Bump!
Thank you for visiting kingcarlow.com. I appreciate your support. If you're a newcomer, welcome! If you've supported me from the start, I appreciate your loyalty. I'm looking to make it big and I thank you for coming along for the ride as I grow.
I wanted to kick-start this blog when I first launched the site a few years ago and I wasn't sure how to go about it (I'm a strategist). Now that we've finally started, I think future posts will flow nicely.
As for this EP I'm releasing today...
I've had an idea for a few months. I've disclosed this idea with trusted people and I really wanted to make it a reality. Everyone I spoke to said it'd be a good idea. So...
My parents are from the Caribbean. My mom is from Jamaica. My dad is from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. When I was younger, my parents would play reggae, dancehall, soca, etc. Buju, Beenie Man, Sizzla, Sean Paul, Gregory Isaacs -- I can keep going.
If you listen to reggae, you'd notice that a beat or "riddim" would exist and plenty of artists will create a song from that riddim. So you can potentially have an infinite amount of songs recorded to one riddim. My girlfriend caught wind of this and thought that was dope... especially from a cultural perspective. I began to think, "They don't do this in America."
It's interesting because rappers are possessive to a degree: Rappers want to be the only person to rap to a beat. They typically don't want a beat if someone else had it before. The only exception is if Lil' Wayne releases "A Milli", the whole world wants to record their version on that same beat. Sometimes even copying flows. These recordings aren't treated as legit releases. They typically end up on a mixtape or Soundcloud. For the 10 years+ that I've been producing, I've followed these unwritten rules. Sometimes I give one rapper a beat and wish I could hear what someone else would do to it. I know I can lease one beat to maybe 5 artists, but artists don't like to know that someone else has the beat.
The tape I'm releasing is a prototype of what can be and what's to come. Bump Riddim EP declares my beat "bump" as a riddim. This isn't reggae, but I wanted to add that twist to hip hop. My idea was to curate some tracks with talented artists and showcase a beat as well. This promotes teamwork, friendly competition, and having fun.
The other half to this story is the involvement of C-Red and TP. Back in 2013/2014, they both got a hold of "bump" and independently recorded their own songs to it. They both recorded FIRE. I held on to both versions, but I didn't want them to go unheard. Big ups to them for being so talented and rocking with me. Everyone that has heard these songs has given good feedback, so I figured Bump Riddim EP was a great opportunity for me to innovate.
I later wanted to add another track so I went ahead and remixed Suge by Da Baby. I wanted to show anything is possible. I wanted to show that you don't have to record "conscious" raps on a sample beat. I'm trying to change the status quo. I don't know if this idea will catch on, but I plan to do more of these. If this becomes a thing, just know that King Carlow made it happen and did it first.
So here it is:
Peace,
