Describe your sound in 3 words
Only the real, maybe?
Tell us a few things about your new song Beethoven’s Spliff.
Beethoven’s Spliff is a track that kind of came spontaneously. My bro came with the loop while messing around one night and I thought it was dope. I write everyday regardless of it’s for a specific track or not and had a bunch of rhymes that I thought would fit it. It’s really just a lyrical exercise, no hook or anything. Just spitting and pushing the pen for two and a half minutes. It’s for those who appreciate bars.
Which album describes the Golden Era of hip-hop and boom bap?
Tough to narrow down to just one. Period is called the Golden Era for a reason since there’s so many classics that dropped and the audience was really spoiled with how much quality they got. For me, personally, there’s of course the Paid in Fulls and Long Live the Kanes, but the album that really did it for me and sealed the deal as far as my love for that kind of hip-hop was Illmatic.
What is your opinion about today’s hip-hop?
It’s a bit bipolar. There’s a lot of great music dropping these days, with guys like Griselda, Cordae, Freddie Gibbs making music that is sort of harkening back to the Golden Era and the traditional sound. And I think seeing people like Lloyd Banks and Roc Marci, and legends like Nas and Black Thought dropping new albums that are getting a lot of love in this climate is really encouraging to see, since you can see a renewed interest in what many would call “real Hip-Hop” and lyricism. At the same time, a lot of stuff that’s getting instant love at the moment in the mainstream I’m really not rocking with. Everything sounds the same and it’s all focused on the beat or a repetitive hook rather than what they’re actually saying. There’s no interest among some of these artists to go and study the craft and they often dismiss what came before them and just focus on the clout. Which unsurprisingly leads to a lot of bad music being made. I alternate between being optimistic and pessimistic about the state of hip-hop a lot.
What would you change in the music industry?
A lot probably. Though the benefits of the internet and social media are clear, and can really help artists of my type, I do think the emphasis on algorithms and numbers gets to a point where it really disincentivizes people from actually taking their time to make a quality body of work. There’s a lot of pressure to follow the rush, which can lead to a lot of music that won’t have much shelf life. That’s probably an old school mentality to have, but you definitely see the negative effects. Artists being so focused on capturing a meme moment rather than making a good song being one example, etc. Some of it has really led to a rapid dumbing down of the culture since artists are just generally incentivized to put less thought into their work.
What is the most useless talent you have?
I’d have to think about that one. I’ve always been able to remember obscure dates from history and stuff but that can sometimes be useful hah. That’s a good question.
One last thing we should know about you?
I have a really deep love of hip-hop and it’s been a dream of mine to be a part of it. I’m not doing this to chase clout or superficial reasons. I genuinely appreciate and have a deep respect for this culture and those who built it, since it’s given me an outlet and a voice and I really want to have a hand in helping push it in a positive direction since it’s given me so much personally. I have a lot of new stuff coming that I’m looking forward to people hearing and am excited for what the future holds. Stay tuned.
Thank you!
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HipHop Paranoia 