J. Cole Drops New Freestyle

It’s a Cole, Cole World.

By Colson O’Connor

“While two bitches lay in my bed, I’m used to it.
That’s your best friend givin’ me head, now you do it.”

— J. Cole

Two days ahead of his highly anticipated project The Off-Season, J. Cole ramps up the hype with a new freestyle on LA Leakers. The last time he did a radio freestyle like this was about eight years ago. He had a long time to prepare for this moment, and now that it finally came, Jermaine showed out. Matter of fact, this is arguably the best freestyle we have ever seen from the artist. He absolutely attacked the classic “93 Til Infinity” instrumental, ripping it in a fashion that proves his best work lies ahead of him. Between the words of his peers, his recent documentary, and this freestyle, you can tell the project will be well worth the wait.

Do you think The Off-Season will be Cole’s best project of all time?

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Keem Ain’t Done: “Hooligan / Sons & Critics Freestyle” Single Review

By Owen Tait

Upon realizing Keem was going to be absent in the 2020 XXL Cypher performances, I was pretty disappointed. After all, Die For My Bitch stood out to me as one of the most unique, left-field trap albums of 2019, and I was anxious to hear more from Keem as a growing artist. Well, we may not have gotten a cypher verse, but the two singles we received in return were more than enough to demonstrate Keem’s staying power in the industry. Released under Sony Music Records, “hooligan” and “sons & critics freestyle” both feature everything one could want from a standout Baby Keem track. Catchy hooks, bouncy beats, memorable quotables, and a long list of amusing ad-libs can all be found in these singles, all in a matter of six minutes and change of runtime.

“Hooligan,” a sleek banger led by dramatic keys and a whistle sample that gave me stank face, sees Baby Keem boasting his status as an up-and-coming star in the industry. From a production standpoint, it’s nothing unusual for a nocturnal trap song; however, Keem’s delivery on this track unlocks a potential that I believe few other artists could unlock over a beat like this. He flows effortlessly across the verses, finding time to add charismatic ad-libs in between hilarious lines such as “dripped in all black like an emo bitch” and the already-infamous “I ain’t done / Bitch, go to your room.” To top it all off, Keem delivers a refrain so ridiculous that only he could pull it off, with the triumphant “Fa fa fa, fa fa fa” he sings in between each bar growing so infectious that you just have to sing along.

The following track, “sons & critics freestyle,” is one that I unfortunately think will be overshadowed by its predecessor. It’s a much stranger experience, but that doesn’t mean it won’t get stuck in your head just as easily. The hook on this single is truly different, as Keem combines an almost unnatural flow with a repeated ad-lib he delicately sprinkles over the beat (which is also strange as hell). The 808 pattern ramps up over and over throughout the track, ducking out in the first half of every measure to let the instrumental breathe. As one would imagine, this creates a really bouncy rhythm for Keem to weave his punchlines over, which he succeeds at yet again. And while I would argue that Keem’s lyrics here are not on par with the rest of his discography—if this really is a freestyle, you can tell—his charisma still carries him leagues ahead of his competitors. 

As I said, these singles have nearly everything a person could ask for in a Baby Keem track, and even better, the replay value on them is through the roof. I’ve likely listened to “hooligan” well over 30 times as of writing this review, and rather than growing sick of it, I’ve only found myself wanting more. If these singles are truly our first look into his next project, then Baby Keem’s sophomore studio album can’t arrive soon enough.

Listen to “Hooligan / Sons & Critics Freestyle” here:

Listen to hooligan / sons & critics on Spotify. Baby Keem · Single · 2020 · 2 songs.

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The Sam Lachow Interview: The Seattle Music Scene, Personal Health, and His Upcoming Album ‘Corduroy’

“what interests me the most is finding people from all different places and make something that is totally unique. A lot of my music is just a lucky combination of cool people that I’ve met.”

By Colson O’Connor

Listen to our favorite Sam Lachow songs while you read this article with our complementary playlist available on Apple Music and Spotify:

When discussing the Pacific Northwest Hip-Hop scene, Sam Lachow is a name that must be in the conversation.

It all started with Shankbone, an early rap collective Lachow was a part of that consisted of him and his friends back in high school. They started to gain traction and eventually Sam parted ways and started to make a name for himself. His music was rapidly making its way across the state, and he first made his way onto my playlist when I was in high school. Almost immediately, I began showing all my friends his cuts, and everyone loved him. It didn’t take long for me and my friends to start taking dabs while listening to “Banana Goo Pie”, or chugging beers and bumping “Half Past Twelve”. He created anthems for our weekend nights, and soon we were screaming all the words at his concerts.

After the release of his debut studio album “Brand New Bike” back in 2011, Lachow began carving a different lane alongside his Seattle Hip-Hop predecessors, like The Blue Scholars, Sir-Mix-a-Lot, & Macklemore. Similar to these artists, he does an incredible job of capturing the essence of the 206, but I guarantee it’s unlike anything you’ve ever heard. What separates him from the rest is his ability to draw influences from so many diverse genres and create a hit every time. Lachow can rap over virtually anything, whether it’s a jazzy beat with a crazy saxophone solo like “The Idea”, intense grand pianos like “Good To Be Home”, or just heavy 808’s & vocals like “Friends, Funk, & Liquor”.

Now the Seattle native is currently on the brink of releasing his fourth studio album Corduroy, to accompany his four EP’s and countless singles, following a two-year hiatus to focus on his personal health. Sam has grown and matured so much over the last few years, and as he does, the album evolved with him. I like to think of this album as sort of a ‘coming of age’ moment in his career, and I am so happy to see him thriving so much both in his personal life and his music. This combination is a guaranteed recipe for success.

Due to the pandemic and current movements delaying the release of the album (which was originally set to release earlier this year), ‘Lachowder’ made sure to not leave us hanging out to dry. He has dropped six tracks thus far, three of which accompanied by remarkable music videos. Four of these songs are currently available on streaming services, and you can get the other two by pre-ordering Corduroy on Apple Music. On these six cuts alone, Sam includes numerous outstanding features from other local icons, including Travis Thompson, Watsky, Dave B., and more.

As if those weren’t enough to hold us over, he even added two new cuts to his epic EP “5 Good Reasons”, a collaboration project with Raz Simone, which just maneuvered its way onto streaming services in May. This EP is one of my favorite body of works in his discography, and the two added songs tied the project together in a way I didn’t think possible. Now I sit here wondering how I ever even listened to the project without them. I really can’t recommend that project enough.

Back in April, we reached out to Sam and scored an interview with the legend himself. I got a chance to sit around a picnic table at a park in Capitol Hill on a beautiful day, discuss the new album, while the dogs ran around in the meantime.

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Colson O’Connor, StereoVision (CO): When did you discover your passion for music and start making music?

Sam Lachow (SL): “I started writing raps really early, like 4th/5th grade. I didn’t really know what to do with them. My dream was to be able to find a way to put the beats I heard in my head onto something. At a very young age, I would sneak into my dad’s room, who had a computer, and work on making beats and shit. Then that turned into Shankbone with my friends and we would actually make money cause we would sell burned CD’s in the hallways. We were known at our high school, we got written up in the school paper and for us that’s all we needed. One time we went to another school’s party and they were playing it, and we were like woah, this could be something that’s not just a silly joke with me and my friends.”

CO: When experimenting with Garageband, were you learning by yourself or was somebody showing you the ropes?

SL: I was just learning by myself. I kinda figured out how to create melodies, my best friend Maggie Brown was really into guitar and piano, she would kinda write melodies for me, and I played drums, so I learned how to form melodies on top of drums. When it comes to finding the right kick with the 808 I go to my guy Jake Crocker who knows how to really make it trap. I work with mostly people that do a lot of pop stuff, I like taking their ear for that, catchy/melody aspect of pop and turning it into some gangster shit.

CO: You have a very unique sound, a lot of bounce and a lot of instruments you don’t hear a lot, like horns. Who inspires that?

SL: That right there is a perfect mix of my two big influences which is bay area hip-hop, which has the bounce, and then the horns which comes from Outkast.

CO: How would you describe the Seattle music scene?

SL: Seattle has never really had like a sound to me, but now everyone I work with in Seattle we all have such different sounds. I don’t know how to categorize us.

(Us discussing the release of the album)

SL: So all these songs I always expected for people to hear them in with the rest of the album. It’s kind of hard to give someone one song, when in the back of my head I’m like ugh only if you knew what else I had! But it’s been a learning process too.

CO: Do you prefer doing collabs?

SL: I fully love collaborating, and that’s one of my main skill sets I think is hiring my weaknesses. That’s what interests me the most is finding people from all different places and make something that is totally unique. A lot of my music is just a lucky combination of cool people that I’ve met. I like a lot of variety.

CO: You seem to be a big music video guy-

SL: That used to be my job, I would shoot, edit, and direct videos for other artists around Seattle. That was late high school / out of high school.

CO: How was your creative process for the new album? Did you approach it differently, Or is the workflow pretty similar?

SL: This album sounds better than anything I’ve ever made. I almost put the album out a long time ago, and then I got sober, and looked back and was like this album is not finished. In some ways there’s parts of the album that are a little cringey to me now because I was writing about getting fucked up and now I know so much more about what was going on in my head that I didn’t realize at the time. This album is a huge turning point in my life.

CO: Are you planning to go on tour?

SL: Yeah I need to tour this album, I can’t wait to tour. I’m definitely nervous to tour sober, never done it. Part of this was like a little blessing in disguise, like I don’t know if I was ready.

CO: What’s your favorite project you’ve released?

SL: I would say Friends, Funk & Liquor because every song goes, it’s a bangin’ project, and I like the way it was mixed.

CO: If you could work with any artist dead or alive, who would it be?

SL: Pharrell, he’s just been so inspirational. All of my beats have a little ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’ in it somewhere.

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We’ve been anticipating the release of this album all year, and now the time has come. Corduroy is officially set to release on Thursday, October 1st. So much time, energy, and effort went into this project, easily making it his most pivotal project to date. Take a look below for a sneak peek at the album artwork and track list:

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