Sitting in front of my laptop and wondering which music I was going to write about over the weekend. I glanced through billboard but did not see any song/album. I got caught by the man with the baby in the kitchen making music by one of the music website I patronize. To be honest with every music lover who reads this blog, I must confess that I never knew this man called Ricardo Valdez Valentine aka 6lack. He is one of those musicians that writing about music has given me the privilege to know and I am grateful to God for that. This album: East Atlanta Love Letter {EALL} is not to be played every time because of the slow tempo of all the tracks. It is not to be played in an office where you work alone so that you don’t sleep on duty. This album is best played in the company of the person you love or alone when you finding it hard to sleep and need to be knocked out because it is a good chill pill. A lullaby for every sleepless adult. This album can also be consumed when you want to reflect on the actions you have taken over a period of time.
I can’t actually say this album is a flop or lit because albums like this speak differently to everybody. This album has the blend of too many wonderful stories that are sang using very slow tempo trap beats. The artistry of fusing Hiphop, soul and RnB together is one to be taking very seriously. He tried to give his songs a soul lyrical flow but with a Trap beat which is creativity. This album is not a classic but sure has lots of respect from me.
THE THEME
The album talks of love, broken relationships and the struggles people go through every day. He also sings about his struggle trying to harmonize to his soul sound to the trap sound he grew up to know. Being an Atlanta born Musician, he is expected to do trap music because that is their identity. But he declares himself a hypocrite to the trap sound because of his love for RnB and soul is always trying to swallow the trap culture in him. The song “switch” has him talking about people not minding their business. He claims that people would always want to treat other people problems like they know better than the person going through the problem. The song “Unfair” made me remember Yclef Jean because of the way he flowed his rhymes. He apology’s to his lady in the song, telling her that he acknowledges that he treated her in bad way.
In the song “let her go”; he explains the fear and uncertainty of knowing what he will feel if he lets a certain lover of his leave. “Sorry” has him apologizing to his lover to forgive him because he acknowledges the mistakes he made. He pleads with her to allow him rewrite the wrongs even though he knows that she was fed up with his excuses. He talks about tricking people’s heart after making a mistakes because you are scared to lose them because of a silly mistake. In the song “Disconnect” he talks about break up as a result of misunderstanding in the part of the lady. He talks of the lack of trust between partners as the main reason between any breakups. In “Pretty little fear” he and J. Cole talks to a mystery lady to look beyond the little fears which was griping her in taking a decision to date a man. “Season” which he makes with Khalid is song which talks about a proclamation of love to a lady just before a particular summer begins.
THE PRODUCTION
What makes a music exceptional is the hard work and creativity put into to make a music. 6lack and his team did some real job in mixing soul/RnB vibe to Trap Hiphop. The use of trap claps, snares, hi-hats and heavy kick in the percussions of all the songs I this album is applauded. I also love the way the new RnB production is going; it involves the use of rhymes in the making of sound. You can see this in the song made by Beyoncé in recent times and I this album. The use of harmonious strings in this album is soul soaking because of the slow tempo of all the songs.
One element of the mixing I love is the addition of short plays or speech at the beginning and ending of the songs in this album. In the song made by 6lack and Offset, there is this hilarious speech of a lady in the intro which for me is savage. The use of audio effects in this song gives it this kind of spiritual feeling from start to finish especially when blended with harmonious strings.’
POSSIBLE HITS AND FLOPS
This album like I have said before is not for someone who loves and crave for fast tempo songs. However this songs can make it big in the market if the right songs are promoted. Songs like “Switch”, “Sorry” and “Let her Go” will make it in the market if promoted because of the little step up in the tempo of the songs and the message in them. Anyone can easily fall in love with those songs because they have a sing along chorus. “Loaded Gun” is a song with very good word play and explicit content that will be much appreciated in the hood hence it can have a large commercial success.
Songs which he featured people are up there when you want to count the good songs in this album. My personal best in all four song which he featured J. Cole, Khalid, Offset and Future is “Seasons”. I am a big admirer of Khalid’s music and his patience he has anytime he vocals. The second on that list will be “Pretty little fears” and . I really don’t have any flop track on this album because this songs could mean so many things to the listener.
