--Ada Wofford
----Released 15 June 2021
So, I should open with a disclaimer of sorts. I know RayRayBeats and have worked with him on some projects. I don't believe any have seen the light of day, but we did work together. I remember one time he told me that he would never hang with me if I wasn't a good musician. For a second I felt a bit hurt, but then I realized what he meant. We were pulled together because of our mutual respect for one another. So yes, I'm going to do nothing but gush over his new album, but I'm going to try to explain why I have such esteem for this rapper/producer who has not yet been given the attention he deserves.
At My Little Underground we do not discuss lyrics. So how, you might ask, can I review a hip-hop album? I actually already reviewed a hip-hop album without speaking about the lyrics back when I first attempted to get this site going (back then it was called Full Flown Fox). But this isn't going to be as difficult as reviewing that Sleaford Mods album. RayRayBeats has an incredible ear for melody and employs it at every turn. Yes, newcomers might hear the soft thrift-store-Casio-like warmness that opens the album and immediately picture a plain anime girl studying at her desk, but there's so much more going on here. This album is anything BUT the lo-fi beats you use to study. No, quite the inverse: you need to study these lo-fi beats.
Sentimentalism employs layers of rhythms and melodies, punctuated by brilliant arrangement, coalescing in one of the best hip-hop albums I've heard in a while. And I'm sure it's difficult to take me seriously, being as I've admitted to knowing RayRayBeats, but I'm completely serious. The use of melody and arrangement compliments the flow of RayRayBeats' lyrics so deftly, that it never sounds as if someone is rapping over a track. No, it sounds full and complete. Every piece in its right place. Everything functions together in such a complete and satisfying way that I guarantee a non-English speaker could enjoy this album for the sound alone.
The first two tracks of the album are sunny and upbeat. If anything, this is the sentimentalism the title is suggesting; everything golden and lovely. But as the album progresses, it gets darker and more complicated. RayRayBeats' flow gets more complex, and the familiar lo-fi beats we might have misjudged at the beginning evolve into sophisticated and complicated layers that bespeak the transition into the present. As if RayRayBeats is pulling us out of our sentimentalism and forcing us to witness the present. It's a powerful progression and one of the most purposeful track-lists I've ever heard.
When I reached out to RayRayBeats about the making of the album, he had this to say:
I produced, tracked, and mixed most of Sentimentalism outdoors in my mom's backyard over a 7-day period. My computer at the time was an 11-year-old Lenovo T420 with 8 gigs of ram. I used an Avid Mbox interface and a mismatched pair of audio monitors (KRK Rokit 5 and a Sterling Audio Mx5.) I produced every instrumental in FL Studio with stock plugins, except for the rare use of a FREE tape piano VST called Tapex. I may have used another free VST called DSK Music Box, but I forget, to be honest. Just say I used it, it's a GREAT free plugin.
I tracked all of my vocals through a Fender dynamic microphone using Audacity. The mic actually belonged to my late father, he used it with a PA system to basically be a mobile evangelist. After tracking, I'd bounce the vocals back into FL to mix into the beat. All stock plugins for mixing, too. Fruity Parametric EQ 2, Maximus as a multiband compressor, Fruity Limiter, that's basically it. Oh, the version of FL studio I used is a cracked version of 12.
I'll interject here a moment. RayRayBeats laughed at this last comment and added: "Tell people I pirate my software if you're comfortable doing so, and I want people to pirate my music too if they can't afford to buy it and they want the download." I think that's cool as shit, but I urge you to support him if you can afford to—As a musician I can assure you that every little bit helps. Plus, seeing someone actually spend a few dollars on your music makes every musician's day.
I mixed all of the tracks pretty damn close to how I wanted them to sound and bounced the stems to my engineer James Michael McCullough, aka @BarksdaleBeats on Instagram. We slowly worked on the final mixing / mastering over a period of maybe 3 weeks, in his home studio using Logic Pro.
That's the story! I went through a breakup in March and quit my job and started writing music as fast as I could. I'm gonna take whatever the universe gives me, even if I run out of money and the universe tells me to get my ass back in the kitchen. I'm taking a train to West Virginia with my studio in a suitcase for all of July and I'm gonna couch surf between Charleston and Huntington writing more music and recording with friends.
I'm amazed at how much RayRayBeats manages to squeeze out of his equipment. Sentimentalism is proof you don't need a big budget or pro level gear to create a professional sounding album. Purchase the album via BandCamp and listen to "Dump Truck" below:
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