Switched on Pop - J Cole’s The Off Season and the Power of the 12/8 Shuffle

Episode Date: June 8, 2021

J Cole is one of the most successful rappers of his generation, someone who racks up hits while sustaining critical acclaim. But that isn’t necessarily a good thing. Cole’s sixth studio album “The Off Season” finds a musician struggling to stave off complacency and keep his skills sharp. In a short documentary about the album, Cole describes the album as an attempt to “push himself,” a sentiment reflected in a line from the Timbaland-produced track “Amari”: “If you solo these vocals, listen close and you can hear grumbling.” Cole is never satisfied on this album, pushing his technique to the breaking point through verbal dexterity and rhythmic complexity. One way Cole stays on his toes is through the use of a trap beat melded with one of the oldest grooves in pop: the 12/8 shuffle. He’s far from the only artist to make use of an often overlooked, but iconic meter. Why does this pattern keep us moving? And where did its unique sound come from? We have a theory about that... Songs discussed: J Cole - Amari, Punching the Clock, The Climb Back, Interlude Brief Encounter - I’m So in Love With You Adam Lambert - Another Lonely Night Carly Rae Jepsen - Run Away With Me Disclosure ft Sam Smith - Latch  Steely Dan - Aja Toto - Roseanna  Led Zeppelin - Fool in the Rain Kanye West - Black Skinhead Billie Eilish - Bury a Friend Vulfpeck ft Bernard Purdie and Theo Katzman - Something Watch Bernard “Pretty” Purdie: The Legendary Purdie Shuffle Read more on The Off Season in Craig Jenkins in-depth review on Vulture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switchdown Pop. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. And I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. Songwriter Charlie Harding. Jay Cole is one of the most successful rappers of his generation. Someone who's racked up hits while sustaining critical interest. He positions himself as something of an elder statesman,

someone who's co-founded a record label, Dreamville Records, whose roster includes Ari Lennox, Bass, and Earthgang. He's established, respected, and already built a legacy for himself. And Charlie, that might be a problem. What do you mean? Cole's sixth studio album, The Off Season, finds a musician struggling to stave off complacency and to keep his skills sharp. In a short documentary about the album, Cole describes it as an attempt to pull.

push himself. Okay. It's a sentiment that's reflected in one of my favorite lines on the Timberlin produced track, Amari. 12 coming, we ain't seen nothing. Time chain niggas ain't rumbling no more, now what for a hugging for a more. If you solo these vocals, listen close and you can hear grumbling. If you solo these vocals, listen close, and you can hear grumbling.

So let's just break that down for a second. Solo these vocals as in, if you took that entire track, and just listen to his vocal, you would hear grumbling. What's that about? That's someone who is never satisfied with what he's creating. Yeah. And that kind of sense of like, I got to do better. That permeates this whole album.

Track after track finds the rapper pushing his technique to the breaking point through verbal dexterity and rhythmic complexity. So I want to dig into a few of these tracks to discover how a rapper at the top of his. game tries to stay in shape. Let's do it. Album 6 is a difficult one. You've already established yourself.

How do you keep pushing the envelope? I'm curious. Let's start with a track whose title is a literal reference to putting in the work. It's called Punching the Clock. I told you when I first came around, I said I ain't come here to waste my time. Okay. So that's actually an audio clip, not of J. Cole, but of the basketball player Damien Lillard. Okay.

And I love that because I think it captures the kind of competitive spirit of this of this album, right? Right. Jackal also plays basketball. He also plays basketball. Very good, Charles. And the album is literally called the off season. So it's like there's a lot of athletic references here.

And so I hear it almost is a musical equivalent to like staying in shape. Now, how do you do that? One way is to unleash a virtuosic rhyme scheme, which is something he does as soon as the beat drops. Back on top, punch in a clock clutch and sanity. I got more cribs to habitat for humanity. Shit profound, we propagate more profanity Paid our collections for recollections of calamity Yeah, I've definitely never heard Habitat for Humanity and Calamity

Put together. All right, not bad. I mean, yeah, okay, I sense you're impressed but not like blown away. Well, there are a bunch of end rhymes. You know, they're more complex end rhymes And there's a good narrative through, so I dig it. But I'm interested in seeing, you know, where do we even get some of those interior rhymes

and some more cross-the-bar kind of things? Wow, really coming down hard on the end. rhymes here, Charlie. Kind of taking some of the wind out of myself. But I think what is remarkable about this particular track is the sheer amount

of those rhymes. I mean, it goes on and on and on. I mean, we'd end up just listening to the whole track because he keeps going, right? Christianity, reprimanded me, handed me, family, hand on me, branded me, insanity, understanding me, candidly, planned to be. It's like,

whoa, there's every, possible iteration of that particular end rhyme. Ran to the crib and played it up amongst the family. Nightmare scenes the police finally apprehended me. Woke up screaming. Seen a demon had his hand on me. Still, sport, a scar on my arm from Wade branded me. Oh, no, okay.

I'm much more convinced, though. I like this. I mean, this is like a track that's a little less than two minutes, and I think pretty much every rhyme is some variation of that beginning quatrain. He's flexing. Yeah, okay. He's flexing. Yeah.

And it's interesting because there's not even a chorus in this song. We have that little intro from Damien Lillard. We have this like CVS receipt length intonation of Calamity Rhymes. Now that I'm rich, I feel nobody understanding me. All I can do is cut the mic on. Hollet it's shoe. Can't let the fame scare me off from speaking candidly. All them niggas is so cane.

They started singing like Dantity. Now I'm left here paid like a pay like a ball. And then we have another clip from Damien Lillard. When you really put the time in and whether people will see it or whether people know it or not, you know, it always come to life. And then one minute and 53 seconds, the song is over. So to extend your metaphor, it's kind of like his continuous rhyme scheme on the same idea is like standing at the three-point line and just like hitting shot after shot after shot. Yes, I like that. I like that. That rings a bell from the last time I play basketball in 11th grade.

That definitely rings true. And the fact that there isn't even a chorus of this song to me suggest that this isn't about like trying to generate Billboard hits on this record. This is just about like how can I improve my flow? How can I challenge myself? How can I do something new? Interesting because I do feel like the beat that he's playing against

is a little bit more old school. Yeah. Okay. Tell me more. It reminds me of like 90s. MPC sample chopped kind of laid-back vibe. Yeah, but also a little bit of that New York boom baff, perhaps in there. You're looking at me like that was a ridiculous thing to say.

Okay, less boom baff and more, that's too pit-pat or something. It's a little, it's a chill boom baff. Yeah. Yeah, but I think even that might be in line with this. project because there's something about him that is projecting this kind of old school allegiance to the to the craft of hip hop I think yeah exactly it's kind of like I'm just gonna keep playing with your metaphor it's like it go go go go like wearing a jersey with the 23 on it's probably the most we've ever talked about sports that's all my sports knowledge that's by good uh all right

let's go to another check because you know it's not just that Cole is pushing himself lyrically on this album. I think he's also pushing himself musically, the music, the samples, the beats present challenges. And one of the tracks where that comes to really clearly to me is on the climb back. Now, I like this track because, one, I think it highlights his skill as a producer.

Because I think that's something kind of not unique about J. Cole, but certainly a part of his sound is that he's someone who writes his own raps and he produces his own beats. He flips his own samples. And this is a creative one. It's a, it's a sample of a song that I'd never heard before. The 70s soul group Brief Encounter and their song, I'm So in Love with You. I love that descending piano on. That little chromatic. It almost sounds like a Chalesta or something. But it's magical. It's a cool moment from this obscure track. And it's a slow track. It's really slow. Well, I love it because he takes it.

that kind of slow classic soul song and he puts the most like bedeviling drum rhythm on top of it. Like every time I hear this, I think it's just a kind of standard four four pattern, but there's something about where he's putting the accents of the snare and the high hats that every time I'm listening to it, I'm like, what is happening? I cannot count what's happening. It's weird, right? It's really weird.

We need a music theorist to come break this down for us because, I think it is just a four-four groove, but there's something about that sample and the drum accents that just, like, break my brain. Someone's going to know the answer. They're going to correct this. And I look forward to it. Yeah.

In the meantime, let's just acknowledge it's a tricky beat that I think would be hard for us to wrap over. I'm not wrapping over anything, but particularly, yeah. And yet Cole comes up with another verbose set of lyrics here, and I think you're going to get some of those internal rhymes that you wanted. from the first track. Woohoo!

To the left of that decimal, I need seven figures to play the joint. Turn up your decibels, P-Py decimator joint. Check all my projects like the workers that section eight are points, and you'll see how I flip like exclamation points. My niggas chute first.

Wow. Decimal, decibel, decimate, section eight. This is like kind of that overlapping wordplay and rhyme that I heard you craving and now you're, hopefully you're satisfied. Yeah, but also over, extremely potent lyric. It's like, good job, you got some good rhymes, but what he's communicating is also extremely powerful. Totally, and that's, I think, a great pivot to the next song that I

want to talk about, which is called interlude, and digs into some heavier themes. In this particular song, he's talking about the fragility of Black Life, and he makes some power. powerful references. He talks about Jesus Christ dying at 33 and then compares him to late rappers like Pimpsey and Nipsey Hustle.

And you get this potent feeling of loss that has this almost religious overtime. Once this niggas getting murdered, every dead body smiter older in the street. My homie, homie, got out on for rollies on my Coca-Cola in the soda industry.

Somertime. bring the coldest winter breeze hell of blues like the roll of 60s christ went to heaven age 33 and so the pipsy and so did nipsy I told you I told you wow that is a moment the way that the music follows up from that lyric it's almost like you're ascending into a gospel heaven kind of vibe yeah I totally agree and I don't know about you but when I heard this I was like, what is that sample? Like, you know, what obscure 70s record is this? And what is it commenting on?

And I've learned that this is actually an original track by the producers, Tommy Parker, and T-minus. Wow, they are a theft. This is a cool thing because it sounds like something really old, but in order to do that, I guess they're just making their own track

and then resampling it and playing with it so that it's giving you the feel of a sampled soul. track but no it's actually totally no and I think part of the reason this track interlude hits so hard is that we have these powerful lyrics we have this kind of soul sample that's not really a sample and then we have this utterly modern element which are the trap high hats but when you listen closely there actually not your typical trap hats.

They're doing something a little different that might be more aligned with the depth of this song. They're doing a rhythm that you don't really hear in trap music that actually has a name and history is called the shuffle groove, the 12-8 shuffle. We're sitting on top of this shit. This shit can go one or two ways. This shit can go up. They can go down.

Yeah, when I first heard this, I was stunned because trap style drums have become the dominant sound of popular music, even beyond hip hop. And it's so rare that I hear that kind of a sound and hear something that sounds totally singular while simultaneously taking me through a whole history of popular music at the same time. It left me with a burning question, something we need to address on this show. What's that? Why is that shuffle groove so powerful? Why can't we stop listening to that after? It's been with us since the beginning of music history. It shows up in every single genre.

Yeah. Can we take a quick break? And when we come back, try and get to the bottom of this 12-8 shuffle. Let's do it. I want to know why it makes us move the way it does. Attention, Spotify. Has arrived on the new Good Girl Jasmine Absolute of Carolina Herrera, a fragrance of intense with character Gourman and addictivo.

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Discoveredla and let you move over its essence. We were just listening to Jay Cole's interlude. We were kind of floored by its combination

of modern trap drums with a classic 12-8 shuffle groove. And it raised this question that I feel like we are overdue to

address. What's that? It's why is this particular groove so infectious? Why can't we get enough of it? And it's something that listeners have been asking us for a long time. In fact, I'm kind of embarrassed to say that a listener wrote us back in 2018 asking us to tackle this topic. We get through our email eventually.

And I'm happy to say today is the day. Ellis, take it away. Hi Switched on Pop. I'm Ellis, a long-time listener from the Isle of White in the United Kingdom. And one thing some of my favorite songs all have in common is the feeling that the rhythm of a 12-8-time signature creates. For example, Adam Lambert's very underrated, Another Lonely Night, feels rather yearning. Kylie Ray Jepterson's now iconic Run Away with me feels very romantic. And Disclosure's huge American airport. play hit, Latch feels very escapist.

They all feel so anthemic, but why? I think I understand that a 12-8 time signature is a compound quadruple, given the feeling of a triple meter within a duple meter. So you have a 1, 2, 3, 4 count, and within each of those number counts, you have a triple, resulting in a 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3 count. But is there anything you two can explain as to why 12-8-1-1-2-3? just gives off such a groove or why all of these songs are really good to power walk too. Okay, first of all, I've said it before, but once again, our listeners are...

Brilliant. So smart. I can only assume incredibly attractive and just... Extremely accomplished. I mean, good people, you know, just like good, good decent folk. And now that we've got that out of the way, let's dig into... this 12-8 groove. I mean, Ellis, he nailed it. I mean, you could put that in a freaking textbook that was such a crystalline explanation. Each one of these songs, Adam Lambert, Carly Rae-Ebbson, Disclosure, Jay Cole's Interlude, they all share something in common.

And it's this groove of four pulses, one, two, three, four, each one of which is divided into a triplet. One, two, two, two, two, two, three, one, two, three, two, three, three, two, three, two, three, four, two, three, wow, I've got you run away with me. Like, it's all, br. It's strutton music. It's strutton music. Okay, so let's see if we can do this. Why?

Why is this group so powerful? Charles, I consulted the mighty, you know, music theory textbooks of our college days. They probably don't have a lot to say to do that. They got nothing, man. This is like, this topic has not been covered as far as I can tell. Maybe that's because 12-8 is not super common in like Western classical music. It's definitely more of a popular music kind of groove. So we can't look at the classics for our answer.

No, okay. No. I think we have to look into our hearts, Charlie. Do I have some kind of arrhythmia? Is that what you're telling me? Beating in groups of three? I think part of why we gravitate towards this 12-8 groove is that it's very similar to the most common meter that we encounter in popular music,

which is 4-4. Right. Like that if you turn on the radio, you have a 99% chance of hearing a 4-4 song. Right. Four beats, 1, 2, 3, 4, each divided into groups of 2. 1 and 2, and 3 and 4-and. 12-8 has that same 4-beat pulse,

but each of the pulses is divided into 3. 1, 3, 1, 3, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2. three, one, two, three. Right, yeah, yeah. So it's like the pulse matches up, the four-beat pulse, but what's inside of it is different. Right, because it's just a little bit of something fresh. What is it? It's like a propulsion or something.

It's like this pushing you forward. It's like a gear being cranked inside of your butt or something. I don't know. I don't know. I'm, we might not have the science to truly explain this. I think you might have a complete misunderstanding of anatomy, but yeah, continue. Okay. I feel like we've perhaps let Ellis somewhat down.

I don't have a scientific, biological, theoretical explanation of why this groove is so powerful. But maybe what we can answer is where did this groove come from? Oh, I have no idea. I'm very curious. And so he won't go home empty hand back to the aisle of white. Not that this is easy to answer. You know, the origin of rhythms are kind of shrouded in mystery and historic distance. I actually found a quote from Quincy Jones, who surmised that the 12-8 shuffle could be traced back to West African musical practice.

Okay. Which contains a lot of polyrhythm, which is kind of a motivating, animating feature of that rhythm. Right. Makes sense. And it's indisputable that it has origins in... in the blues. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which you can hear in a song, like, from one of my favorite New Orleans pianist, James Booker, feel so bad. One, two, three, two, two, three, three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, two, two, two, two, three, two, two, three. You know, I feel so bad right now. Okay. Okay. Do you notice that there's maybe even like a trap hat precursory here where the high hat's going like, tut, tut, tut, tut, to bring this back to the J-Cole?

Whoa, I love that. Totally, totally hearing it. Not expecting it, but I'm totally hearing it. It makes sense because the rhythm here is very slow. So there's a lot of room to fill in extra stuff. Totally. I think, oh, okay, very good, Chuck. Yeah, it gives it a kind of spaciousness.

When you have, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You have like these different temporal planes. You have the slow four pulse. One, two, three, four, and then these quick triplets within it. And then you can kind of put accents in weird places within them. like they're doing on this groove, which then bring us right up to contemporary trap beats. That's cool. I like that. But identifying the roots of the sound and the blues, I don't think ultimately explains how it's become so popular and ubiquitous in mainstream music.

No. But I have a theory. And this may be a bold claim, but I might go so far as to suggest that one person might be responsible for proliferating the 12-8 shot. Stop it. That's bold. It's bold, but I am going to put all my money on Bernard Pretty Purdy. Oh, yes. This is my favorite drummer of all time. So you're familiar with Pretty. Perhaps some of our listeners are as well for those who are not.

This is someone who has played on over 4,000 recordings who has been active from the 1960s. to the present and has worked with everyone from Hall and Oates to Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone to Steely Dan. I mean, if you've been in the vicinity of a pair of speakers over the last 50 years, you've heard Bernard Pretty Purdy. One cannot dispute this claim. Now, Pretty is an immensely talented drummer. Yes.

But I think he's particularly known for a groove that has become shorthand. It's the Purdy Shuffle. The Purdy Shuffle. And you can hear it on, like, so many different songs. You can hear this iconic groove on any number of records, but let's maybe listen to Steely Dan's home at last. It's got kind of a blues thing, a little of a reggae thing. This is a really slow version. Right.

I believe we would call this particular variant the halftime Purdy Shuffle. Yes. Yeah. Very slow. Okay. So if you buy my theory that Pretty Purdy is single-handedly responsible for bringing the 12-8 shuffle to the sound of mainstream popular music, we should probably hear a little bit about this groove direct from the source. Thankfully, there is one of the greatest YouTube videos of all time, which is Pretty Purdy breaking down how he constructs this groove. And I'm going to explain to you by playing it all.

What I love about this video is not only is pretty pretty an amazing drummer. He's like such a compelling personality. Such an entertainer. Even if you're never going to play drums in your life, you've got to watch this video from drummer world. We'll put a link to it in the show notes. This pretty shuffle, not only do we hear it on the tracks that he plays on, it also gets picked up by like every drummer on earth, pretty much. I mean, you can hear it in a song by Toto, like Rosanna,

or even Led Zeppelin on Fool in the Rain. That's great. This is cool. So you have this thing originating probably in West Africa going into the blues. Purdy popularizes his particular take on it. And then those and the rest of popular music are just like, that's the thing. And here we are today. Right.

And I mean, I'm not saying that ever. Every time we hear a 12-8 groove, it's the pretty shuffle, even the pretty half-time shuffle. But it's like he took that groove and I think just propelled it into the mainstream consciousness. So that when you listen to Yeez-Sys and you turn on black skinhead, there's that 12-8 groove once again. And even Billy Eilish on Barry a Friend, once again, the 12-8 shuffle. And finally, that brings us back to Jay Cole. and interlude, where now this 12-8 groove has kind of come full circle, and it's merged with the sound of modern trap drumming.

Yeah, I be coming in peace, but fuck me. Best beware to others is shit deep, on the cover street, this southern heat make them bearable summer just last week, and your mama weep crying because shit won't bury your brother, the blood leaks, why the EMTs got to carry her baby like Sarah and mothers, whoa. So Charlie Ellis from James, Jay Cole to all these artists. Like, let's celebrate this 12-A group.

And let's also celebrate the person who might be its creator, Bernard Pretty Pretty, who is still laying down this groove. In 2020, he joined forces with the group Wolfpec to cover the Beatles' iconic song, Something. And what groove did they use? They tore it all apart and used the Purdy Shuffle. 12-8, Bernard Pretty Pretty Shuff. Switched-on Pop is produced by Nate Sloan and me Charlie Harding.

We're edited by Jolie Myers. We're engineered this week by Ben Montoya. Social media by Abby Barne, illustrations by Iris Gottlieb. Our executive producers are Nashak Kerwa and Hannah Rosen. We're a member of the Vox Media Podcast Network and a production of Vulture. Find more episodes of the show on Spotify, the Apple Podcast app. Pretty much anywhere else you get podcasts. We're there.

We come out every. Tuesday with piping hot, fresh new musical analysis for you. Go to the show notes to read more about Jay Cole and The Pretty Shuffle and reach out to us on the old Twitter, Instagram, at Switchedon Pop. Tell us what are your favorite songs off the offseason and your favorite songs to feature this iconic shuffle groove. We'll be back next week on Tuesday. And until then, thanks for listening. Thank you.