After leaving Barclays at around 1 a.m., he came straight here to work on his fourth studio album, due out later this year, recording till well after dawn. He grimaces as he lowers himself gently onto a couch.

“Hendrix inspires me,” he says in a croak-whisper, regarding the room. “The energy here is very warm—not just acoustic warmth but an energy of almost, like, Zen. I’m fascinated by Jimi’s story. Left-handed guitarist, playing his guitar upside down.” Hendrix’s example encourages an improvisatory, experimental approach in Rocky, he says, pointing at an upright piano nestled against a nearby wall: “Bro, I start f—ing around with these instruments I don’t even know how to play and I make cool-sounding s***.” 16:20 If there’s a thematic through-line to Rocky’s career, it’s one of restless exploration.

wsj.com/articles/the-high-spirits-of-a-ap-rocky-11582724046

Keep

DUB

hope its better than testing

NEED THE ROCKY X MAC X ARIEL PINK AND ROCKY X DENZEL

Right now he’s feeling particularly inspired, meaning it’s going to take more than a busted leg and sore throat to keep him from the studio. In recent years Rocky has acted in videos, done brand-consulting and helped design apparel, but at the moment he’s focused on this new album and nothing else.

wsj.com/articles/the-high-spirits-of-a-ap-rocky-11582724046

whewww

While crafting the new album, Rocky explains, he’s been working obsessively, to the extent that he’s covered his New York apartment with a sprawling blueprint made up of inspirational images: “It’s kind of like a vision board. I compile different points of reference and print ’em out and put them on the walls, so I live in it. It’s like when you go to a police precinct and the detectives have the investigation laid out.” What kinds of images has he got up? “Mostly pictures of myself,” he says matter-of-factly.

Cautiously in

For example: “I was here in this room one time, doing LSD, and as I was coming down the sun was coming up, and the birds started singing and we recorded the f—ing birds. They weren’t tweeting, they were harmonizing and holding notes! And I was, like, communicating with them, because music is universal.”

is this real?

in, hoping this was worth the wait

yes, he had them deep fried at a Chinese restaurant afterwards, the meal can be pictured here:

Rocky dislodges himself from the couch and ambles through a doorway toward another couch in the studio proper. Hector Delgado, a producer and engineer Rocky’s been working with for years, cycles through a series of in-progress songs for Rocky to review. “We gotta start narrowing some of these down,” Rocky says. “Some of these are not going to make the project.” Several of the best-sounding songs combine soft, ethereal textures with hammering percussion; dreamy singing with intricate rapping; hypnotic grooves with startlingly sudden rhythmic shifts. At this point in his career, another artist—maybe one who doesn’t spend hours physically immersed in pictures of himself—might have been tempted to make something more broadly palatable. But this music balances moments of catchiness with a defiant idiosyncrasy. At one point Rocky actually dismisses a song, named after Game of Thrones’ Arya Stark, as too catchy for its own good: “That sounds like a hit,” he tells Delgado, shaking his head. “I’m scared of hits.” 🐐 1 16:22 Before long, Delgado cues up a rough track that Rocky, working with the multiplatinum Atlanta producer Metro Boomin, began last night, raspy voice be damned. For a full minute or two, it consists exclusively of a looped soul vocal and Rocky’s off-kilter rhymes—no bass, no drums. As the song proceeds, his vocals almost seem to fall out of phase with the sample, and the whole track threatens to fall apart, at which point the drums rush in to right the ship. Rocky loves it. “My flow is hard to understand, then that b**** hits!” he cries out in delight. 🐐 1 16:22 Delgado nods, encouraging him: “The average person won’t get it till the drums come in,” he says. Rocky smiles. “This s*** is hard. But I was so sleepy. I need to fix the beginning.” Delgado cautions him: “You’ve got to rest your voice, Rock.” Rocky asks him to play the track again. Something about the start isn’t sitting right with him, but he’s not quite sure why. He tells Delgado to rearrange the sample at the outset slightly, then play it again. He listens, squinting. “Ugh! I wanna get in the booth and fix it!” he repeats.

When I finally leave him to work in peace, it’s after 10 p.m. Any birds in the neighborhood won’t be singing for another eight hours or so—plenty of time to figure it out.

IN FIRST PAGE

Killing myself on cam if this rollout anything like TESTING 🤞

For a full minute or two, it consists exclusively of a looped soul vocal and Rocky’s off-kilter rhymes—no bass, no drums. As the song proceeds, his vocals almost seem to fall out of phase with the sample, and the whole track threatens to fall apart, at which point the drums rush in to right the ship. Rocky loves it. “My flow is hard to understand, then that b**** hits!” he cries out in delight.

Is this Gradually, the leak with Metro?

Need this to be ALLA level

damn he really scrapped a song because it sounded too much like a hit f***!

Lets go

U must have never done psychs bro