Happy Friday Music Appreciation!
This week we are back to our regularly schedule programming with a song recommendation.
The song of the week is “letter to my brudda” by 21 Savage.
Hip-hop / Rap is such a DEEP subject for me.
Within my life, growing up, it was similar to alternative music in the sense that in the 90’s → early 00’s it wasn’t quite mainstream yet. When I was a kid, I was exposed to rap because all my cousins were older than me and that was the music that they liked to listen to. Over the summers, when they had to babysit me, of course rap music was playing in the background. Because of this, I knew of artists like 2pac, Biggie, Jay-Z, and eminem. Mostly it was the more popular stuff from their discographies - the types of songs that were actually breaking into the mainstream. In contrast, my parents only had a perception of that sort of music as dangerous and gang affiliated - which in the early 90’s was definitely true if you were paying attention to the media.
In elementary, I would often try to listen to rap in the car and my parents would change the station. Fast forward to high school, rap started turning the corner more and people were viewing it under the lens of poetry. In the LEGENDARY finding poetry class, we actually looked at various rap songs on a lyrical level. That jump alone was pretty big. To go from “change the station” to studying the material in school.
Fast forward even more time to now, rap is WIDELY accepted as a form of mainstream music. They teach classes in college about hip-hop/rap/beat making all of it. And rightfully so, there’s a lot of culture and innovation in the story of hip-hop.
But yeah, it’s just something to admire and appreciate that within my life and my experience, I’ve been able to see this evolution and have a different relationship to this genre in different ways over the years.
Currently, my fascination with the genre and its various subgenres is through the lens of the beatmaking process. However, I also get a huge kick out of learning about the story of hip-hop and its regional differences.
I could talk all day on it, it’s so cool. But if there’s any ONE point I want to share is this idea. A lot of times when hip-hop sounds too abrasive to your ears, it is because you don’t have the prerequisite background palate for it. Because the genre is so forward thinking and so responsive to other stuff around it - sometimes a song that feels like too much is because you’re comparing it to your palate of rap. Versus from the rappers point of view, they’re responding to other music in that sphere.
As far as “music appreciation” goes, sometimes the way in is simply to learn what came before that song.
But yeah, I have no idea who or what 21 Savage is responding to, but I just wanted to share what I was noticing and thinking about when I was listening to this song and trying to figure out what I wanted to say.
Anyways, here’s the song of the week!
The Song
Some Thoughts
Initially, I wanted to just share some thoughts I had on the beat and my personal beat making process, but while doing a little research on the album I discovered a video done by KXVI featuring g06beatz. Both of those producers are credited with production on this song.
I’ll link the video in the bonus section.
But my reason for sharing this “production” video is that it tells me that this particular beat was made by very current / contemporary beatmakers.
KXVI has a prominent YouTube channel where he discusses production techniques (as well as sells sample packs and other things). g06beatz is also apparently a HIGH SCHOOL student and in the video he’s actually skyping in from (probably) Korea.
Like . . .
Let’s just take a moment to unpack this here.
Two guys from probably across the globe, each with their own successful side hustles collaborated on a track for one of the biggest names in hip-hop right now.
Say what you want about your own opinion of the song and how much you like it, but the numbers don’t lie. This sound and this song RESONATES with millions of people across the world. Including the one person who shared the song with me.
That concept and this context is just sooooooooooooo wildly different from what hip-hop was in the 90’s. Back then, music making was much more limited and there wasn’t really a viable audience for the sound. It was music from the streets for the streets. Fast forward nearly 30 years and the cultural shift is not only is this viable music but it is international music.
A few weeks ago, we looked at “FORM” which is an online collective that more or less does the same thing - collaborate across the globe. Hip-hop is largely an American genre. It began in the U.S. and I would say the most prominent consumers of the music is also the U.S. We went from a place of a hyper localized genre to a place of international collaboration. All within one life time.
That’s wild. Truly.
Beyond that, to go back to the song, what I like most about it is the prominent sample. The slightly pitched up sample is a VERY American sound. The bass guitar that opens up the beat also has that “soul” feeling to it. However, the choice to use that sound was most likely made by a Korean beatmaker. Does he know what he’s referencing? Does he know the historical context of how he got there? Who knows, but all that HISTORY and culture is baked into the sound.
Next Week
This is actually the 10th post in our season of recommendations.
Wow! Time flies.
Next week, we will be starting a new season.
I have no idea what it will be yet.
If anyone has any ideas or topics for music they’d like to dig into, please let me know. If not! We’ll press on as we always do. I’m really interested in the cultural side of music and how it shapes history // how it is shaped by history. So maybe we’ll take some time to take a journey through the years. Don’t hold me to that though, we’ll see where we’re at next week.
Until then,
MYKAAAAAAAA
Bonus #1
Bonus #2
Recently, I listened to this podcast and it really set the tone for my appreciation about contemporary hip-hop music.
Kenny Beats is a hip-hop producer who I originally discovered as a part of LOUDPVCK, a Trap (EDM subgenre) duo. After getting tired of producing trap, Kenny Beats broke off and started focusing on his one true love, hip-hop. He turned to YouTube and had a delightful series called, “The Cave” (I’ve shared this show before). In that series, he takes a guest artist and cooks a beat with them in a single session. It’s fun. It’s character driven. Sometimes the beat slaps too. During the pandemic, Kenny Beats hosted an AWESOME beat battle series where he would give his discord server a terrible sample and they would have 1 hour to turn it into something. What originally started as a fun way to get people to make music when locked up in their own homes, eventually evolved into a very strong contest. Over time, the beats got REALLY good with people being able to show off their chops in real time.
Again, THAT was only possible through the advent of the internet and it shows just how much technology can affect and influence the modern artist.
This podcast is great because it’s Kenny Beats talking to the GOAT Rick Rubin about his love for hip-hop and his thoughts on the regionality of it.