New Music: @SpeedontheBeat – The Sorest Loser

For the full album stream, check it out below. For more in-depth discussions on some of the tracks, keep reading.

I feel that The Sorest Loser is a release that people need in their lives. I know that sounds weird, slightly self-congratulatory, and borderline hokey. But, in these crazy-ass times, I feel that this album is something that people need in their lives, at least for the 44:14 it runs for. Yes, I think it’s my best album. But, it’s deeper than that. I talked about the record’s process a bit on the site, from my mom’s death to dealing with SJS and everything in between. However, now, I want to talk a bit more about some of the tracks themselves. Nothing too big. The following are three songs (technically, three and one interlude) that I feel are highlights on the album.

First, “Vouch for That.”

It’s based around an instrumental that was original crafted for Baltimore Commercial Break. I held it off that album because I didn’t have the bars I needed/wanted for the song. So, for about a year, I sat on the beat, wondering what I could talk about. Eventually, I got my thoughts together and said “hey, let’s do a song taking listeners through my rap ‘career’ over the years,” from being discovered as a kid singer by a family friend who botched his own label to the retirement from bars and, potentially, beats. It’s a fun and boisterous boombap-meets-trap-friendly bass song and one of my personal favorites on the album.

Next up? The “Se Roquel” interlude and the actual song itself.

Now, the interlude is taken from a song I did years ago called “Kindred Spirits (Song To You).” It was, obviously, a love song. But, putting the happy, sappy, doe-eyed love song as the interlude to the more-matured, a slight bit more cynical (I mean, I compare my love to a bipolar medication I need to, you know, not be all manic and whatnot) love song, it shows the duality of love. True love. It’s not always sunshine, lollipops and rainbows.

Sometimes, things get dark and weird. However, like Seroquel keeps me leveled, if you keep a leveled head, even in those dark as hell moments, you will persevere. That’s the message I was going for with the “Se Roquel” songs. That’s further accentuated by the outro speech Drizzle Sez gives about The Lego Theory. Plus, it features me singing. So, yay for still (kind of) having the pipes–and the balls–to belt out a couple of lines and have it not sound too crappy.

Finally, I want to talk a bit about the timely-as-hell “The Revolution’s Coming.”

It, for me, sticks out like a sore thumb since its first verse ends “And I’m not Black Lives Matter…but OUR lives matter, man.” I know, it sounds like I’m saying “ALL.” Nope. I’m definitely saying “OUR.” I mean, yeah, all lives matter and whatnot. But, with the recent killings of Black individuals such as Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, and many others (by cops, random folks, and otherwise), it has to be said. Black lives matter. Please, stop killing us if we’re not doing shit to provoke you to straight-up kill us. If we’re not waving a gun in your face, there’s no need to kill us. Shoot to arrest, all that sort of stuff. If that gets your panties in a bunch and you don’t want listen to the album, that’s cool. At least you’re being real with your ideologies clashing with mine on this versus being subversive about it.

Now, the “I’m not Black Lives Matter” part of that ending line, it shows the splintering within the BLM movement. I liken myself as a revolutionary hippie. My viewpoints, according to some involved within the “main” BLM movement(s), they’d be looked at as weird. So, using my utopian philosophies, my revolutionary hippie-ness, and the fact that, well, my mom was a pimp, I used that to make my own movement within the movement.

It sucks that you’ve got to do that, especially when we want the same thing (to be fully treated as humans, not cattle, playthings, pieces of meat to take your frustrations out on, target practice, etc.). However, they don’t always agree with me, nor I with them. However, I still will say Black Lives Matter. Why? Because, as I said, yes, all lives do matter. But, Black lives matter just as much as the next non-Black person’s. Please stop with the craziness, people.

So, there you have it. Three tracks from TSL that are wins. Sure, the whole thing may be a win (that’s for you to decide). But, these three tracks are some of my personal favorites. Check the whole project out and feel free to let me know what you think via Twitter.