Interview With Nostalgic Chill-Hop Producer JINSANG
@jinsangbeats has been trickling a hefty collection of vibrant snippets since his debut single, "Summer's Day" in September of 2014. Now, three years...
Jinsang has been trickling a hefty collection of vibrant snippets since his debut single, "Summer's Day" in September of 2014. Now, three years and five solid releases later, all that Jinsang (real name Ben) has done is completely master the art of jazzy hip hop grooves. I had the pleasure to talk to him about the future of his musical endeavors.
Jinsang is a pretty unique name. How did that name come up?
I honestly got it off from reading the ingredients off an Arizona can I just drank back then. I had no personal connection with it, but the name just rung with me at the time.
Well, what is your real name?
My real name is Ben.
Do you have any musical background before you became a beat maker?
I've toyed with piano in my childhood and played guitar for a bit in high school, but other than that I have none.
Okay, I asked that because a lot of the samples in your music are very old school R&B, jazz, and old Hollywood style string accompaniment. Are you more influence with music of the past?
Yeah, I grew up with a lot of jazz and 70s music as a kid. My parents liked it a lot.
What are your thoughts on most mainstream hip-hop playing on the top 40?
Whatever pleases the masses
Your music is so atmospheric, would you ever be interested in scoring a movie?
Never thought about doing it, but that would be dope!!
Your beats contain such a natural ear for melodies, you would be great as a producer or spread your talent on a collaboration.
Thank you!
What’s one artist you would love to work with?
I haven't really had any artist I've thought on collaborating with at the moment.
Well, what are you going to do after school? Is music your only venture?
Music is nothing more than a hobby for me. I'm pursuing a job in audio engineering.
Audio engineering? That's not a bad route.
Your album titles, “kona park”, “solitude”, your newest record “life” they all have very specific themes. What does each album you made represent to you?
These albums were really just myself putting the atmospheres or vibes I felt during various periods of my life. Kona was like reminiscing on the simplicity of summer back in 2013. Solitude was when I was at a point in where I just felt I had disconnected from most people I was close with, and the beats I made were just a way to cope with it. Life was for a transition I had from high school to college, a new step in life I was curious for.
Has a lot changed since you first release your debut “Summer’s Day” back in 2014?
Most definitely. My craft has changed a lot since then.
I believe you create one of the best style of ‘chill-hop’ today. Not a question i'm just glad i get to chat with an artist I like.
Cool! Much appreciated!
If you want to hear some of his meditated lo-fi glory, check out my top ten tracks of the young producer below:
https://open.spotify.com/user/audifactory/playlist/6joTqu33sST6r4qCx9LBqD
Thundercat: Pick of the Herds - A Brief Introduction Of The L.A. Artist And His Best Musical Highlights
The Grammy award winning Stephen Bruner AKA @Thundercat is an experimental bassist with a hefty and unusual amount of musical DNA. Playing in groups like the Thrash/Punk band Suicidal Tendencies...
The Grammy award winning Stephen Bruner AKA Thundercat is an experimental bassist with a hefty and unusual amount of musical DNA. Playing in groups like the Thrash/Punk band Suicidal Tendencies with his brother Ronald Burner Jr. (Also being a Grammy award winner himself) and also connecting himself to plenty of critically acclaimed artists such as Childish Gambino and Kendrick Lamar. While working with Lamar, helped Bruner win his first Grammy with his contribution in the "To Pimp A Butterfly" track, "These Walls".
Bruner's first peak of attention towards a wider audience was has work with Flying Lotus, but with such a rich quality as a session musician, in 2011, Thundercat started to indulge in his own solo efforts. His debut album, "The Golden Age of Apocalypse", was a bold and psycho-active R&B/Jazz fusion head rush of an effort. Even if the album was dabbling in more technical extravagance, Bruner's follow up, titled "Apocalypse" in 2013, still had the same sweet fusion of Thundercat's debut, just now with a clear and strong sense of songwriting and firm grasp on a effortless vibrant electronic psychedelic hip hop. Amongst all that intoxicating music, and dropping a short but upgraded quality of tripping soul with The "Beyond/Where The Giants Roam EP" in 2015, and his most buzzed about record, "Drunk", releasing next Friday, there's a lot of unforeseen and anticipating great music still to come from the L.A funkedelic.
Pick of the Herds:
Fleer Ultra
It Really Doesn't Matter To You
Goldenboy
Heartbreaks + Setbacks
Tron Song
Without You
A Massage For Austin/Praise The Lord/Enter The Void
Lone Wolf and Cub
Them Changes
Show You The Way
Notes:
here are some links as well
My Twitter: @sysdrumaddict
YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7r4OdTaJmCkMh9Amd0bo6njmK0VmTEiS
Pre-order 'Drunk': http://brainfeeder.net/thundercat/
Review: Cameron Murdoch's "I Love Me Too" EP
Cameron Murdoch, the twenty-six year old Minneapolis-based rapper delivers honest yet clashing thoughts surrounding the unknown that comes with...
Cameron Murdoch, the twenty-six year old Minneapolis-based rapper delivers honest yet clashing thoughts surrounding the unknown that comes with finding love, expectancy towards modern day lifestyles, and the ever-blurring line between self-esteem with self-realization, all integrating in a mixed smorgasbord of alternative hip hop and low key R&B, even if it does fall short in duration, given that it is only an EP, the all-around quality in ILM2, is a small, but effective bag of goodies.
In most cases, these types of assortments contain sweet sugary production that splashes in tropical punches, made best with the bombastic single, Revival, alongside the intro track, “U Time” filtering bells that pulse like heartbeats while Murdoch conveys that in all relationships, people need time together, and also time apart. Even though the connection rhyming "U Time" with "Me Time" gets slightly overdrawn, the ending delivery, "Hold me down in the meantime", does round the song back together, both thoughtfully and earnestly when it comes to long distance loyalty.
And that’s the key to this record, loyalty, the rounded theme for an album that predetermines braggadocios underlining demeanor, with an EP titled "I Love Me Too". But, in this case, Murdoch is lovingly self-deprecation when he needs to be. On the slow burner, IWDWS, the EP cools down the mood with a far escape of high-end pianos expressing Murdoch's full form of romanticism. In the midst of Kid Cudi or Drake vibe of a loner heart, and not like the 90s boom of ‘gangsters need love too’ era of staying hard and baller while letting the only sweet girl in a swarm of bitches know that “hey, I'm not really a bad guy" but more of a wholeheartedly slick collaboration of human expression.
ILM2 is a perfect layout of Murdoch’s strengths, creating extraordinary but fun hip-hop jammers.
B-Siders Mixtape #001
Starting off the mixtape is 'Don’t' by Brvnks. A digging hidden gem released by Dull Dog Records that has...
Starting off the mixtape is 'Don’t' by Brvnks. A digging hidden gem released by Dull Dog Records that has a forever calm beneath its airy sound waves.
This is Queens of The Stone Age mixed with traditional dirty hard rock joy.
The fairly popular indie rock group belts out this instant Fleetwood Mac style old school classic coolness.
Another fresh track from this U.K sophomore release, merging glitch-hop, chiptune, and alternative pop.
Sometimes people need to look at eye candy, well Cubicolor’s electronica house track is Brainsugar for the perking ears.