#who doesn't like a remix/sampling of old songs?

[rocksibblingsau]

Actually, honest question on Chaz cause being the only Smooth Jazz troll we ever see, has some semi lonely implications. And the actual idea of Chaz, whose people may be very very very nomadic and feeling very out of place in spaces, and t!Branch also feeling out of place and just....genuinely bonding over vibing together, talking bout dangerous stuff, ways to keep safe....like I could honestly see them just....intimate together, not even hot and nasty, just lowkey vibing while really physically close. Like knowing the other gets them, removes some kind of physical boundary and they just....can't stop touching each other, like holding hands, or arms, or laying on the other, or messing with their hair. Just super intimate stuff, but also like....completely platonic? and then Synth being their energetic enabler and respecter of boundaries makes his way in and suddenly its either Synth and Branch, Branch and Chaz, Synth and Chaz or if all of em are in the same place, Synth Branch Chaz and everyone is busy trying to figure out...the everything, but its literally what you see is what you get. Just pure powerful Best Friends who looked at Boundaries and Respectfully stepped all the way over for each other in the best way. All getting used to touch and companionship in a different way. Branch getting more comfortable in his skin with people who don't judge him nor blame him, and being comfy expressing his want for touch and physical affection. Chaz also enjoying the physical affection with the actual emotional weight and understanding that these touches mean something more than just the physical, emotional grounding weight he craves. Synth enjoying the calmest slowest vibes and how its ok to slow down, and learning to enjoy a longer drawn out sensation than a constant build towards a drop, and this one doesn't really have to end, so he can really slow down and enjoy it. Its good for them, and they don't really give it too much attention past what it requires. Its the best kind of Mindless Affection, cause its fully conscious, fully consensual and fully enjoyed as it is.

This is actually so sweet???

According to Chaz in the episode 'Smooth Operator', Chaz is the only Smooth Jazz Troll. While he might have been lying for sympathy, I'd fully believe that he is a sub-genre that broke off from Jazz itself, which may be somewhere in the world of Trolls.

I think Chaz being the only Smooth Jazz Troll would explain why in the "noncanon" media like Trollstopia and Remix Rescue he's obsessed with turning other Trolls into Smooth Jazz Trolls, because there are NO other members of his genre. That's gotta be incredibly lonely and I think Techno Branch would sort of understand how it feels to be the odd one out as he was a grey troll amongst Pop trolls and he's a Pop troll amongst Techno trolls.

While in Remix Rescue, Chaz not wanting his music remixed is shown to be because he doesn't care for any other genre, I could see Chaz being protective of his genre because his songs are the ONLY songs of it. Not only that, but any art student might know the feeling of making a piece they really like, only for their art teacher to draw on it and 'fix' it. Chaz would prefer his songs stay unremixed, and I think Branch would respect that. He'd ask Chaz how he'd like for people to incorporate Smooth Jazz into their genres and Chaz would likely say if they wrote their own take on Smooth Jazz then that would likely be okay. He's extra protective because his genre is quite literally in its infancy. It doesn't have hundreds of years worth of artists and songs for people to be drawing this inspiration from or remixing since it's old and popular, it's just him. One guy.

Synth initially wanted to remix his music, but when he hears Chaz's reasoning he can't fault him for being protective of his hard work. I think Synth would ask if he'd ever want to make a song with the intention of it being sampled, or letting him record bits to use. Chaz would probably need to think it over but until then he's open to coaching Synth on the structures of his genre.

All of this to say...

Techno Branch could fix him.

[redhydrogen]

Album Review:

All My Heroes Are Cornballs (JPEGMAFIA, 2019)

(First Listen)

JPEGMAFIA is an artist who has been on my radar for a very long time. I asked some friends of him who know more about him than I do what I should check out, and this album narrowly won out. I've heard a little bit from Peggy; Scaring The Hoes, Hazard Duty Pay, Bald, Baby I'm Bleeding, among others, so I went into this album expecting something high energy. This album was decisively not high energy, but I absolutely loved every second of it.

I was absolutely blown away by the production on this album. Someone I know once said that the music sounds like it's falling apart, and that is a sentiment I agree with. The production is the musical equivalent of walking on crutches. On songs like Kenan Vs. Kel or Lifes Hard, Here's A Song About Sorrel, the samples sound like they are dying before your ears, and while these things may seem like complaints on the surface, they are anything BUT complaints. It sounds fucking incredible, on every song; the production is nothing like I've ever heard before in my life.

Peggy's lyricism on this album is about what I would expect from him, at least with what I've heard from him before this, though I enjoyed the moments on songs like Thot Tactics where he rapped from the perspective of a woman; I found that unique. What impressed me, however, was his vocal range. Peggy does a lot of singing on this album, with him even having an entire song dedicated to covering an old TLC track. I was very surprised by the range on display here, and I think it lends itself to the soundscape of this album very well. The mixing is jarring and inconsistent, with vocals often being overpowered by the instrumentals, but I feel this was done by design, and it was done very well.

If I could find one complaint with this album worthy of being brought up here, it is that a lot of the songs seemingly end just as I'm getting into the groove of them. I feel this issue is most prominent on Lifes Hard; just as I feel myself really getting into the way that song sounds and feels, it ends with little fanfare. It doesn't take away from my enjoyment to a significant degree, but it is something I take issue with on some of these tracks.

I went into All My Heroes Are Cornballs expecting an album completely different from what I got, but it was pulled off so masterfully well that I honestly can't bring myself to complain about that. I am curious to see how the rest of JPEGMAFIA's discography stacks up to this album.

Jesus Forgive Me, I Am A Thot - 8/10

Kenan Vs. Kel - 8/10

Beta Male Strategies - 10/10

JPEGMAFIA TYPE BEAT - 8/10

Grimy Waifu - 8/10

PTSD - 7/10

Rap Grow Old And Die x No Child Left Behind - 7/10

All My Heroes Are Cornballs - 8/10

BBW - 8/10

PRONE! - 9/10

Lifes Hard, Here's A Song About Sorrel - 7/10

Thot Tactics - 9/10

Free The Frail - 7/10

Post Verified Lifestyle - 8/10

BasicBitchTearGas - 8/10

DOTS FREESTYLE REMIX - 9/10

BUTTERMILK JESUS TYPE BEAT - 7/10

Papi I Missed U - 8/10

Favorite Song: Beta Male Strategies

Album Score: 8/10

[thesinglesjukebox]

LAILA! - "NOT MY PROBLEM"

Mos Def's daughter gets a TikTok hit -- no, come back...

[6.18]

Julian Axelrod: "The self-produced bedroom pop nepo baby who went viral after being sampled on a 15-person Cash Cobain posse cut is good, actually" is an unbearable sentence, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. If "Espresso" is the beverage-based hook of the year, "I got the juice/Passion fruit and guava juice" is a close second. [7]

Tim de Reuse: Any song whose thesis is "I don't give a shit" has to answer for itself; why did you write a whole song if you're so over it, huh? Most fail at this. Laila attacks this particular slope by writing half a song. "Not My Problem" has the air of something chopped and screwed together in an afternoon; the one-measure loop of reverberating synth arpeggi, the stream-of-consciousness tropical fruit catalogue, the beat that consists of a single, ugly little kick drum thrown dry and uncompressed in the middle of the room. Success at the first hurdle: I believe wholeheartedly that you are over it. Second hurdle: would I ever listen to this faint gesture of a tune more than, like, twice? [6]

Ian Mathers: A commendable message and production that makes a virtue of menacing, nocturnal stasis. Whether this works for you might come down to how you feel about songs with lyrics that feel about 90% song title by weight. [6]

Taylor Alatorre: There’s a spare yet fully realized track on Gap Year! that has an “(interlude)” parenthetical despite being two seconds longer than this one. It is unclear why the reverse should not be true. Is a Cash Cobain remix really worth this much? [2]

Alfred Soto: Borrowing an amapiano tip-tap for its drum loop and a maximalist synth line from one of Billie Eilish's psychodramas, "Not My Problem" puts its trust in its repetitions. The grain in Laila!'s voice suggests not defensiveness so much as affirmation. She's serious about being taken seriously. Snatch her guava juice, and she'll fuck you up.  [7]

Katherine St. Asaph: Redolent equally of amapiano and Rihanna's ANTI in its immersive, sink-into-able atmosphere. Nepo is good actually? [8]

John S. Quinn-Puerta: It drones on without droning, keeping you moving as you stand in the same place, trapping you in molasses at the very end, the constant refrain washing the stickiness off. [6]

Jel Bugle: Was a bit surprised by the number of streams, 33 million -- I’ve heard similar things with 1K streams. Very computer music: it’s like the new lo-fi, people still in their bedrooms making songs, but not a 4-track to be seen. It has an amateurish charm, and as an expression of joy at making music it’s nice, but not gonna buy the CD.    [4]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Occupies a fun double-life — melodically and lyrically, this is basically a song you would sing to yourself as you do the dishes. In practice, Laila!'s charm as a vocalist and her tense, spare production creates a sort of halo around the song, taking it from petty, passing grievance to a grander statement of independence. [8]

Nortey Dowuona: Still can't think of us as humans? Still can't accept the multiplying sexual and gender identities in the world now? Can't accept now that black on both sides is old enough to buy himself a ticket to fly to Accra now, and you are even older than that? Well.... [10]

Kayla Beardslee: Totally lacking personality, ambition, or intent. Why is she singing about guava juice? Girl, check your ingredients before you start blending! [4]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[beatsfortheillperth]

Words with Jetson

Our next interview is with a producer and rapper out of a beautiful place known as Tauranga, in New Zealand, This creative is known as Jetson.

He happens to be one of my cat, Rain's personal favourites for sleep time and regardless of the amount of thumping bass Jetson's music creates and picture frames it knocks over, I understand why he sleeps so sweetly.

Probably a lot to do with the fact that bass has rhythm, just like the sweet sweet words Jetson correlates with his word-plays in tracks such as "Milk" and "SENSEI". Not only impressing cats, Jetson has made moves and connections beyond the long white cloud, proving isolation doesn't always silence brilliance. Jetson brings words any generation can hold some sort of relevance to, words that allow one to notice life moves fast and slow and sometimes you just have to chill and become an observer rather than an instigator.

This is something I feel Jetson has accomplished with his rather low-key approach to releases and interviews.

Jetson is a natural, a true prodigy of sound and a sharer of moods, and to me, is a reminder that with a little bit of passion and persistence, great things can happen, whatever your field.

Jetson’s collective and label - Chill Children is evidence of that, as through it , Jetson is able to work and release with producers and beat-makers all over the globe.

emo the optimist, BACKWHEN, fuyu, eets, and junyii are just some of the diverse talents working with Chill Children and everyone on the catalogue are game-changers that make music that’s anointed in chills. 

Creators that push boundaries and portray emotion through sound in the most soothing way, one must check Chill Children.

So with that I hope you enjoy rare words with the nuance wonder, and in his own words.

Sit back, relax, get baked, create, f**k it.

Enjoy and much love.

Hey man thanks for the opportunity to share words. Let's start with a few random quick questions to get things going. Favourite Beverage: Lemon water. Favourite thing to do in your down-time: Make music/skate. Views on Reincarnation: It will be cool if it is true but I guess it doesn't really change anything if it is 🤷‍♂️ Favourite Food: Sushi. Favourite Album of All Time: Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders A song to break it down to: Ethereal & Playboi Carti - Beef A song to chill to: Durand Jones & The Indications - Cruising to the park Do you prefer Sunrise? or Sunset? Why?: Sunset, because I'm never awake for sunrise. A childhood memory in regards to music: I remember saving up to buy Graduation by Kanye West and listening to that shit front to back for weeks straight. Favourite Place to be: Probably on an island.

Thanks for that, so let's start by asking what inspires you to produce and not only produce but continually produce, what to me is an array of tunes fitting so many genres?

Do you have a set of goals in place when you release a track or do you just hit upload and just hope people are feeling your sound?

What I like to listen to is constantly changing so I like to challenge myself to try and make the things that I'm inspired by.

I like to think that you never know what you're gonna get when you listen to my music but I've still got so much to learn and experiment with. I just try have fun with it and not think about it too much.

How long have you been producing music, and what did you find was hardest to get the hang of when it first came to producing beats?

I had no music theory knowledge or anything when I started making beats (I still don't have much) so there was a lot to learn right away.

Probably the hardest thing that I still battle with is knowing what you should release, what you shouldn't etc. It's hard to balance knowing when something is finished and when it still needs work.

Could you give a quick run-through of the process you follow when it comes to making a beat?

I try to change my process as much as I can to keep things fresh and fun for myself. But I really enjoy hearing a sample somewhere like keys, a quote or a rapper I want to remix, then I start working with that piece and see where it goes.

I'll mess around with the beat for a while and sometimes a track comes out. It can take one day, it can take months. Just depends.

Oldies are always goodies in my books and I have to mention your "bumps from 2014" mixtape, it truly is something special.

What inspired those little bumps? What were you doing back then? Also, can you remember the mood you were in when you made them?

I'm glad you like it haha. That was when I really had no clue what I was doing in terms of making beats, I was making all of those 'off the grid' in Ableton so I was placing drums in random places, I had no idea what bpm the samples were or anything. I really didn't know wtf I was doing, just going off of a vibe. 

My mood was really just being excited about making music, I was living in the basement at my mum's house blasting beats on the speakers all day.

[bumps from 2014] - https://soundcloud.com/sleepgodd/bumps-from-2014

You are also a rapper. My favourite NZ rapper to be more precise so thank you for the vibes you create. How did you find out you had it in you to rap and how old were you?

Damn, I appreciate that ✌️ I started rapping with a friend of mine, Jesse aka j cafe when we were around 20. We'd sit in my room smoking weed, and free-styling over beats on Soundcloud all night. 

Then we decided to make a track, so we found a beat and jumped in the closet to record some vocals on the laptop microphone.

We put it up on Soundcloud and I've been addicted to making music ever since.

Link to j cafe’s Soundcloud here - https://soundcloud.com/j-cafe

Cover art for Jetson’s 2019 rap release - bluntscraps

Album cover art by Takuroh Toyama

When did you first start rapping in front of others? What did it feel like in the beginning compared to now when you perform live?

I was insanely nervous the first time I ever did anything live and that feeling really hasn't left me lol.

Except now I know how to deal with nerves a bit better and actually enjoy the whole experience of doing something live.

I definitely think I'm a lot better now than my first time doing it, but I still kinda suck 😂 Staying on topic with your rapping, material-wise you have mad skills, your music is forever helping me chill out so thank you.

When did you start writing down your words and turning them into structured songs? Do you have any other artists that inspire your writing style?

When I was younger I really liked the flow of rappers rather than what they were actually saying.

Dudes like MF Doom and Earl Sweatshirt really influenced me at the start wanting to come up with lines that were catchy and different.

To form an actual track I usually just mumble over beats to get the flow, then I start placing words in the spots where I think they fit.

Does your family know you make music? If so what do they think of it, any dance parties in the Jetson Family Household? 

My immediate family all know and support my music. My mum used to have one of my tracks as her ringtone for years lol.

No jetson dance parties yet, but seems like every year more people in my extended family know about my music.

You were also a member of NZ Duo, Chill Children of which you rap and produce with yet another kiwi talent, both having low-key approaches when it comes to presenting yourselves through social media. What happened with that?

Me and J Cafe started Chill Children as a rap project in the early days but we moved to different places in the world and started doing our own solo projects so things sort of stopped happening with it.

I still credit those times with really getting me started on music though. He's still making dope shit and we'll probably link up on a track soon.

So then it became a sort of collective community, and through your Chill Children Soundcloud, you allow a platform for other artists to have their music heard.

Much Love on the concept, What inspired you to start sharing other artists music and what keeps you sharing? I'm very grateful btw, too many gems.

I work on music a lot with my friend emo the optimist (aka kodama) and we always wanted to run a label/collective kind of thing so we could release music from artists that we really liked.

After me and Jesse started doing our own thing, Chill Children seemed like the perfect place to start doing that.

It's one of my favorite things to work on as we have a hand in working with the artists on every release. I just love that we're able to share so much music that we really like with the world.

Check Chill Children here -

Bandcamp - https://chillchildren.bandcamp.com/

Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/chillchildren

Instagram - @chillchildren

Any new Chill Children material we should keep an eye out for?

We always have new music from new artists dropping so definitely follow our instagram/twitter if you want to stay updated on it.

We're currently working on a phonk compilation with guys like DJ Yung Vamp, Genshin etc. It's gonna be crazy 🤯

Back to your solo releases through your alias Jetson. What made you want to start putting out your material alone? Also, do you have a favourite Jetson release?

I really felt like I had to release music solo to see what I could do.

I've learned so much about myself through that process, became more confident and a better musician.

Probably my favorite rap track I've made is called 'Escape'.

Not many people have heard it but it's on Spotify and other places.

My favorite beat I've made is probably 'dylan rieder'.

Have to ask, are you working on any new releases we should keep an ear out for? If so, what can we expect with your coming releases?

I just released an album on Bandcamp called THROWED TAPES which was really influenced by DJ screw and other phonk producers.

I'm working on a lofi R&B tape for Bandcamp, a lofi beat tape, and I really want to release a rap EP.

Who knows when those will come out though haha

Taking it back a little to your rapping again I have to mention "Milk". What inspires the words in this track?

Also please share the story behind your track "Melancholy"? The words are somewhat mesmerizing, thank you!

With milk, I just heard the beat from bsd.u and really wanted to make something weird that just followed the flow of the beat.

On melancholy I tried to think about what I was saying a little more. The instrumental is so introspective and smooth I knew I had to come correct on it.

THROWED TAPES By Jetson, released August, 27, 2020

Musical Recommendations?

junyii - emo the optimist - knxwledge - j cafe - jesse james solomon - the smiths - dj yung vamp - shuggie otis - hm surf - alicks - MIKE - baccyard - meraki soul - steve hiett I could go on for days though lol

Creatives to keep an eye out for in music and art? Takuroh Toyama (photography) Moebius (visual art) Steve Hiett (photography/music) Any Last Words?

It really trips me out that people enjoy something I love to do so much.

So just thank you for vibing with me, I have a lot more to share ✌️

Support Jetson here -

Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/highimjetson

Bandcamp - https://jetsonbumps.bandcamp.com/

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/2bkf2PmiVyfCqg2uzIFIqJ

Twitter - https://twitter.com/jetsonbumps

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jetsonn/?hl=en

Milk by Jetson (Production by bsd.u)

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

hey what are your expectations for the new bts album?

Hey! That's a good question. I'm a glass half-empty kind of gal (actually, I'm a glass half-full kind of gal if we're actually talking about glasses!), so don't expect a super positive answer from me, but that's probably why you've sent me this ask anyway!

I saw the leaked tracklist and was honestly super surprised, I couldn't believe it even though it seemed legit. Born Singer? Who would've thought! It seems the leaked tracklist is legit though... But in the leaked tracklist most songs appeared to be remixes or unreleased versions of existing songs, while the official tracklist for CD1 seems to only include the originals, no remixes or nothing... If the same thing happens with CD2, then only CD3 has a few demos and new content (apart from the new tracks!). If Tony Montana with Jimin is actually in it, then Proof has already surpassed my expectations (of it being a normal Best Of album).

I understand why CD 1 would be just the title tracks, but I didn't like the tracklist for CD 2 (which might still be fake!). Imo, they didn't choose the "best" BTS songs, or even the most meaningful ones. I guess they chose the ones with the most sentimental value to Army (like Moon, Stay, Her) as well as the most popular solo tracks (Euphoria, Seesaw, Ego, Persona). It's still essentially a Best Of compilation, but they had to add the unit and solo songs even though they are generally not the best BTS songs... But why is Her on the album? Because it's about Army? Isn't Tear a million times better, more popular, and more significant to the fandom? Dimple is on the album too, as well as Zero O'Clock. I mean, 00:00 I get, but why Dimple instead of Pied Pier, or say, Mic Drop? For the most part, it seems like they chose the chillest, most "pop" songs. I wonder when "hip hop" BTS will make a comeback. Personally, I would only listen to the first album, perhaps not in full, and maybe the third album too, depending on what's in it.

Proof doesn't feel at all worth the money, but none of their physical albums are worth the money to me. You can listen to all of BTS's old songs on Spotify, and they could've just released the demos for free during Festa. The three new singles could've been released together or something. It's like 80 dollars, or whatever it costs (plus maybe shipping and duties), for CDs people won't play and a few photocards and posters to add to the collection. Oh, and, obviously, for the pleasure of knowing you "supported" BTS and own their albums, even if these albums just end up collecting dust on Armys' shelves. Personally, I don't see the point.

As for my expectations regarding the new songs... They were low, but now they're lower. I did something unethical and listened to the leaked samples, and, yeah... it was very Life Goes On, and I think one LGO was already more than enough. Fans were all like "LGO was perfect because of the pandemic", but, to quote Psy, "pandemic's over, uh" and they're still releasing music like LGO (f the leaked songs are legit). Once you've crossed a line, there's no coming back... There was a leaked song called Run which sounded promising, but it's probably not that great... I imagine the songs will be in BE's style, which is not for me... Also, Yet to Come was produced by MAX, and his music is definitely not my style, so that doesn't bode well for me either. I mean, I know the songs will be nice, but will they be great? Dunno, but I know they'll grow on me, at least. Other fans might find them great though. I expect another WAB: The Eternal from them, and that's a song most fans are crazy about, but I'm not.

So, yeah, that's it! Thanks for the ask!

[animeraider]

Of all of the strange stories in my lengthy music career, this is one of them.

In the 1980's I was the lead guitarist and occasional vocalist for a band called ASK. We were pretty good after a while. It was me, Kevin Donville (bass and lead vocals), Ed Lee (Keyboards and vocals) and a series of drummers before we finally settled win with Tim "T.J." Klassen. We started off slow but after some rough gigs, including an horrific one where we were the act that followed the famed songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland run through their biggest hits (we sounded nothing like them and the audience was there) we built up a reputation in West L.A. as a solid band and had earned the trust of the famed Esther Wong herself.

We played 20 gigs at Madame Wong's during our run.

In 1989 Kevin had to leave the band. The rest of us tried to soldier on for a bit, recruiting my brother to play bass and trying a few other guitarists to take over lead duties while I took over vocals. None of it really worked, but we did have fun with one song. Back in the ASK days we had a hard rocker called "Run To Me" that featured a riff I stole from Don Dokken. I re-worked the song as a ballad and we worked up a pretty good arrangement. Tim and my brother worked up a solid rhythm section part and we all agreed that this was pretty awesome.

The band fizzled out and that's mostly my fault. But one night Tim and I got some beers and watched a VHS tape of U2's "Rattle and Hum", and when they got to "Bullet The Blue Sky" Tim's air-drumming that slamming part and I'm pretending to be The Edge when Tim asks me if I can play that slide guitar part. I could and I can. He said, "wouldn't that be awesome in Run to Me?"

We had one more practice, jut him, me and my brother and it WAS awesome.

I then got sidetracked by the events that led me to record a song called "Favorite Partner", a dance track that was completely played on acoustic instruments. That song took off in the beach town clubs and I suddenly needed a full demo to shop around - because people were starting to ask who I was. I had two other songs ready to go in the same vein as "Favorite Partner" and I asked TJ and Alex (my brother) to come to a session and we'd record "Run to Me" like we had last practiced it, "Rattle and Hum" bits and all.

In those days I practiced and recorded at a placed called Pendragon Studios. None of us lived close to it, but their engineer - a man named Bill Krodell - was a genius.This of course means that we all have to drive there. On the day of the session Alex's car breaks down, and he can't make it. So now I have to play bass.

TJ and I record a reference track - my guitar and his drums, and then I record the bass. I had never tried to play bass on the song before, so I just copied with Alex had done. It's a pretty good bass line, and later he would be very happy that I had kept it. I record the guitars and when it comes time to do the solo I pull out the slide and do the "Bullet the Blue Sky" bit. It's only a few seconds but Bill claps his hands together and says, "Wait until you hear how I mix THAT!"

It gets time to do the vocals and it takes me a few takes to get the lead down. The harmonies were easy though (that had been my part when it was an ASK song). We're listening to a take and getting to the last chorus when TJ, who's been just sitting and listening for the past couple of hours as his part was long finished yells out, "Knock Knock Knockin' on Heaven's Door" in time with the drum part he played.

Of course, we just HAD to incorporate that. Understand, There were about a dozen version of the old Bob Dylan song making the rounds right around then, including the Guns 'N' Roses one, so it was once again part of the zeitgeist. In the space of a few minutes I came up and recorded with a blistering 4-part harmony of those six words, and then returned to the song as I had written it. It was a fun off-the-cuff moment and I love those.

We mixed the tracks and I suddenly had a 4-song demo. A friend of mine did a photo session for the cover. I'm terrible at those and to try to get me to loosen up she had me balance a small rubber shark on my shoulder. The photo that resulted led to not only the cover but the title of the demo, "Hand Feeding the Hungry Shark".

God's Teeth I'm young in that photo.

The demo got circulated around and label interest started up, but they wanted to hear more. They wanted live shows and at this point I really didn't have a band. I was getting club play though and I was selling demos, so I decided to record a full album. The result was the first album I released as Jim Christopher, "My World - Welcome To It", named after a television show I barely remembered from my childhood. It's available to this day:

https://open.spotify.com/album/0MZo7Zlk9cis5s0mcv0giy?si=RUce_ECtRH-ndKprKkx2QA&dl_branch=1

Thing is, if you listen to track Seven you will NOT hear the Bob Dylan Lyrics. You need to remember that this is 1989-90. The world wasn't then what it is now. I hadn't sampled Dylan. I had essentially just used his words, and I realized I was going to need his permission. So I asked.

It took a bit of doing, but I found his agent and sent him a letter outlining what I was doing, and sent him a copy of the demo. I figured that their publishers would want a cut and I was prepared to give it. Instead I got a letter back stating that if I were to release this version of the song with Dylan's lyrics included that they would sue me into the ground and crap on the smoldering remains.

Well, I'm this 24 year-old broke dude and this is Bob Dylan's battery of lawyers. I wasn't going to win this one, so I went to a studio and rented one of their editing consoles and spliced out most of the last chorus (I'm a VERY good editor - most people don't even realize the cut).

That was that. My little tribute to Bob Dylan was left on the cutting room floor. 20 seconds of the song just gone. End of story.

Except.

Long after I had left Los Angeles and retaken my own name as a recording artist, Dylan gives an interview about all of the covers of his songs done over the years, and how many musicians quote him. Part of the answer he gives is about how he got overly protective of his catalog at one point and wouldn't let anyone use his music without using the whole song. Guess about when this was? He goes on to say in the interview that he doesn't mind people quoting him - that he does it himself.

In essence, he was giving everyone permission to do the very thing his lawyers had told me not to do. I'm not going to go into the story of how I confirmed this, but I did learn that he actually had never even heard my song (Hugh Hefner did, but that's another story). The ultimate response I got? "We're cool."

But I had edited that chorus out of the master for the album. I went back to the original 2 inch tapes I had recorded on and remixed and remastered the song. I let it hang around bandcamp for a little while, but I never really gave any thought to releasing it.

Well, 2020 and 2021 have been such game-changers in my life. After spending years struggling with a new album the floodgates opened up for me as a writer and a recording artist. As many of you know, I've released a ton of material this year, including some of my older tracks that never saw the light of day. It took a while, but it finally got through myu thick skull that I could finally put out in wide release the original version of "Run to Me", complete with The Edge guitar solo and 6 words by Bob Dylan.

It's the opener of "Demolisten", which is mostly a random collection of songs that never saw wide release for one reason or another. Some of this work is seriously unpolished, but I figure if the big artists can release their back-catalog crap so can I. But I'm really proud of "Run to Me".

I played every instrument and sang all the vocals except for the drums, which are played by Tim "TJ" Klassen (who now lives in New York). If you listen very very carefully you can even hear TJ "singing" (screaming, really) as he plays drums, especially on some of the fills.

Every song on this "new" EP has a story behind it, but this one is the one from the very early days of my life as a solo artist. I can tell the other stories if you want. I promise to be less verbose on the others. Their stories are shorter.

[thesinglesjukebox]

DOECHII - WHAT IT IS (BLOCK BOY)

What It Is (Solo Version) (Sped Up) (Slowed Down) (Blurbed)

[6.42]

Michelle Myers: If you need a reminder of how times have changed, consider that the Atlanta rap group Trillville reached #14 on the Billboard charts in 2005. Their biggest hit, "Some Cut," is a crunk-adjacent trunk-blaster with nasty lyrics and enough funk in the beat to have sounded retro back then. Doechii's adroit reclamation of Trillville's iconic "what it is, ho?" hook over a "No Scrubs" sample feels powerful but never preachy. [8]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: This shouldn't work. By all indications, this is a crass gambit for pop crossover status, a promising rapper gluing together nostalgic samples and appending a guest verse from a noxious shithead who has nevertheless been one of the more consistent hitmakers in rap over the last half-decade. There's even a very silly EP of all the different "versions" of the song, featuring sped-up and slowed-down versions but no actual remixes. But "What It Is" isn't... that crass? For one, Kodak Black is no longer present, his middling guest verse and altogether awful vibes excised from the version of the track that actually gets rap radio play. And regardless of the version, Doechii is too good at her job to let this suck. While I prefer her more in rage or boom bap modes, she's still as stylish as ever, playing the role of pop-rap icon with enough poise that she might as well stay there as long as she can. [7]

Crystal Leww: "What It Is" feels like a relic from an era that doesn't exist anymore. It's when R&B-pop songs with a verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure with a guest rap verse could be genuine pop hits. It's from a time when artists could hit the 8-count -- hell, when music was made for an 8-count. It's a song about a crush that's bright rather than fucked up -- a feeling so light that it's like floating along the clouds. [7]

Katherine St Asaph: That Kandi/She'kspere sample has as much instant impact as it did the first time round in the '90s. But wow, you can really tell how incomplete this sounds without the Kodak Black verse that shouldn't have existed in the first place. [6]

Nortey Dowuona: This is just "Some Cut" but sung and including a mediocre Kodak Black verse. (Another thing he and Kendrick have in common?) The beat is thin and barely has a melody -- two piano chords under a pelting synth line and drums that are so spaced out they barely connect. I don't think any of these pieces gel into an actual song. Don't even know what Doechii is doing here -- this doesn't establish her as an artist, and the only good line isn't hers ("being black in America is the hardest thing to be"). What was so wrong with "Crazy"? At least "Crazy" actually banged -- this can't even cohere enough to suck. [4]

Brad Shoup: This would have been a passé chart ploy in 2009--a nod at crunk over some frothy pop-R&B. But now that I'm old I'm happy to hear both. [7]

Will Adams: Appealing in the way that any modern R&B-pop song that throws back to She'kspere is. Congrats to everyone who wished for a Kodak Black-free version. [6]

Leah Isobel: Doechii's timbre here is a little abrasive -- not unpleasantly so. She's tough, sharp. But she's not laid-back; she barrels through the track instead of working inside it, which is interesting given that both of the samples come from songs with a much more relaxed kind of energy. Of course, it's not like this beat is particularly relaxed either. It might be boxing her in. [7]

Rose Stuart: Fluffy pop flair limits Doechii's fire-cracker charm, keeping her from exuding her energy in the same way that made "Crazy" so visceral and alive. However, the discordant ringtone rap-esque beat is enough to keep things interesting. [5]

Ian Mathers: I really thought this might be the first year where the Jukebox didn't give me the genuinely lovely feeling I get when I hit play on a song I think I don't know and discover I've already heard and enjoyed it. But even in 2023, where it felt like I barely left the apartment, I heard this one out at least a couple of times. I'm not sure if that's inescapability or just luck. I do dimly recall there being some other element to this one, but oh well; whatever it is, I don't miss it. [7]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Every line here can be memorized within a few listens, which means that any time it comes on, you can sing along to a series of hooks upon hooks. Doechii makes it look easy, too, as if inviting you to join in. No other single this year felt as generous. Hell, she even got rid of Kodak. [7]

Taylor Alatorre: In an attempt to provide the most controversial reasoning possible for the most un-controversial rating possible, I will say this: every generation gets the "All Summer Long" that it deserves. And since "All Summer Long" is a solid [6], I see no reason to rule any differently here. [6]

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