HOUSTON, TEXAS, USATaking it to the sky, saying goodbye to the lows, and putting it on for their city, H-Town is throwing it down with an aural golden triangle made up of The Aspiring Me, Fat Tony, and STOPPA on their release, Satellite City. This trio teams up for a Texas touchdown, and you can guarantee it’s a catchy classic that drips with the deep, audible heartbeat of Houston. The flows are gritty, the guitar loop is gorgeously grimy, and it’s giving Southern flair straight from the lair. We’ve got a SLAB right here: Slow, Loud, And BANGIN’. There ain’t no limit when it comes to interconnecting the textured tones of The Aspiring Me, Fat Tony, and STOPPA; they all play their part in delivering the sound of the South, curating a visual of blinking lights and celebrating their home with baritone-layered vocals and distorted echoes. The vocal depth is a signature style from the South, and they’ve spread it all throughout Satellite City. “Satellite City was influenced by the legacy and current climate of the City of Houston, home of NASA. Also, Satellite City has ties to the traditional sense of suburbs being called satellite cities. The small suburb I grew up in, Missouri City (or as we call it, The Mo), on the southwest outskirts of inner Houston served as our local satellite city that oozes this slow creep but energetic vibe.” - The Aspiring Me The Aspiring Me and JD Martinez production is heavy with bass and light with harp strokes that seep throughout the whole track! “I look at production and beat-making as the same and different things. The producer sees the song through from inception to market. I worked with JD Martinez on the melody, and drums are handled by the A&R work, session time, and management of the completion of the song; all things I consider a producer to be.” - The Aspiring Me Satellite City was recently aired on Drake's Sound 42 SiriusXM station, and with the momentum building, The Aspiring Me isn’t stopping. His album TAME 4: Love & Art is available on all streaming platforms, and new music is on the way this month. Tap in with The Aspiring Me, and keep Satellite City spinning on your rotation.
0 Comments
SALFORD, UK > MELBOURNE, AUInspiration is when a bright, glimmering light is still shining despite being suffocated by a blanket of darkness. The ability to gather your pain, crunch it into a solid ball of lyricism, and then deliver every shred with love is what Motley does; it’s safe to say he’s an alchemist, turning the dust from the streets into sonical gold on his track Inspiring. When Motley creates, it’s with pure authenticity and a higher purpose in mind. If you want animated tones, strong cadence, poetically honest verses, or a strikingly throaty individual flow with all the highs and lows, Inspiring serves as a full platter of musical savoryness and sweetness. “I was listening to the instrumental beat that I had made and was contemplating, ‘What inspires me to keep making music after so many years?’. I had been asked earlier in my music career, ‘How do you keep coming up with new ideas for new songs?’. I thought about my earliest recordings and how I thought I had accomplished everything with my first album, separated at birth, which I had made 10 years earlier. I had put so much of myself, my time, and my creative ideas into that album, and when I finished working on that album, I thought, What else will I write about? And then I came back to the present moment and realised that the inspiration to make separated at birth was linked to the time that I made it. In the early 2000s, I could only write about what I had experienced up until that point in my life. So in 2015, I experienced much more, including a near-death experience that completely changed my outlook. So I got the idea that it is life itself that inspires my writing. Which leads to the first line, "I learned math on the street because a Q is $70; that's about 7 g." After I got the first line, the rest of it seemed to pour out, as it usually does with my creative process. Before I knew it, I had written the first verse, and I knew I was on to something special.” - Motley The instrumentals gently dance around Motley's voice, wrapping around his hushful verses. It feels as though the beat is encouraging a session of deep pondering to the point of no return. There is an element of cosmic curiosity that lingers after every key stroke, the song name speaks for itself - its inspiring. “The production started with a sample of a piano. I played with some filters and started getting goosebumps; that's when I knew I was on the verge of something special. After I laid the drums and bass, it was over! I couldn't stop listening to that beat. Music comes easily to me; lyrics come fast too, but I am more prolific with beats. I always want to make sure I'm saying what I mean, so that's why you might hear more feature verses than whole songs these days. On the other hand, I've got so many beats in my vault that I could release a new one every day for a year or two! It’s an exciting time for dedicated and new fans of Motley, as he has new material that he’s promised to share with us all. To ensure you don’t miss a Motley beat, tap in with his socials (@motley_uk) and WATCH THIS SPACE. Dixie, ALABAMA, USAArt on a pedestal, Swigg’s got all the measurables—for greatness—with his distinctive vocal style, timeless flow, and rhythmic verses on his Jae Franklin-featured track, For the Art. We have a triple-layered classic, one that audibly time-travels to multiple musical eras. From the Anita Baker 'Angel' sample to the instrumentals that embody flavours from A Tribe Called Quest, the track title speaks for itself, and Swigg pays respect to a time when quality was the hottest craft in the game. For the Art collides the worlds of cool cat percussion jazz, momentum-building bassline Hip Hop and Jae Franklin’s star-infused melody. Swigg brings laid-back vibes balanced with conscious lyricism. “The main source of inspiration was the Anita Baker beat. My mom used to frequently listen to Anita Baker when I was a kid, and I was instantly drawn to the familiarity in the sample. I wanted to add a real Hip Hop throwback element to the song, and when I wrote the hook, I knew I needed a female vocalist to make it pop. That’s where Jae came in and laid down her flavour on the hook.” - Swigg It’s easy to identify a bop from the first bpm round; the fingers get to naturally clicking, and the head starts swaying. The Talen Ted-produced instrumentals are enticing, encouraging body engagement to the beat, which is easily another indication of how infectious For the Art is. “Talen Ted, out of Ontario, Canada, is a young producer that I found scrolling on BeatStars.com. I listened to a couple of his beats, but this one really stuck out because of the sample.” - Swigg Creme De La Creme, Pt. 3, is Swigg’s latest album release; however, he has divulged that he has two new albums on the way. Keep an eye out for The Bae Tape and Ramen Noodle Weekend, coming to a streaming platform near you soon. MELBOURNE, AUIf Rockstar by Post Malone had a baby with Travis Scott’s ad libs and that baby was then raised in the streets of Burn City’s North West amongst some of our city's elites, ZAZA would be the musical product of this environment. This right here is a turnt trifecta of well-played cadence, sonical masc-femme blends, verse endurance, and looping synths that will capture your attention and actually hold it. PEDLER, JDro, and Mirna chop it up together and deliver their own rhythmic tones and flows full of flavour and spice on ZAZA. It’s light, tasteful, and easy to digest as they show love for a recreational favourite. PEDLER sets the bar for punchlines with his human design fit line that's followed by JDro hitting the beat hard as if it were his opps; call him Vader because he’s the father of these rappers. Mirna completes the cleverness with back-to-back bars buddy, and she makes it known she has a hart like Kevin, but she ain’t talking funny. Quite simply, this trio flexed their creative intellect. “The record was made during a creative slump. I had ventured a bit too far outside of my comfort zone, making a lot of R&B and dance-style tracks that’ll probably never see the light of day, I felt like I had to return to my roots. I love being versatile and fluid, but sometimes you have to go back to what you’re good at. That's really what my whole forthcoming “Monster” EP is about. Getting JDro and Mirna on the track was what made the most sense to me after I finished my verses. Dro and I have great chemistry, and I've been wanting to work with Mirna for awhile. They made the track feel complete.” - PEDLER From the drop, you can hear the influences swirling around the beat as PEDLER adds his own touch of musicality alongside Mirna and JDro. ZAZA is seeping in fun and has a beast of a bassline. “The production was inspired by Travis Scott, but also a lot of the trap Drake songs. Usually I favour cool beat progressions and layers, but for this, I wanted something simple. I wanted hard-hitting trap beats that would accentuate the bars we were laying down, as opposed to the vocals being supplemented by the production.” - PEDLER PEDLER has a few upcoming shows for 2024. Catch him at his next show, listen to his latest album 'ALIEN.' and stay tuned for his next drop. NEW YORK, USAEvery song has an instrumental introduction that slaps and verses that slap even harder. His tone eases in with its infectious flow. Alpha$man has a digestible delivery simmering with clean-cut enunciation, making the listening experience seamless to follow along with The Moonlight Groove narrative. “Each one of my collections stems from an idea, thought process, or theme that encompasses where I am emotionally, spiritually, and mentally in time. As a 'wolf', we love the moon, as it’s our guide in the dark, and sometimes in life we find ourselves in the dark. So with this project, I let the moon be the beacon, not just for myself but for my fellow wolves out there as we continue our journey through this life."- ALPHA$MAN Track One: En Route A million-dollar heist, strategies day and night, waiting on that return on the investment so we can wake up and act as someone else’s blessing sets the theme for the first track off The Moonlight Groove. Alpha$man dips into each verse with stability and a consistent flow as the violin and electric guitar loop penetrate the beat. Track Two: Building Blocks Back in the kitchen and still on a mission, Alpha$man explores the grind and takes listeners through his journey of building a foundation made for the long run. He incorporates a brief reflection on family and respect before jumping back into his main focus, his building blocks. Track Three: WRLD$HIT Pull up, because he's on that WRLD$hit. The subtle repetitive synth instruments go crazy as Alpha$man delivers his signature consistent flow. This is a flex on empires and a stealing of beauties. Track Four: My Phone He’s going in expeditiously with a slight Latin spin, shining a light on the assumptions made when his focus is on his phone, even though he’s penning his flows. Track Five: Cadenza Talk Connecting every punch with his raw flow, Cadenza Talk is content classic. The beat represents the streets and embodies a cypher-like feel that is unskippable and unstoppable. “The inspiration for The Moonlight Groove production is simply that this is what we do. SDot (@stephen_corey93) and Bernard (@BernardTheBastard) create the sounds, and I take them and give them life. Aside from my personal drive, one of my biggest influences when it comes to music is Curren$y. The way he works and delivers project after project non-stop, all year long, and at a high level, shows me I can do that too. I know I’m capable of reaching that high level of greatness. I’m inspired by the way he’s been able to stick to doing his own thing, taking the 'side streets', performing at smaller venues, and making the experience more intimate and organic despite what may be expected in present-day rap.” - Alpha$man Track Six: Around You and Track Seven: No Pity hit a welcomed slowdown; the tempo pulls back, the energy drops a gear, but the lyrical persistence and flow consistency doesn’t take a back seat. Alpha$man blows smoke and takes a moment to let the beat breathe, driver’s seat only . Track Eight: Lunar Landscape Slightly cosmic like the track title, Lunar Landscape is a jumble of unpredictable lyrical emphasis that gives weight to the quotes found within; there’s a beat to lyric tension, and quite simply, it works. Track Nine: Collection Alpha is never stressed, always understanding that there is a lesson that is destined, and you have to add it to the collection. He has a lot to say; there’s a lot to express with every bit of life experience, and he engages his thoughts into song, dropping wisdom to those who are listening. Track 10: Ancestral Plane Colliding his world of rap with his celestial intellect is the best way to end a body of work. The Moonlight Groove comes to a close with sonical luminary that's full of ambience and chill flow; catch the drift and fly towards home. If you liked The Moonlight Groove, then check out his latest album, Lethal Dosage, which is followed by his latest EP, Add More Rośe: The Second Glass! Stay tuned as Alpha$man has a trunk full of projects, appearances, and collaborations on the way for 2024. Inglewood, Los Angeles - USAShining real bright in the dark, creating a star out of his heart, and releasing a dirty jazzy joint that is beyond pleasing to the ears, A1 Krashn serves a musical delicacy with his track Black Moon. Starting off with a profoundly inspirational speech from successful business tycoon Steve Harvey, A1 Krashn uses his vessel to inspire listeners by taking a chapter out of his journey and utilising his challenges as fuel. From the jump, the message is clear: “To get to that life, you’re gonna have to jump." Black Moon dives into the depths, illustrating an opaque blanket of struggle, stress and spiral in the world around and within. It signifies a night under the black moon, a new lunar phase void of illumination, one where hidden truths incubate, silence intensifies, and meditation loses resonance. A1 Krashn is a walking testament as he sings with resilience and delivers harmony, flow, and lyricism that further proves his SUPERSTAR abilities, and if you've seen him live, you'll know exactly what we're talking about when we say his stage presence is awe-inspiring. “My inspiration was actually life experiences and making a way out of no way. I know going through a struggle made me stronger, and I wanted to create something that could give our people the same motivation. When I created the Black Moon, I was homeless and unstable. I knew I was going to beat the odds and become greater than what was around me. I chose to focus on what was in front of me and dedicated my time to making a change.” - A1 Krashn The instrumentals are far from mainstream; A1 Krashn doesn’t succumb to what’s on trend nor does he subscribe to clout; he’s as real as it gets; he’s a musician, a poet, a soul on fire that transcends time and space when played through your stereo, headphones, or witnessed on stage. “I wrote, produced, mixed, and mastered Black Moon; I actually am in control of the majority of the creative process on a lot of my songs.” - A1 Krashn A1 Krashn wrapped up 2023 with a few shows, and he steps into the new year with even more public appearances. Seeing and supporting A1 Krashn is a must for your New Year's To-Do list. All movements of his are broadcasted on his Instagram, so stay in the loop and keep Black Moon where it needs to be, on replay! |
|