Yes, y’all.
First things first - big thanks to all of you who have taken the time to check out and/or purchase the 14 KT Gold EP, which dropped last week. It’s nice getting the notifications of sales and seeing your messages. Based on what I’ve been seeing, I think it’s worth mentioning that I released an album called King Of Drums last June. Looks like some people may have missed it! I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. During “peak” years, I had 40,000+ followers on Facebook (I haven’t posted anything there in almost ten years now). This Substack thing has a little over 1,000 followers, from what I can tell. And King Of Drums sold a few hundred copies. So I guess it makes sense that there might still be a few people out there that haven’t caught on to my underground shenanigans. I don’t have a publicist or manager or anything and I put no effort whatsoever into promoting what I’m doing. So, the fact that anyone HAS found me again is borderline miraculous. I really, really do appreciate you being here.
I won’t rehash everything I’ve written here over the last year but I’ll reiterate that I’ve been on a mission to make up for lost time. Before getting back to work, I did almost nothing (except play baseball) for seven or eight years. Those years gave me a lot of opportunity to reflect on my career. I came to recognize that I started losing my way sometime in the late ‘90s and in the years after that, I made some bad music. There are records in my discography that I dislike very, very strongly. I can look back and understand how and why certain creative decisions were made but I now see those decisions as terrible mistakes and it bothers me deeply.
So I’ve been on a course correction. Back when King Of Drums came out, I said that it was the album I had been waiting my whole life to make and that it was the best thing I’ve ever done. Almost a year later, I still feel strongly that it blows everything that came before it out of the water and I’m certain that I’ll never feel differently. I’m where I’m meant to be.
Having found my place and loving how it feels, I’m now making music with 100% confidence and clarity. My new album - Super Dope, which comes out on May 5 - is the next step. Time will decide how it stacks up against King Of Drums. It’s certainly a logical continuation. As I was making King Of Drums, I recognized a few things to improve upon and refine and I feel as though I did that with Super Dope.
King Of Drums was made with no budget. Same deal with Super Dope. I used the exact same recording setup, which is crappy. A few months ago, I showed my old homie Sixtoo the setup and he laughed in my face. It’s ramshackle. All of my gear is cheap. The only thing I added since King Of Drums is a little portable tape deck from the 80s that I used to record a few things.
If I could go back and change anything about King Of Drums, it would be a few things in the mix. This time around, I tried to find a better way to mix but I had no luck. If I had money, I’d buy studio time, for sure. To try to avoid any mix mistakes on Super Dope, I went old school. I did a rough mix in my living room (which has terrible acoustics) then I listened to a bounce of that mix in the car. I sat there with a notepad and pen and took notes as I listened. I’d write something like: ‘vocal needs to come down a tick in “Passport To Infinity” or ‘the main drum break in “A Gift From The Sky” needs more high end’. Then I’d go back into the house, make adjustments and repeat. To get to a final mix that I was happy with, I had to run out to the car about a dozen times. It was sort of insane but the car provides the best listening environment I have access to. For what it is, I’m happy with the final result.
One thing I love about King Of Drums is that it just keeps coming at you relentlessly. I tried to take that energy up a notch with Super Dope. There’s constant movement. There are a million ideas per minute. I reckon you’ll need to listen at least a few times to process everything. The beats are 100% sample-based. There are no live instruments. No midi instruments either.
I took my turntable work up a notch too. I practice a lot these days and when you practice, you get better. Same deal with the rapping. I’ve done a lot of rapping over the last few years and I’ve learned some things. I’m a better technical rapper now than I was when I was 25 years old - by a long shot. And I think I know how to get an idea across more effectively and more efficiently.
As far as lyrics go, I’m wondering how interested y’all might be in that side of things. So let’s bust out these polls, real quick.
If I were to share the lyrics for Super Dope, how would you feel about an audio-thing where I recite the lyrics acapella with added notes/comments along the way? Or would you prefer text that you could read as you listen to the album or whatever?
If I see that y’all are into it, I’ll share all the lyrics for Super Dope when it drops or right after.
I guess I’ll leave it there for now. In the next few weeks, I’ll tell you about the artists and albums that influenced the new album. I’m thinking about putting together a mix to go along with that. I’ll tell you about how the artwork came together (which is sort of a funny story). I’ll tell you about my plans and aspirations for the album. And I’ll tell you about the crazy-ass idea I had to get word out (which I don’t think I can actually pull off). Maybe I’ll share a clip or a demo or another outtake or something. There’s some other stuff in the works too. So be sure to check in. These next few weeks leading up to the release should be fun.