In the last few weeks, I’ve had a few people pop up and ask me about t-shirts. The timing is interesting because the original plan for the artwork for the new album was to make a t-shirt that said ’SUPER DOPE’ on it and then use it for a photo idea I had in mind. Here’s how it went down…
I found a place online where I could buy iron-on letters in the font I wanted. While I waited for them to show up in the mail, I started testing and experimenting. I went to my local Michaels, looking for cheap t-shirts and whatever iron-on lettering they may have. I found sets of letters in the Cooper Black font in two different sizes. They didn’t have the colors I wanted but I figured I could work with them. So the experiment became: if I paint these letters, will they still iron on? So back at home later that day, I cut out the letters for ‘BUCK 65’ and ‘SUPER DOPE’ and took them out to the back yard. I also scrounged up a few cans of spray paint I had in my basement that I had used to paint batting helmets. Then I found a piece of scrap wood to do my work on so that I wouldn’t get paint all over the concrete in my back yard.
First, I painted the letters yellow. I wanted to see how they’d look on either a pink or a blue t-shirt. I took a few test photos (without ironing the letters on) and then I painted them red. I ran a few more tests and started to feel like maybe my idea was going to work. So then I went outside to clean up my mess and that’s when I noticed that the piece of wood I was painting on looked kinda cool. I took a photo of it sitting on the ground and when I looked at the photo later on, I really liked how the wood looked contrasted against the concrete.
That night, I tried out a few other ideas. For one, I propped the piece of wood against a wall in my basement and set a couple of little plastic chicken figurines on top. I liked how it looked but thought it gave off sort of a rural Texas BBQ joint vibe which is cool but doesn’t match the vibe of the record.
Anyway, after looking at all of my various tests, I couldn’t get past how much I liked the photo of the hunk of wood laying on the ground. So that’s how we got here. It was not the plan to use the Cooper Black font but I suppose it works with all of the other ‘80s influence on the album, so I’m running with it.
But! With the recent t-shirt requests, I’m coming back around to the original idea a little bit. Maybe I should get shirts made like the ones I originally had in mind and offer a few up. I’ll let you know if that comes together.
You know, speaking of shirts, I have a ton from different tours through the years in my basement. I should do a proper inventory and figure out what to do with them.
Now let’s talk about the sound of Super Dope a little bit. One of my main goals for the album was for the drums to hit as hard as possible with my limited mixing expertise. I did some experimenting and figured out a few tricks and I’m happy with the results. The drums bang nice. One of my favorite moments on the album comes at the end of the song “The Forbidden Words”. The beat for the album version is very different from the demo version I shared in the last post. After a little breakdown, the beat changes and - sweet baby jesus - the drums are so hard, it’s ridiculous. I love it.
On the production side of things - beyond the sheer onslaught of drum breaks - I took a lot of inspiration from hip hop of the late 70s and mid-to-late 80s, as I did on King Of Drums. Maybe you picked up on the influence of the Fat Boys in the demo I shared last week. I also found myself thinking about early LL Cool J quite a bit. Early Public Enemy. Early Steady B. This song by Tuff Crew is something I kept coming back to:
Same with this song by Legion Of Doom:
I also dipped into some early 90s sounds. I was thinking about the first Cypress Hill album. I was thinking about Double XX Posse. Troubleneck Brothers. Powerule. DITC stuff. This long-time favorite by Del got me going a little bit:
Before I went to work on lyrics, I looked for songs where guys rip it at different tempos. I looked for songs where guys are straight waxing at 120 bpm, others at 75 bpm and spots in between. I listened to JID. I listened to Phill Most Chill. I listened to Doom. I listened to Grand Puba. I listened to Black Thought. I listened to Mestizo. They all inspired me. In the end, a lot of the ideas were purely my own. I wanted to try some new things. I get pretty silly and slippery on a song called “Challenge To The Underground”. A song called “Endless Counter-Attack” features the most technically complex rapping I’ve ever done. I played it for Cadence Weapon and he said something like, “I don’t think anything like that has been done before.” I was watching an episode of Frontline on PBS about the war in Ukraine when I wrote the song “Evil God”. The subject matter is heavy, which is not usually my domain but it’s also super-rappy. Very dense. I’m proud of that one. And the beat is pretty insane, if I say so myself. The last song - “The Monster Anarchy Zone” - is kinda like an episode of American Gladiators packed into a three minute rap song.
The main thing I took inspiration from was Jorun Bombay’s Funkbox Reload podcast/radio show-thing. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it here before. I listened to every episode before I got down to work. I think what Jo’s been doing since 2014 is the single greatest gift to hip hop. It’s an incredible thing. If you’ve never listened, you owe it to yourself. All of the episodes are archived here:
https://www.mixcloud.com/Jorun_Bombay/
One of my favorite episodes is Spring 2019, if you’re looking for a spot to jump in. The way Jo attacks “Rebel Without A Pause” and “Paid In Full” and “Ugly People Be Quiet” will melt your brain.
I also listened to tons and tons of the deepest underground hip hop. Tapes. Lots of recordings of park jams from the 70s especially exciting groups like the L Brothers and the Fantastic Five. And lots of regional underground stuff from the 80s - stuff from New Jersey and Connecticut and Pennsylvania and Maryland. I’m lucky to have amassed a pretty large collection of that stuff through the years. It’s deeply inspiring to hear the work of hungry cats who were never allowed past the ropes by the gatekeepers. A lot of it is the dopest hip hop I’ve ever heard and it’s a shame that these artists were never known beyond their circles of friends and immediate communities. They’re forgotten by most but not by me.
So. Super Dope will be released in just over a week - May 5. Remember: for physical copies, go to the Handsmade website. For digital, go to my Bandcamp page.
Meanwhile, here’s a visual teaser-thing for y’all…