended up just honing in on “solo” songwriting, because that’s all I could do and wanted to do, at that point.

Other than The Strokes, I would say John Mayer really got me into exploring more complex guitar playing and into a little bit of blues. Blues is cool and all, and I respect it for what it is, but you can play any combination of notes in a blues scale and it will sound good. That makes it too easy and dull to me. There’s many obvious musicians and bands that made a career out of the blues, but I feel like now it’s just a learning phase. “Okay I learned to play bars, chords, and all. Now I will learn the blues scale, and then proceed to jazz music theory, and so on.” You know what I mean? I feel like I totally deviated to talk shit about the blues, but no disrespect, blues is the foundation. I love it, but I want more.

Other than that… I had a big Dave Matthews Band phase. That would be all I would listen to for like 6 months straight. His guitar playing was pretty influential. I still warm up by playing the “Satellite” riff which really makes your fingers stretch. Another band that really influenced me was an Argentinian band called Soda Stereo. I grew up with their album playing in the background pretty much 24/7.

EN: We’ve had Julian Casablancas come up a few times now, and reflecting on what you said, I have even had people in other genres mention him to me before. Aside from the brotherhood element of watching The Strokes, do you think his magnetic artistry just pulls people into music? Like for myself, I always looked up to him as someone unrestrained. It was refreshing.

PCP: I really dislike talking about The Strokes because it’s so unoriginal to do so. It feels like everyone is just in on the Strokes band wagon. I know that’s not the case, they are in fact THAT influential. They all have that rock and roll swagger. And Albert Hammond Jr., his first two albums are amazing, he is a great songwriter. But I feel like he kind of fell off with his third releases up until this last one. His last album, Francis Trouble, it’s really, really, good. And I just saw him live about a month ago. I was blown away at his stage presence, the sound, and the songs. But I could talk about them for days, but I’d rather not. Citing them as inspiration is overdone and uninteresting in my opinion. I’d rather say something like… Grimes totally inspired me to be a little weirder with my music. I actually have had a crush on grimes for a bit. And now she’s dating Elon musk. That blows my mind. I can’t compete with that. That was the whole reason I really started doing music. So I would seem cool to her and we could hang out and stuff, y’know? Now I can’t do that. How do you top Elon musk? You don’t. You can’t.

EN: So, you’d totally support a Grimes song being the national anthem of the first Mars settlement, even if she doesn’t notice you and fall in love? [Laughs].

PCP: I’m 100% on board with that. But I’d rather, you know, be noticed? Maybe co-write the anthem? With Elon’s approval obviously, I wouldn’t do anyone dirty like that. ‘Specially my boy, Elon. By that point in history he might already have developed a personal travel size death ray and is willing to use it on anyone who opposes him or gives his girl the googly eyes (for example: me).

EN: Let’s talk about Everything is Forever for a minute, because to me that song feels like you really took a massive leap in all artistic facets. Like, don’t get me wrong, I adore Death, The Kid. There’s just something about Everything is Forever that feels so complete… How do you feel about that track? Do you think it marks a new step forward in your songwriting?

PCP: To be honest, “Death, The Kid.” Is a step down from “Kanye” because “Death” was just a collection of demos going as far back as 2010 that I uploaded because it hadn’t been a productive year for my music. I didn’t really have much to show, so I decided to just upload this collection of old tracks. Aside from the two new songs I wrote that year which were Bad Luck and Kirito’s Dream. You can probably see more of a relation between those two and Everything Is Forever.

But I do like Everything Is Forever very much. I don’t think it’s too much of a leap for my style. But I do love the clash I was able to manage between very refined, Hi-fi guitars and cymbals against the lo-fi kick, snare, and vocals. The repetitive ending I initially intended on extending it for over a minute longer to emphasize the “Forever.” As in to make people say “damn, this part lasts forever” and then recognize that and the relation to the title of the song and be like “oh shit! I get it!” But then I thought to myself, nobody would probably pay that much attention to it. So I kept it shorter, but still kind of long and repetitive. But I don’t think it’s necessarily a new step, I think if anything I might’ve kept the songwriting on a leash a bit. I’ve been slowly finding out that, as cliche as it sounds, less is more. But then I went in and threw shit on its head by keeping that out-of-left-field outro.
There’s a song on the album coming out called “Where Is The Destruction,” and another called “Medallion City,” I feel like both of those challenged my songwriting a little more than EIF, each in its own way. Though, Everything Is Forever is a very emotional song, nostalgic summer vibe, sad crushing lyrics, the energy gets carried through in a very flowing fashion with its arrangement. It’s interesting. I like it. I’m proud of it.

EN: Apart from the other couple of songs you mentioned, does your new album carry that nostalgic vibe throughout? Or is it more varied?

PCP: It definitely has more variation.

EN: Does your musical process change at all when you know that you’re working on songs intended to be released on an album? I ask because I tend to get mixed answers to this, and it’s interesting. Some seem to feel their process becomes more intensive, others say it doesn’t change at all.

PCP: Not really. Usually I just write and write songs, when I have about… I don’t know, 7-11 good songs (which are usually picked from maybe 20 or so) I then “package” them as an album. For this last album though, I was approached by Breakwood Records (sweethearts) and they heard Everything Is Forever and decided to help me put out the next album. We sort of agreed on an imaginary deadline for me to provide all the songs for the LP. I ended up writing about 6 of the songs from it in like three months maybe. I did think it was going to become more intensive as I had never had any sort of “pressure” to finish songs but all that changed was me making more time in my day to day life to write music. That was it really, other than that it was sort of the same.

EN: How do you feel about doing something with a label? That’s super cool. And also, I should say, congratulations! Even with the internet, getting noticed like that is no small feat.

PCP: They’re a small independent label from Canada that just began, they’re the coolest and sweetest. But to be honest the coolest thing about it is not really being able to say “oh look at me, I’m on a label,” but instead having people that really, really, listen to my material and are critical, and honest, and interested in my music. They believe in what I do, and that honestly is a beautiful feeling.

EN: I can understand that, that’s a great attitude to carry into it. Nobody will show you more support than an independent label that loves you, and I truly believe that. On a funnier note, I am also from Canada. How does it feel to have a strange destiny bond with the Canadian music scene? [Laughs].

PCP: Dudeeeee, to be honest it’s awesome. I’m starting to feel like Toronto is replacing New York as the music city to be in, in my mind. Plus, some of my favorite musicians are from there: Dirty Beaches, Crystal Castles, Broken Social scene, Metric, and so on. And of course, who can forget, Grimes.

EN: If you had the chance to form a band composed of any living musician, who would you have in there?

PCP: If I could I would clone myself and play in a band with 4 or 5 me’s. Because anybody I would pick is probably going to be way more skilled than me, to the point where I would be the weakest link. But with 5 me’s, we all would be on the same level of everything and on the same page, plus no egos because it’s really just me, you know?

EN: You’re smart. You’re really smart. You avoided Meg White-ing yourself entirely with one of the most unconventional answers I’ve ever received. Good man [laughs]. But actually, that’s got me thinking. You said earlier that you started by learning guitar, but what was the process like learning other instruments in order to complete full songs? It’s not easy to learn multiple instruments, never mind learning how to properly work them into a piece of music.

PCP: In high school everybody had to pick an instrument, I picked drums. The instructors said all the drummer spots were taken, so I chose saxophone, they said those were taken too so they put me with trumpet. I hated trumpet then. I appreciate it now. But I don’t play it anymore. Guitar… it’s a weird story. My mother was in a band and she always had a guitar in the house I would pick it up for 3 days every 3 months and decide I wanted to learn. I never did. I got instructors that I’d go to once and never again because they would send homework and I’d rather just play The Legend of Zelda. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school where I was like, “alright, let’s do this.”

On bass I get by with just what I know on guitar. And drums I learned because one of my roommates in the college dorms mentioned he used to play drums and had an electronic drum kit. I showed a song i had done and tried to convince him that we could totally start a band so that he would bring the kit to our dorm. He eventually did and that’s where I started learning how to drum. I would often skip classes if he had already left just so I could play. Since they were electronic drums nobody would complain. It was awesome. Drums are the funnest instrument but also the hardest to learn in my opinion. I have good timing but syncing your movements, that was tough. I learned by playing along to LCD Soundsystem songs. Because the drumming isn’t overly complicated but it goes, it goes, it goes, guillotineeeee [laughs]. The drummer on LCD just keeps the beat for all the 7 plus minute songs. I love LCD, man, one of. My favorites. James’ urban poetry destroys me emotionally.

EN: Are there any others you want to add to your arsenal in the future? Maybe throw a flute solo on a PCP track in the future? Or…like, bassoon?

PCP: I have a deep fascination for sampling and the way hip hop music is and has been constructed. I will incorporate that probably into my upcoming songwriting. So instead of learning an instrument, I would most likely sample it and make it weird. But if I definitely had to choose an instrument to learn. I’d probably say violin. That instrument is so beautiful and versatile.

EN: Have you ever watched some of the artists who do live sampling on stage with an MPC, or whatever? Some of those dudes turn that into an extremely delicate art. How’d you pick up an interest in the art of the sample?

PCP: I have another project where I make experimental “beats” that I lease to small rappers. A lot of my money for gear has come from that. My love for sampling came from having an obsession with New York producer, Blockhead. He is one of my all time favorite producers. Dan the Automator too.

Aarabmuzik is a freakin’ god using an MPC live. His finger drumming is almost mathematically quantized. He’s crazy.

EN: Is there anything you fear musically? For yourself, I mean. A direction or attitude that you hope you never start to take on.

PCP: I fear running out of ideas. Of good ideas. Sometimes when I don’t write music for a while, when I come back to it it’s as if I forgot how to write songs, so I go through a couple ideas which end up in the trash because they sound terrible and I get a little fearful thinking “maybe that’s it, maybe I’ll never write anything decent again, I’m all washed up.” It sounds dumb, but that’s something crosses my mind often.

EN: What sort of advice would you give to others who’ve felt that way? I know when I’m working on my music projects, it’s a regular fear of my own too. Hell, Rajin (my other writer) has watched me have near meltdowns thinking I’ve lost my touch. What do you do to move past that worry? Just keep grinding?

PCP: As cliche as it sounds, yeah. Just keep doing it until you either find your next good idea or until you truly can’t find anything else and give up. But the latter should be if you’ve been going at it for like a year maybe? And nothing comes out, then maybe then you’re all dried. Or maybe not. I don’t know [laughs].

EN: In all seriousness though, do you find breaks from writing music to be essential to the creative process?

PCP: I think sometimes you do need breaks physically, specially after hours and hours of writing, or mixing. Your ears get shot and you stop hearing things as they actually are. Your ears get tired. But maybe you do need to let that “creativity bank” refill every now and then. So I guess short answer: yes.

Also, if anybody has any other advice as to how to deal with the fear of drying up, hit me up. There should be a better way to deal with that which I haven’t yet learned.

EN: Is there anything that you have learned along the way that you wish you had known when you first started writing music?

PCP: The actual process of learning all I know, however long it took, that’s part of the whole artist thing. If I knew then what I knew now, the journey of becoming a musician would not be as exciting and accomplishing. I honestly hate referring to myself as a musician or an artist, I feel it is very pretentious. Not to give a smart ass answer, but truly looking back, I wouldn’t share any information with myself. I would watch myself go through all of it all over again. Over the same mistakes I went through and through the same victories I had.

Although maybe having the contact information of a few people earlier on would have helped [laughs].

EN: So you’d leave a little book of phone numbers and emails, but still let yourself experience those natural growing pains? [Laughs]. I don’t think that’s smartass at all. Every struggle, every misstep, everything makes you who you are as an artist now.

PCP: Yeah, I guess. Not to get philosophical or anything, but yeah, every pain you experience makes you who you are today. So every hassle and hurdle with respect to music would make you the music maker you are today.

EN: What should people expect from you as an artist in the future in terms of releases? I know you said you were working on an album to come out under the PCP handle. Any plans for a band album release sometime?

PCP: With the band we’re actually recording at the moment. When you asked me if there was anything I had learned that I wish I would’ve know. In the beginning, I was tracking vocals at that exact time. I remember pulling my phone out and seeing your question while singing. I don’t think people shouldn’t expect anything from me. But I hope to be able to just improve and put out better and better material.

EN: And is that how you would like people to think of you? An artist with humility, but also a burning desire to continue improving every day?

PCP: Not really. Maybe in the long run, after I die, it would be cool if I don’t get remembered as a piece of shit. I honestly think my humility can easily come off as pretentiousness, somehow. But, I would just like for people to really like what I do. That’s pretty much it. Hopefully someone can see beyond the surface of the music and really get the substance of whatever I’m trying to say in that specific piece. But, as long as people just like it, I guess I’m ok with that. But my main, main, goal would be to cause in someone what other great artists caused in me.

Celebrating the Growing Importance of Physical Media

by Dustin

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To be completely honest, the title to this article might sound odd to most. How can physical media possibly be more important than ever when digital has steamrolled the industry? At the surface level, it is dead. Retailers are pulling the last of the CDs off the shelves, marking the end of a decades-long music media evolutionary process. Yet, many have never spent more money on CDs, vinyl, and cassettes than they do now. I am extremely bad. If I don’t budget a monthly allowance to be spent on music I suddenly find myself in a position where groceries are particularly troublesome. Financial tomfoolery aside, I’ve come to realize that moving back toward physical releases has changed my relationship with music entirely. With today being Record Store Day my friends and I wanted to take a minute to share our passion for this fading corner of the music scene, and hopefully shed some light on why we consider physical releases more important now than they have ever been.

“In a world where streaming makes music easier to consume than ever, it seems as though its value is continuously decreasing. For a long time now, I’ve been confronted with the question “why buy a song when I can download it for free?” However, with the increasing prevalence of streaming, which poses as a way to “support” artists in a cheap (potentially free) way, the statement seems to just be given more validation. I’ve always felt that streaming is dissatisfying in many ways; there’s no connection between fan and artist. Physical albums allow that connection to exist. You have something tangible to hold, you have to store and maintain them, you get to surround yourself with what you love. They allow the music to keep its value in a market where it’s more dispensable than ever.”
–@RajinBuu

“Buying records means reading liner notes. It means learning about the friends and family involved with the project and glimpsing into their world. It also meant (like in the case of Outkast) learning just exactly what they were saying in the days before OHHLA or Genius.”
–@deaconlf

“As both an artist and a music lover I appreciate something tangible and it warmed my heart as an artist to know that so many fans wanted to buy a physical copy of our debut project, my mom bought one my dad bought one it was something that they can look at and say “wow my kid did this” and fans can look at and say “yeah I can touch this, I can hold on to it, I can frame it” it’s like a time capsule from a forgotten period where projects stayed in your rotation for longer than a week and reviews weren’t done instantly but it’s an incredible thing to be apart of, physical music goes right along with t shirts and posters as genuine mercy.”
–@MTFRyourmom of @_Nobodies

“Physical releases, no matter the format, are more important than ever now. Much of our lives exist between ones and zeros, so holding and hearing and smelling something like a record can really fill the binary void… Establish a sense of connection beyond the internet. As soon as the needle hits the groove something real happens and it is fucking beautiful. It’s almost primal at this point. I think this is true with vinyl, cassettes and CDs. All formats provide a tangible experience that sounds better than streaming, hope people stop arguing about ‘superior’ formats and just focus on making something beautiful and real. Physical releases are awesome”
–@FilthyBrokeRex

For myself it’s much of the same. I crave the connection to art that only physical media can provide. From the beauty of large format cover art to the excitement of finding carefully placed easter eggs inside the album booklet, there is a tactile appeal to the senses that cannot be found anywhere else. For me, it transforms listening to an album from a simple act of consumption to an event that feels special and unique every single time. The thrill of entering a record store or thrift shop and crate digging can only be surmounted by the childlike wonder I feel when my hands finally reach something that I want. My music collection at any given moment is a treasure trove of memories, personal discovery, and adventure. It’s something I curated for myself and nobody else; a scrapbook of self-assuredness that carries all my convictions in taste. I wouldn’t trade that feeling for the world.

There’s also the element of showing that you care. The artists I love create music that becomes an integral part of who I am, and as such I want to support them in any way that I can. Attending concerts isn’t realistic all the time, but buying something that I can hold, show people, and proudly display is always an option. Digital media feels so incredibly disposable, and to me that undermines the effort and dedication these individuals pour into creating something for us to enjoy. Sure, I can acknowledge that 25 or 30 dollars for a vinyl record sounds expensive; however, when you start to consider the entire process behind the album’s existence, it really isn’t that much money. Support keeps people creating. At the end of the day, I’m more than willing to shell out extra if it helps my favorite musicians are able to stick around a little longer. Fraction of a penny streams don’t pay the bills for anybody who isn’t already a star, and that fact alone would be enough for me to proclaim physical media’s importance in the modern climate.

If you still carry any doubts, please take the time to visit a record store today (or at any point in the near future). If you’ve never been fortunate enough to take the time, it is a vastly different experience than endlessly perusing music on Spotify or Google Play. It’s a world that not enough people take advantage of these days, yet there’s a reason it pulls so many of us in. We could sit here for days and try to explain, but really you won’t get it until you try for yourself. Who knows, you could just end up catching the same bug that bit the rest of us from the very moment we purchased our first albums. Apologize to your wallet on my behalf, and have fun!

Happy Record Store Day.

Bambi of FilthyBroke Recordings Gives Her Perspective on Being a Woman Behind the Scenes in the Music Industry

by Dustin

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The music industry is a interesting world, and not always a friendly one. This is true from the top all the way down to the grass root level. Many on the outside are completely unaware of everything that goes on outside of the spotlight, leaving it to those who work in the shadows. Fortunately, sometimes these people share their experience. Today’s interviewee is one of those people. Bambi, the designer-slash-promoter-slash-wonder-woman at FilthyBroke Recordings, was gracious enough to lend us an interview discussing all the wonders of working at a do-it-yourself record label; moreover, she speaks on being a woman in a male-dominant scene, and how it’s shaped her perspective on all things music.

Read the interview below, it’s worth it.

EN: As usual, I’ll ask you to give a brief introduction to yourself. Whenever you’re ready. And we’ll just jump off from there.

Bambi: I’m Bambi, I’m originally from the Bay Area; currently living in Seattle, Washington. I work with FilthyBroke Recordings.

EN: Did you have any experience working in music before, or has FilthyBroke been your first adventure down that avenue?

Bambi: I started working with FilthyBroke in fall of 2016. Prior to that I worked for a few years in music in various capacities, put out a release with a former friend, some light managerial stuff (basically answering emails), building & running the website, shipping, that kind of stuff. Concurrently I worked part time at an entertainment V.C. in Oakland, which invested in local venues, recording studios and the like.

EN: What capacity do you work in with FilthyBroke? I know you’ve done a bit of design, but I suppose I’m curious of what your day-to-day is like when working with the label.

Bambi: Yup, I do art/design work for releases and video bumps. My day to day label responsibilities vary. I’m responsible for updating and maintaining the website along with my homie who built the site, instagram, art for promos, and so on. Michael and I spend a lot of time on FaceTime listening to music and brainstorming for upcoming releases, merch, and other projects and figuring out how to make it happen. Currently we’re preparing for his upcoming OMLT release in February and I’m handling the merch end. We will be releasing some T’s & hoodies along with his new EP.

EN: I imagine the creative freedom is nice when working in that sort of environment, but does it ever feel like there’s very little room for mess-ups with it being a DIY style label?

Bambi: FBR has been around almost 4 years now, but we are still a very small label. We are still trying to carve out our own niche and grow. The smaller you are, the more detrimental mistakes, even small ones and especially financial ones are. Not only that but we don’t sign artists, we work with them on a project by project basis. As Michael noted online the other day ”labels need artists way more than the other way around” and we often build friendships with the artists we work with and we want to do right by them because we respect them and appreciate we couldn’t continue without them.

EN: So you guys feel like establishing the friendships helps to make sure everyone stays happy? Because that’s a very unique and personable approach.

Bambi: I’m not saying we have to be friends with every artist we put out. A mutual respect and belief in the music is more than enough. Just noting that often we get to know people while working on releases and it sometimes develops into friendships that extend past the project. But I do think working with people you vibe with and relate to on a personal level makes for a better experience all around.

EN: Does the vibe that Michael has with FilthyBroke Recordings suit you as a person better than your previous experiences in music? Having worked with both of you myself, I know the label cares a lot. It seems like it would be fun to be involved in (and it has been for me).

Bambi: For sure. Working with someone that listens to your input and respects your opinions and ideas is always the ideal, which I feel like Michael does. I know people say you shouldn’t get into business with friends or family and while it definitely can and has gone badly for me previous I still think getting money with friends is the best kind of money to get.

EN: Something I’ve noticed when networking is that women are fairly absent behind the scenes in music. Aside from artists, often when I’m contacting a label or manager they’re men. You’re actually one of the few I know with active involvement behind the scenes. Do you feel that women are underrepresented in that facet of the industry?

I know that’s sort of a blunt question, but it’s something I’ve noticed. It’s quite odd.

Bambi: Underrepresented, yes absolutely, but not necessarily for lack of involvement. Particularly at the indie level there’s a shit-ton of wives, girlfriends, sisters, and female friends behind the scenes answering emails, shipping merch, planning shows, hitting up record shops and listening to the same unfinished song 6,789 times because a high-hat was added. You know, just trying to help make it happen. Shit, some of these dudes likely going on tour with mom’s Amex (I stole that mom’s Amex bit from Michael).

I want to make it clear I’m not saying all artists do this by any means, but I do think is fairly common place, especially at the beginning and end of careers. I have no issue with it, supporting the people around you is important. What I do take issue with is the lack of credit. I don’t give a shit if all they’re doing is packing and shipping merch, if your homie did you a favor you’d shout him out; but, I see some of these motherfuckers out there acting like they do all this shit on their own or down-playing (either during or after the fact) the contributions of other, especially woman, which is a foul. And yes, I’m speaking from experience.

It’s one of the reasons I was very hesitant when Michael asked me to work with FBR. It took me a few months of me ‘helping out’ and him continually demanding I be credited for my work to really be like, ok I guess we’re in it to win it now. Oh, and you know what? He actually pays me. Even if it’s just a few bucks, I get my cut and I get it in a timely fashion. Amazing.

EN: Do you feel like this has created sort of an environment of complacency among those not being credited? As if they feel they’re just supposed to help however they can and ask for nothing back, particularly among the supporting women in a label or artists life?

Bambi: I don’t think it’s complacency. I’ve had to learn to take credit for my work (I didn’t even realize people received art layout credits until last year) and that expecting/taking credit isn’t asking for accommodation it’s just getting what’s due and what I’d give anyone else I work with.

I don’t think everyone does it intentionally, but I do think that it’s speaks to a larger mentality. As more artists move away from labels and sell independently I think most have realized how important their fans are. But, that also means a lot more reliance on fans for help beyond just buying music and going to shows. I’ve seen supporters help get people booked, do cover art, and web design work, etc and barely get a thanks much less paid. End of the day, gender issues aside and regardless if you work in music or not, I think it’s important to appreciate and acknowledge the people supporting you and if you can’t do that at least give them credit on their work, especially if you aren’t paying them. You meet the same people going up as you do going down.

I suppose to change shit the burdens gotta be on both parties. Basically, don’t be an asshole and regardless if you’re getting paid demand credit on your art, web designs, beats, etc.

EN: Do you have any advice for individuals who, likes yourself at one point, might be struggling to work up the courage to actually ask for their due credit? I realize that’s sort of open ended, but I imagine there are hundreds if not thousands in situations where they aren’t receiving their just dues.

Bambi: For me it wasn’t that I was scared to speak up and more just being naive. I kinda fell into the music business, I never intended to be here, so for a long time I just assumed if I’m not getting credited then it’s not work people typically get credit for. And that’s on me for being a dumbass expecting most people wanna do right by others and not properly educating myself. Once I realized that wasn’t the case shit changed. So do I guess my advice would be pay attention and get informed.

EN: Something semi-related I wanted to speak with you about is bullying in the industry. Particularly from a gender issues perspective but also just in general. I was speaking to an artist recently who expressed sadness over how many of her male peers seem to be quick to try and push her around. Would you say this is something prevalent in the industry even at the Do-it-Yourself/Underground level?

I ask because I know bullying is an issue of great importance to FilthyBroke as a label. Such as the anti-bullying fundraising compilation record you guys curated (which I will link to here).

Bambi: Full disclosure here, I am a bully. I’ve dealt with bullies my whole life and I learned very young if someone keeps fucking with you, you fight back. Fight fire with fire so to speak. I know that a lot of people don’t agree with that way of thinking and think you should always try to be the bigger person. I admire those kinda people but I’m not one of them and I don’t want to misrepresent myself.
I think it happens a lot at all levels. I can’t speak from a female artists perspective, but I’ve seen it happen from a third party view. As well as there’s definitely been a number of instances for me personally where I’ve felt like I was being talked down to, dismissed or pushed around from either male artists or males working in other aspects of music. But it can be a difficult thing to stand up for yourself, especially to people who may be more successful in music or who’s work you admire. Not only that but the music world is truly very small, with a lot of business and friendships mixing. I think (hope) things are changing but it’s still very much a “boys club” type mentality in a lot of ways. As a woman I think when you confront someone in any work environment you run the risk of getting labeled ‘difficult’ or ‘crazy’ or ‘emotional’ or (insert any code word for bitch).

I don’t blame anyone for being hesitant or feeling too intimidated to speak up as it could have the potential to damage working and/or personal relationships, as well as, current or future opportunities beyond the person you’re calling out.

EN: I don’t really want to condone or condemn what you opened with, but I almost feel like there are certain situations where bullying the bullies is a necessary evil. I’m sure there are plenty of people who just won’t stop, even if the victim tries to be the better person. Right? I know that was the case when I was a kid. It doesn’t seem to change much as adults. Though I can’t speak on the music industry specifically.

Bambi: Apologies, I think something got lost in translation or I misspoke. I don’t condone unprovoked bullying. What I meant was some people have the capacity to rise above negativity, but I find that very challenging and in opposition to my natural tendencies. I don’t start shit but I’ll end it.

EN: Oh yeah, I got that part of it. I didn’t think you were condoning it by any means. I suppose I was just thinking aloud that sometimes rising above the negativity isn’t enough to make the situation cease. I know a lot of people who try to and then slowly get sucked back into being picked on. And it’s really a shame.

Bambi: Agreed. When you encounter people that do fucked up shit I think most decent people struggle between rising above (which is often in their own best interest) and fighting against in hopes that no one else has to suffer the same bullshit.

EN: Do you think the general public would be surprised at how nasty individuals in the music scene can be to each other behind closed doors? I imagine some people’s heroes are absolutely despicable people when in private. It’s scary.

Bambi: I don’t think anyone is surprised about how low and despicable people in the music industry can be. I do think they’d be surprised by some of the people perpetrating though. I think it’s pretty common that when some is really into an artist’s music that they get a feeling that they know or understand them on a more personal level. Often they feel they have faced similar challenges or feelings as themselves. So it can be a hard pill to swallow that someone you look up to, someone who has the emotional empathy to convey musically what you feel could possibly be a shitty person.

I mean how could a dude who has the ability and courage to see corrupt shit in the world and call it out possibly steal money from someone they work with? How could someone who’s written songs about love and heartache possibly mistreat a woman? How can a dude who raps about street shit possibly be a coward or snitch in actual life?

EN: Has experiencing some of the industries underbelly made you appreciate those that actively try to be transparent in themselves more?

Bambi: Yes, for sure. Like I said I was very hesitant to get involved with FilthyBroke after my past experiences. But Michael was persistent and proved himself trustworthy and I’m glad I took the gamble because it’s allowed me to work with some awesome folks and restored my faith in people quite a bit. Big shoutouts to Balam Acab, Molly Drag, HotScience, and of course yourself who have all been great to work with.

EN: Do you feel like your taste in music has expanded or evolved since you started working alongside Michael at the label? Because I imagine you hear a ton of things you may not have been exposed to otherwise.

Bambi: Absolutely. Left to my own devices I just listen to rap. So working with FBR I’ve grown to appreciate and enjoy a much larger variety of genres and musicians that I would not have discovered otherwise. So it’s been good! Although, sometimes Michael plays real weird shit I just can’t vibe with…like Ween.

EN: I support all good hearted potshots at Michael and especially at Ween in this interview.

Have you found that listening to different genres has made you appreciate things about rap even more too? I spoke about this with my other writer before. We both feel like branching out into other things has helped us appreciate and understand what we like about hip-hop even more as well. It’s weird that way.

Bambi: I get what you’re saying. I mean, honestly? Sometimes after listening to other stuff for a couple hours it all starts to blend and sound the same to me. Where as I can listen to hip hop exclusively for weeks on end and never get tired of it because there’s such a broad spectrum. It’s just personal taste, what speaks to me, I personally have yet to figure out the specifics of why though.

EN: On another note, I was looking at the cover for the new Hot Science project FilthyBroke was involved in releasing. That cover is phenomenal. And I know that you were the one behind that, And a bunch of other really cool visuals the label has put out. When did you start getting involved in the design aspect of things?

Bambi: I loved drawing when I was a kid, my grandma was big into music and art and I grew up around a lot of graf dudes so I’ve always been around creative types. But it wasn’t until getting involved with FBR when I started doing CD and j-card layouts. As I learned and got better at using adobe, I moved into promo flyers and videos, etc. And finally this latest Hot Science cover art, I’m hella hyped how it turned out and he was awesome to work with.

EN: That’s awesome, I think you definitely have a knack for it. How did the concept for the Hot Science cover even come together? It looks like layers of paper cutouts. I’ve never quite seen anything like it before.

Bambi: Thank you Dustin. Michael came up with the general concept, to be honest I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to pull it off, it’s definitely the most involved out of all the projects I’ve done so far. I hand drew the illustrations separately and then scanned them into adobe to layer them. I also did the animation in photoshop because I wanted it to look kind of like stop motion.

EN: Fuck, that’s definitely what it was reminding me of! It’s like one of those stop motion paper-figure films, but like, the Tim Burton version of one. In album cover form. Did you enjoy tackling something more ambitious like that?

Bambi: Nice, that’s the feel I was going for. It’s a dope album and I wanted to do Sam’s (Hot Science) music/work justice and make sure it was reflective of the vibe he was going for. Again, he was great to work with and really down for whatever so I absolutely enjoyed the project. Whenever I take on something new it’s always nerve racking, this is was no exception. But I am really happy with how it turned out.

EN: Is design something you hope to keep being a part of going forward with the label? Has it become something you’re excited to keep working at and improving in?

Bambi: Definitely. It can be somewhat stressful to do creative work under a deadline but it’s fulfilling to do art for a purpose and not just fun. Also I get paid for it which is nice. Every project we do I learn new skills, I’m hoping to get to the point where I can do proper videos as well.

EN: Have you done much video work in the past or would that be a much newer avenue of expression for you? You mentioned doing a bit of video bump work, but not to what degree.

Bambi: Nah. I’ve done little 30/60 second promo bumps. Just saying, I’d like to eventually get to a point where I have developed the skills to do some full on video work. I don’t know if I’ll ever get there, was just speculating on long shot goals.

EN: Have you further investigated the use of Craigslist Missed Connections as the modern preferred artistic medium?

Bambi: [Laughs]! (I should’ve seen that one coming). I still check it out from time to time. And, yes, it’s still entertaining and heart breaking as ever. Some people really bare their souls in the MCs, and some of their soles are creepy as fuck.

EN: [Laughs]. Okay, but in all seriousness: if you could design album art for any artist in the world, who would it be and what sort of concept would you approach them with?

Bambi: Damn, that’s kinda tough one. Kool Keith would be ill, could do some weird illustrative shit, like Animalia, Graeme Base style but with more adult content (obviously). AC/DC would be cool as fuck also, but I’ve got no idea what I’d do on that one

EN: I think we’re at the point of rapping this up now, if there’s anything else you’d like to throw in then now would be the time to do it!

Bambi: I just want to give a huge shout out and thank you to all the people over the past year and a half that have been supportive of me both personally, and with the label…you guys are fucking awesome. To you, Dustin, thank you for offering me this opportunity and for being a gracious and patient interviewer. Finally, to anyone that thinks I was speaking on them in this interview, I probably was. And if that’s an issue for you, I don’t have anyone blocked online, my phone number hasn’t changed and you know where I live..any time motherfucker.

EN: Thank you as well.