Yooo wuttup team. These past few weeks have been a trip! I’ve been recording at home working with beats from MadebyNeko, a fellow Chicago producer who runs the studio Face of Fate. Working with him has been dope, as he initially sent me a pile of beats that I slowly started to record to over the summer. I started out just freestyling over them, trying to get the rhythms and sounds right. I eventually then applied some lyrics that I wrote for all but one of the tracks, Dead Zone. That one, I kept as a freestyle. It felt like someone was listening while I was recording it! xD
I was in a state when I wanted to be vulnerable. I was just going through the seasons of July and August forreal. Traveling, spending time with my girl, and slowly learning how to become a better social worker. This was the beginning of the Soft Era!
Now that the tape’s out, I wonder “am I still in the Soft Era? or was it that period while I was recording?” The tape came to culmination when I went to go see Wiki on his Ancient History Park Bench tour. I had a pretty neat conversation with him afterwards (shout out 93) and it made me realize maybe all us rappers are kind of on the same path. The tape was set to drop on my birthday, September 17th, and only after meeting with Wiki and scheduling the tape to drop did I realize I hadn’t gotten my haircut in like 2 months. Wtf! If anything is to be taken away from Kendrick Lamar’s “Damn”, it’s that “when a rapper doesn’t get a haircut, it means he’s in the zone!”
Now, a week out, I’ve kind of been settling into this new position I’m in. It’s not really like anything in particular has changed. But, I don’t know… maybe it’s the coming of the fall season, still staying at this therapist job, or just furthering the relationships in my life that has me feeling like a new age is here.
Thus, I present to you, the Soft Era.
Recorded and mixed by me at my home studio, mastered and beats by MadebyNeko. Cover art by me.
I’ll also include the alternative cover art that provided a space for the project up until it was time for launch.
As always, thanks for listening, and let me know what you think!
(link to DSPs below)
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/lilbillynaire1/soft-era
