“THANK YOU, SATCHMO”

It’s July 10th, 2025. 8:07pm. The sky is radiating an orange creamsicle-like tone through the tilted blinds in my bedroom. The only light I invite in are the watts from an ominous desk lamp punching through the surrounding darkness. This ambiance can only suggest one thing — I’m back recording music again. The purchase of a new iPad mixed with the fight to squander my nerves has me recording and deleting takes while working up a frustrated sweat. Back in April, my Macbook powered on for the last time, making every music file that I’ve been recording for my upcoming album irretrievable for good. I spent the spring and summer up to this point working shifts and gigs to invest in new equipment and now it’s hitting me that I haven’t recorded a song in almost four months. I feel like Bow Wow in “Like Mike” when his couldn’t wear his lucky mid-tops to hoop in — ‘Cozy Cambridge’ lost his hot streak and can’t get it back.

I hung my head in disbelief like Usher Raymond when he got the call that his mistress was pregnant. The only excitement I could grasp for was the new Clipse album that was dropping in the next 3 hours. ‘Maybe tonight ain’t it,’ I thought. I felt the negative self-talk coming like an avalanche. In search of a distraction, I opened my phone and saw that Pusha & Malice made their viral leak of the song ‘Chains & Whips’ available on Apple Music. I originally was holding off to hear the full album upon its release, but I figured now was as good a reason as any to forego my rituals as an avid rap fan.

The dissonance of the head-pounding 808 under a hair-raising guitar strum flood my eardrums instantly. This song is DARK. The instrumental alone is your worst nightmare if you woke up with a hangover…but the energy is overwhelming as it is INFECTIOUS. Pusha, Malice Pharrell and Kendrick join each other on a revolving carousel and appear to take the tone of 4 vampires that Ryan Coogler edited out of Sinners because they were too piercing. The beat rips through every inhibition and the lyrics puncture any facade that a rapper masked himself with. THIS. IS. RAW. The song is an example of all the characteristics that led me to immerse myself in music. energy cancels conversation. Production that turns your head like a car crash. Grooves that change the temperature of a room. THIS IS HOW A SONG SHOULD MAKE YOU FEEL.

I went back to the iPad with a clear mind and a new well of inspiration. I looked through my sound library and found a dusty jazz loop that had the same energy as a cigar in the back of a lounge, best paired with a double shot of bourbon. It was dark, but warm and settling. I looped the sample and played what I felt in real time. No writing, no thought behind it — just raw energy. The playback mirrored a level of authenticity that reminded me of Louis Armstrong. His tone wasn’t cute or polished, but it was authentic as it was signature. The same tone that took him across the world. The light-bulb went off IMMEDIATELY. I’m not here to be perfect. My music is a space to be raw. At one point Jazz was the only platform that provided young Black kids a space to display their intelligence, humanity and perspective . Louis was 21 years old when he got his big break in jazz. Who am I to not create freely? My responsibility is to live and create as honestly as I can and meet you in the middle as two humans would. I don’t desire to present a polished version of myself in life or in music. I desire to live in my truth at all times and speak from where I am in the moment.

It was this realization that led to my latest breakthrough.

Thank You, Clipse.

Thank YOU for reading.

and Thank you, Satchmo.