EDM music has the bass drop, heavy metal has the breakdown, and if there is an equivalent in hip-hop music it would be the beat switch. A good beat switch can take the listener by surprise and serve as a crucial turning point in a record. A bad one can be jarring, uninspired, or otherwise uninteresting. With that said, here is a short list of some of my favorite beat switches in hip-hop!
NEVER by JID: Perhaps the most underrated song on this list, this beat switch finds JID shifting into his highest gear.
Under Pressure by Logic: In this two-part epic, Logic explores not only pressure from the music industry, but from his family as well. These two aspects are delineated by the beat switch halfway through the song.
Furthest Thing by Drake: Generally speaking, Drake has two sides – vulnerable and boastful. The beat switch on “Furthest Thing” showcases both of these, with Drake reflecting on his shortcomings in the first part and taking a victory lap in the second.
XXX. FEAT. U2. by Kendrick Lamar: Kendrick is known for his ability to change tone at a moment’s notice, and this song is one of the best examples of that. He ends a frantic verse about gun violence by saying “Alright kids, we’re gonna talk about gun control.” The irony here is accentuated by the beat switch, where police sirens are traded for simple piano chords.
This is America by Childish Gambino: In 2018, Bino broke the internet with his surprise single and music video for “This Is America.” The back and forth between a cheery chorus and bass-heavy verses symbolizes the duality of the Black experience in America, making for one of the most powerful beat switches ever.
Sicko Mode by Travis Scott: The three-part structure of this song, with not one but two beat switches, has led some to call it “the Bohemian Rhapsody of our generation.” Such a comparison might offend old heads, but only time will tell if it will make the same impact that Queen’s song has.
Nights by Frank Ocean: Last but certainly not least is one of the most transcendent beat switches my ears have ever heard. Not only does the beat switch on “Nights” mark the exact halfway point on Blonde, but it also marks a sonic and thematic shift from child-like naivety of the first half of the album to the contemplative and mature second half. Though not exactly a hip-hop song, it still has one of the best beat switches ever.
What do you think? What are your favorite beat switches?
Hey everone! Here is a batch of songs that I have been rocking with lately:
Amber by Unusual Demont: As winter approaches and the sun fades away, “Amber” by Unusual Demont, with its laid-back instrumentation and organic vocals, will bring you back to those endless summer nights.
Move On by canvisluv and S9ACECAT: canvisluv, an up-and-coming artist from Ohio, just released Patience: Summer Never Came Demos Check it out here!
Help by Aaron Taylor: From 2016’s Better Days comes “Help” by Aaron Taylor, a D’Angelo-esque head-bobber complete with vocal harmonies, strings, and walking basslines.
Don’t Waste My Time by SAULT: “Don’t Waste My Time” is a song whose name says it all, and it does so with an incredible drum and bass groove.
Infunami by Steve Lacy: The Lo-Fis is Steve Lacy’s new album, and it is composed of SoundCloud Leaks and unreleased demos from his time in high school. “Infunami” calls back to the days of “C U Girl” and “Some” with its guitar chord progression and Garageband-like simplicity.
Check Me Out by Rico Nasty: “Check Me Out” is fresh off of Rico Nasty’s new album Nightmare Vacation. Its eerie piano loop perfectly complements her dynamic voice, which alternates between screaming and whispering.
Pressure In My Palms (feat. slowthai & Vince Staples) by Aminé: This track marks Aminé’s first collaboration with Vince Staples and second collaboration with slowthai.
Peppers and Onions by Tierra Whack: This new track from miss Whack explores introspective themes of self-acceptance and feeling stuck, all while retaining the catchiness all of her songs possess.
ALBUM: “A Charlie Brown Christmas TV Soundtrack” by Vince Guaraldi Trio
RELEASE YEAR: 1965
LABEL: Concord Music Group
RATING: 100000/10
BEST TRACKS: “Linus and Lucy,” “Christmas Time Is Here” and “Skating”
FCC: Clean
With the holiday season finally upon us, I thought I’d highlight the best wintertime song collection ever made. There exists no cozier Christmas album than Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack for “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Many of my own childhood Christmases were spent decorating the tree while “My Little Drum” played in the background. It makes me want to curl up on the couch with a blanket, a nice book, and a cup of hot tea.
Vince Guaraldi, a pianist from San Francisco, along with bassist Fred Marshall and drummer Jerry Granelli captured the hearts of audiences far and wide with their jazz ensemble for the beloved Peanuts movie. While many of the songs are remakes of Christmas classics, like “O Tannenbaum” and “Christmas Time is Here,” they included original tracks too; the lighthearted grooves of “Linus and Lucy” and “Skating” reveal the tender feelings that the holidays can bring. I love how he used a children’s choir in many of the songs to capture the childlike wonder of Christmastime.
What makes this album special is how accurately it reflects the mixed emotions that surround Christmastime. I thought this was fantastic considering how Charlie Brown, the unfortunate, old soul that he is, struggles with “the Christmas Spirit” throughout the whole movie. Each song holds both the joy of childhood holiday memories and the sadness that can accompany Christmas in adulthood. It reaches across age boundaries and is still enjoyed today, 55 years later.
Need a bit of holiday cheer and cozy comfort? Give it a listen!
One thing I’ve always noticed in not only the music industry, but in celebrities in general, is how easy it is to look at them as superhumans. It’s so easy to hold them to such a high standard that we ridicule them for the slightest mistakes and turn our heads when they do something good. I decided to write an article about artists who have given back to their community, but honestly it was hard to find a lot of information about it. More often than not when artists give donations and contributions to charities it’s overlooked or just not even reported on. However, I was able to find a few whose music I thoroughly enjoy and who are actively working to make the world a better place.
A$AP Mob The Always Strive and Prosper Foundation was created after A$AP Yams, one of the founders of the original A$AP Mob collective, died of an overdose back in 2015 The foundation is intended to provide children with the best information available about substance use and abuse without judgement or morality to promote healthy lifestyle choices. Their main philanthropic gathering is called Yams Day, which is a music festival dedicated to the foundation.
Mac DeMarco Remember all those wildfires in Australia earlier this year? I know, it seems like forever ago. But ironically enough, Mac DeMarco held a barbeque event in Melbourne which raised $210,000 to go towards Wildlife Victoria and Fire Relief Fund. Cook a pig, save a koala.
Rihanna The queen herself is actually one of the biggest philanthropists in the music industry. While she donates to a wide variety of charities, her biggest one is focused on the education of children and women in Malawi, which is one of the poorest countries in the world. Rihanna has helped to fight the huge disparity between the drive of the population to learn and the incredible lack of supplies and schools that are offered for children.
Mrs. Lauryn Hill Lauryn Hill is perhaps the artist who most represents the idea that a community has the capability to love and heal as long as it has the right amount of support. While over her career she has donated to a wide array of charities, her most notable work was her 20 year anniversary tour of “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” when she donated every single dollar earned from that tour to the MLH Foundation. This is a charity dedicated to supporting those who are fighting cancer and other serious illnesses.
While these artists are already very well known, I thought the good work that they were able to do because of their success was something worth mentioning.
If you know me, you know that I love me some 2008 sounding metalcore. I have been wanting a band to incorporate that sound back into their music now because the riffs and the ambiance of the metalcore back in 2008 is so technical and precise. It makes for a beautiful and heavy sound. Well, Butcher Crew, Boundaries did just that on their most recent album, Your Receding Warmth. It was released on November 13, 2020, and I have literally been listening to it all day, every single day since it dropped. By far, one of my favorite releases of 2020.
Boundaries has released 2 albums and one EP: Hartford County Misery in 2017 (one of my all-time favorites), My Body in Bloom (EP) in 2019, and now in 2020, they have released Your Receding Warmth. The band has progressed since their first two releases. They are known for their use of panic chords and breakdowns, and although the band does use these styles in their recent release, they evolved their sound and use more of a fast-picked thrash riff, to melodic riffs that sound as if they are from the early 2000s metalcore. These sounds can be heard throughout the entire album, and I love it.
Although each song contains heavy breakdowns and melodic metalcore riffs, each song is different in their own way. Whether that be tempo changes, lower vocals, or heavier riffs, each song contains something different and is different from the rest of the songs. This album has a great blend of hardcore, melodic metalcore, noisy pastiche aesthetic, along with lyrical content to create an atmosphere of anger and anxiety around the music. You can practically feel the emotions that are involved within each song, and the breakdowns just make the song 10 times better. You can’t help but move around. Boundaries know when to deliver beatings but also groove.
Boundaries released a statement about the album on Instagram and the meaning behind it. I think their statement describes the album beautifully. They stated that:
“The record is a vulnerable representation and understanding that things you depend on will start to disappear and whether you’re ready or not, you will have to adjust and find a way to keep going. Your Receding Warmth is a reference to life being less and less forgiving and helpful to those who need help and forgiveness. At the end of the day, it’s all ‘sink or swim.’”
-Boundaries
I think the band described the album perfectly. This album is an absolute ass whoopin’. Each song is dark and eerie in its own way. Songs like “My Strength” and “Behind the Bend” Matt (their singer) talks above the music and it has this eerie sound to it. The lyrics in this album are awesome and you can really feel the emotions that Matt is talking about.
I watched an interview with Matt on the Scoped Exposure Podcast, and they discussed the making of Your Receding Warmth. Matt said that the band gets together and they first talk about how they want the song to sound, what emotion they want the song to have, and what styles they want to incorporate. I find that really interesting that they start with an idea before they start to jam. Matt also stated that he has journals that he keeps that contains his lyrics. These journals date back to his teens and he goes through them and grabs lyrics and ideas for songs. Matt recommends listening to the album in order because each song was written with an emotion and intent that they had while writing that song. I have done this every time that I listened to the album and it really does capture the emotion of the whole thing. The last song, “From the Departed, Dearer or Otherwise” is a monologue that gives me chills every time. It incorporates all of the titles of the songs on the album and has a very strong message. It was a great way to end the record.
Favorite Songs:
This is tough because I literally love each and every song on this album. When I listen to the record, I always think “no, this song is my favorite song.” So, it’s hard to say which ones stand out to me. Each song has a meaning and each song is good and awesome in its own way.
But if I had to choose my favorite songs that really get me moving and jamming out, they have to be: Behind the Bend, Written and Rephrased, Fade Away, and Get Out.
Rating: 10/10!!!!
What did you think about Boundaries’, Your Receding Warmth? What are some of your favorite songs?
BEST TRACKS: “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” “Mannish Boy” and “(I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man”
FCC: Clean
“Electric Mud” is my all-time favorite album from Muddy Waters, probably because I’m such a sucker for the reverb of an electric guitar. Though it’s only eight songs long, “Electric Mud” is a fantastic example of how the blues and rock meshed in the 1960s. Most of the songs are remakes of his famous classics, such as “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “Mannish Boy” and “The Same Thing,” only twinged with the sludgy feel of psychedelic rock.
The 50s and early 60s proved to be the heyday for Waters, but he saw a decline in popularity as his record label began to fail and the British blues scene took over in the late 60s (ironically, many of the hard rock artists from the UK took bits from Muddy Waters’ work to further their own.) In a last-ditch attempt to capture the hearts of younger audiences, Waters joined forces with band members of the Rotary Connection to create “Electric Mud.” Disappointed in its mixture of psychedelic rock and the blues, classic blues artists disapproved of the album. Muddy Waters himself wasn’t fond of the album because he felt he couldn’t perform it live.
Despite the somewhat negative history behind “Electric Mud,” it helped put him back on the map. After his label, Chess Records, fell, Waters was able to go on and produce some of his most influential work throughout the 70s.
This album holds a special place in my heart because it made me realize how impactful Muddy Waters was on the rock scene in the 60s and 70s. Jimi Hendrix openly covered Waters’ work in both his live and studio sessions. The track “You Need Love” was the bones of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” The Rolling Stones even got their name from Waters’ song “Rollin’ Stone.”
All in all, “Electric Mud” is a fantastic album for anyone interested in rock and blues history. Give it a listen!
What’s going on Butcher Crew?! It’s ya girl, your Master Butcher, The Saw, and I am here to talk about one of my favorite things… tattoos. I love tattoos, I think they are a great way to show your interests and they also make people look like badasses. Tattoos make people look different and give them an edge. I love talking to people about their tattoos and the meaning behind them. Our bodies are canvases and I love to see the art that is displayed on people’s bodies.
Now, I have a sleeve, and a handful of other tattoos. My friends always come to me for tattoo advice: where they should go, what they should get, and how to take care of their tattoos. The Saw is the tattoo guru and I am here to give you some advice about researching tattoo parlors, artists, designs, and aftercare.
Design:
First, you need a tattoo idea. I suggest looking up artwork and other tattoos that you are interested in. Look at tons of sketches to see what designs you like and don’t like. I would suggest using these sketches as a reference to what you want and also come up with your own ideas that you think would look cool. I wouldn’t copy a design or another tattoo that I found online because someone already has that tattoo; you want something original and special to you. If I find a sketch that I really like, I will show it to my tattoo artists and tell them that this is the way I want my tattoo to go, but allow the tattoo artists to make their own designs that are along the lines of what you want. This makes the tattoo enjoyable for the tattoo artists because they can put their own personal touch on the tattoo, and the tattoo will be unique to you since no one else will have the design like you.
Searching for Tattoo Parlors and Tattoo Artists:
This is probably the hardest part for me because I am SO PICKY. My dad calls me a tattoo snob and I will gladly take that title. Usually, I will look up tattoo parlors around me and look at their reviews. I will see what clients have to say about their artists and the customer service that the parlor has. I will also ask my friends about where they got their tattoos and ask if they recommend a particular parlor or artist. While researching tattoo parlors, I will also look at the portfolios of tattoo artists to see if I like their style of work. This helps you get a general idea if the artists will be able to create the tattoo that you want. Each artist focuses on a different discipline: realism, traditional, biker, geometric, cartoons, botanical, and fine lines. Knowing the style that an artist uses will also help you determine what type of style you want your tattoo in. Once you find a parlor and an artist, you can either contact the shop for booking or contact the artist individually in order to book an appointment.
Getting the tattoo:
The day you are getting your tattoo, be sure to eat before, please. Also take some Advil to ease the pain. Oh, and make sure you’re sober, no alcohol or drugs. Wear comfortable clothes because you could be sitting in a chair for a few hours.
Aftercare:
Some tattoo parlors have wraps that they put on your tattoos that you can keep on while its healing, but some places wrap your piece in a paper towel. If that’s the case, after an hour has passed, remove the wrap and wash your tattoo with the hottest water you can stand. WARNING: washing your piece the first few times will hurt like a mf. You want to use a non-fragrance soap, soap with strong fragrances can irritate your tattoo. I suggest using Dove Sensitive Body Wash. Use a light layer on your tattoo and then wash it off. Use a clean towel or paper towel and pat it dry. Some tattoo parlors suggest buying tattoo cream (“tattoo goo”) to put on your piece after you clean it, but a thin layer of original Neosporin will do the trick. You want to wash your tattoo like this twice a day for a few weeks.
When your tattoo starts to scab, DO NOT SCRATCH OR PICK AT THE SCAB, IT WILL RUIN THE COLOR!! Instead, lightly slap your tattoo if it begins to itch. Once your tattoo is in this phase, wash your tattoo the same way but instead of Neosporin, use a lotion that is not scented. I use the Vaseline lotion or Hemp’s body lotion. I also recommend Lush’s Elbow Grease, it keeps your tattoo shiny and hydrated.
This is my favorite time of year. The weather is crisp, the smell of Christmas trees fills the air, and everyone exposes themselves on Instagram with their Spotify Wrapped.
You can tell a lot about a person by their Top 5 artists and songs (a lot more of my friends listen to Taylor Swift than I originally thought, no shame though). I know some are indifferent about the whole idea of it, but I could look at people’s Spotify Wrapped for hours. It’s so interesting to see what kind of music people are into! Whether it’s totally predictable or completely unexpected, I love to watch how people’s personalities match up with their music preferences.
Interested in getting a look at a WKNC DJ’s Spotify Wrapped? Well, look no further! Here’s what I’ve been listening to on repeat in 2020:
Top Genres:
I felt that my top genres were totally accurate, yet slightly surprising. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know that “Psychedelic Hip Hop” was even a genre in the first place. Despite this, I think that anyone who listens to my show would agree that these 5 genres are the basis of my sets every week!
Top Artists:
I can honestly not believe how predictable (and slightly embarrassing) this is. I knew that Zeppelin would, and probably forever will, be my #1. I was hoping that Greta Van Fleet wouldn’t make an appearance, but this summer I listened to “From the Fires” way too many times.
Top Songs:
Drum roll, please! My top songs are such an accurate reflection of my mindset all 2020: Too much Zeppelin, wishing I was at a surf concert, and crying to “Just Like a Baby.”
Thanks for indulging me, as always. Haven’t seen your Spotify Wrapped yet? Want to expose yourself on social media? Click here to see yours!
