#the life of pi’erre

[dustedmagazine]

Yung Kayo — Holy Grails (self-released)

What is going on with Yung Kayo? Barely four years ago, the Washington, D.C. rapper born Malachi Green was plucked from the SoundCloud backwaters by Young Thug to learn the trade as part of the Young Stoner Life stable. After a string of stray singles and leaks, 2022’s DFTK arrived as complete as one could hope for a debut at this level of hip-hop recognition. There were Yeat and Gunna features; Eartheater showed up; some of the leaks made it. A star was born. But like Young Thug himself (though for entirely different reasons), things have gone largely quiet since — or they had, at least, until the night of Thanksgiving in the U.S., when he dropped Holy Grails on the eve of his 21st birthday.

That’s the most intriguing part: He dropped it, not YSL. It’s unclear what his status is with the label at this point, though he’s wearing a YSL chain in the Korn-like artwork detailing production credits. Why this is self-released and coming now, with almost no fanfare or advanced warning, remains a mystery likely cloaked in the usual monetary disagreements and legal wranglings that make for boring reading but also often make or break an artist’s career. You don’t want to get stuck on a leash in a label interzone where nobody knows what to do with you.

On the other hand, that certainly never stopped Kayo’s mentor. Perhaps he’s learning not just the trade, but the tricks, too; whatever the case, we may never get the whole story. What we do get is 16 tracks highlighting both Kayo’s versatility on the mic and, maybe even more than that, how completely he gels with producer Warpstr, who’s as crucial to Kayo’s future-forward delivery as the man himself.

That’s not a recent phenomenon, as the album showcases. In fact, the other notable thing about Holy Grails is how much of a grab bag from his back catalog it is; the oldest songs here predate DFTK (“Jedi” has been on his SoundCloud for more than four years; “Taycan Key” and “All In” have been up for three) and a few more have been floating for a while now. Kayo’s last correspondence, “Bye,” is nearly a year old at this point. But you wouldn’t know it given a listen front to back — the sounds often pair bright, 16-bit videogame synths with barely modulated low end to great effect. Credit most of that to Warpstr, who’s listed as producer for 13 of these; Pi’erre Bourne (“Flex”), Arkman (“Heads or Tails”) and Maaly Raw (“Cold”) are the lone exceptions. Two well-known names (Bourne’s “Yo Pierre, you wanna come out here?” tag is practically ubiquitous in contemporary hip-hop; Maaly Raw has been a regular presence on Lil Uzi Vert albums) and one less so (Arkman’s worked with Kayo a bunch, but most of their tracks together are still unreleased) don’t do anything to disrupt the flow of the record.

That sonic stability foregrounds Kayo’s willingness to experiment with sing-song flows and various rap speeds as he sees fit. His natural ear for melody has always been good, and it’s as prominently on display here as it’s ever been, though his actual voice is more unbothered by digital alterations than DFTK was. The most dramatic singing-versus-rapping dichotomy comes on “In My Room,” which takes lessons from the brooding 808s & Heartbreak-era Kanye West and introvert-mode Drake before pulling the rug out halfway through and diving head-first into some aggressively delivered couplets. It doesn’t take long to see what’s in the tank here. He’s hungry, sure, but his bars also don’t come wrapped in the cartoonishly outlandish delivery that Thugger’s did in his heyday. He strains to reach those heights on songs like “Rockstar “or “Psych Out.” They’re among the best songs of Holy Grails, but they’re also demonstrations of the ceiling.

Ultimately, Yung Kayo’s greatest asset is morphing what he can do to the beat backing him. Nowhere is this better displayed than on undeniable closer “All In,” which is as addicting a song as he’s ever made and one of the two songs (along with “Tell Me”) that got me paying attention to him in the first place. A pleasantly unexpected surprise, Holy Grails both serves as a reminder of why we were excited about him in the first place and widens the question of what he can do next — and where he can do it.

Patrick Masterson

[evilthotiana]

For an album that felt largely overlooked and/or pretty maligned upon release I feel like The Life of Pi’erre 4 has fingerprints all over the modern underground rap world

[angels-a-goth-kid]

🎃Halloween Spotify Random Game 🎃

Shuffle your “on repeat” playlist & then post the first 10 tracks, then tag people!

hi i was tagged in this but truthfully i do not use Spotify as my music source but still will put songs from my regular daily playlist :) warning: there will be a lot of beatles probably :( thank you @electricdreamachine for tagging me ;p

Mama Said — The Shirelles

Boys Boys Boys — Lady Gaga

Practice — Pi’erre Bourne

You’re Going to Lose That Girl — The Beatles

Don’t Pass Me By — The Beatles

Oh My My — Ringo Starr

Case of the Ex (Whatcha Gonna Do) — Mya

Smack A Bitch — Rico Nasty

P.S. I Love You — The Beatles

Blow Me — Rico Nasty

peak into my life. anywho i'm not tagging anyone in particular bc anyone who follows and wants to do this b4 october ends should :))) but do tag me i would love to see them and get music recs :) happy halloween everyone! 🎃

[raphyart]

PRETTY GIRLS WEAR RAPH ANIMATION

Illustrated by Me using Adobe Photoshop and Animated using Adobe After Effects

With additional illustration using a Wacom drawing tablet

Featuring Pink Latex designed by Txxx (@txx.latex)

This illustration showcases some of my recent designs for S2Y2K and some of the OG S1 pieces. For a lot of the merch in S1, I ended up incorporating the logos in a lot of the illustrations i had created of myself in unrelated future pieces. This would be the first illustration that shows the new pieces in such a style.

Due to the nature of the image, it was fun placing numerous little easter eggs and inspirations within the scene. In the background, a Cactuar as seen in the Final Fantasy series of games can be seen. The Final Fantasy series being one of my favourite video game series- Initially i was going to use a KAWS figure of even a Heropuke but ended up going with the final option of a Cactuar. In the close foreground, on the table numerous other easter eggs can also be seen such the late Virgil Abloh’s Figures of Speech catalogue book, A Death note, The Life of Pi’erre 4 CD and “Routine” (From the same album) playing off a iPhone, A Gameboy Color (Seen with the Pukeboy loading screen), a RAPHYART x NIKE MORE ARTEMPO shoe poster and a calendar featuring a potential drop date (August 1st 2023).

The final image consisted of 700+ layers which surprised me for some reason.

Song ID: Pi’erre Bourne - System

RAPHYART© 2023. All Rights Reserved.

WWW.RAPHYART.TUMBLR.COM

[bangers4]

Pi'erre Bourne - The Life Of Pi'erre 4 (2019)

[dilesxpressions]

Sean Vincent Batoon

1. Name, Year, Major, and Hometown

Sean Vincent Batoon, 3rd Year. Design Major (Tech Management Minor incoming), Hometown : Pacifica Ca

2. What’s your roman empire?

When I listen to rap music the first thing I do is dissect the instrumental mentally and imagine how it looks separately and how it would be laid out on a Digital Audio workstation.

3. What is the best compliment you have ever received?

The best compliment I ever received was when someone complimented my skin, I think that was a first for me and it actually stuck with me.

4. If your life was a movie what genre would it be (comedy, horror, drama, etc.) and what actor would play you?

Honestly I would say the genre it would be is an action movie, realistically I have a really calm lifestyle I have but when there's action, THERE'S ACTION.

5. What is something on your college bucket list?

Something on my bucket list would have to be meeting lifelong friends and connections during my time in college. And looking at it from here, I would check it off.

6. What’s your guilty pleasure? (song, movie, food etc.)

I refuse to absorb new media, I’ll listen to the same music, watch the same shows, eat the same food, I’m currently in a comfortable and stagnant phase that I’m hoping to get out of soon.

7. What are your bad habits?

Procrastination, Forgetfulness, and being too blunt.

8. What are your favorite song lyrics?

“I'm so-I'm so reborn, I'm movin' forward Keep movin' forward, keep movin' forward” - Reborn - Kid Cudi & Kanye West “Girl, don't play yourself, give me mental health You can't slay yourself, take off my Louis belt Bringing up my past like that's gonna help I could pay ourselves, I got plenty wealth” - Guillotine - Pi’erre Bourne “Let me hit it raw like fuck the outcome Ayy, none of us would be here without cum” - All Mine - Kanye West

9. Defend your unpopular opinion/ hot take

My take is that Kanye West made Taylor Swift famous, if we really think about it. Taylor Swift was popular but after the VMA incident she sky-rocketed in popularity because of Kanye West calling her out. I'm just saying to all the swifties, Kanye made y’all.

10. Describe a time where you had to step up and be a leader?

A time where I had to step up and be a leader is when I’m playing League of Legends and my team is feeding and saying how we should forfeit and move on to the next game, but me with a decent score and an attack damage carry, I tell my team to stop talking and listen to my callouts and we’ll win. I simply say in the chat with all the commotion “don’t worry we scale” after I typed this I proceeded to peep game and lock in playing like I was on an esports level. Showcasing A-class performance and making the most strategic calls to lead our team to victory. We had some bad fights and my team would complain saying I was wasting their time and saying how we should have given up a long time ago. But I would ensure their victory was closer to us than the opposite team. With the game now being an hour long the deciding fight was soon to approach. In the last fight I gave instructions on who to target, who to protect and what to secure. As the fight conclude we wiped their whole team and as we rushed down the lanes destroying the their base into shambles I proceeded to lay down the the ultimatum to the enemy team that was talking smack all game “GGEZ” as the game ended I talked so much mess in the post - game lobby and told my teammates how I ensured victory was in our hands.

[niigej]

The Life of Pi’erre 4

[zaneburko]

[deus-meus]

[jheriixurls]

Countin that cash

[freshthoughts2020]

Last Week to Purchase this print !

Visit gettothecorner.com/welcome/theregocarti now!

[zalcis]

You running, running from your heart

Quit playing, with my heart

I told you from the start

[nctrnm]

"Routine" by Pi’erre Bourne. Stream my new EP, Mosaic on @Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6548mu5Z0Y2KcnpnfiLPhK?si=Yp-j9v5jTjW-RbWXwr3OUA

[openbookexam]

[gvminiart]

the life of pi’erre 5 alternate cover by me