Song Exploder - Kenny Beats - Still

Episode Date: March 8, 2023

Kenny Beats is a hip-hop producer who’s been making beats and producing songs for other artists since 2010. He’s got a long list of collaborations, with rappers like Vince Staples, Freddie Gibbs, and Denzel Curry. In 2022, he did something he wasn’t really ever expecting to do, which was to release an album of his own. The album is called Louie, and it’s a tribute to Kenny’s father. I talked to Kenny about the song “Still,” the first song he made specifically for this project. It features guest vocals from JPEGMafia and Omar Apollo, and a sample from gospel singer Linda Kemp. Louie includes a lot of tracks where you can hear Kenny’s dad’s voice, and even though "Still" isn’t one of them, as Kenny explains, his relationship with his dad is embedded in the song’s DNA. For more, visit songexploder.net/kenny-beats.

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe. This episode contains explicit language. Kenny Beetz is a hip-hop producer who's been producing songs and making beats for other artists since 2010. He's got a long list of collaborations with rappers like Vince Staples, Freddie Gibbs, and Denzel Curry. But in 2022, he did something he wasn't really ever expecting to do, which was to release an album of his own. The album is called Louis, and it's a tribute to his father. I talked to Kenny about the song Still, the first song he made specifically for this project.

It features guest vocals from JPEG Mafia and Omar Apollo, and a sample from gospel singer Linda Kemp. Louis includes a lot of tracks where you can hear Kenny's dad's voice, and even though Still isn't one of them, as Kenny explains, his relationship with his dad is deeply embedded in the song's DNA. My name is Kenny Beats. It was early 2021. I was in Bath, England, recording a band called Idols. And my dad calls me and tells me he has cancer. My name is Kenneth Charles Bloom III. And my dad's name is Kenneth Charles Bloom the second.

And we've been through a lot of stuff before sickness was ever a worry. My dad's overdose twice, him getting sober and the journey we've had in our own personal. relationship was more than enough to bear as it was. So when he called me and told me his pancreatic cancer, it just felt kind of overwhelming. But the first thing I did was find all the recordings I could of him and I. We'll be back here with more music for you at the Perch, 103.6. All right. Here we go. In the 90s, when you go over to somebody's house and you would bring maybe a bottle of wine or something you cooked for a potluck, my dad would bring a cassette. He made these mixtapes and he would always personalize it and say their name at the start

and he would do this radio announcer voice. Welcome to 103.6 FM. This is your host, Ken Bloom. And sometimes he'd have me come on and say, hi, this is Kenny Jr. da-da-da-da. Hi, I'm Ken Bloom. Happy to be here. We're playing one tape with me on my keyboard and my dad's helping me out. I'm have a happy turkey day You don't have to put your lips on Just right about there works

See you want that coming in right about there we are 103.6 FM And it was just such a weird thing And people got a kick out of it And I knew he was always more proud of them than he said He went to broadcasting school And his dream was to be on the radio And it never panned out

And so he'd make these tapes All right then that was my son Kenneth Bloom the third doing a little bit of improvisational stick here for us today at the perch on a father's day june 16th 1996 he always made the cassettes he made for that one moment this tape is only for them in the whole world that's why he always did what he did and so i had this idea to make a project and give it to my dad and i was like i'm a real producer now what if i could make my dad this realized version of what he used to do. And that was not anything that I ever thought was going to go to the public.

At the start, was like, what can I make him? I started the album December 1st, 2021. I was working on Ramona Park, broke my heart for Vince Staples at the time. And we had a song that needed a new sample. So I was home and I was kind of just looking through stuff, looking through stuff, looking through stuff, and I was listening to gospel records and samples to try to just get inspired for a chord change. And I heard Linda Kemp. And then she started saying, I really meant it. And as it played, instead of thinking about a lover, an ex, something intimate or romantic,

I started thinking about my dad. I started thinking about something. I was going through with my father in that month. And as I started to think about some of the samples and some of the music I was listening towards a parent I've had a lot of difficult years with, they all flip their meaning. Do you still think of me when it is about your ex feels one way? Do you still think of me when it's a parent who might not even call you or check in on you? It hurts from a whole different part of your heart and a whole different part of your stomach. My dad and I have a very complicated relationship, and I wanted to make him this beautiful thing,

but as I was making it, I was thinking about all the horrible stuff I've been through with him, the years I've hated him, what I've dealt with with having a parent struggle with addiction, whenever you're lucky enough to be around someone who gets sober and experience someone that you love sober, it teaches you a lot. And it teaches you that sometimes when someone doesn't tell you the truth, that doesn't mean they are a lot. or forever. And it teaches you that sometimes when someone steals from you, they're not a thief. It means they're sick. So I take the Linda sample. I start to chop the pieces that feel important to me. I started to filter some things and kind of create what felt to me like an intro. And then

I added some drums. I added some bass. And I made what felt like a verse section. I kept having these moments where I was trying to snap myself out of how emotional I was getting. I had this embarrassment of like feeling like I was about to cry about chopping a sample and putting some drums on it because I'm thinking about my dad. I'm like, this music isn't cryworthy yet, but it hurts. I'm doing something that I've done a million times and I'm not even making what I think is necessarily like this incredible beat in the first 30 minutes. It's just like what she's saying on the day she's saying it when I,

I think about my dad was really hurting my feelings. So I basically wanted to kind of push down some of the tears and be like, hey, it's a beat. And all I could hear was Peggy's voice, JPEG Mafia. I could just hear Peggy kind of like rapping about something completely different. He is an effortlessly weird style. And for some reason, I just could only imagine. him. I called him. And Peggy came over, wrote a 16 bar verse, went in the booth, recorded the whole

verse. I about your little bitch, you're starting back. You're talking shit we're going to target that. Double up. Welcome back. I feel like Mason a case. And I cut 12 bars off because I felt like, you know, it's not a rap song. I put Peggy on it. Like Peggy is an instrument, but I feel like what I want people to focus on lyrically is what linda kemp is saying but i needed the instrument of jpeg mafia to kind of paint the picture so that the linda stuff rang out the right way double up and then i asked them to just ad lib the whole track uh shake it up shake it up and still shake shake shake the ad libs were to create a human element that was was continuous. He coughs and he's laughing and it's just full takes of me just leaving him in there

without any editing. What? No, no, no, no, no. I wanted there to be constant chatter, this kind of noise. I got my p-code on. And before he got out of the booth, he was like, Yeah, you can't play this around no rapper, yo. I just put that bit of Peggy at the end to kind of just say like, I don't know if anyone's going

to get this. Yeah, you can't play this around nowhere for you, because it's just going to be like it's, just keep this locked the fuck up. Don't say anything to nobody. I wanted everything to feel like limbo because that's how I feel about my dad. He's my hero and I love him more than anybody in the whole world. He makes me who I am. I wouldn't be here without him.

And I can't believe someone could. do things that they've done or act ways that they've acted, this and that, or I could even still have a relationship with him after things we've been through. And so Peggy laughing sounds maniacal. It felt like the devil on one shoulder. So I just knew that I needed the angel on the other shoulder. Omar Apollo is a recording artist from Indiana. He is always breathing music. We've been working for years and years and years and years, and he's become even a closer friend than collaborator, and I just hate him to hang out.

And when we went to the studio, I was playing him the beat. When Omar heard it, he was just kind of humming, and he asked what it was, and I told him, I was like, it's just called still. And what it meant is, like, do you still love me? Do you still have love for me? Like, do you still even care? And I don't think I explained it was about a parent. But Omar's saying just right away, just in the room, just...

I just still got love. And I was like, can you please just do that 10 times? I needed the thesis statement to get said somewhere in the song. And he sang the same sentence 20 times. But he would finish it with these fills and adlives and all types of other stuff. Do you still got love for me? Love for me?

And I put them all on top of each other. I just made this wall of so many Omar's. Then there's this bit of me playing guitar underneath. Makes me want to cry. Peggy makes me want to cry the different reason. The stuff of my dad makes me want to cry. Linda Kemp makes me want to cry. Just getting through this right now is tough.

Like all of these people, they give me that feeling, and I want to be able to impart that feeling. I move my dad to live on my same street while we're dealing with doctors and appointments and everything, so I could be as close to him as I could. So we live right down the street from each other. I see him all the time. And I was hinting at something I was going to make him

that it's not just going to be another, like, gift I'm buying you this Christmas. And so he knew something was coming And the only thing I'm good at is music So he knew something musical was coming But I don't think he knew The magnitude of like This big picture look

At everything we've been through together The day I finally finished everything I played it for my dad While we were cooking food That was the first time He kind of knew what I was saying also And that I wasn't just saying I love you.

At the end of it, it wasn't just like a big hug and a big smile. Like he looked at me and he was like, I really love it. But I think he knew that this isn't an I love you dad album. Because I was about to tell the world about this. And if I'm going to tell the world about this, that means I'm going to talk about what's going on with us. And that means addiction is part of that. And that means us not speaking for years is part of that.

And that means damage he's done and things he's embarrassed about are fair play. It's not all sunny. I mean, it means the world to him. His face is on the cover and stuff, but like he also is someone who's sober now for five years and has dealt with a million things that he wish he could change, you know? This whole thing started out of desperation and out of this need to put a stamp on our relationship and have something to remember it by, and it's been years now of us fighting this and dealing with it. But me and my dad laughing in the kitchen, playing this song, I think it was one of the greatest moments of our relationship.

And now here's Still by Kenny Beats in its entirety. To learn more, visit songexploder.net. You'll find links to buy or stream still. I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th. It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full ink. And this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishikesh Her Way. I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other artists.

And it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Weinrobe. I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the U.S. starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city.

Like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzuchas, Josh Malina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin Cleon, and more. They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage. And then I'll play with my band. The album is called In the Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishikash.co. Or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live.

Thanks. This episode of Song Exploder was made by me, Craig Ely, Kathleen Smith, and Mary Dolan. The episode artwork is by Carlos Lerma, and I made. the show's theme music and logo. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned podcasts. You can learn more about our shows at Radiotopia.fm. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Rishi Hurway,

and you can follow the show at Song Exploder. You can also get a Song Exploder t-shirt at SongExploder.net slash shirt. I'm Rishi-Keshirway. Thanks for listening.