In the inaugural episode of the Put Me On podcast, Jaylan discusses The Weeknd and Calvin Harris’s new song, Saweetie’s Tap In Remix, a Big Sean hot take and much more. This week’s Name to Know: Philadelphia artist/producer Orion Sun.
Episode transcript from Otter.ai:
How’s it going guys and welcome to the first episode of the Put Me On podcast. I’m your host Jaylan Harrington. A little bit about me, since this is our syllabus day. I’m a junior studying communication. And I suppose my fun fact is that I also write, so if you like football, pop over to TechnicianOnline.com and we read some of my stuff on the football beat. But as far as music and me, I mean, some of my favorite artists include Mac Miller, Snoh Aalegra, the Passenger, the Weeknd, Lana del Rey, I mean, I’m into a bunch of genres, but I think the biggest is absolutely rap. You know, I of course, I like the top three artists, you know, your Kendricks your Cole’s your Drake’s, but I’m also a fan of the new artists. So, you know, the Baby’s, Little Baby into Da Baby. I like NBA Youngboy I like little TJ, you know, all of those guys. I also like you know, your favorite rappity, rap rappers. So people like Griselda, Roc Marciano, Stove God Cooks, you know, your real grimy rappers. But enough about me. I mean, what’s this podcast all about? It’s about music, and specifically, rap and R&B. So the idea here is I want to listen to all the new music coming out in those two genres and try and tell you what’s decent each week, so that you don’t have to do that all by yourself. So you know, each week we’re going to talk about the new music that comes out, then maybe spotlight an artist or a project or two. And sometimes we might even talk about things that are going on in the culture. So, you know, with that kind of leading out of the way, let’s get started new music, and there is a lot of it. Let’s start with the only major album release from last week. Flee Lords pray for evil two a collaboration with the producer Mephux and it’s a second album in the past two weeks. Now of those two, it’s absolutely the better one. I mean, Flee Lords, like most other grimy rappers, in the sense of the style is going to be the same, you know, the lyrical content, the flow all of those things, it’s going to be pretty one note, they’re going to hit you over the head with that. And if there’s nothing else, then you’re going to get tired of them. So the production is really what’s going to separate a certain track from another one. And from Mephux, his style really sits well with Flee Lord I think. So it gets stale in the second half I mean all the standouts really come in the first half, including the second and the third tracks. Those are the best two songs on the album and they had the best two features on the album, one by Rock Marciano all in all perfectly evil two is a very, very good grimy rap album. If that sounds like is something that’s up your speed, you know, those coke bars, that boom bap production, you know, that’s gonna be it for you. You’re gonna like the album. Now on the singles, and let’s just start out by saying, I need to know. Okay, I need to know what type of hold Bella Hadid has over the Weeknd. I need to know it’s, this is insane. I mean, in 2018, he released an EP right. And it was all about how sad it was about her and about losing her right. And you know, he had that one song that also shit on Selena Gomez right? Then he takes a year off. Okay, he comes back and then 2020 he releases after hours, an album full of 14 songs about how he’s sad about Bella Hadid and how he’s lost her. And now he comes back and gives us this Calvin Harris song. I mean, he will not stop talking about this girl and she must be amazing. So for those who are unaware, the weekend dropped a song with Calvin Harris called Over Now. And this song is the second example from this year of the Weeknd trying to slip some lyrics past us over some upbeat production right so earlier this year on the song heartless started, out the gates with never need a bitch I’m what a bitch need right. Two minutes later when we’re not paying attention. He’s crying about what a terrible person he is. Same thing here. Okay, he starts the song off saying I don’t really care tears fall down your face. You know you play the victim every time. But then the chorus he’s protesting a little bit too much. I think about how much he doesn’t miss her doesn’t need her anymore and how their time is just over. You know, this is kind of the Weeknd at his best. I think whenever he gets into his dance while I share my pain bag, it really really does work and it works here. You know, this is definitely the Top single release of the week. So next up in the land of relevant releases Saweetie enlisted Da baby, Post Malone, and Jack Harlow for her tap and remix. And look, while I’m a pretty positive person in general. I also do want to be honest and tell you when you should absolutely not listen to a record. Do not listen to this song. Just trust me on that. Okay? Trust me and do not even give this song a minute of your time, because it’s horrible. Da Baby’s verse is the first verse on the song. And it’s terrible. It’s his worst feature. And that’s really saying something. Post Malone, second verse on the album. I’m pretty sure he just sent them a throwaway song he didn’t want to use because they completely change the beat when he comes in, and no one else gets that treatment. Terrible verse. Okay, and Jack Harlow, who had the fourth verse on the song, one of his lyrics was and I quote, when they asked me to do this verse, know, I got horny. Yeah. It’s terrible. When Saweetie has the best verse on anything, anything at all? There’s a problem. And here there’s a fucking problem. On Jack Harlow. By the way, this is the first time that I’ve ever listened to him. Because I saw a space that thought despite his popularity, he has to be terrible. It’s not a race thing because I like Mac Miller and it would appear I’m correct. Next up Good morning, Black Thought, Pusha T, Killer Mike. Three top notch lyricists. Now Pusha’s verse might be pretty lackluster but honestly it’s surprising that they let him on the song because last couple of features which include the late pop smokes paranoia and Rick Ross’s mayback music six were stellar, which you never heard them, because they diss Drake. They’re only accessible in leak for one YouTube. So at least this one actually made the song. And while the track isn’t crazy, it’s you know, it’s a solid signal for Black Thought’s streams of volume three project which will be coming later this year. It’s always great to hear more of the late Nipsey Hussle on songs, and we did some Big Sean’s deep reverence. While Nipsey’s verse was only 16 bars, Sean’s went on, and on and on, and said a lot of things, but it also kind of said nothing. I mean, there’s a couple of weird moments where it sounds like Sean’s trying to be a cheap imitation of Drake and give us like, you know, bars that we can tweet and havd IG captions. But I mean, it really, really doesn’t work. This is Sean’s song, and he’s calling it deep reverence. But no one has deep reverence for him. I mean, people absolutely love Nipsey when he was around, but no one really cares about Sean like that. I mean, what does Sean do that I can’t name three other rappers who do the same thing, but better. That’s his issue. He’s gotta kind of figure out where he resides in rap. And that’s going to be an issue for him. You know, Sean’s got an album that is, I guess, on the way but does anybody really want to hear Big Sean right now, I mean, who’s, I don’t know anyone who is excited for this album to come out. And maybe he’ll surprise us, maybe it’ll shock us with this release. But as of right now, what use is there and listening to Big Sean? All in all, you know, it’s worth checking out the song, even if it’s just for the nipsey verse. Because after that, there’s nothing of note. Our last single to feature is Cordae featuring Roddy Ricch, Gifted, why being Cordae is why being no more Cordae is dropped in new solid Roddy Ricch, a sign that Roddy has figured out his contract issues with Atlantic after blowing up last year. Now. You know, Roddy is Roddy, and you can kind of stick him on any type of song, he’ll be able to do his thing on it. But Cordae really struggled, I think to go into a more melodic territory in order to accommodate Roddy a little bit, you know, Cordae’s, cadence core days flow, the way that he wraps his tone. None of that really works with the melodic style. And I think he’s really gonna have to work on that. In time, I think he’s gonna be able to kind of slide into that melodic territory. You know, we had a little bit of it on the Lost boys album from last year. So give them a little bit of time and he’ll be able to do that and he may even be able to replace Chance the Rapper after that terrible last album, all in all Gifted it is a solid release. You’ll listen to it once and never go back to it. But it’s worth a listen. That’s pretty much it for new music from the last week. And now for this week’s name, you need to know Philadelphia artist Orion Sun. Now, I first heard her 2020 album hold space for me just from going through a fans also like rabbit hole on Spotify. And at first I really didn’t know what to think of it. You know, I think I started with probably like Sabrina Claudio or somebody. And her music is very much so not that I listened to it once. I didn’t know what to think. But for some reason, that kind of thoughts on myself are maybe I’ll you know, replay it, right. So I kind of let the album roll through roll through roll through, did that 234 times and I went from not liking any songs to liking the entire thing. I’m not sure if I kind of just Stockholm Syndrome myself into loving it. But you know, there’s something there’s just some energy about the album that’s absolutely gripping, the biggest thing that jumps out is probably just her versatility. She self produced the entire thing. She wrote all the tracks, and they don’t all sound the same. Literally every single track is different from the rest. She switches up her flows, the production, even her content, you’ll go from a song about romance to a song about losing a close friend, she does it in a way where each little reference like that, each little aside about how she didn’t like the house where she grew up in each little, you know, hint of a troubled childhood. It doesn’t really seem like that’s even kind of a theme to the album. It’s just kind of her being subtle and giving you a little bit of her life and letting you fill in the rest of the painting. And, you know, I really love that. I think we need more of that from artists. I think we need more kind of shapeshifters who kind of defies genre conventions, you know, you can’t really fit Orion sun into a box. And and remember Orion sun, you know, she just debuted with hold space. For me. This is not some act that has been working for a long time, and has a huge discography and has made a bunch of mistakes and it’s trying again, and it’s learned. She did this essentially on her first try. And I think that’s what really, really strikes me. I really love getting in on the ground floor with an artist like this because there’s so many different ways that they can grow. But if you just you know, sit down one night, maybe your phone a little blue. Let this album roll. I think a lot of people need to know who Orion Sun is. So that’s this week’s name to know Orion Sun. Give her a listen. Let me know what you think. And that’s all I got for y’all today. Thank you for joining me for the first episode of the Put Me On podcast. I have been your humble host Jaylan Harrington. Enjoy your move outs if you’re an NC State student, stay safe. Wear your mask. Wash your hands. I’ll talk to y’all next time.