Tennessee-born, L.A.-based rapper Samara Cyn is feeling under the weather while shes inRolling Stones New York offices.
Its been a crazy past couple weeks.
Ive been talking way too much.
Cosmo Free*
I lose my voice every October.
But luckily for the attendees, shes got plenty of bars in the tuck.
So I didnt grow up in Tennessee.
I was there for the first few years of my life.
So a lot of different places is where I was raised; I cant claim one spot.
I do feel like I grew up in a very southern household.
My mom, her accents still very strong.
But I had a lot of influence from all the different places that I grew up.
Black culture, predominantly Hispanic culture.
When we went to Hawaii, it was predominantly Asian and island culture.
Colorado was white as hell.
Did you have a favorite place among all those places you moved?Probably Hawaii.
That was the first time we got to live anywhere for four years.
Everywhere else, it was like two and a half years.
I think it helped my delivery because it put me around all different types of people.
Thats all sort of fraternities.
I think it translates well into how I communicate through my music as well.
So it gave me a lot of really dope experiences.
I think the more difficult side was identity growing up.
People have to have a really stable environment.
Theyre affected by that environment, and that environment helps raise them.
So I think identity was hard.
Because as a kid, you recognize that youre different, but you dont understand it.
You go into all these different places.
But I do feel like I got really good at learning to play by myself and self-soothe.
I think I got really good at assimilating as a survival mechanism.
Now, Im out of my household, Im able to explore things.
I dont know what my style is.
I dont know who I want to be around.
But yeah, I do admire people though that are like, Yeah, Im from Brooklyn.
Im born and raised in Brooklyn.
And you could hear it in their accent, you’re free to see it in their clothes.
And Im from L.A., all these different places that Ive been traveling to now as an adult.
I felt like I cared a lot about how people perceived me.
I think I was hypervigilant of it because of the identity thing that I knew was going on internally.
I played sports and I danced and I did all of these things.
But it wasnt until I started making music that I was like, This feels so free.
This feels the most authentic in moments where I can stop thinking about everything else.
Because Im very much so an over-thinker.
I feel like were always talking to ourselves, observing the situation and assessing the situation.
And with music, I feel free of that.
I dont need a substance.
I dont need to smoke weed.
I dont need to drink alcohol.
I could literally just be fully invested in music and I can let all of it go.
This past year, things have been clicking a lot faster for me.
And not everything is for everybody.
So in a state where I may be judging myself, I know not to hang on.
Its in my control, what I hang on to and what I let go of.
I feel like now I can let go of a lot of the perception things.
We all fricking go through the same seven emotions.
Its funny that this project is about authenticity.
Its about my journey to self acceptance.
Because as I was making it, I felt like I was actively going through it.
But as a creator, for me, theres a constant battle of, is this authentic?
So theres a constant, see to it whatevers coming out is as natural as possible.
So, every year, she would teach a poetry lesson and she would show Brave New Voices.
I started writing poetry when I was in the fifth grade.
And it wasnt deep.
It wasnt a passion of mine.
It was just something I would do when I was bored.
And then when I got to college, it started being more of a thing.
I lived by myself.
It was something that I would do when I was bored.
I found an event called Poetic Soul, which was an open-mic event.
And every Wednesday, you would go and you slide up on the list.
And I went a few times just to catch a vibe and see what was going on.
And then eventually, I started performing there every other week.
And that threw me even further into the music part of it because they had a band.
Music artists would come out.
It was poetry people; it was all different types of stuff.
And I liked that a lot more than just writing poetry.
It taught me rhyme schemes.
Poetry is like a puzzle.
Rap is like a puzzle.
Rap uses so many literary devices.
And I was like, yeah, I have a poem in my notes that would go to this.
After that, I couldnt stop writing.
I wanted to write songs because I felt like I could.
I got in the studio pretty quickly.
And it ended up being something that was very therapeutic.
Shortly after that, Covid hit.
So again, Im in the house by myself all the time.
Im not seeing anybody, Im not talking to anybody.
And I needed to do it to get out the feelings that I was feeling.
I started making music in 2019, probably like three or four years.
What is the song or the project that you feel like exemplifies, All right, I got it.
I wish that it was the focus track of the EP because it embodies the message so well.
Its me talking about the extent to which I play the game.
Chrome was my first session with DMile.
I was pretty nervous for that session because hes a great producer.
He was the biggest producer I had worked with up until that point.
And yeah, writing it in the room, I felt confident.
And normally, those big sessions, they psych you out a little bit.
Youve said the album is about self-acceptance.
And I feel like that came with more time.
I feel like we need genres.
And if you think about it, a lot of genres are new.
Hip-hop is only 50-something years old.
R&B is not super-duper old.
But I do think that sometimes it can be limiting.
Whatever comes out naturally to you, whatever that sounds like is your genre.
It doesnt have to be one thing.
We dont have to be one thing as people.
I really admire the whole blending of genres.
A lot of my favorite artists have pushed the confines of creativity and pushed the confines of their genre.
It was a derivative of the poetry, or it was the same thing, really.
I wasnt a very good singer at all, actually.
And as I kept getting in the studio, I got a little bit better.
But even now, I wouldnt full-blown just say that [Im] a singer.
Its like oh, sure, these people that could do really crazy things with their voice.
And I know that the really good songs need musicality and all these different things.
I didnt have somebody that I could pay to bring in and sing the hook to my song.
So I sang the hook to my song and didnt have anybody to do this.
Or if I heard a cadence, then it was like, OK, Ill do that.
My writing process changes all the time.
Its pure feeling, Its a dance with production and song structure for sure.
But I think initially, its the feeling thats like, I hear it.
Its not me trying to do what I did the first time.
Its just what comes out naturally.
I feel like thats the best time that you get the best melodies, you get the best canvases.
Youve always been like that with beats?No, I had to learn my lesson.
But its like, these are coming out really rehearsed.
It sounds like Im reading.
Delivery is everything in music.
[Originally] we were going to drop all of these singles.
And so we had had the talk about freestyles on social media.
I was like, all right, cool.
Very simple, very fun process.
And those freestyles ended up doing what the singles were supposed to do.
So they went up super crazy.
TikToks not going to mess with that because its too produced.
Everybody was so sure that it had to be one way.
And I was like, no, it doesnt.
But I do feel like we were pretty confident with the content that we had.
Sinner was right off of that.
It was my first time experiencing negativity and people had something negative to say about what I was doing.
And I was like, Oh, my ego, ooh, this doesnt feel that good.
Were listening through it, and it just felt cinematic.
It felt like a movie.
I was like, Im just going to talk so much shit on this record.
Sometimes you have to tell yourself and big up yourself to be like, Fuck yall.
I dont care what yall are saying about it.
It was actually really funny.
We were walking around Disney.
And there was one in particular where it had different cultures.
Theres Sweden and Tokyo and all of these different places that you could walk through.
So I was like, does that say Caramel Kuche?
What does that say?
We just thought that was so funny.
And literally, for the sake of the joke, I committed a whole bar.
Can you take me into I Might Die?I made that one in a low moment.
Everybody can see their life.
Everybody can comment on the things that you are creating.
What if it doesnt go the way that Im planning it?
I had to be in the studio by myself that day.
I kicked everybody out.
That was the first time that singing had really come out of me that way.
How did you feel after writing and recording it?Proud.
I think thats why I like music.
You could feel really [defeated] going into it.
And then youre proud that you made something productive out of it.
So, of course, I had to ask you about Rolling Stone.Rolling Stone never got finished.
There was only one verse on it, and then the hook is just long as hell.
But that ending part, it is not a long ending.
It was supposed to be a second verse.
It never got finished.
That was a rough day in the studio for me.
Its just not happening for me today.
And then my friend Whit loaded up the beat for Rolling Stone.
I was not happy to do it, low-key because I really just wanted to go home.
I was like, fuck it, lets get something out.
Lets do it just so I dont feel completely like a failure.
Its the focus track for the EP, and it never got finished.
Im in there talking about, Im not insecure!
Bitch, I was so insecure in that moment.
Im the biggest in the world, bitch.
But I guess thats the whole joke of it.
I feel like Im pretty intentional.
But sometimes, youre so intentional that you overthink things, and it doesnt need to be that deep.
So its like, oh, actually, this sounds really good.
Lets just go with this.
Why are we trying to make it more difficult than it needs to be?
I wanted to do something cool and tasteful and something that I would actually wear.
Tyler, the Creator had GOLF WANG.
Travis Scott has Cactus Jack.
Theres all these different people that created really dope brands that were fashionable.
And I would actually wear the clothes, you know what Im saying?
I started drawing a bunch of logos and thinking of different things.
And I wrote a song that one of the lines was like, My third eye is getting lazier.
I know that when my freaking alarm goes off, I should wake up and I should get up.
But I dont have the discipline to not snooze it.
In every aspect, I know I should be working out.
I know I should be doing this.
So that was Third Eye Lazy.
Im really into the creative direction side of things, visuals and writing and things like that.
The first thing a listener notices about Ankhlejohn is his delivery.
And his colorful ad-libs add to the hysteria, creating a distinct mic presence.
Its as if he raps with the attitude and vocal presence of two MCs at once.
His fire serves a dual effect throughout the album.
Regardless of tone, Ankhlejohn has a knack for miminalist beats that lets his bars take center stage.
There arent a bunch of drum rolls, fills, and beat switches here, which allow every word.
And he takes advantage of every couplet.
The quotables are plenty onThe Pride of a Man, and theyre dished out over an impressive soundscape.
Last year he was on Niontays Real Hip-Hop with MIKE.
Words2LiveBy is a single from El Cousteaus latest album,Merci, Non Merci.
The album is 17 tracks but just 35 minutes.
One of the hip-hop artists greatest weapons in immersion is well-employed randomness.
On Satisfied Satisfaction, hes reflective about the doldrums dishonest romance over a smooth beat.
On Ballad of France, he laments missing his grandmothers funeral and ponders his career pursuit.
His vocal tone cant be pinned down either.
The 25-year-old MCs future is bright, however he chooses to approach it.
From 2015sMack Sagas, his music has been focused on a bankroll and everything that comes with it.
Premo excels at saying things you probably cant say over beats you probably cant forget.
Thats the vibe the self-proclaimed Black Tony Hawk offers on his latest offeringP Got Gamewith Harry Fraud.
The eight-track project is extended enough to feel like a healthy offering without being redundant.
The horns on Grip roll out in lockstep with Rices deliberate flow.
The combination is perfect to listen to on the kind of cruising Rice depicts throughout the project.
Hes also built like an MC with a long future in the game.
