ANDRE 3K
Phew. If I don’t do this one justice I won’t even publish it. This nigga is my hero. Stacks is a master at what I would call “Run On Rap”— once he starts he doesn’t stop but you’ll still hear every word that he’s saying. The damage he did on “Life of The Party” made me scrap like five songs I had completed for the tape. I even did my own rendition to it but the subject matter makes me cringe lmao. It was good but I knew it couldn’t hold a candle to his. “If there's a Heaven, you would think they'd let ya speak to your son. Maybe she has in the form of a baby’s laugh. I heard passing by in a stroller reminding me, “Hey, keep rolling”. I don’t know, maybe she has with a prick of a blade of grass. I've been laying on way too long, got me itchy. Got up and roamed a lil’ more” he rapped. How the f*ck do you even come up with some shit like that? I take after his heavy use of imagery and personification. For a long time I didn’t really get the whole concept of a verse and how long or short it should be. He could be rapping for five minutes straight and make it feel like two. His rhyme schemes are always so limber. From what i’ve observed his masculine and feminine energies are equitable and that fact is illustrated by the many different components to his brand. The wigs. The perm. The clothes. The braggadocious southern twang to his steelo. He’s Duality’s Daddy. I thought he was gay at first until I found out he had kids and really got into what he be rapping about, he is so far from it lmao. His sound is a blend of Hip Hop, Funk, Soul, and Pop. His vocality is out of this world. Most people don’t realize how difficult it is to record your own voice. One of the reasons the mixtape took so long to complete, is because of how much re-recording I had to do. I wanted all of the records to sound full, which depends on the quality of the mic/equipment (which wasn’t necessarily state of the art). I probably did 100 takes to each verse you’ll hear. I drove my engineer mad, but I just want this to be something I can be proud of yk? A lot of niggas rap but it’s not a lot of niggas that rap. Feel me? Every song has to be mixed and mastered, which cost money lol. I lost my job in the process of recording and that set me back greatly, but everything happens for a reason because during that time I wrote some of what I feel is the best material on the tape. This was reassuring, considering the fact that I’d started to worry that the well of ideas for this project had run dry prematurely, but internally I felt different. I knew there was more I wanted to say. Thats when “Recidivism” and “Cleaning Day” came about, which contain some of my favorite bars from myself lol. “Niggas be hip, but hardly da hop.” (Sa Surreal) I feel like I’m getting in the game at such a fertile time. There’s a quiet desire for substance as we get through these trying times. I found it necessary to refrain from listening to certain artists as much as possible in order to maintain the frequency I was on creatively. The music being put out nowadays lacks soul. You got AI machines making artist say shit that they’ve never even thought of saying before. It’s a crazy time. The people need music that they can feel, relate to, and turn up to all at the same time with genuine emotions being emitted from it. That’s who Andre was for his generation, and who I plan to be for mines. P.S. Ian really do this one justice but he’s too big of an influence to not publish it fr, so eat it up! <3