Blog | EST. 1920

I Promise, I'm Good [The Black Tape]

RETRO1920
4 min read

I Promise, I'm Good

OUT NOW

I Promise, I'm Good {Experience Now}

ALT KITS

Designed by Dax, inspired by his goal to run the London Marathon.

Designed by Nelvan Nazara. Inspired by American traditional tattooing.

Winter is coming,

I create the best when the weather is cold and crisp. Fall/Winter weather is a cheat code.

I got a secret tape I wrote back in the winter of 2021 and left some breadcrumbs throughout the years. The inspiration behind the tape was tapping into a different light source. I've known Dax, forever. We used to ride the bus to our football games in high school, and bump Drake's Comeback Season and deep cut records by Lil' Wayne, and mix it up with some RnB and downtempo songs before we stepped on the field.

Years, later I would ride in Dax's mustang and we would be playing records by Drake, Rick Ross, and just eclectic songs with those Justice League type beats. Dax used to always tell me, "Bro, you get on these types of beats no one is touching you."

Dax used to tell me, "Bro, you get on these types of beats no one is touching you."

In the midst of working on a tape with solely AYNT production titled, “Daydreams and Nightmares," Dax's idea popped into my head. I started writing separate material that was more melodic and anecdotal, beat driven so to speak. In my down time from writing for Daydreams and Nightmares, I started gravitating towards Justice League type beats and sitting in the pocket with my flow. I took a more stream of consciousness approach with my subject matter.

As I talked to AYNT about it, he expressed having a similar writing process where he works on something else to take his mind off his magnum opus and it helps him stay creative, stay writing, and pretty much fine tune his skills for the project he really wanted to perfect.

When working on this tape, the flows and rhythms came naturally. Dax was right, the fly high art sounding beats were a good pairing for my style.

Remind you, while working on Daydreams x Nightmares I was in prime form. I was studying Aesop Rock, KA, and R.A.P. Ferreira f.k.a Milo. Also, Wu-Tang: The American Saga was in the background of my creative space at all times. I was focused on the technical aspect and I was writing, memorizing, and transcribing my work.

A day or so after an excursion with AYNT and Holla in Central Florida, I recorded about ten songs for I Promise, I'm Good. The songs were all recorded in one sitting, about ninety minutes of work.

My style has been a lot like spraying a wall with graffiti, I have to see it on the wall before I can make sense of the painting or story I am trying to convey. What I will forever remember about these recordings is how much fun it was to be in the booth. I was freestyling a lot of my second verses and even leaving gaps in some of my verses to leave room for improvisation; if I knew the end rhyme within a two or four bar set up, and the theme, I could wing it until I got to the next written rhyme. This took me back to a time when I was in Just-This Crew and I was in my bag.

My style has been a lot like spraying a wall with graffiti, I have to see it on the wall before I can make sense of the painting or story I am trying to convey.

On this tape, I wanted to tell more than just my present story. I revisited the past and distant future at times, like usual, but this time around I also mingled with anecdotes from the POV of my friends. In Floor Seat Flows II some of the perspective is from Dax's POV and how he stayed solid in times where a lot of people would've jumped on social media and bragged about how much they did for the city.

I Promise, I'm Good

EXPERIENCE NOW

Though I Promise, I'm Good has been a more organic, impromptu, at times for better or worse jazz experience.... Daydreams x Nightmares has been very structured. Though, I've had less edits and have trusted my gut with my first writtens and most times than not my first takes.

What am I working on now

Daydreams x Nightmares 😶‍🌫️ x 😱

Circa 2021. The writing came easy on this one. Very autobiographical, but also vicariously living through personal anecdotes of those closest to me. This feels like a Retro tape.

"I Promise, I'm Good is the follow up to South Beach and a placement holder before Daydreams x Nightmares. A bit gloomy in instrumentation and more anecdotal than its predecessor, the audience is given a good balance of nostalgia, principles, apsirations, and creative industry and societal gripes. The essence of the tape is listeners are not left in one space for too long. Polished slow flows dictate majority of the first half of I Promise, I'm Good, while tracks like Six Degrees of Separation, Emotional Intelligence, and Kyotos On, Still Need Healing captivate the audience with more rambuctious cadences and a medley of subject matter that finds it way back to its themes/song titles. For listeners who enjoy lyricists on grandiose sounding beats this tape is for you." - Critics