Blog | EST. 1920

WEEKLY MEDITATION 7: A MEDITATION ON MY FIRST ALBUM

RETRO1920

7 min read

The cover was created with ANT. With the first written and recorded track being SAMO. The direction of this track immediately showcases the theme for the album - the parallels between the art world and the hip hop world. During different times of the writing and recording process of DxN, Aesop Rock's Rings and Jazz Hands became the soundtrack to the emotions and themes of Daydreams & Nightmares - To be or not to be an artist?

I gravitate towards stickers or emblems on covers, but since the album cover started to look more like a painting, and we originally had the parental advisory sticker attached to the background of the original cover and didn't save an unedited version, I was trying to find a creative way to hide the PA sticker.

I first went with an outlandish neon green that helped juxtapose the hues of blue on the cover. I took from Madvillainy, but chose a green square in the bottom left corner instead, to replace the original PA sticker. Over time, I was able to remove the PA sticker with a magic eraser in Adobe Photoshop, without compromising any integrity.

The cover replicates the music, a ghuoly figure (myself and ANT) when art is the only thing that understands us (a kind of wolfing stage for an athlete). When one is trapped in their own thoughts, they don't even have time to look at their reflection in the mirror.

The intro came organically. I had a cigar in my hand and began talking, going off a loosely based monologue I wrote on my phone. The idea for the intro was to talk with an accent to create a mysterious soundbite of someone talking about art and rap and how creating effortless music is much like spraying graffiti. When playing the intro back for Shay, which I was going to scratch out for an idea that was a bit grimier, Shay told me the reference beat and emotions from my faux interview reminded him of a Jay Electronica Skit/Intro and it was a keeper. He also told me it would be great for fans to wait for the first musical song on the tape, this was a good world builder.

The true musical opener, Saccade/Stargazing is titled after the term saccade - used to describe the way artists glance at paintings in a more efficient and rapid manner than people who are not artists. They are able to pin point things like the golden ratio, contrast, and other artist specific focal points in the canvas with a subconscious scan, rapid eye movement. Because of this, it is suggested that artists see things that non-artists cannot. This artist identifier is equivalent to an athlete's heartbeat, the bpm while at rest giving away the fact that someone is an athlete. Rapping for six minutes straight, brings the audience into the anecdotal landscape of Daydreams x Nightmares (D-aspirations and N-setbacks). Both ANT and Shay told me that this needed to be track one, but I was apprehensive because the album title sounded similar to Meek Mill's Dreams & Nightmares and Saccade had energy similar to Meek's intro. However, it didn't take long for me to trust in the gut of two of my close friends that I respect on a personal and artistic level.

On track two, track two theory is in full effect. Carrying out the artistic references, Sfumato or smoke for italian, is a technique where artists create a creamy and shaded texture on the canvas to bring out tones and colors that gradually soften and smoothen outlines so they are not as harsh and become seamless with other dynamics in the painting. In lyric form, Sfumato gradually spills lyrics of braggadocio from one four-bar set up to the next, leaving a discussion of whose the best in the city Wrek, ANT, Art Morrera, or Retro?

Stendhal Syndrome, encapsulates the ending of the first section of the album. Stendhal Syndrome refers to a collection of intense physical and mental symptoms you may experience while or after viewing a work of art. This painting sets out to become a version of Lupe Fiasco's Murals. If one could imagine the tangible figures, even if taken from abstract elements, the painting would probably scan like Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Waking by Dhali. The attempt to create a psychosamatic feeling for the audience who may or may not have caught a reference, or metaphor, or analogy, is the catalyst for the art world meets street world atmosphere.

Originally the records on the back half of this tape were in line to be section 1. I wanted this tape to showcase my abstract lyrical ability at the highest level. I wanted to come in hot (Intro, SAMO, Glossolalia, Phaedo). However when ANT brought in the record Shades, things forever changed.

ANT came up with the album title, and was very transparent about coming out the gate with less of an abstract presence - to start with a pocket of ours that is undeniably rap, more so direct. It took some time. I was chasing Aesop Rock and Lupe in my head, but I came around much quicker than I expected and I trusted the process.

What helped build the world for section 2 of DxN was ANT creating Shades, Shine, and Aura. Once the nucleus of the tape was in order, I really grew inspired by the album Who Told You to Think by Milo and As We Speak by APB (formerly known as The Airplane Boys). These two albums are in my top three favorite albums of all time.

The album As We Speak starts off with world building, introspectiveness, and then glides into one of my favorite nucleuses for an album, paramount to all. I wanted to capture the same essensce on DxN, but put our own spin on it.

Section 1 - lyrical showcase, braggadocio, morning vibes,

Section 2 - hit records, still hip hop (C.R.E.A.M, Juicy, Got You)

Section 3 - abstract, rap god type energy, nighttime vibes.

DXN Tracklisting (tentative)

01 Canvas

02 Saccade/Stargazing

03 Sfumato

04 Stendhal Syndrome

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05 S.H.I.N.E.

06 Shades

07 Aura

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08 Wax

09 SAMO

10 Glossolalia

11 Phaedo

12 Varnish

Section 3, closes the album with introspection and abstract rap. Wax was originally lyrics ANT and I wrote to the Overall record by Benny The Butcher and Chinx. I added the last verse once ANT created a beat around our delivery and storytelling. I titled it Wax, because it felt like we were putting a lot of intimate and unfiltered thoughts on record, "wax." It also felt like a kind of candle burning, clearing the room of negative energy with a kind of sage or candle for aroma.

When I wrote SAMO, I was studying Aesop Rock so much and wanted my meter to be an onslaught of AAAAAA | AAAAAA rhymes that pushed the boundary of how long one bar can seem.

Chau/ffeur scro/lls of a goat o/ver in/stru/men/tals

In the/ cold in a coat(cult) where the tren/ches

Is warm/ force food/ to per/form in a box as a pawn where the cho/rus a/adored if you....

Those are technically four bars but because of the six syllables in each meter split into a two syllable feet flowing seamlessly into the next six syllable meter, two bars feels like one and I dont really break the formation of the bar until I get to the syllables, "six steps a/head," and take a really good breathe. This was a trick I learned from Aesop Rock. ANT does it extremely well too. The title SAMO is an ode to Basquiat's street tag @SAMO. For him it stood for Same Ol', using it as a sort of sarcasm or parody to art looking and feeling the same. I revisited his motto and turned it into a mnemonic/acronym Same Art, More Options. The hook does a good job expounding on the acronym.

Glossolalia is a hidden gem. It's an ode to speaking in codes. Sometimes when an artist goes too abstract it sounds like they are mumbling, speaking in tongues. After a few listens though you pick up on the complexity. The hook brings the theme to life, "Have faith, I'm talking to the gods, don't understand me then move a long, only a select few speaking in tongues."

Phaedo carries the abstractness giving a take on how our five senses can get the better of us in the digital age. The painting/track is inspired by Plato's account of Socrates' last day on Earth. The epiphanies I had when reading Phaedo, or On The Soul, years ago are mixed with my infatuation with Lupe's song Little Death. I carried these themes into three verses, and wrote this before Lupe double down on themes from Little Death on Precious Things where he discusses the duality of using our hands. When I heard DMIZ it let me know I was on the right track building on themes like I did on Phaedo.

Varnish is still a work in progress, but ANT and I would like to close the album out with a painting/track that has a beat flip similar to Saccade/Stargazing where I get busy on various instrumentals that blend as one. I titled it varnish because I used to get such an euphoric feeling seeing an artist on instagram pour varnish on a canvas to give it that little pop like seeing plastic on a vinyl or cd.

The last source material I read, on the writing process, to maybe help with varnish was from Black Thought in an interview with The Paris Review:

[Black Thought]

I’m also conscious of the story that’s being told

in the music before words even exist.

What dictates one process or the other is the

emotion and energy of the room and what happens organically between the producer and myself—

or other musicians. It’s all about chemistry in that way. Sure. The night before, I wrote,

“We’re our ancestors’ wildest dreams. How we rose to the pantheon of kings, out of modest means. To advance beyond”—

and then there’s a blank and a last line that just reads, “ … I believe."

So I’ll go back and fill in the middle portion that I left unfinished. From there, it might be tomorrow or six months from now, but I’ll look at that and see what kind of headspace I was in, and I’ll be able to construct a whole verse around it.

Last night I wrote these words, and I don’t know what they have to do with one another, but I have a blank page, and in the center it says “vigilant enigma.”

I think a writer should always be aware of his or her surroundings. The material is there. It’s already in the world. You have to be in tune with it to hear it and see it. The best essays, the best books, all wrote themselves. Same with paintings and dances—all of the best art, all of that shit just comes from the universe. You have to master the art of being in tune enough when it’s time to create.

Black Thought, The Paris Review (2023)

2.19.23

DxN

😶‍🌫️😱

-MCMXX

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WEEKLY MEDITATION 7: A MEDITATION ON MY FIRST ALBUM