#like a lot of people need to hear the gospels of exo

[spookyserenades]

society when people realize its okay to be into multiple k-pop groups at once

[lindacarmenez]

If I tried my best, I think I could have at most 40 more years on this beautiful earth and that still would not give me time enough to debunk all the layers to this song. I am not only speaking vocal layers but also emotional ones. This song is fucking Gospel.

Before I get to these 8 guys, I'll say I hate SM Entertainment to the core but I have to acknowledge they have some of the best production crew out there. Like they spent money on this B-side ballad. In this 4 little minutes you can appreciate why you need to invest yourself in knowing and understanding the artist you're working on. You'll tell all of their past story and future projection with minimal symbolism and storytelling. They did that. They really did that.

Still, if I had to guess, when they gave it a go with this doesnot-really-matter-Bside-ballad, they had no idea they would arrive at this point. But then they called the guys in, they started singing their respective parts and it was like a bomb dropped upon the studio. These tiny-giant 8 guys, as if they didn't just have a 4-year hiatus, killed every line, every adlib, every harmony. Because they put their own story into the lines. These people cannot help it, they will sing their hearts out every single time. There is just no other EXO. No.

I feel so priviliged to live at the same time zone (that's not the word I'm looking for but you get me) and experience it in real time for myself. I am so priviliged to be among those 100,000+ commenters under the video within the first 30 minutes. Loving EXO is not a waste of time. You get your time's worth multiplied.

With my very limited knowledge of music I can tell they are shifting waves with this comeback (OH SHIT is that one of the things they symbolize with ocean?! My brain is short-circuiting). The fact that they each of them has a lot more singing to do?! Like excusez-moi Chanyeol aren't you supposed to be rapper? What is going on? Baekhyun supporting Chen and Chen supporting Kyungsoo with adlibs? Suho saying "Ok, I have given y'all enough years to shine, I'm not holding back anymore, I'll do what I can fucking do"? Minseok doing those runs like he has always been a main in the vocal line?

Just so many things more oh but are you hearing all those harmonies in the back? Did you realize the Baek-vibrato when he hilariously belt those notes in the last chorus? They are invested. They are shifting waters with this one and it's D4 and I do not know how to prepare myself for the release. I have my 6-pack cream soda in the fridge ready.

[sinceileftyoublog]

Kaelin Ellis Interview: Talking Music

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Producer Kaelin Ellis wasn’t a household name, but that changed in a flurry. People recognized the Orlando artist’s work with rappers like Waldo, producers like Sango, and on K-pop song “Jekyll” from supergroup Exo. But he mostly made his way behind the scenes. That was his plan when he had to start quarantining due to the COVID-19 pandemic, too. “I started creating a lot of beats,” he told me over the phone earlier this month. “I decided to start trusting my intuition more, the crazy ideas I have in my mind, to try them out to see if I could make something cool.” He made and uploaded a beat video of a track called “White Walls”, and the usual happened: His most faithful followers straight-up started tagging other rappers, suggesting they rap over Ellis’ beat. What happened next, Ellis talks like he still can’t believe happened. 

“A lot of my followers will tag people--really high-caliber names--but not a lot of them will respond. A lot of people have been trying to get Smino, Masego, Danny Brown,” Ellis said. The first one to actually “take the bait?” None other than Lupe Fiasco. Ellis woke up from a nap to discover that Lupe had freestyled over “White Walls” after being tagged on a post by a follower. It went viral, Ellis direct messaged Lupe to suggest they work together, Lupe accepted, Ellis sent him beats, and Lupe sent back enough for an EP, with Virgil Abloh narrating it. HOUSE was released on July 24th. Wait, what? If it sounds like it happened quickly, that’s because it did, faster than anyone could have ever imagined. And it’s a great release that effectively combines Ellis’ deliberate, warped keyboard instrumentals with Lupe and Abloh’s thoughtful musings on pressing issues: mass extinction, the shady ethics of the modeling industry, and most notably, the Black Lives Matter movement. (“SHOES” is especially poignant, as it features Abloh talking about designing the running shoes Ahmaud Arbery was wearing when he was murdered; “running is freedom,” he states simply.) The track that started it all turned into “LF95″, with an added outro of credits from Lupe Fiasco, the preview of, according to Ellis, more to come between the two of them.

Read my conversation with Ellis below, edited for length and clarity, as he talks about the history of his relationship with Lupe’s output, the inspiration behind his beats, where he sees himself in the music world, and some exciting upcoming collaborations.

Since I Left You: When was the first time you were aware of Lupe’s music?

Kaelin Ellis: Because I grew up in a Christian household, I didn’t listen to a lot of hip hop or pop radio or rock music. So my first time hearing Lupe was NBA 2K7. He had a song called “Catch Me I’m Ballin’”. I played that game every day for years just because of the soundtrack. I loved the beats and the sound that was integrated in the video game that created a whole experience to it. Then NBA Live 07 came out, and that’s when I heard “Kick Push”. At that point, I was just hooked on Lupe’s music, so I grew up as a kid listening to him.

SILY: Have you followed his output pretty closely ever since?

KE: Oh yeah. I’ve been following him since 2007, everything from Food & Liquor to DROGAS Wave. I’ve kind of been keen, especially learning about music business in general, a lot of what I’ve learned has been from Lupe Fiasco. I’ve used his career as a model for my own career. Seeing his consistency and trying to integrate that with what I do.

SILY: Was he aware of you before he was tagged in the post?

KE: Not at all. I’ll say this: I’m typically that one dude that people have heard but don’t put the name with the music because a lot of my music is instrumental. I come from a Soundcloud wave of producers when it first became getting big. He had no idea who I was. He thought I was just one of those guys making beat videos on Twitter and that I had a following. People started saying, “That’s your face on Lupe Fiasco’s page!” A buddy of mine reached out to me; he called me after I woke up from a nap, like, “Dude, have you seen Lupe Fiasco’s page?” I was like, “Naw.” He was like, “Dude, get off the phone and check his IG.” So I checked his IG and his Twitter, and he had uploaded a freestyle over my beat video on both pages. I was like, “Wow.”

SILY: That was “LF95″. Was the outro on the EP version of the track added on only after you realized you would make this EP together?

KE: Yeah. That track went a little viral at the time. That’s when I hit him up and said, “Yo, Lupe, we should work!” He followed me on Instagram and DM’d me and said, “Send me a pack of beats! I’d be interested in knowing what you had in mind.” So I sent him a full pack of beats. I sent him beat videos. I’m always creating. He ended up keeping “LF95″ and adding that additional verse at the end of it. After two weeks, he was like, “Yeah, I have [enough for] a whole EP!” I was like, “What?!?” I listened to it, and he literally took my tracks, split them up in sections, and had a whole arrangement for every record. I’d never seen anybody take one of my tracks and curate something out of it.

SILY: Were you surprised to hear Virgil Abloh’s voice on two of them?

KE: Yeah! I remember for “HOMME MADE” and “SHOES”, he sent me the full record. He sent it to me and I downloaded it and said, “I got Virgil Abloh narrating the whole thing.” I was like, “What?!?” He sent me all the tracks roughly scoped out. As I’m hearing “HOMME MADE” for the first time, I started playing chords behind it. When I grew up, at church, as people were talking, there’d always be somebody playing piano underneath it. What you’re hearing on “HOMME MADE” is me literally listening to [Abloh’s] voice for the first time and playing under it. I sent that to Lupe, and he was like, “Yup. I’m keeping it. Don’t change anything.”

SILY: It definitely sounds like gospel keyboards.

KE: Yeah. That’s the approach. It’s called “talking music.” If someone’s ever talking, there’s always a piano underneath at church supporting what someone’s saying.

SILY: When you sent him that pack of beats, were those beats you had already made, or did you make new ones for him?

KE: There were a couple of brand new ones. One of those, which is “DINOSAURS”, I made that literally in L.A. I was supposed to be doing a show, and I remember I had the concept for this piano riff. I played it, added drums and everything else. “SLEDOM” and “SHOES” are the only two older tracks. I actually made those in 2017. I had a whole thing where I used to create a lot of tracks--I’d go to my homie’s crib, GFL Paul, his house was the studio where I’d create all these weird creations. I created a lot of tracks at his place. I went back to the old 2017-2018 archives, pulled those beats out, and sent them to Lupe. He cut up “SHOES” to a fifth of the arrangement.

SILY: Did you have any idea what his verses were gonna be about?

KE: Not at all. I just remember when I first sent it to him, everything had this supportive jazz storyline behind it. I had a talk with him, and he mentioned his collaborations with Robert Glasper, who kind of comes through the same background as me with church. I was pretty sure [Lupe] was gonna say something really deep over a lot of the records, but I had no idea what they would be. I was open to what he had in mind. When I first heard it, I was like, “I don’t need to touch this! This is perfect.” [laughs]

SILY: It’s such a cool story, and in a weird way, do you feel like it only could have happened with lockdown?

KE: I feel like it aided it. I was an opportunity because everybody is in their homes, and it makes you think a little bit about what’s going on. I’m sure he’s had thoughts about things that are going on, and he has a very poetic way of saying it. I know a lot of people who are connected in my circle that work with him. Lupe Fiasco worked with Robert Glasper on [Black Radio]. Robert Glasper also collaborated with my close friend Kaytranada. It’s a pretty similar circle of musicians and artistry. I think it was just a matter of time for everybody to know each other.

SILY: They might be classified under different genres: You think, “Robert Glasper: jazz, Lupe Fiasco: hip hop, Kaytranada: electronic beat music with collaborators.” Where do you see yourself within the genre circle?

KE: For me, I kind of base everything around my purpose. I’m always aiming to inspire people with the abilities I have. I’m really good at creating sounds. Sonically, I’ve always been into that. Kaytranada is the reason I started doing this. In high school, I watched videos of how he was making beats, back in 2010. He cultivated this thing where producers can be artists too and create a sound and do your own thing. Seeing him cultivate that for the past 10 years is something I’ve always been interested in doing. I don’t have the biggest voice. I’m not the most intelligent when it comes to words all the time. Seeing musically how he was able to create that lane for other guys that want to do the same thing is pretty enlightening. Me and him are the same category of producer/artist, but I’m more in terms of full creativity. It doesn’t matter what the genre is--I want to make sure what I create helps others, which in turn is what the HOUSE project I did with Lupe ties into.

SILY: What else have you been up to over the past few months? Are you making beat videos and music in general?

KE: Yes. Actually the most productive time I’ve had making music. With everything shut down, what I’d normally get compensated and paid for working shows, when quarantine started, it got me back to when I was young creating music just for the fun of it. After that “White Walls” video that Lupe rapped on, I made a whole project called MOMENTS that followed up after that. I dropped it on June 19th. When I put it out, I was super scared because of the fact that typically, when it comes to people putting out albums--I made a poem on Twitter that it said if it was too long to be an EP, but too short to be an album, what would you call it? Someone wrote, “Just call it a short.” All of the beat videos I’ve made since “White Walls” I’ve put into a project called MOMENTS. I’ve had a lot of growth. A lot of really big people have hit me up. I’ve been talking to and collaborating with a lot of big artists, solely due to the beat videos I’ve been putting out on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook consistently over the last several months. I’ve just been trying to put out a lot of content and get better at my craft every single day. Just try to be better.

SILY: Have you done any live streams?

KE: Outside of my IG Live, I’ve done one Twitch stream. I’m having some technical difficulties running it. I had to buy a brand new computer to be able to run Twitch and my computer programs at the same time. But I’ll be doing more Twitch streams in the future.

SILY: Something like performing the tracks from HOUSE with Lupe’s voice from elsewhere would prove to be pretty tough to pull off virtually, but are you performing the instrumentals from them?

KE: Oh yeah. Actually, I have this cool concept coming up where I’m gonna be recreating a couple of the records off the EP on my beat videos. Instead of it being the full instrumentation of the old beat I sent to Lupe, you’ll see me create “SLEDOM” or “DINOSAURS” from scratch on the next social media videos.

SILY: Who have you been working with lately?

KE: I’ve sent a couple beats off to Channel Tres. He’s a really cool dude. I’ve been sending him a lot of work as of late. Danny Brown, who I know is creating a lot of music and new projects. I don’t know what it entails. He recorded a couple tracks I made in 2017 with my homie GFL Paul at his studio. I sent him a really old beat I released a while back, one of the first tracks I worked on with another artist in Orlando. It’s called “Switch Lanes”; it’s a very grunge, hip hop-heavy record with a lot of experimentation. If Danny Brown liked that record, I’m not entirely sure where his approach would be, but he’s a really dope artist. I’d be excited to see where he goes with that.

Growing up, I was a huge Madlib, Flying Lotus, and J Dilla fan. When I first heard [Danny Brown] on Jay Stay Paid--I was heavy into that record because of his vocals over Jay Dilla’s beats. That was the last time I heard brand new, unheard Jay Dilla. Every time I go into it, it feels brand new. I’m excited to see what he does with what I sent him. Not sure what’s gonna happen, but I’m excited. [laughs]

Kaytranada as well, we’ve been shooting tracks back and forth to each other, especially during quarantine to stay inspired. Just trying to stay creatively locked in during this time.

I had a family member pass away recently. It was sort of out of the blue. My mind has been in a different place creatively. It’s hard with everything going on: COVID, presidential candidates, all of that type stuff can really wear on you.

SILY: Does making music offer you a refuge from trouble?

KE: Yeah. For me, I create music the way a songwriter would. A lot of songwriters are tapped into what’s going on in their mind or heart to be able to write great words. I do that with creating sounds and playing instruments. The same way you’d hear somebody on a guitar, I put that emotion and feeling behind it. Whatever things are transpiring, I try to put that in the art. Maybe someone will hear the track, and it will resonate. Because they’re instrumentals, I like to set up another person to say possibly what can not only be on someone else’s mind and my mind, but a bunch of other people in general. This record, HOUSE, does that. It’s really insane, man. I try to create music to zone out and express how I’m feeling through sound, and I hope whoever’s listening can feel that, too.