I just wanted to talk about the album right quick…
“BADLANDS” has been a project that I’ve been wanting to make for years. The idea for the album dates back to 2017. Back then, it went by a different name, “Jungle.” I always subscribed to the idea that, as an artist, it’s our duty to report what we see to the world from our world. As a child, I was pretty sheltered (my mother was worried due to obvious reasons), so I didn’t really get to connect with the community on a mature level till my older teen years. In saying that, I always loved my neighborhood and always knew it was a special community, I just never really understood why the bulls**t was so prevalent. However, violence and crime aren’t exclusive to one neighborhood. Seeing similar sights & hearing similar stories in different areas always intrigued me. Given the fact I was never really a street guy, yet, I still have been affected by what goes on in the streets, I wanted to relate to those who stand/stood in a similar position to me. After all, I knew that I couldn’t be the only one feeling this way. Like most projects I come up with, “Jungle” never seen the light of day.
Fast forward to summer 2019, I’m wrapping up production for “Patience,” and I’m thinking about what direction I wanted to go into next (Patience was specifically made as a foundation to exemplify the range of musical vibes I could tap into, I’ll expand on this at a later time). I was creating a bunch of music and I realized that they all had a similar theme: my neighborhood. I decided to double down on the trend and just focus on finding the best story to tell ya’ll.
Couple months into writing, I came up with a dozen records. Out of the lot, “No Sidewalks,” “Blue Chakra” and “El Moreno” were born. A month after “Patience” dropped, I wrote “B.A.R.S.” By this point, given the fact that I’m Black-A-Rican, I figured why not have a mix of traditional beats with Latin sampled beats. Then everything changed in Jan 2020 ! I wrote “Que Pasa Contigo” and had an epiphany: Make the whole album Latin samples. I never seen anyone do it in an actual Hip-Hop album with all Latin samples (I later dropped “B.A.R.S.” & “Blue Chakra” as singles in May 2020 and Jan 2021 respectively). Since I don’t speak a lot of spanish (yes, I’m that kind of Rican lol), I figured the Latin samples would beautifully compensate for that, while still keeping the essence/vibe of my heritage and hood.
The story I would ended up going with is: Taking pride in my origins while also being honest about the affects it had on me, ultimately making me wanna leave. In order to tell you how I’m affected or even why, I had to give history. Throughout the album, I give out information about what happens(ed) here and how the neighborhood even got its name (i.e. “Park” & “2800”). I also touch on experiences from the past that affected me mentally and overall, personally. I love my hood and just wanted to respectfully reflect on my life here.
One thing that never changed from Summer 2019 to 2020, was that I wanted to drop this album on the most fitting day possible (I take release dates very seriously, making sure they coincide with the music I intend on dropping). Since the album is about my neighborhood, and my hood is in Philly (obviously), I pondered on how I could properly connect the 2. Then boom, it hit me: the area code, 215. That is ultimately the reason why I chose February 15th (so basically 215 -> 02/15). This date landed on a Monday and, as you know, most albums come out on Fridays, but I didn’t really care. All I was concerned about was the packaging of the album (how everything like the release date, cover art, album content, etc., connects) and the fact that nobody else would be dropping that day made it even better.
I know that was kind of a long read. I hope you enjoyed learning how the album came to be. I got much more content revolving around this project coming soon as well. Hope you’ve tuned into the album (if not, hit this link to change that: https://li.sten.to/BADLANDS ). What was your favourite song on the album ? What else would you like to learn about the album ? Feel free to tell me in the comment section below and until next time, SKKRRAAAAAAHHHHH !!!
