Megan: Hello SCAD Radio. Welcome to another interview. This is your production director, Megan Atwell,
here with…
Shadanté: Shadanté.
Sahm: I’m Sahm.
Megan: Otherwise known as One Ten Percent. There you go! All right, so for the people at home, can you
guys introduce yourselves as far as what you do in the band?
Shadanté: Yeah, I’m really either. We both co-create at the same time, a creative director so far with the first music video and stuff. But I always just go with songwriter and creative director.
Sahm: Yeah. And I usually handle most of our production and our engineering. And then also the vocal side of it, some singing, some rapping, you know.
Megan: Awesome! Yeah, so on that note, as far as what you guys both do in the band, I would like to ask, how do you guys start a track? Is it pretty democratic or do you guys start with one person kind of leading the way?
Sahm: I think it really depends, like per song. I think most songs are usually democratic, a healthy mix of both of our opinions, but sometimes, like Shante being big creative guy, he’ll come up with so many ideas and kind of just bounce them off of me. And sometimes we’ll have a song name or a cool lyric that he wrote down and we’ll start. We went through different eras, right? So sometimes I’ll just sit in front of my computer and I’m just making beats by myself and stuff like that. And then because I’m so excited, I’ll just start rapping on it early, record some early stuff, and then just send it off to him.
Shadanté: Yeah.
Sahm: And then sometimes he’ll be like, oh, maybe we should talk about this, you know, and then we’ll maybe try to weave it in or change topics so it really depends on the song.
Megan: Yeah. So it’s pretty free form?
Shadanté: Yeah, no, honestly, that’s funny– fact is, that was the title for one of my songs actually, Freeform. He really helped out with that, so it’s funny you mention that word, .
Megan: I got the feeling, I guess! So for Leftside Story, the single that we’re going to be discussing, where did that kind of begin? Where did you guys start with that?
Shadanté: You were saying, I think Sahm was really going off–he just listened to certain distinct songs at the time, certain sounds was just going on. Really, I don’t know, he just kind of hit me with it. He would honestly have to go with the explanation on that one. I can’t take that from him, I don’t think.
Sahm: Yeah. So I think at the time we were listening to more upbeat music, so this was kind of one of the first attempts of making something a little bit more dancey.
Megan: Mm-hmm.
Sahm: and I don’t know if there was a [certain] song influence, but I do remember we were listening to a lot of different Latin music and stuff like that, so that kind of went into play. And again, it’s a very free form process and it went through a bunch of beat changes, a bunch of different evolutions. And then we kind of just got to this point and that’s when sometimes he has to stop me cause I’ll just keep going, but he’s like, I like it where it is. We should stop and just do this.
Shadanté: Mm-hmm. . .
Megan: Yeah, I definitely get that. Being a visual artist, it’s definitely hard to stop on a piece. You can always keep working it and then before you know it’s overwrought and you’re like, oh man, well now I can’t go back. Forgot how I got where I was in the first place.
Shadanté: Yeah, exactly.
Megan: So I definitely get that. Did you face any challenges with creating the track? Were there any
roadblocks?
Shadanté: At points there was. It was just like how the song was structured out, like going back to the
skeleton of it. It was going nice, but then we got to a roadblock, I think just a certain lyric that Sahmmy said or that I said, we just was just [putting it] into play and we were just seeing like, “okay, wait, no.” I believe I
added on that we should just cut off from that point and go on somewhere else, and then honestly Sahmmy just did his magic, made it happen.
Megan: In the lyrics department, I noticed with the repetition that you kind of play with across the song, it
reminds me a little bit of Young Fathers. It sort of has that really building progressive feeling by stacking on itself. So how did you come to approach doing this theme of gun violence, as we’ll talk about, through sort of a motif rather than outright?
Sahm: Hmm. That’s a great question. I’m really glad that you’re paying attention to that. Cause very early on in the process I was thinking of a way–because gun violence, it’s very prevalent [in rap], right? So it’s a topic that’s always spoken about and whether it’s good to continue to talk about it or whether we shouldn’t. And I’m of the opinion that it’s part of our expression, it’s part of the things we experience, so it’s something that I don’t think I or many people will have power to stop, you know? But, so I wanted to talk about it in a way… kind of use it to tell the story of where we are, where we’re at, where we were at, kind of relationship wise. I’m using it as a metaphor for kind of hitting the streets, you know, and meeting people and meeting new women and stuff like that. Kind of using that to get some like commentary almost on how much we romanticize gun violence in rap music. So to use guns, gun language, talking about a relationship is kind of that, you know, representation there.
Megan: Yeah. On that note of romanticization and like your experience, I know that right now there’s sort of a contentious thing going on where A$AP Rocky just dropped a track where he was kind of reflecting back on his previous music and saying, did I add anything to the world with this, or was I just rehashing pain over and over again. Was I ever evolving past it? So I think that this is definitely an interesting evolution on what you might have thought outright, “well, I should talk about this because I need to bring attention to the brutality,” but instead you’re bringing attention to the romanticization, which I think is very interesting.
Sahm: That’s awesome. I actually didn’t even know that he was talking about that in his latest song. That’s a good thing because I think I’ve thought about that with him specifically as well.
Megan: Yeah, he released that track and I remember, Ghais Guevara posted on his story about that song and people were on two sides of it where they were mocking Rocky and saying, come on man, like you gotta stick with it, your music was influential, don’t go back on it now. Like you’re letting cancel culture affect you, whatever cancel culture is, and Ghais was like, you guys are stupid because this is him evolving past being on the streets. As soon as you’re able to be elevated above that, you look down and you realize the systemic issues that are keeping you there, it’s not your fault that you were in that, but also you weren’t helping yourself [by discussing those topics]. You weren’t helping your peers. So it’s, it’s so stupid to expect him to stay down there when nobody should be down there in the first place. So I think that it’s definitely a cool spin to hear, a lot of people talking about this issue in a lot of different ways.
Sahm: Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s a great point, honestly.
Megan: I wanted to ask too, because Rocky, being from America, has a different perspective on it from you guys being from Canada.
Shadanté: Mm-hmm…

Megan: I think that gun violence is typically associated with America, but Canada has its own history of
violence with like native erasure, stuff like that. Do you guys think that Canada has a similar issue with gun
violence, and do you think that maybe the fact that Canada’s thought of as a “soft” country keeps it from being held accountable for that?
Shadanté: I don’t think we’re really a soft country. I think that’s a skewed perspective that the world has on us and that we also have on each other at times when we go out and try to enjoy life and so on and so forth. I would say I think it comes back to how, if you look at certain laws being in place, people go around 3D printing guns and using that at times and we hear in certain shootings and so on. But I think the level of how it’s being shown in the media, it’s just not the same caliber, it’s not the same degree of how we’re seeing either school shootings left, right, and center in America. But back here we have one shooting and then we had a whole lot put in place and it just kind of just put practically a halt to it all. So I don’t think it’s in the same ball field, the two, but it still finds its way here and there.
Megan: Yeah.
Sahm: I was thinking about the question and I don’t think the outward perspective on us effects the legislation and how things are changed. But I think our inward perception is very distorted because of the way that Canadians have taught history; as much as we’re seen as progressive and very polite and whatever, Canadians have been very destructive. We’re the main force behind why native and aboriginal people have such difficulties now. And I think that we don’t see the violence around us because we weren’t educated on what that kind of violence looked like. Because we do see ourselves as soft. We tend to look at America as like, “oh, you guys are a problem. We don’t have gun laws like that, so we’re not the problem.”
Megan: Yeah.
Sahm: But we have different kinds and different forms of violence and I think at times it could be worse, you know, depending– I’m not too deep on like American history, but I’ve been looking into Canadian history and it’s not as squeaky clean as like everybody likes to think, you know. But gun violence is a little bit different. You know, we’ve had some incidents with, like, crossbows and different kinds of weapons because of the fact that it’s harder to get guns, but it’s still definitely an issue.
Megan: Yeah. That’s interesting. That’s a commonly discussed thing in America too, that if you were to
outright ban guns right now, it wouldn’t stop people from being violent towards each other. I think that at the end of the day, guns are obviously an issue because they are just readily accessible here and easy to use for extremely destructive purposes. But also there’s something to be said about structural violence and the ways that you’re raised that make it feel okay to lash out in that way.So that’s a global issue, I think. I think that the fact that you have a lot of global influence on this song is also an interesting way to sort of play off of the global effect of gun violence. It almost implies that in some way. Speaking of the cultural influences on the song, I wanted to ask: knowing that you guys are second gen immigrants, I wanted to ask– I don’t know where your parents are from, but wherever they are from, [how] their cultural music influenced you wanting to of break free of maybe typical rap trappings of just sticking to 808s and stuff like that.
Sahm: Yeah, well for me specifically since I do handle a lot of the production, I’ve taken a lot of smaller
elements and mixed them in here and there. Like a lot of our early tracks that we unfortunately never got to release had a lot more Asian influence ‘cause my mom is Chinese, and I used a lot of Chinese instruments and kind of chord structures and scales. It’s not even something I grew up listening to, like honestly, my mom, a Chinese woman, listens to more dancehall and reggae.
Megan: Oh, interesting.
Sahm: And like my Jamaican dad who likes to listen to a lot of different other kinds of genres, you know? It has affected the more new music, [but I can’t say] how much [of] it’s in there cuz some of it is so instilled in me. Like it could be even just the samples I choose, could be based off of some of the songs I listened to when I was younger, you know what I mean?
Megan: Mm-hmm.
Sahm: I’m sure it’s influenced deep in there. I can’t even say like where in those songs, but for sure it’s, it’s
affected me.
Shadanté: I would say for myself, my parents being Jamaican and coming here during their high school years and so on, we would be listening to a lot of reggae, a lot of dance hall, like in the car going to places growing up. And I would say, you know, maybe not exactly how I speak per se, but the gestures of how I was raised under all of that influence did find its way to my lyrics, find its way to some of the big choices like you were saying before.
Megan: Yeah, I definitely hear a unique voice in the music that you guys are making, and I think that the
unique cultural heritage is definitely poking through there. I also wanted to ask about being in Montreal. So that’s a large city, right? How have you found that being in that area with so many people has that affected yourdevelopment as artists?
Sahm: Hmm, that’s a good question.
Shadanté: I’d say it was just meeting so many different faces, different ways of how they were being raised. And especially when you find the ones that are artistically inclined, at least for me, it just made me question exactly where I see myself, what moves me visually, sonically or so on. And honestly, I don’t know, just tippy toeing and finding what just feels right at the moment. Then my friends that moved from New York–when I lived in LaSalle came, he just came on the block at some point. Then he said, “Hey, let’s try to pick up rapping a little bit” and messed around back when we were growing up and just seeing how that felt. It felt nice, but I didn’t really push forward with it at the time. And then at some point Sahm just came to me after graduating and just like, “Hey, you wanna rap?” I’m like, “Not much.” I mean, let’s see. I do have a feeling for it, but let’s see where I can really go with it from this point.
Sahm: I think for me it affected me more in terms of like, I got to see a lot of different people and all the
different cultures and I got to see the different forms of oppression that these kinds of people have faced. And it made me like… as much as some songs might seem like they’re not about much, there’ll be small notes and comments on certain things that I’ve seen. It’s made me want to talk on these things. Like I think maybe if my environment was different, I wouldn’t be so aware of all these kinds of problems and I wouldn’t see it as a need to talk about them because I see that they’re not spoken about now. I want to be a voice that can spread those messages, you know?
Megan: Yeah, definitely. Do you think that Montreal is home for you or do you think that you would like to go somewhere else in the future?
Sahm: I mean, it’s home for now, but I do have dreams of going to Japan and moving into a nice traditional Japanese house. But yeah, it is home and I want to leave really badly and get somewhere where it’s hot and there’s no snow. That’d be great, no super cold, freezing temperatures. But like, I do think I would miss it, you know? Cause I haven’t got to live anywhere else. I think eventually I’d like to come back. So it is for sure home.
Megan: Yeah.
Shadanté: No, I’ll have to say the same thing too. Like, I want to go to Jamaica at some point, live there for like a couple years to really like bring up my Patois and stuff like that and just absorb the heat and everything else that the world has to offer. But yeah, no, it is like Sahmmy said, I’m not a fan of the snow. Last weekend was just too cold, honestly. It was disgusting. And it was supposed to be a birthday weekend, no less. But it’s home. It’s the familiarity of it all. You can’t just abandon it like that. It’s gonna creep back on you. Just like how winter does, it’s gonna come back. You’re gonna want to come back.
Megan: You can’t take the Canada out of the man. I’m from California, so I’m used to it being very warm, and I’m the opposite. I wanna go somewhere cold, so I’m trying to live in Seattle or something. Or like I could see myself moving to Norway or something.
Sahm: That would be cool. That would be interesting.
Megan: It is interesting that you mentioned Japan though, cause Japan is a musical scene that I’m very
interested in as far as their mixture of culture and stuff like that. I’ve even thought from back in the day, like city pop, there’s so much cool Caribbean influence and stuff, so do you listen to a lot of Japanese music?
Sahm: Yeah. Well, we’re big weebs.
Megan: Same.
Sahm: So we’ve been like, at least me personally, I’ve been diving into it. I’m so happy you mentioned City
Pop, I have not gotten to like, speak about it. But like, I’ve recently discovered it and it’s so beautiful. We’ve gone to some city pop events in the city where some friends of ours were DJing. It’s the best time and it feels nostalgic, like it’s such a great style of music that I’m so late on and I’m mad at myself [for that].
Megan: Yeah! I’ve been listening because I’m also a huge weeb, and I was getting into like city pop back when like I was on Tumblr, like people were making edits to it. Now I’m getting more into like, J-Jazz and their punk scene and everything, and I feel like even more of a weeb being like, “oh yeah, I listen to a lot of Japanese music.” And I’m like, “but it’s not anime openings! It’s not all anime openings.” There are some bangers, but that’s not all . So what did you guys grow up watching as far as anime?
Shadanté: Ooh, we have to give it to Naruto. We have to give it to, I mean, argue whoever you wanna argue
with. Yu-Gi-Oh! Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, Metabot…
Sahm: Digimon, Spider Riders.
Megan: Some deep cuts there.
Sahm: My dad put me on the classics before I could walk.
Shadanté: Mm-hmm.
Sahm: Basically he put on like the Ghibli movies and Akira, and there’s this one called Spriggan.
Megan: Dude, that’s hardcore watching Akira as a kid!
Sahm: Oh yeah. My mom didn’t like it. And even Ghost in the Shell. My mom didn’t know about Akira, but
then he put on Ghost in the Shell and my mom saw that the woman almost looked naked.
Megan: Yeah.
Sahm: Which was like, no, no, no, no. And so he turned it off. And a year later on my birthday, he gave me the
Ghost in the Shell manga, and was like, “don’t tell your mom.” It was the best.
Megan: That’s awesome. My mom did that with us too, except she hated like Ren and Stimpy, like the gross out humor type stuff. But I grew up on Dragon Ball Z Kai because I think I’m a little bit younger than you guys. So I was like watching it with the improved pacing and I was like, “this rock!”. Then I went back to watch GT and I was like, “this is so slow.”
Sahm: GT sucks! GT sucks.
Shadanté: Yo I know I don’t hear GT slander on this right now…
Sahm: I didn’t see Kai though. I watched the original and I went back to it after I had my daughter. Cause I
was like, we’re just sitting out watching stuff at home and I was like, lowkey like this kind of sucks. I was like, I’m waiting 20 episodes between Goku preparing to fight Frieza and then he fights Frieza? 30 episodes, 20 episodes is too long.
Megan: Yeah. Kai has better pacing, so I didn’t get as bored as a kid, but I remember my brother and I would look up highlights to watch the tournament arcs back, like over and over and over again. But then I went on my own over to watching, I watched all of Bleach when I was like eight. And then I went and watched Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and then Fruits Basket. So those were my three. And to this day, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is my favorite. I watch it annually. I think I’m on like my ninth time now.
Sahm: I love Fullmetal. I think I watch it three times and I’ll cry every time at the Mr. Tucker and…
Megan: …and Nina. Oh, it’s so sad. I’m that way with–have you watched Hunter hunter?
Sahm: Of course. So I’m on like my third, fourth one of that one too.
Megan: Yeah. When Meruem and Komugi have their last scene together, I will look that up and I’ll watch it
for 30 seconds and it’ll make me bawl. Like it’s too much.
Sahm: No, that’s so sad and it’s so beautiful. It’s like I get, I’m so easy, like with anime, you give me a
flashback in the middle of an intense moment and I’m bawling my eyes out and I got chills.
Megan: Like the best example of that is the Obito/Kakashi fight.
Sahm: That’s the–oh my God!
Megan: That’s the one!
Sahm: You’re so cultured–oh man, you’re so cool. I love that. My favorite Naruto fight is that one.
Megan: It’s so good.
Sahm: I still study that to this day.
Megan: Right now I’m getting one of my friends into anime cuz he thought that he never could. So we started with Samurai Champloo because he likes Nujabes. And then we went to Chainsaw Man because I wanted him to be on that early and now we’re watching Bleach on his request. He was like “I wanna watch Bleach,” I was like, are you ready for a 400 episode anime?
Shadanté: Yes..
Sahm: No, that’s actually crazy because back to, back to back is some of the best music in anime.
Megan: Yeah. Dude, the bleach soundtrack is underrated. That shit is amazing.
Sahm: I didn’t even finish Bleach and I know that the Bleach soundtrack is exceptional. The bleach opening one might be the best, arguably. I’ll argue it.

Shadanté: Mm-hmm.
Sahm: It’s maybe, it’s, it’s top three for sure, but for me it might be the number one.
Megan: Like, it’s so good.
Shadanté: Bro, for sure it’s too nostalgic to listen to the songs.
Sahm: Feels like Adult Swim, feels like staying up. And it’s the best feeling ever.
Megan: Yeah. I know that anime is becoming skate culture in some ways, which is really interesting. Like,
you got the MeganThee Stallion “p***y like like a wild fox, looking for a Sasuke,” something like that. Have you ever felt tempted to add in anime stuff to your music? Like as far as the beats or the lyrics.
Sahm: It’s in all of it.
Megan: Really?
Sahm: In all of it.
Megan: That’s awesome.
Sahm: There’s this one song, that’s unfortunately to this day, I’ve never spent more time working on a song.
Shadanté: Oh, yes.
Sahm: And it’s called The Kickback. It’s off our first EP, and it’s at least listened to song. And it’s so sad cause I worked the longest on it.
Megan: Aw.
Sahm: I think there’s a Killua bar in there. I think I mentioned–
Shadanté: There’s s a Naruto bar.
Sahm: There’s Naruto, I think I’m talking about. Oh, “it’s the kyuubi kick back cuz we never stopping”. It’s
littered in everything and then other songs like I think in…what is it? There’s a song where I start off with Attack on Titan references.
Shadanté: Yes. Breadcrumbs.
Sahm: Breadcrumbs. I think I say something like “I might lose an Armin a leg,” slipping it in there.
Megan: Yeah! Dude, I’ve been, I’ve been looking forward to hearing more people move on from like Dragon Ball Z and Naruto like I want to hear more of the deep cuts. Come on.
Shadanté: One Piece. It’s not a deep cut, I guess. Well, I mean, it’s a deep cut to the world right now.
Megan: Yeah.
Shadanté: Yeah. No, no. One piece is, by far, I would say in the best fiction of all time.
Megan: I need to get into it. My brother is cracked. He’s read the manga three times and watched the anime twice.
Shadanté: Hell yes.
Megan: He’s goated with it. He was funny, I was so intimidated by the length of it, cuz I haven’t watched a
reoccurring shonen like that since I was like 10, and he was like, “don’t worry, I got you.” And he sent me a list of what you can skip on your first watch for the sake of pacing and all that.
Sahm: Yeah the filler list! Shadanté hit me with that too. Cause he was the one that begged me for years. He was like, Sahmmy, God. Cause I’ve known him since I was, how old? I was like 12.
Shadanté: Exactly.
Sahm: And, since then, he would do like the One Piece laugh and I was like this guy is a loser. You tell me
every year “watch it,” every few months “watch it,” I’m like, “bro, I’m never gonna.” And I cracked and I
watched it and I was like, “I was sleeping. I was walking around with my eyes closed.”
Shadanté: It’s beautiful. Like your brother, I’m sure he knows. Growing up I was like 10, 11, I was at my
grandparent’s place. Chilling on the bed with my, where my mom used to be and all of that stuff. Watching it off the computer screen. I’m like… it is one of the few instances that I could say, “I am happy.” I can still remember to this day, it’s a show that really brings me to tears even when the pacing is bad and all of that other stuff, I couldn’t give a fudge honestly.
Megan: Yeah.
Shadanté: It’s just, it’s beautiful to just see that smile and hear those laughs and the cinematic presentation. Just sonically, like the third opening, I could put that on right now and I can honestly just feel the shivers down my spine. Like I understand what some people are saying–”I can’t die before One Piece ends.” I hope I convinced you.
Megan: Yeah, dude, I’ve been feeling like I need to, but I need to be watching dubs, since I’m doing
homework, I can’t be looking up at subs all the time. And I feel like a disgrace starting a show on a dub for the first time.
Sahm: It’s not bad. I did it.
Megan: Is it a good dub?
Shadanté: It’s good dub. I mean, it’s alright, but like, because one piece is really good, like you can kind of
get over it.
Megan: I’m just afraid of the old school 4Kids dubs, [they’re] so cheesy.
Shadanté: You know that’s a “lollipop.”
Megan: Yeah, exactly! Like Brock in Pokemon, the onigiri. It’s a “jelly donut.”
Shadanté: Dude–
Sahm: Oh my god, I remember that. How terrible.
Megan: Yeah, I know.
Sahm: You’re so good.
Megan: Thank you! It’s so funny. It’s like, “Americans are too stupid to understand what a Japanese snack is. This is a jelly donut.” That’s so bad. On the note of media that you guys are like pushing on each other: my brother and I have very similar tastes, so we’re always begging each other like “this is the one thing we don’t share. You need to listen to this.” Do you guys have any albums that you’re like begging each other to listen to?
Shadanté: I remember back in the day, I was begging him to listen to that 21 Savage tape. And he hated it.
Sahm: I’m just a hater.
Shadanté: And afterwards he came out and then finally accepted. I’m like, oh, okay.
Sahm: If Shadanté–if anybody tries to put me on anything, I don’t like it. Like I don’t know what it is. I need to
find it on my own.Like he tried to put me on Young Thug, on 21 Savage…
Shadanté: Slime Season three finally came out.
Sahm: Yeah, like, this was like 2016, like my friend was playing early Playboy Carti. And I was like, bro, he’s
saying one word the whole song. Now I’m stage diving, like I’m at the Carti concerts.
Megan: Now you’re trying to be Cardi.
Sahm: Yeah! So it’s like but I don’t know any albums that I’m like…
Shadanté: There was I guess in 2018, you showed me Veteran from JPEG Mafia.
Megan: That album goes so hard.
Shadanté: Yes, yes! I listened to it for the first time. I’m like, I don’t understand what’s going on here. So I
played it again and it made complete and utter sense.
Megan: that’s exactly how I felt.
Shadanté: It just captured me. Like my favorite song from it right now would have to be I Just Killed a Cop
and Now I’m Horny.
Megan: Yeah, dude. Best song title of that year. I swear to God,
Sahm: Easily.
Shadanté: Like, I even asked him on a stream one time, “why did you change the progression or the sounds of the song,” he answered and was just saying like, it was just outdated. And I’m like, I guess, but I loved it. I remember listening to it back on like a bus ride. You know, the clouds were just doing their thing, being blue and purple and stuff like that. And I’m just like, I don’t know…it just made sense to me listening to that, I always picture that moment. I’m like, why did you take this from me?
Megan: Yeah.
Sahm: Put me on Ghais Guevara.
Megan: Yeah!
Sahm: Shadanté was telling me about interviews, like, “oh, she wrote this article about him, we don’t know
anybody that’s really on him.” He’s really tried from time to get me onto him.
Megan: He rules. I love him. He just put out his Job’s Not Finished Pack, [and] there’s a Binging with Babish bar on there and it made me lose my mind. I was on the bus and I laughed out loud. He was like, “she’s in the kitchen bald, like Binging with Babish” or something.
Sahm: That’s amazing.
Megan: It was so funny.
Sahm: A very specific bar.
Megan: Yeah. He’s hilarious. I mean, like, when I interviewed him we talked about Guilty Gear, so there’s always these– like, I swear every cool rapper out there is a nerd.
Sahm: oh yeah.
Megan: Like, you do not have these good references if you’re not in the books and you’re not on like social media, if you’re not on like fucking Reddit looking at game walkthroughs. Like there’s no way.
Sahm: Yeah. Honestly, I’m so like this and, I don’t mean any offense by this, but I’m so shocked because you’re like whipping out these references. You’re so cultured, the deep rap cuts, the anime stuff, like all this. It’s awesome.
Megan: Aww, thank you! I don’t really have much else that I wanna talk about, so I think that that’ll do me.
Shadanté: All righty.
Megan: Thank you guys so much for talking, I appreciate it!
Shadanté: Thank you for having us.
Megan: If you guys would like to plug the single and your socials?
Shadanté: Oh, yes, yes. Leftside Story. It’s out right now, music videos are out as well! Creative director, moi and everyone else, we have Mel, we have V. Sean, we have Ty, we have Alif, if it wasn’t for them, the music video would not be where it is right now. Thank you very much to everyone else that’s watching it. We’re here and we got something new and we’re loving it.
Sahm: Yeah. We’re also @onebytenpercent on Instagram. My Instagram is @saminja, his is @plaguedbythird.
Shadanté: Yes, yes.
Sahm: And, yeah, we got some stuff coming, so if you guys are interested, I’m definitely excited to get more people to listen.
Megan: All right! And once again, this has been SCAD Radio, more than music. I’m your production director, Megan, and that’ll do us

The post Montreal duo 110% break down “Leftside Story”<br>and talk shop with Radio appeared first on SCAD Radio.

General Manager – Dylan Gutierrez : “Not Giving You Up” by Big Time Rush

Content Director – Vinay Ranganathan : “Everybody (Backstreets Back)” by Backstreet Boys

Events Director – David Levy : “Claridad” by Menudo

Events DJ –  Negan Fu : “Year 3000” by Jonas Brothers 

Music Coordinator – Hailey Feller : “She Looks So Perfect” by 5 Seconds of Summer 

Program Director –  Ell Pikor : “Big Time Rush” by Big Time Rush

Production Director – Megan Atwell : “BOOGIE” by BROCKHAMPTON

Branding Director – Taylor Eby : “Bye Bye Bye” by NSYNC

Social Media Director – Kshirja Raje : “Somebody To You” by The Vamps 

Events DJ (ATL) – Caroline Moody : “She’s Kinda Hot” by 5 Seconds of Summer 

Assistant Content Director – Clove Morgan : “Heartbreak Girl” by 5 Seconds of Summer

Assistant Events DJ – Christopher Chin : “Intergalactic” by Beastie Boys 

Assistant Branding Director – Logan Fitch : “Pop” by NSYNC 

Assistant Music Coordinator – Zach Nguyen : “Can We Dance” by The Vamps 

Assistant Program Director – Tatiana Zavala : “Valentine” by 5 Seconds of Summer

Assistant Social Media Director – Avery Naylor-Johnson : “Daydream Believer” by The Monkees

Assistant Production Director – Riley Samz : “Butter” by BTS

Assistant Production Director – Mairyn McGilvray : “Boys” by The Beatles

Listen now on Spotify Staff Picks 

Check out who’s who on “Meet the Staff” 

The post Staff Picks Week 7 appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Ghais Guevara is a thrilling, tactful, brash voice in the modern rap space, emerging out of the storied streets of Philly and gaining acclaim both in his city and online. He generously took the time to sit down with SCAD Radio to discuss the political under- (and over-) currents of his music, his process for beat making, and Guilty Gear mains. Listen to the audio and read the transcript below

Megan: Hello Scad Radio. This is your production director Megan, and I am here with Ghais Guevara. So, for the people, who are you, what do you do? What kind of music do you make? 

Ghais: My name is Ghais. I am a rapper producer from Philadelphia. I make politically-charged underground hip-hop/rap. I don’t- I’m whatever people say I am at this point. 

Megan: Yeah.

*Laughter*

Megan: It is a very eclectic, kind of hard to categorize, which I think is somewhat the goal, I would assume, right? To be a little bit subversive. 

Ghais: Definitely. 

Megan: Yeah.You are from Philadelphia and Philadelphia is sort of similar to Savannah, where we are, that it’s a very historically-charged city. There’s a lot that has happened and a lot that is still happening there. So, how did growing up somewhere with history like that city inform your artistic development?

Ghais: Well, that’s a good question cuz a lot of it, you think about like the Declaration of Independence and-

Megan: Yeah-

Ghais: -all that other mess, but being somebody that’s- I mean, I’m from North Philadelphia, black kid, you know, I don’t really have any room to really give a damn about all that stuff.

Megan: Yeah. 

Ghais: But it’s an impressive revolutionary history.  MOVE is from there. Paul Robeson lived there, Co-train lived there, so it’s a lot of like-

Megan: Yeah. 

Ghais: -very important black history, especially with the soul music movement and a lot of that. A lot of that that tends to come not from being in like Riten House and Independence Hall. But just being in those more impoverished neighborhoods where it’s a bit more people of color and black people and so on and so forth. So just by extension of just being there, you tend to just take all of that in just by just living there. 

Megan: Definitely. And I would assume that in a lot of ways that revolutionary history being sort of, in a lot of ways whitewashed to this day, would inspire you to be as brash as you are with your statement so that there’s no room for interpretation.

Ghais: Yeah. A lot of people like to blatantly lie. They just blatantly lie about things. So I’m like, if you can lie to my face, it’s, it’s so funny- I always say this- that people excuse sinister acts or misbehavior because they’re not loud about it or cuz they’re not violent about it. It’s like, it’s still f***** up curse. Just because it’s more psychological doesn’t mean it’s decent. I should be allowed to go ahead and yell about what I want.

Megan: Reminds me of the monologue at the beginning of Free Mirror.

Ghais: Yeah. Pretty much.

*Laughter*

Megan: So going back to sort of the eclectic nature of your music, you have some very, for lack of a better term, wacky sample usage. When I was listening to the album for the first time through, I was in public. And when I heard the steamed ham cliff, I laughed out loud. I was like, whoa. So, I wanted to ask about, for those samples, where do you start with those? And for really well-known samples like the Silk Sonic one on Patrisse Cullors, does that affect the well-known nature of the sample affect the way that you use it at all?     

Ghais: So essentially- it’s kind of my approach- is I hear something that I like and I’ll write it down. I’ll jot it down and be like, I’ll use this for later. I’m not much of a pro. I guess I am kind of prolific. I don’t know, but I don’t make five beats a day or something. I usually just sit down. I’ll make three beats in one week and then keep going. You know, it’s sporadic. 

Megan: Yeah.

 Ghais: So things like the steam hand clips or stuff like that, like the SpongeBob clips and the memes. It usually comes from, I have an idea in mind and when I come up with that idea, the back of my mind is just unlocked. It’s like, oh, well this fit perfectly in that idea so let me just search for that real quick. So it really is just a bunch of mental notes. It’s nothing really planned ahead and nothing like that. As for the more well known stuff, it’s pretty much the same thing. I always get scared a little bit cuz they like to crack down on stuff like that. It’s all about what I think sounds good and I’m just gonna use whatever I think sounds good. And if I get in trouble for it, then, I mean, I’m a political rapper, I’m always gonna be in trouble, so… 

Megan: Yeah. Exactly. I know that there’s been some- well, a pretty well known case of- well actually two pretty well-known cases of samples getting people in trouble. I’m thinking of Kelis for the new Beyonce album. She tried to, I think, interpolate Milkshake and it got her struck down. And then JPEG Mafia, he had to pretty much rework his whole album, uh, lp cuz there was a ton of uncleared samples.

Ghais: I remember when Pharrell got cracked down by Marvin Gay’s Estate for blurred lines. The people you’re naming are a bit like more established.  For me, I feel like I could just pass it off as, oh, it’s just a mixed tape. I may have to take it off like streaming services or some shit like that, but by then, I’m gonna already be through the stratosphere. It’s not really something I’m really tripping about. I mean, the day that they started cracking on like Chief Keef and DJ drama, they already cracked down on DJ drama, but the day that it really becomes like a big wave of anti sampling, then maybe I’ll quake in my boots a bit, but right now, I’m cool. 

Megan: Yeah. Well that’s good to hear. And I wanted to also- playing on talking about those other artists, since your music does have a whole lot going on as far as different sounds all packed into one song and stuff like that, I wanted to ask about what musical influence has kind of led you to where you are.

Ghais: Usually it’s not really anything specific. Of course, I have a couple of people that I always have in mind that I wanna show off my appreciation for, but it’s never really- it depends on how I’m approaching a song. If the song is going to be more political, more heady, more intellectual, for lack of a better word, I’m not gonna approach it like Future. If it’s a rap song, I’m not gonna approach it like Kelis or Justin Timberlake. So much influences and knowledge and music bouncing around through my head. It’s just nice to be able to- it’s like a deck of cards. Just pull it out whenever I need it. Who do I want to channel? Who do I want to kind of gain inspiration from based off the specific track or album?

Megan: Yeah. There’s this whole concept at school here that we like to talk about- “Stealing like an Artist”- where you kind of exist as this artistic sponge and you soak up all the things that you love and then eventually, by the time that kind of, I guess bringing it out to put it into a project, it’s all meshed together. It’s just a big amalgam of everything that you love and the influence is there, but it’s kind of indistinguishable from each other. Cause it’s all you. 

Ghais: And I always try to tell people when people ask me for advice. And I know it sounds so like corny and cliche, telling people to be theirselves. It really is because every person’s unique. Everybody, every person has different experiences, different environments, different influences and inspirations. So, so long as you’re being yourself, you’ll never sound just like somebody else. I think that’s how I really approach it. Even if I do want to do something more mainstream inspired, I’ll never take myself out of it. I’ll still throw in a random cartoon sample or something to just set myself apart.

Megan: Definitely. Kind of on the note of your own process, I guess, where do your songs normally start? Do you start with a beat, with a bar?

Ghais: Technically I guess it starts with a bar. My writing process is pretty funny. It’s the same way I approach samples. I like, think of a line, think of a concept, I’ll jot it down. Then when it’s time to write, then I sit there. And people always say, “Oh, you work so fast.” Because I have this foundation to go off already. If they want a verse and I would get it done in 15 minutes, they’re like, “Yo, how did you do that?” You know, well I had this idea from 2019 that I just had my phone and I could just build off of that. So that’s pretty much the process. I usually start by finding the beat. I don’t really like writing without a beat because you wanna be able to match the tone and match the mood, and so on and so forth. There’s been times where I’ve used an old verse for a new beat, yeah, but for the most part, I start with the beat. 

Megan: Yeah. I would imagine that writing without the beat in mind would kind of make the bars feel a little bit unhoused, like you don’t know where you’re putting it, so you can’t really pace it at all.

Ghais: Yeah, exactly.

Megan: I have to know. How long were you holding onto the Queen Elizabeth song before she kicked it? 

Ghais: I made that- that was a day-after idea. 

Megan: Really?

Ghais: Somebody was like, “Why don’t you just make the track?” And I was like, “Okay, I’ll do it.”

Megan: That’s awesome. 

Ghais: Yeah, the day after. It just- was this spur of the moment. I got up, I didn’t even brush my teeth, I just stood in front of the microphone. I had the beats sitting around and I was just, “Let’s record this.”

Megan: That’s so funny. Yeah, Queen Elizabeth pack watch was more urgent than self-care at that moment.

Ghais: Definitely. 

Megan: That’s awesome. I see in the album credits for “There Will Be No Super Slave” that there are a few producers aside from yourself credited. So, do you find that music is collaborative for you or do you find that those contributions kind of come towards the end as a cherry on top? 

Ghais: I wanna be way more collaborative. I think I was kind of forced in a hole to not be. People don’t have any reason to really believe in you. I’m not gonna sit here and be like, you know, “N****s ain’t, n****s ain’t see the vision, dadadadadadada…” Everybody wanna be a rapper, you know what I mean? I do- I am a bit more of a collaborative person, especially, I’ve been getting in studios with people, doing a lot more features. I do like the idea of bouncing ideas off of each other. Again, everybody being their unique selves and just culmination. It’s something to be more proud of because it definitely is harder to work as a team than it is by yourself. But at the same time, the ideas, the more minds you have, the more endless the ideas are. So, I’m always looking forward to that kind of like maximalist type of thing, 

Megan:  Yeah, for sure. I know that there’s a whole thesis that’s been going around about people who are one man bands and how they kind of produce fairly similar sounds. Like a full album will kind of have a very consistent, almost too consistent sound throughout it. The one that comes to mind is, not to knock him, but Kevin Parker Tame Impala. You got some bangers, but you can listen to the album and kind of zone out and you’re like “where am I?” you know? So I think that that collaborative, multiple heads coming into one thing can really lead you through a different path than you might have taken on your own.

Ghais: Yeah. I’m not sure why people try to individualize music. I mean, I understand the whole “I did it myself” thing. Trust me, I’m proud that I did bullshit big by myself, but that was years and years of ideas. That’s different eras of ideas mashing into one project. So, technically, it almost is like three or four people that’s working on a project. A lot of these folks are putting out project after project after project every month, every week, every year. And there’s no way that within the time span that you’re gathering enough influences and inspiration and ideas to separate yourself from what you previously did, which if you wanna remain consistent, that’s cool. There’s a lot of rappers that remain consistent in their content that are doing extremely well. But I like to play around with things. 

Megan: Do you think that a lot of that is attempting to not succumb to the grind culture that’s really prevalent in rap? The “started from the bottom” kind of thing? I think that sometimes people invest way too hard in that and end up producing mediocre stuff in the effort to really grind.

Ghais: Yeah, I think people put quantity over quality, ethic over quality and stuff like that. We do live in a very fast, demanding… People don’t really buy physical copies- I mean they do, but it’s not- you’re not selling 500K off CDs no more. This isn’t the 2000s. So, we live in a very fast demanding era where you’re here today and gone tomorrow. That’s why I’m kind of proud of the way that I came up cuz my fan base is a bit more organic, so they’ll kind of stick with me and wait for me. But a lot of these people, they blow up one hits on TikTok. [Don’t] really know anything about this person, they just like the song. They don’t care for an album. So I don’t really blame people for trying to get that next paycheck very fast, stack their money and then retire a year later. But I’m here for a long time.

Megan: Yeah. And I think that a testament to that is that you were able to do a successful vinyl release. A lot of people, like you said, a lot of people are there for an artist for a song, or maybe even 30 seconds of a song that they like. So being able to sell out a full vinyl drop is impressive.

Ghais: That was incredible. I think I kind of owe it to the politics a little bit. I think people are finally like, finally somebody we can relate to that’s not a lame- they’re kinda like sticking with me. I, I, I hope I don’t let them down.

Megan: I saw you tweet the other day. Somebody was like, “I named my cat after you.” And you’re like, “Cool, I’m gonna do something that makes you hate that soon.” 

*Laughter*

Ghais: Make them regret it. Yeah.

Megan: Yeah. 

Ghais: Yeah. That’s- that’s a lot of power. People naming things after me. That’s crazy.

Megan: I know, yeah, At the end of the day, I have my artists who I adore. Like I have a tattoo on my ribs for Fleet Foxes. I’m a big fan of them, but at the end of the day, like Robin Pecknold, the guy who is their front man, he’s just a dude.  He’s just a guy. He’s not a god to me. I’m not gonna name my firstborn after him.

Ghais: Exactly. . 

Megan: So I actually wanted to talk a little bit about the title of your recent album, which is “There Will Be No Super Slave.” So, from my research, I found that it comes, correct me if I’m wrong, from a book, “Blood in My Eye.” Would you be able to tell us a little bit about that book and the intent behind the title?

Ghais: Yeah. So, George Jackson was a political prisoner. I think he was arrested for robbery. I may be wrong. He was held in prison for pretty much the extension for the rest of his life after that because, I think- did he become a communist in prison? I don’t a hundred percent remember. Usually when we talk about political prisoners, it’s like Tulu Shakur, George Jackson, people that are very communist ideologically and from within the prisons try to spread their work from beyond the walls or within the walls. He was a very- he’s very influential on a lot of the people that I hang with, a lot of people that I love, a lot of the prison abolitionists love George Jackson to death, and I also love George Jackson to death. I’ve read the book, I didn’t finish it, but there’s this excerpt where his brother, Jonathan, who died at 17 trying to break his brother out of prison. He wrote a letter to George and he was talking about the urgency for revolutionary organization amongst black people. He made, he said the quote, “There will be no super slave,” essentially saying like, we can’t wait for like a messiah or a prophetic figure to come save us. We have to organize and do this now or else it’s gonna be the end of this. 

Megan: Definitely. And I think that- I mean, what you were saying before about how your fanbase, it’s like I finally have someone to relate to. It’s almost a statement too on your part to say, I’m not that either. 

Ghais: Definitely. No. Hell no. I don’t- like I said, I read five books last year. I didn’t touch a single one this year. I’m, I’m not, I’m not flawless. I don’t know everything. I don’t know a lot. I’m just outspoken. I admit my mistakes, I’m willing to put myself on the line for others. Please don’t expect me to be that person.

Megan: Yeah. I think that a lot of the time right now, especially in this era of a leftist come-up on Twitter where there’s such a push for people to be very theory literate in order to be respected in that space and I think that’s- it’s sort of gatekeepy. Why are you trying to keep people down from believing in [an] ideology that you believe in as well? Just because they don’t have time to break down marxism?

Ghais: I mean, you look at Lennon and the peasantry and what he did with the peasantry, like what Castro did with the workers, what Shay did with the workers- the literacy rates before the revolution were garbage. Nobody knew what they were reading. For people to have this expectation that everybody else should have this knowledge already, it’s kind of ridiculous.  I don’t, I, but I feel like, and I’ve said this before, I feel like a lot of these people are just cosplaying trying to be these prophetic figures. Trying to be that dude, trying to show off their knowledge and what they know over what others don’t,  and they don’t really care about the people for real. They just wanna be… In that sense. 

Megan: Yeah. They wanna be the person to ratio a Republican. 

Ghais: Exactly. 

Megan: Yeah. And speaking of that, leftist politics have a big ubiquity across the album. They’re pretty much all across it. So was that a very conscious choice? Just something that happened as a result of thoughts?

Ghais: It’s pretty much all that I know. We always talk about, I, I really hate when people talk about, “Oh, hip hop’s only guns and drugs and women.” But like, but that’s cuz that’s what they grew up around- guns and drugs and women. That’s all they know, what are they supposed to rap about? Sorry that these 20 year olds from Brownsville aren’t well-earthed and globed, like? So kind of, I grew up- my parents were revolutionary. They did revolutionary work. I grew up around a lot of them, a lot of revolutionary families. And around my teenage years, towards the end of high school, I started meeting with revolutionary orgs as well on my own. So it’s kind of like all that I’ve really known, even since I was really young. Just saying shit that would just get me in trouble. Like my parents, like, “You’re not supposed to say that out loud.” When I approach a microphone, that’s kind of just like what comes to mind first, so 

Megan: Yeah, definitely. I think that that’s very interesting. It’s a very different, sort of, growth than a lot of people might have, cuz that sort of revolutionary upbringing is not, not very common I think in a lot of the United States. That’s a very interesting perspective. 

Ghais: Yeah. So many people… Like, “How do you know this stuff?” They think that I’ve shut myself out, closed the windows, turned the lights off, and just crammed a bunch of books. And like documentaries and videos, and it’s like, no, these came from conversations with people that all considered, you know, legends. So,  not to be the antithesis of what I just said about being a prophetic figure, but it’s kind of, it’s kind of funny that I personally happened to go through that experience and also happened to have the talent to market it the way that I did, you know what I mean?

Megan: Yeah, definitely. 

Ghais: Kind of just like a destined thing.

Megan: Yeah. I think, too, going back to what you were saying about people saying that hiphop is all drugs, guns, and women. I think that it’s also interesting to go back to how hip hop has developed because back in the day there was still revolutionary sentiment, but it’s a lot less. It was on the down low a little bit more. Even now, the remaining rappers- the Griselda kind of group, they’re still- the recent Benny the Butcher project, he is still talking about selling crack, you know? There’s still a lot of that and it’s interesting now to see how, like you said, since you’re political, you’re always kind of in a hot seat, but also those old school rappers are now getting targeted by states trying to use their lyrics against them in court and stuff like that. So it really feels, to some degree, rap as an art form is never gonna get its moment to really win cuz people just wanna keep you down.

Ghais: Definitely not. And it’s so funny cuz it’s such a young genre. It’s like 50 years old. And throughout that 50 years, you’d go insane trying to name the amount of rappers who have not gotten in trouble for being rappers. Whether you’re a revolutionary- you can be a damn backpack rapper rapping about skateboards and they’re gonna find something to RICO you about because it ends with this gang member. So it’s not, it’s never really safe, and I think people should look at it as, it’s not even that they’re just targeting rappers. We’ve always been targeted as black people, period. Rappers, jazz musicians, poets, authors, no matter what field that we choose, if we aren’t assimilating, we’re targeted. So I don’t… I don’t understand why people try to act like it’s us.

Megan: Yeah, definitely. I also wanted to ask, this comes from my good friend Sophie, who  actually put me onto the album. So shout out Sophie. She asks, “As a socialist who often feels conflicted about putting explicitly socialist themes in my own work, on narrative songs like Luminescence and Face Off, how do you go about blending storytelling with agitprop while avoiding being preachy?”

Ghais: I don’t usually… I don’t approach it like I’m trying to teach somebody. I don’t approach it like it’s a socialist track. Again, this is kind of a, I know it’s a shitty answer, but because I grew up around it and because it’s within me, it’s kind of like it just comes out no matter what I try to do or say. So I think from somebody, I don’t really know Sophie’s background or anything, but I think how you should approach it is what would I personally want to hear? Would I want to hear a story of- you take Face Off and Luminescence, you know, these are stories about struggles and strife, and you use those stories and give an explanation as to why you’re in the situation that you’re in. Don’t sit there and give data and statistics and so on and so forth. Nobody’s trying to hear all that. What they want is to relate to you on a personal level. And, you know, that’s kinda something that I learned through like tabling with people, being on the streets and having conversations about police budget and shit like that. Wanna approach it like, “All right. Your life sucks. My life sucks. Here’s why. Here’s how we can fix it.” You don’t wanna be condescending and be like, “I’m telling you what to do, this is what you need to do.” So I pretty much approach it just like that. Like I want to be able to relate to you emotionally and mentally, first and foremost. So I’m gonna tell you my deepest, darkest tragedies. You tell me your deepest, darkest tragedies and let’s figure it out together.

Megan: And I think that that’s definitely resonant also just in politics in general. At the end of the day, if you look at how people vote and what they want, everybody wants the same thing. They want workers to be protected, they want their kids to be safe, they want everybody to get their dues, but they just are being told how to get there by bad actors or people with bad faith arguments or people who are spreading propaganda against a worker revolution or unionization and stuff like that. And it’s so difficult to win people over with facts when they’ve been shown other facts. It’s much easier to communicate with someone on a person to person basis and figure out, “What do you want?”

Ghais: Exactly. Nobody wants to be treated like a robot. They don’t wanna be given instructions, so.

Megan: Yeah. And a lot of the time it can be more frustrating if you’re trying to show somebody empirical evidence of a certain thing, and they’re like, don’t care. I’m like, dude, what do you want from me?

Ghais: Yeah, exactly. 

Megan: It would be really difficult to put a statistic in a bar too.

Ghais: Yeah, exactly. That’s kind of, I guess, I mean, Mos Def kind of did it with mathematics. But I mean, that’s Mos Def.  He’s special, you know what I mean?

Megan:  Some people can just do it different, built different. So, being from Philly, I would like to know your thoughts on the election results. It was a very bizarre race there with f****** Dr. Oz.

Ghais: I was, it’s so funny cause I mean, I don’t know, is he ever gonna hear this interview? My pops is big on voting, and I just outright just didn’t show up to the polls. He works at the polls that I’m supposed to go vote at. He’s probably gonna be mad at me, but I wasn’t paying any attention to it. Honestly, I knew Dr. Oz was running. I honestly didn’t know that he was Turkish before he was running. I didn’t know he was f****** Mehmet. Yeah. Like, I was like, oh  shit, this n***-

Megan: I saw that on the polls. I was like, what?

Ghais: Fetterman was gonna win. We’ve been Democrat for the past whatever years. I mean, it’s not like we’re much, I mean we are in a red state kind of. You go outside of Philly, it’s kind of like, what the f***? But… Look, Federman won and then a day later, 11 students got held at gunpoint at Temple University and got robbed. Same shit, different day. I’m not really impressed by any of these- I mean, it’s good that we can get abortions and stuff like that, and so on and so forth. That’s always great, but at the end of the day, as a- we can talk about women’s rights all we want, but you know, as black women, what about black trans women? Always gonna be neglected no matter who the f*** we vote for.

Megan: Yeah, there’s very little room for intersectionality on the election campaign trail, which is really unfortunate. You don’t hear anybody really talking about it other than explicitly leftist candidates who are like running on a progressive ballot. The big example would probably be AOC, who’s- even then, she has some very unfortunate positions I think. Mostly foreign policy related, but she has some good progressive stuff going on and it’s very difficult to point out other people in the United States who have been able to pull that off, which is unfortunate.

Ghais: It’s freaking, it’s insane. I know, like, Kshama over in Seattle. I think she’s like, City Council. She’s openly socialist, she’s war against Amazon, stuff like that. Other than that, I mean, and this is what I’ve been saying is like the thing with electoralism is that these n***s cheat. They cheated Bernie and I don’t even f*** with Bernie. He don’t f*** with ASATA so I don’t f*** with Bernie. They won’t allow you to win. It’s their game, so I don’t understand why we’re trying to beat them at their own game.

Megan: There were some- I mean, the rest of the world already considers American politics to be a little bit of a joke, which is really becoming evident, I’ll say, in how weird a lot of the candidates were this time. Especially coming from Georgia. The election here was nuts. Guy who threw a football once versus well-respected pastor from like an ancestral church. And it was neck and neck. It’s like, what is happening?

Ghais: They’re letting anybody do anything- it’s a reality show, honestly. I said, how many people know where their voting polls actually is? How many people know these people’s policies, know their family history background? Don’t nobody know that stuff. It’s about who’s the funniest, who’s the silliest.

Megan: Yeah. So who’s got the charisma and who’s backed by what color. Which is sad. So another one from Sophie and a little, a little quirky one to finish us off, she says, “I gotta ask, who’s your main in guilty gear?”

Ghais: It’s Ramlethal. I haven’t played it in forever, I gotta get back into it. But yeah, I play with Rammy. I like playing with black characters and her swords. She’s a great mid-range. You know, all you gotta do is press triangle or circle and you’ll break anybody’s combo because that mid-range attack is just so… and combos is pretty easy. I can get a wall break easily with her. I’ve kicked so much a** with Ramlethal.

Megan: Do you play any Smash Ultimate? 

Ghais: Yeah. I used- it’s actually funny. So when me and my brother, back in our impoverished days or whatever, all we literally had to play was smash. We just did Smash Brawl like for eight hours straight every f****** day. So we were like, really good. So when Smash Ultimate came around, I kind of dropped it a bit, but I can always just pick it back up. It’s so funny. But yeah, I love Smash Ultimate.

Megan: Who’s your main on there?

Ghais: Either Snake or Wolf. 

Megan: Ooh, you’re on that- the melee shit with Wolf. Some of the Falco strats. Sophie and I are both Corrin mains.

Ghais: We hate- every time I play with my friends, we just hate fighting Corrins. 

Megan: Corrin- It’s because Corin, it’s like the same thing that you have in guilty gear. That mid-range, the side b is nuts. Sophie is competitive in Connecticut, so I watch her on Twitch whenever she’s playing. 

Ghais: That’s hilarious.

Megan: It’s awesome. She was on the other night and I was like in chat like, “My goat! Sophie!”

Ghais: That’s funny as hell.

Megan: Yeah. Well, it was lovely talking to you.

Ghais: It was nice talking to you too. Thank you for that.

Megan: Of course. And  if you would like to plug your socials and all of that.

Ghais: I’m Ghais Guevara. G-H-A-I-S Guevara, like Che Guevara everywhere. My name is Unchanging. I have, I chose a really unique name, so nobody’s-

Megan: Easy to find-

Ghais: Yeah.

Megan: Good SEO. 

Ghais: Check out ghaisguevara.net for upcoming shows. I got like four shows coming in December. Thank God.

Megan: Yeah. All right. Thank you guys for listening. This has been SCAD Radio More Than Music, and this has been your production director, Megan. So, check out anything else on the website if you’d like. If not, thank you for listening.

The post Hip Hop Iconoclast Ghais Guevara talks shop with SCAD Radio appeared first on SCAD Radio.

The album starts with his biggest and most controversial hit so far, “MONTERO (CALL ME BY YOUR NAME)”. This song, while not the most complex, is a great start to the album, the 2 chord song is pretty unique beatwise and its very plucky guitar style lends itself well to the album. The clap drums and bass work very nicely in harmony with the flamenco style. The lyrics about owning up to his sexuality are also particularly strong.

Next we get to the areas which I like to call the brass section of the album, both “DEAD RIGHT NOW” and “INDUSTRY BABY” follow the title track and include heavy brass sections in the beats, the mixing is really well done on both these songs and even the whole album. The production is consistent and the lyrics on these 2 tracks like the title track are very personal. The playfulness of Industry Baby is a nice breather on the album of mostly sad or self reflective songs. It recaps some of his achievements in music and includes a Jack Harlow feature that is a pretty good complement to Lil Nas’ voice.

There are, however, two songs where I feel the album dips. “LOST IN THE CITADEL” and “THAT’S WHAT I WANT” feel derivative in a lot of ways. While I definitely appreciate the different sound Lil Nas was going for, “THAT’S WHAT I WANT” feels like a generic indie rock sound with nothing unique to offer. “LOST IN THE CITADEL” has some of the more simpler beats on the album. One of the great things about Lil Nas X is as an artist he always adds an interesting flair to his music, but I feel that that’s only true here in the sense that lyrically these songs are strong, but instrumentally they aren’t memorable. 

Some of the last few songs on the album are probably my favorites. “DOLLA SIGN SLIME” with Megan Thee Stallion as a feature is super playful, it’s got a strong trap beat and it sounds awesome. I love the brass on this song like the previous ones; it complements well with the aforementioned trap beat. Megan Thee Stallion is one of the stronger rappers of today and her verses and vocals are complementary and very strong and elevate the song to a whole new level. 

Finally, the last songs I thoroughly enjoyed off the album were ones I did not expect to like as much as I did. “SUN GOES DOWN” and “AM I DREAMING” prove that Lil Nas X, when he sticks the landing, is an extremely versatile artist. On my first listen to “SUN GOES DOWN” felt a bit average and not unique, but now in the context of the album I really enjoy the instrumentals, the fuzzy guitar really wraps a neat bow around the track. The lyrics about his early life dealing with bullying, these deeply personal vulnerabilities, make the song stronger and worth the listen. The last song “AM I DREAMING” surprised me because I’m not a huge Miley Cyrus fan but this song was fairly nice, the instrumentals were well produced and vocally I thought Miley Cyrus sounded nice. It was a good use of a feature, although I thought the distortion on Lil Nas’ voice was clearer than Cyrus’. 

Overall this is an album with some pop duds, but it’s a solid debut and I’m excited to see where he goes especially with such strong features.

Favorites: “Dead Right Now”, “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)”, “Industry Baby”, “Dolla Sign Slime”, “Sun Goes Down”, “Am I Dreaming”

Least Favorites: “Lost in the Citadel”, “That’s What I Want”

The post Lil Nas X Releases Long Anticipated Debut Album appeared first on SCAD Radio.

His latest record, Call Me If You Get Lost, details the life and times of Tyler Baudelaire, an eccentric and taste-making world traveller. Tyler’s titular character from his previous album, Igor, was more focused on the intricacies and pains of lost love–Baudelaire has his fair share of musings on this topic, but he also discusses his material wealth, and the growth and success that he’s worked for.​​ The beats are well-composed colllages of samples, chords, lead lines, and ad-libs. The music on Call Me successfully illustrates the world that Tyler Baudelaire has constructed for himself. It’s jazzy, sophisticated, and full of references to his world travels, but it also speaks to the vulnerability and pride that comes with being a renowned artist. 

The album subtly takes the listener on a journey through the narrative of Tyler’s feelings about a complex relationship. After “SIR BAUDELAIRE” introduces us to his new persona, “CORSO” jumps right into Tyler’s emotions on a girl. Albeit vaguely, he outlines his position succinctly, “Look, tried to take somebody bitch ’cause I’m a bad person/I don’t regret shit because that (woo) worth it/In the end, she picked him”. He then goes on to explain that it’s really alright, he can just purchase himself out of the pain that he’s experiencing. “WASYANAME” tells an idealized tale of meeting this girl, with Tyler asking her about herself and explaining to her in an almost breathless way how he’d seduce her. “SWEET/I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE” is a reflective ballad that describes the mixed messages received from his object of affection. 

Most of these aforementioned songs give us glimpses of the full narrative behind this complicated affair. The penultimate track on Call Me, “WILSHIRE”, brings to light the complete details of the alluded to relationship, outlining it from start to end. It’s a rare moment in Tyler, the Creator’s discography, which he even points out, saying “I just try to keep anyone I care about in the shadows / Safe from the commentary and spotlight and thoughts / ‘Cause it’s just a story for the people outside of it / But I guess you’re just another chapter in the book”. The song is one of the most vulnerable of his career, calling attention to the complications of personal relationships and the frustrating intricacies of being a public figure. 

As much as this album discusses this particular romantic situation, it also takes a really close look at Tyler’s relationship with his fans. Inherently, being a public figure comes with challenges. People have expectations of you, your art, and everything else. Some want to be with you, others want to be you. It’s often easy to forget that our favorite artists are, in fact, human beings, and Tyler seems to be finding himself dealing with critics and fans that are inconsiderate of his personhood. On the other hand, fans are the very reason for his success–in some ways, he’s indebted to them for all that he has. “MASSA” recounts his humble beginnings and career, commenting on his early artistic output, pointing out how unfair it is that projects like Goblin are still held over his head. “MANIFESTO” tackles similar themes, addressing calls from the public to take stances on political hot topics.

“RISE!”, with it’s Stereolab-esque chords, juxtaposes the confidence of success and the fear of losing it all–the verses have a self-assured bravado, describing the hard work that success has required, but the pre-chorus reveals a nervous compulsion to beg people to “please don’t go, please just stay”. This plea for perhaps fans and lovers alike to stay by his side successfully ties together the two major themes on the album. Bragging is often a form of protection from emotional vulnerability–a concept that Tyler has played with on his previous two albums. In “911/ Mr. Lonely” off of Flower Boy, he muses “I say the loudest in the room / is prolly the loneliest in the room (that’s me)”, a direct call out of his own tendencies. 

Although he may be struggling with similar subject matter, Tyler the Creator’s artistic growth is indisputable. Album after album, he’s created a different aesthetic world to fall into–no small feat. It seems like he’ll only continue to climb for the foreseeable future.

The post Tyler, the Creator Explores New Persona on Latest Album appeared first on SCAD Radio.

OME’s previous record, Brick Body Kids Still Daydream, deftly tackled greater societal issues in a poetic but conceptual way. Although that album clearly draws from experiences the rapper had growing up in Chicago, Anime, Trauma, and Divorce expands on this realm of confessional writing. Eagle’s work is deeply ingrained in the personal, but Anime brings this open book approach to a new level.

OME tackles societal expectations at every opportunity. From the unfortunate and notorious toxic masculinity of the rap genre to the cultural pressure to depict a perfect life. Hip-hop conventions dictate that macho bragging is the preferred style of expression. Recently in the mainstream, rappers have been tackling emotions like loneliness more frequently. Artists like Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler the Creator have done so on the albums Some Rap Songs and Flower Boy. Kendrick Lamar gained critical acclaim from his artistically told narratives of his oft troubled youth. This broader trend has opened the floor for an album like Anime, Trauma, and Divorce. For Mike Eagle, the struggles he’s currently facing are a little more mundane than Kendrick’s narratives of betrayal through fame. Divorce and its complexities, the loss of a passion project, the existential horror of aging–these are near universal difficulties. 

Beyond the established social criticisms, Mike takes some jabs at the “self care” culture that has permeated social media. In “Wtf is Self Care”, he questions the practicality behind self care. He points out that self care advice is often contradictory. How do you eat well at the same time as treating yourself to a hefty serving of dessert? What are the limits of this undefined philosophy of taking care of ego nurturing? The track lends a self awareness to the album, which seems to be an act of self care in and of itself.

A major theme on the album is framing Eagle’s personal narrative through media– specifically anime, of course. With references from Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, he lets these characters stand in for his various emotional states. In doing this, OME brings to the forefront the reason why a project like Anime is so important.. Media is a way to step back and reflect on your own experiences. Sometimes being able to look at your own life through the third person perspective of media is quite upsetting. The album even recognizes this in the track “The Black Mirror Episode”. To see a character in a show or to deeply relate to an album justifies and reaffirms the legitimacy of emotions and identities.  

With Anime, Trauma, and Divorce, Open Mike Eagle successfully crafts an honest view into the real life of a rapper. And, surprisingly, it probably differs less from your own than you’d expect. At the end of the day, despite the trials and tribulations that will always be apart of life, there is a silver lining. Along with that pain, there are moments like the one described in the album’s parting track. Self care and media indulgence is great, but ultimately, those things would be nothing without great people to share happiness with.

The post New Open Mike Eagle Album Is a Means to Cope appeared first on SCAD Radio.

How would you describe the nerdcore style?

MC Frontalot- Nerdcore is very much like all of the rest of hip-hop, which we’re all so familiar with at this point, except there’s much less pressure on you to be cool. You don’t have to be cool at all, you could be a huge dork and it would still be okay that you’re rapping.

Well, we’re all in art school, so I think we’re all a bunch of weirdos over here, too. I was looking into your music videos, and they have a lot of interesting themes. Do you have one that stands out as your favorite?

There’s one for “Stoop Sale” off of my 5th album. It was directed by Max Isaacson and it’s all puppets. I don’t know whether it’s really the best. It seems like [it is] when I watch it, or whether I’m just attached to the long week spent in that freezing Brooklyn warehouse building a ⅓ scale neighborhood out of plywood and paint.

You were at SXSW (South by Southwest) this past March. How was that for you?

It was a really good year. It’s my 12th one in a row I think? It was all so overwhelming at first, but now I love it there. I didn’t think when I was little that Texas would be one of the places I liked going to every year, but I really do look forward to visiting Austin.

Your popularity skyrocketed once the webcomic Penny Arcade dropped your name. Would you consider this your ‘big break’, and what did that moment feel like?

It was 2000 or 2001 when Penny Arcade linked up one of my songs, “Yellow Lasers”. That was definitely a big explosion from having a couple downloads for each track to having thousands of people curious about it. It’s so funny to think of some link on a blog being a big break, but it kinda was. I’d say a larger thing was after that when Negin Farsad made a documentary feature about my band’s first tour, and that was on Netflix for a few years… She named it after the first album, it’s called Nerdcore Rising.

My next question is actually about that! You were featured in that film, I believe Weird Al Yankovic was in that as well?

Weird Al’s in there, [director Negin Farsad] got a lot of interesting people for the movie… I love the movie. I think it’s a great introduction to nerdcore, and more selfishly, it’s a fantastic advertisement for my band… I feel like I’m better at rapping now, it’s a little embarrassing to watch all the song parts of the documentary, but it’s still a funny and heartwarming time.

Your new album seems to deal with a lot of issues and opinions on technology. What is your opinion on the current technological state of our environment?

It’s called Net Split, or the Fathomless Heartbreak of Online Itself and it’s a breakup record about Internet. I’m a grumpy old man and I used to love Internet, and I still love Internet, of course, but I’m also terrified and horrified every time I go online. It’s just this cesspool of misery and hatred. But what are you gonna do? Humanity has got some conflicts to work out and now we have this gigantic new playground where everyone can hurt each other’s feelings anonymously… I think there’s hope, hope for the future. There has to be. If there’s none, then why log on at all?

MC Frontalot will be performing at Smith’s Olde Bar in Atlanta, GA on Monday, May 13th.

The post Interview With MC Frontalot, the Face of the Nerdcore Rap Movement appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Pump duos with Kanye West for “I Love It”, a pairing that seems unusual until the locker room talk session that ensues. The former declares he’s had sex with someone in London, then nailed her cousin or sister (claiming he isn’t sure which). Then Kanye dips in with a verse on par with his eye-rolling “bleached asshole” tale from “Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1”. He spits “I’m a sick f*ck, I like a quick f*ck” 5 times over and not much more in a thankfully brief appearance. What’s even sadder is witnessing one of the the better beats get wasted with trashy lyrics- an occurrence that haunts the majority of the playlist.

The LP’s saving grace is the production. Looking past Pump’s impudent bars, more than a few mixes get the job done in their Soundcloud simplicity. The only time Pump went behind the boards was for the hollow “Esskeetit”. Otherwise, “Racks on Racks” and Smokepurpp’s “ION” don’t have terrible beats, even if the stories don’t reach further than the realm of promiscuous sex and coke-snorting. The bouncy rhythm of “Be Like Me” and Lil Wayne’s feature make it a highlight, but then again, most rappers would look like Tupac standing next to Garcia.

Even with a few catchy trap sounds, there are verses of Harverd Dropout that are irritating to listen to. “Vroom Vroom Vroom” is a horrendous song full of the rapper mimicking car noises on the mic. “Butterfly Doors” contains a terrible line about how all the drugs he does cause his eyes to sag like an asian. “Smokin’ on dope/They call me Yao **** ’cause my eyes real low” references Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming. Originally, Ming’s full name was used, but after unsurprising backlash, Pump only says “Yao” and bleeps out the last name. It’s an incredibly careless edit that doesn’t really change how dumb and offensive the line is, but that’s the teen’s repertoire as a lyricist in a nutshell.

Pump continually sets up many steamy scenarios, but never pays them off with a witty double entendre. Instead, what remains is a bland line only said for the sake of him noting his licentiousness. The LP is a constant battle between his dull writing and a production team that nets him some solid basses from time to time. The latter undeniably saved this project from being a complete disaster to the likes of other lowbrow rappers like Lil Xan or 6ix9ine, but it’s not enough to redeem Harverd Dropout.

SCAD Radio gives it a 6/10.

The post Atrocious Lyricism Drags Down Lil Pump’s ‘Harverd Dropout’ appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Vince has had some hits with the bubbly rap sound, and “FUN!” builds on that. The animated sound is buffed by the rapper’s speedy flow on the mic and flashy California hood slang. The music video is shot like a series of images on Google Earth taking viewers on a stroll through Long Beach. It reaches a clever conclusion when the images zoom out to reveal a 12-ish looking white kid getting called by his mom, then frantically shutting the lid on his laptop. It’s a witty jab that builds on Staple’s theme of naive people jamming out to the rough-and-tumble hood life of his lyrics.

The album (or EP?) shines outside of the songs, too. The skit “(562) 453-9382” mimics call-in “game shows” that tests the listener’s pop culture expertise. The bit quizzes a contestant who needs to name 7 celebrities whose first names start with “V”. Earl Sweatshirt and Tyga make quick cameos in between Vince’s songs to sell the broadcast-style. Even if their appearances are minor, they’re a creative fit to the playlist’s architecture. These interludes obviously aren’t the highlights, but they dress the album to catapult it into a world of its own.

FM! is a quick record, barely leaving any room to breathe in between track transitions. The brief song lengths result in a 22-minute runtime, yet the project still finds a way to feel like a complete record. An original concept all around, the release contains all the fun of bopping to the radio, minus all the mainstream pop garbage. It only adds to the argument over why Staples isn’t as popular as other rappers, considering the genre’s current peak of appeal.

SCAD Radio gives the short record an 8/10.

The post Vince Staples Brings Radio to Life on FM! appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Much of the brilliance lies within the background. Black people running around in a frenzy are easy to spot behind the dancers, but there are even tinier details to miss. A video that demands to be rewatched and dissected, keen-eyed viewers will pick up on obscure bible references and Jim Crow caricatures poses, just to name a few. Even SZA makes a brief cameo towards the end, making a good case that she’ll be featured on his upcoming fourth album.

The simplicity of having Gambino and his dancers prance around in the foreground plays into a variety of interpretations. In a country that eats up black culture, the dancers could represent how oblivious some Americans are when it comes to realizing the turmoil minorities find themselves in, as opposed to the glitz and glamour on the TV screen. It could also be a jab at recent criticism towards black celebrities for getting “too political”: the crew is so concentrated on dancing, they don’t even acknowledge all the chaos happening around them. That’s the beauty of “This Is America”, at its core a deeply layered gem that only gets better and better the more times it is seen. So much so, it’s popularity on trending pages is outdone by breakdowns of the actual video.

If there’s any downside, it won’t be the same to listen to just the audio for this track. Part of me hopes it’s left off his next LP to ensure this song stays synonymous with the already iconic video, but hype for a Childish Gambino album is now at an all-time high thanks to this juggernaut lead single. Top-tier in its relevance and genius in its execution, the visuals conjured up by Glover and his Atlanta director Hiro Murai have cemented the legacy of “This Is America” as one of the greatest music videos of all time.

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