{"id":1048899,"date":"2022-07-15T13:51:33","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T10:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1048899"},"modified":"2022-07-15T13:51:33","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T10:51:33","slug":"bear1boss-is-making-the-old-tricks-of-atlanta-rap-new-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1048899","title":{"rendered":"Bear1Boss is Making the Old Tricks of Atlanta Rap New Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bear1Boss is Making the Old Tricks of Atlanta Rap New Again<\/h1>\n
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Plus more highs and lows from the world of rap this week, including Baltimore joining the club-inspired rap wave and a look back at Oakland\u2019s Dru Down in the blaxploitation homage Original Gangstas<\/em><\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Alphonse Pierre<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Bear1Boss (Artwork by Callum Abbott and photo by Londonsarchived)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Pitchfork writer Alphonse Pierre\u2019s<\/em>rap column<\/em>covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, weird tweets, fashion trends<\/em>\u2014and anything else that catches his attention.<\/em><\/p>\n

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To Bear1Boss, Atlanta rap is more than a love\u2014it\u2019s an obsession. While FaceTiming me from the city, he warmly reminisces about the music that, he says again and again, \u201cchanged his life\u201d\u2014from 2000s Gucci Mane-led trap to the bright swag-rap hits of the early 2010s to the melodic mainstream takeover to the underground plugg movement. One specific mixtape he cites as a damn-near biblical text is Rich Kidz and Money Savage\u2019s 2010 mixtape We Supposed To Stop\u2026But We Didn\u2019t<\/em>, where the two crews fuse into one unit for a run of lighthearted anthems full of restarts, DJ Kutt Throat drops, and a disregard for any type of consistent song structure. \u201cSkooly [of the Rich Kidz] was so important to me that when he came out he had me wearing Ugg boots,\u201d he says while laughing.<\/p>\n

The good vibes, bubbly beats, and disorder of that tape are the base of everything his music would become. Over the course of the last three years, Bear1Boss has been on a prolific mixtape run with a sound that\u2019s as upbeat in spirit as it is overwhelming. The 23-year-old\u2019s music is loaded with beats that are inspired by various eras of Atlanta without being completely driven by nostalgia\u2014packed with glitches, producer tags, reverb, and more sound effects than a Mario Kart<\/em> Grand Prix, the chaos of which was also drawn from an admiration of DJ Spinz and DJ Pretty Boy Tank\u2019s long-running Space Invaderz<\/em> series. On top of all that is Bear\u2019s crooning: wild, and rooted in the heavily AutoTuned melodic sound his city popularized, but with the effects pushed to the brink.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Born in Buffalo, New York, but raised most of his life in Atlanta, Bear was introduced to the studio at around eight years old, when his uncle was cooking up trap music back in the style\u2019s heyday. He soaked up all the music in his orbit, including early Zaytoven and some out-of-town influences like Lil Wayne; a formative music listening experience for him was Saturday nights at the skating rink, where he was a regular through his pre-teen and teenage years. \u201cThey had candy, wings, girls twerking, and would play all the newest music,\u201d he remembers. \u201cIf it was in your playlist they played it and if you didn\u2019t know it, now you did.\u201d<\/p>\n

In these years Bear began to record his own music, because even though the city was in the midst of one of the richest eras in rap history, he still needed more. \u201cListen, all my favorite rappers\u2014Thug, Future, Key!\u2014weren\u2019t dropping enough for me,\u201d he says. \u201cI had listened to everything! So I started making the type of music my favorites made but in my own way.\u201d From there, a teenage Bear fell in with family friend DJ Teknikz, the engine behind local staples like Travis Porter and 2 Chainz. Teknikz gave him studio time and show slots, while his sound came into his own.<\/p>\n

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Bear1Boss found his sweet spot in 2020. Made with producers like Ziti, Tylur Ocean, and Popstar Benny\u2014whose fingerprints would soon be all over Bear\u2019s sound\u2014his mixtape America\u2019s Sweetheart<\/em> is really some other shit. Mixing together the more spaced-out side of Atlanta with the short attention span of an artist who grew up heavily on the internet, Bear jumps from sound to sound, from flow to flow, from effect to effect. Take \u201cXan!\u201d the project\u2019s breakout song. Bear\u2019s vocals are submerged in Chipmunk\u2019d pitch changes and stuttering effects\u2014but when we hear them without any effects, they\u2019re extremely soulful. After America\u2019s Sweetheart<\/em>, each subsequent tape only upped the experimentation. On 2021\u2019s Super Fancy 2<\/em>, the beats are as hyper as a sugar rush, and he taps his friend DJ Mainodaplug to talk shit up and down the tracklist; on America\u2019s Sweetheart 2,<\/em> he plays with faster tempos and warped flows. These tapes are sprinkled with misfires and sketches that don\u2019t completely come together, but when it clicks it\u2019s euphoric.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Earlier this month, Bear1Boss released a 24-song self-titled project, which is a bit more polished but not restrained whatsoever. Despite the short runtimes, and tendency to loop his lyrics, the songs are dense. \u201cAfter I record every song, me and Benny break it down and are like let\u2019s put a drop here, reverse this, a filter there<\/em>,\u201d he says. You can feel the layers: On \u201cAfter That!\u201d the beat is sweet but made intense with an overload of gunshots, sirens, laser beams, and the sound Sonic makes when he picks up a ring. Meanwhile, his sing-raps about fashion and drugs become catchy through his animation in delivering them. His rapping on \u201cGorgeous!\u201d is sharp but light, which helps them not get lost in all the crashes and explosions, and he has lots of fun with his vocals on \u201cOoohhh\u201d\u2014especially the \u201cEughhh\u201d ad-lib. It\u2019s a lot, but the album benefits from immersion rather than grabbing songs here and there, which is the way he grew up listening to tapes.<\/p>\n

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He plans to do something with Bear1Boss<\/em> that he hasn\u2019t before: Let it breathe. He says there won\u2019t be another solo album for the rest of the year, but given his productivity I\u2019ll have to see it to believe it. In the meantime he\u2019s working on a few things that pay homage to his hometown roots: a tape with plugg pioneer Mexikodro, a possible EP with Key!, and an emerging musical relationship with his longtime guiding light Skooly. \u201cAtlanta rap is so much fun, you can never be bored,\u201d says Bear with a beaming smile on his face.<\/p>\n

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Throwback rapper movie corner: Dru Down in 1996\u2019s Original Gangstas<\/em><\/h2>\n

In the 1990s, Dru Down left a permanent stamp on Bay Area rap. He\u2019s got a memorable opening verse on Luniz\u2019s immortal \u201cI Got 5 On It (Remix)\u201d; he laid down one of the great rap songs about pimping with the hit \u201cPimp of the Year\u201d; he rocked one of the signature perms of the era; his 1996 album Can You Feel Me<\/em> still goes. Then, somehow, he scooped up a major role in Larry Cohen\u2019s Original Gangstas,<\/em> an underwhelming 1996 blaxploitation homage that is loaded with starpower\u2014Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Jim Brown\u2014but is carried by Dru\u2019s character, Kayo with the yayo, an over-the-top and ruthless gangster\u2019s henchman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Originally, Dru was only supposed to have a bit part in the flick. But his charisma was spotted on set, and the director rewrote the movie to extend his part. That was a good choice, as I\u2019m not sure what the movie would be without him recklessly terrorizing the hard-working folks of Gary, Indiana\u2014especially the scene where he storms into a restaurant and lashes out at Luniz\u2019s Yukmouth and Numskull. Outside of his role the movie is forgettable, but it features a solid soundtrack, including Scarface\u2019s \u201cRivals\u201d and a sizzling Prodigy verse on \u201cWar\u2019s On.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rican Da Menace: \u201cAin\u2019t Going Back\u201d<\/h2>\n
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While the current club-inspired rap wave has been mostly centered around Newark and Philly, the missing link has been Baltimore. In the early \u201990s, the city developed an offshoot of Chicago house that eventually traveled up north to Jersey where it became faster and more frenetic. Rapping on club beats is not new to Baltimore rappers\u2014most famously, Tate Kobang did his thing with 2015\u2019s undeniably catchy \u201cBank Rolls,\u201d produced by genre forefather Rod Lee\u2014and on \u201cAin\u2019t Going Back,\u201d Rican Da Menace keeps the tradition going, gliding over a hyperkinetic instrumental with pulsing percussion and a sputtering background vocal sample.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s worth noting that the song\u2019s foundation is more closely aligned with drill. The beat is produced by Yamaica, a Dutch producer, who emerged cooking up UK drill beats, then became a go-to in the Brooklyn drill scene, and is now incorporating elements of club into his sound. (The internet is wild!) Rican Da Menace\u2019s flow similarly pulls from drill roots, as she pairs a fast-moving delivery with a hoarse voice that wouldn\u2019t be out of place in the Bronx. Still, the song clicks because of the way she brushes up against her hometown sound. Maybe the next step should be bringing actual Baltimore club producers into the fold: The production\u2019s tribute is nice, but I imagine the real thing will be even better.<\/p>\n

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MarijuanaXO, Bally Slatt, Big Haulin, and Trapbaby: \u201cBoogeyman\u201d<\/h2>\n
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If there was a surgeon with the ability to make someone\u2019s voice permanently sound like an android, they would make bank in Milwaukee. On \u201cBoogeyman,\u201d Bally Slatt, Big Haulin, and Trapbaby go full Sicko Mobb, if Sicko Mobb were in a worse mood. The song is pretty dark, full of threats and tough talk, though much of your attention goes to the different ways the artists warble. Bally Slatt\u2019s sing-raps in deadpan; Trapbaby is more up-and-down emotionally, like \u201cDis Ain\u2019t What U Want\u201d-era Durk. Big Haulin is my favorite, hardly singing but just talking through a load of effects. If that\u2019s all too much for you, MarijuanaXO hops in at the end for a verse that\u2019s less weird but still extremely solid. I\u2019m here for the weird shit, though.<\/p>\n

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OTM: \u201cAdios\u201d<\/h2>\n
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One of Drakeo the Ruler\u2019s last great verses is his guest appearance on the remix of \u201cCliffhanger,\u201d where he rips through the beat as nimbly as a defensive lineman. The song belongs to Duffy and BluePesos, who are OTM, the South Central L.A. duo picking up where Drakeo left off. As members of the Stinc Team, they use their hushed, emotionless deliveries to relentlessly talk shit. On \u201cAdios,\u201d they spar over a laid-back beat that matches their casualness. Duffy is the smoother of the two: His flow has a conversational bent that might bring to mind Detroit\u2019s World Tour Mafia collective, but punched-up with the frequent pace shifts associated with his local scene. Meanwhile, BluePesos is a direct descendant of Drakeo, with a raspy voice and knack for taking such short breaths between his punchlines that they feel like run-on sentences. Their subtle differences atop a similar West Coast foundation have made them a good pair to help carry on the Stinc Team name.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Source URL: https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/thepitch\/bear1boss-is-making-the-old-tricks-of-atlanta-rap-new-again\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Columns Bear1Boss is Making the Old Tricks of Atlanta Rap New Again Plus more highs and lows from the world of rap this week, including Baltimore joining the club-inspired rap wave and a look back at Oakland\u2019s Dru Down in the blaxploitation homage Original Gangstas By Alphonse Pierre July 15, 2022 Bear1Boss (Artwork by Callum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-1048899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-pitchfork-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1048899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1048899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1048899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1048899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}