The opener that gives this collection its title came late in the process, when I realized that these few songs worked as a complete piece. There was supposed to be singing at the end, as part of an overwrought “we left the mics on” bit, probably inspired by the finely-wrought interludes on denitia + sene’s first album. Samples “You Don’t Know My Name” by Alicia Keys, produced by Kanye West.
This one comes closest to actually saying something meaningful. I’m in a better place now than I was when I wrote this but I still never sign for certified letters. The instrumental is a reconstruction of “You Be Killin Em” by Fabolous, produced by Ryan Leslie.
This was going to be a posse cut. I wrote and recorded scratch verses for Jonathan and Zander and we stopped there. At the end we are supposed to all be talking to each other, and we reference our next posse cut. It was ambitious.
This is also the only song that is 100% original–that sample is me pouring out a bottle of Bulleit.
If I remember correctly, this one came out more or less in one continuous session, and I wasn’t even really planning on doing anything with this beat until I did. It took me a long time to realize how sad I was feeling when I put Excuse Me together. You might be interested in knowing that I feel less sad now. Samples “Successful” by Drake, produced by 40.
This one started it all, with a true tweet from way back in 2011. I was walking down Madison Avenue just before NYFW SS 2012 and started thinking about fashion hip hop.
The beat is mostly original, but it samples “Me and My Jaguar” by Buddy Rich. I still refer to “Bootie Pumps” as my debut single, even though this is maybe halfway to what I wanted it to be.
I don’t have a lot to say about this one that I didn’t say on the song. It’s all true, and maybe a little too true? This one also took a lot of tries. Samples “Way Too Fast” by Active Child.
This would have been the second single, and I think it’s the one that sounds the most like a real song. A lot of that is probably the sample: “Something About Us” by Daft Punk.
I put a lot of time and thought into the sequence of these songs, and I always hear this one as the point where everything starts coming together.
Roughly drafted and unrecorded! This would have sampled “Running” by Jessie Ware, and it was to be kind of a foil to “Bootie Pumps:” no flexing or flirting, just a simple and direct confession of feelings for an unidentified party.
This was written but also unrecorded, because I could never place the instrumental. I wanted something between “We Major” by Kanye West and “Love King (Remix)” by The-Dream. In Terius’s tradition, this was only a “remix” in the sense that it vaguely refers back to the original song.
Some of the lines that made it into this one were written long before I even conceived “Bootie Pumps,” and before I finished it I started writing the second mixtape. None of that one ever even made it off the page.