It was going to be a real task to make a better mix than Modern Soulness Vol. IX. That mix just accidentally came together once I took a bunch of Hiatus Kayote’s short interlude clips from their fantastic albums Tawk Tomahawk (2012) and Choose Your Weapon (2015) and used them as segues between the collection of slow jam Soul and late-night Electronica-Jazz tracks I had been wanting to place together. Somehow it all just worked and was really pleased with how that ninth mix shook out. That can be found here in this post as well as in the Spotify link: spotify:playlist:5b5Rmv0y6gujMhGeUtxAnQ
Sometimes it’s a great struggle to get everything to flow and all the parts in their right place, and other times things fall into place quite naturally. It’s kind of like when someone has an image stuck in their head for a really long time of how some expression is going to come together and form physically. You keep thinking about something for long enough, developing it in your mind unceasingly, adding and rearranging until nearly perfect in the mind. Then from that vivid, nearly fully-formed memory you recite or record or document on paper what has been present as a mental construct for so long. When it comes out, it usually comes out with a certain level of uncanny detail. They say Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright was drafted in a day because he had been designing the home in his mind for a long time before putting it to paper. Inventors keep adding layers to a newfangled design they can explain as if already on the market, and the idea and reasons behind an invention are organized with near-perfect fidelity.
I am not making the connection between those pursuits and these mixes, but relative to my world of music playlists and the cohesiveness of the ideal 80-minute mix (my nerdy approach explained in this previous From the Blinds post) Vol. IX is like the perfect mix, one in which I didn’t struggle to put it together like most other ones. Therefore the following one, Modern Soulness Vol. X, built-up in my mind for a long time as kind of a big deal. Not only did I have my own personal expectations for this one to be just as good as Vol. IX, but number ten is a milestone kind of number.
I started making these mixes in 2012 and 2013 when Flying Lotus’ Until the Quiet Comes (2012), The Weeknd’s House of Balloons (2011), and Miguel’s Kaleidoscope Dream (2012) had been released and the quality and abundance of brilliant music in the Soul and R&B genre was just staggering. At that time, living in Chicago, I was pushed over a precipice into a world of these genres and have been immersed in them ever since; so much so that it felt pretty obligatory to just keeping making the Modern Soulness mixes. In 2019 I found myself at number ten, with more material to choose from than ever before. I was like the guy in the cereal aisle at the grocery store just pacing from one end to the other, struggling to just zero-in on a couple with the plethora of choices.
Modern Soulness Vol. X started as an extension of Vol. IX, leaning more Jazz and female R&B-centric but then slowly morphing into something defining the prevailing sound of 2018 and 2019, which is a Soul/R&B crossover sound in Hip-Hop most easily defined by artists like Saba, Bryson Tiller, SiR, and Drake. Whereas Vol. IX was seamless between pulling together the song pool and sequencing into the final order of the mix, a process that may have taken a couple days, Vol. X laid dormant for a couple months after the first song pool of Jazzy tracks and when revisited in late 2019, overhauled into something more in the Hip-Hop wheelhouse. The predominant mood of that time, at the outset of winter in Denver when the days are shortest and shadows are cast long and gaunt in the barren pallid landscape, is a nighttime-oriented sound.
What I ended up with, once I rearranged the song pool, was roughly three hours of great music to parse and consolidate into 80 minutes. All of it followed that universal theme of groove-based nocturnal tunes where Soul singers mingle with Hip-Hop and rappers take a courageous step into melodic ballads and the softer textures of R&B. Curiously enough, I finished Vol. XI right on the heels of this one, and it happened just as quick as number nine. This tenth one does have the same mood of nine and ended up feeling like a natural extension – being well-suited to highway driving late at night – however, definitely more geared towards Hip-Hop and urban trends rather than Electronica and Jazz. The eleventh volume, to be detailed in a future post, is a departure for sure. So this mix is the long drawn-out culmination of months and should be played during those longest hours of the day – the hours of night when it is darkest and the City lights are brightest. Here’s the cast:
THE PLAYERS OF MODERN SOULNESS VOL. X
Not the biggest Ariana Grande fan, but I am a 2 Chainz fan. This track is just very catchy and seemed well-suited to kick-off the mix with that crisp intro bass drop transitioning into Ariana’s smooth vocals. Her crystal-clear singing does lend itself well to a Pop Rap track like this, and the contrast between 2 Chainz rugged unhinged style and Ariana’s saccharine vocals worked well, despite the seemingly odd pairing on paper. Never thought I would put THE GRANDE on any of my mixes, yet could not deny the appeal of this track especially on a mix meant to tout the power of Hip-Hop, Soul, and Pop colliding. From that outlier intro track we go to my favorite Trap-Soul artist and one of my favorite crossover Hip-Hop – Soul artists in Bryson Tiller. His follow-up to the incomparable TRAPSOUL (2015), was what many believed to be a sophomore slump in True to Self (2017). Yet the album is not bad, and had several very choice cuts like “Teach Me A Lesson”, as well as the one on this mix, “You Got It”, which uses a really clever sample of Loopmasters (by the transitive properties of Kendrick Lamar’s “FEEL”). Following in a similar vein, the third track seemed a natural progression from Tiller’s music, with the power duo of Jeremih and Ty Dolla $ign track “Goin Thru Some Thangz”. Yes, they really do like to spell things incorrectly, often for good reasons and sometimes just to keep their cred. Their 2018 album MIH-TY is a real gem of late night Hip-Hop and Soul, with Jeremih being the prince of Chicago R&B and Ty Dolla $ign being the collaborator supreme on so many modern hits blending Hip-Hop and Soul.
The low-hanging fruit for this mix was a song called “Night Drive”, yet I had always intended to put at least one Ari Lennox track on this mix. She is the epitome of a female R&B singer taking the most infectious beats and making modern Soul out of it. She wasn’t all that impressive live on the stage, but I will forgive her when she is releasing songs like “Pedigree” and “Yuengling”. Her attitude is basically unmatched, and I always love her references to the Jazz and 70’s Soul disciples that have influenced her (like the nice nod to Herbie Hancock in “Night Drive”). She also does a great job balancing retro sounds with a very modern rhythm, typically achieved by putting the bass and drums really high on the mix, almost up higher than her own vocals.
You can never go wrong with a good Flying Lotus interlude to segue in a mix. I have used this ploy many a time on the Modern Soulness mixes and did it again here to connect Ari Lennox to Lion Babe. The proud lionness Jillian Hervey, one part of the duo that goes by the name Lion Babe, seemed fitting as the next full track after the Ari Lennox track – both share a sort of retro vibe. “Rockets” is this intriguing concoction made of Jazz bass line and Hip-Hop beats, and on the treble side we have this alluring melding of flutes and keys looping through the track and interlaced with sound clips of Hervey as well as featured artist Moe Moks. The track has a strange formula – its construct very different than your typical song .
At track seven I went with the SiR track “Hair Down” featuring Kendrick Lamar. I tried to find a lot of more groove-based tracks that incorporated Hip-Hop (and Rap artists) as a featured element, yet wanted to steer clear of placing outright Rap/Hip-Hop tracks on the mix. There had to be the blending of styles, to show how a smooth Hip-Hop verse can really complement the night groove of Soul/R&B production. Nobody makes a late night setting feel more tangible than LA producer-rapper SiR; he is a master at making records that sound like they should be played with a glass of whiskey, a lounge chair, a cigarette or joint (if you are into that sort of thing), and a darkened living room. His 2018 album November was a thing of beauty, a perfect combination of Jazz, Soul, and R&B. Similar to my feeling about Bryson Tiller’s sophomore album, 2019’s Chasing Summer feels a bit more sporadic, yet has some real standout tracks peppered in there including “Hair Down”, “Mood”, and “New Sky”, which is featured on the follow-up Modern Soulness Vol. XI.
Oddisee is this unsung figure in production and Hip-Hop that you may hear at your “hipper” lounges or maybe at a coffee shop, especially his instrumental tracks. Surfing through the D.C. artist’s catalogue you see he places as much emphasis on the instrumentals as on the vocal tracks. The decision to use his instrumental cuts as transition tracks between sections of the mix seemed pretty natural as he certainly takes the Hip-Hop aspects of beat production and rhythm and adds some old-timey Soul flair to the proceedings. Both “Silver Lining” and “On the Table”, used on this mix as instrumental transitions, are these fantastic groove-based Hip-Hop/R&B songs from his hybrid album The Odd Tape (2016). These are mellow, sumptuous armchair R&B cuts that much like SiR, are ideal for playing late at night on a quiet highway or in a comfy chair where a single incandescent lamp is illuminating the room – trust me, that’s a great setting. “Silver Lining” moves into “Beauty & Essex”, which is one downright sexy track from the collaborative the Free Nationals. Some quick research reveals this is Anderson .Paak’s live band, a really sharp group that appears to draw a lot of disparate artists into their sphere to make one-off R&B gems. Daniel Caesar and Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban Nielson were recruited for this track, which I must say is a stroke of brilliance. Free Nationals released a really good self-titled album in 2019 showcasing all the collaborations they have had with eminent Hip-Hop/R&B artists and “Beauty & Essex” was arguably the standout. From that intoxicating banter between the keys and the guitar to the seductive vocals, this cut just screams baby making music. We aren’t talking afternoon delight or morning sex, we are talking all the lights out 2:00 a.m. rollicking in the sack type of whoopie.
Next we bridge from the canned sex that is “Beauty & Essex” to the understated Be-Bop Hip-Hop of GoldLink’s “U Say”. The fact GoldLink took this heavy Jazz formula and threw Tyler the Creator into the mix is pure brilliance. I love the fusing of R&B, Hip-Hop, and Jazz that GoldLink used in his 2019 album Diaspora and this is the best track from that album.
After the aforementioned Oddisee instrumental track “On the Table” we move to the very subdued R&B/Hip-Hop section of the mix, the back half intended to be played in the latter stages of the night, when the world is quietest, the streets are their loneliest, and the late night DJ is the most mellow. This section of the mix came together the best, especially the first part of the back half and the medley that is created from Saba’s “Busy/Sirens” to Nipsey Hussle’s laid back Hip-Hop gem “Double Up”. The first time I heard Saba’s 2018 album Care for Me, I played it from beginning to end, and found this track (which is a medley itself), to be the perfect opener. So many ideas are contained within those five and a half minutes and I still get goosebumps when I hear the programmed sounds that transition “Busy” to “Sirens” in the middle of the track. Obviously the “sirens” are abstracted, but it is this really interesting, haunting take on the sound that feels like the blurry reflection of nighttime lights in a puddle of water under the “L”. “Busy” is all about the lyrics, “Sirens” is all about the late-night R&B groove. Sandwiched in between is “Deja Vu”, an unexpectedly good collaboration between Post Malone and Justin Bieber. Similar to the pairing of Ariana Grande and 2 Chainz, these two on paper is certainly curious – I would’ve probably dismissed a track with them on it as Pop trash. Let’s be honest, both of these guys have some pipes, especially in the context of soulful R&B. They are blue-eyed Soul musicians that could’ve been Hall & Oates in the 80’s (except instead of facial hair they do tattoos) but are trapped in a different time where its not necessarily all that cool to make downtempo jams. With “Deja Vu” they really did capture a golden sound, a really sensual and nocturnal feel – I was pleasantly surprised.
Nipsey Hussle tragically passed last year, and I had only heard one of his songs by that time; that song was the one on this mix, “Double Up”. Then when I listened to his album Victory Lap (2018), I enjoyed the sound but was really hoping for more songs akin to “Double Up”. Now I realize this is just a really special ballad, a swan song……. Nipsey’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”. This is probably my favorite song on this mix, for some reasons I can explain and others I cannot. There is just something about the mood of the song, the way it just casually rolls along with that same computerized female voice sporadically playing in the back, that beautiful chorus, the lyrics, the overall elegance of the composition. It’s probably one of my favorite tracks for this decade as well, I just am drawn to it for many ineffable reasons.
Another artist, or artists, I knew were going to have some place on this mix were Travis Scott and Drake, but for different reasons. Travis Scott, despite not having much going for him in terms of songwriting, is all about creating a dark aesthetic with his music. He also adds a certain degree of menace, maybe a bit of gothic horror to everything. Whatever the themes, it is undoubtedly dark as well as a unique take on where Hip-Hop and R&B meet. Drake is the poster boy for rappers that can sing soulful songs- that’s why he has become so successful as an artist. “SICKO MODE” may not be as groove-based or mellowed-out as the other crossover songs on this mix, but it is another take on how to make R&B and Hip-Hop as a single artifact. If not for Drake’s part on this song, it would be all posture and Halloween amusement park themes, but together they made a unique attitude and style to this track that I think worked well to change the pace at this later point in the mix. I really wanted to have an 070 Shake song on this mix, especially something from her incredible 2020 album Modus Vivendi. I can’t stop listening to this album, especially on cold nights – it’s natural habitat is dark winter nights where the cold synth production and her androgynous vocals seem at home. I felt it was a natural transition from the themes of “SICKO MODE” to go to “Under the Moon.”
The stretch run of the mix was intended to be different, and also to be more eclectic. The dancier late night vibe of “At All”, a remix collab between Kaytranada and Sango, felt like a nice segue to a new course. It felt like a SBTRKT cut, one of those British DJ-producer tracks they play at midnight on a radio station when they give Electronic musicians free-reign to do a 2-hour guest mix. As an Electronica instrumental track it crossed the border between Travis Scott’s computerized menace and the curious Electronic-Soul of Chicago’s DRAMA. As for DRAMA, what really drew me to this duo and the song “Dead and Gone” in particular, is the earnest Soul style of singing mixed at the same volume with the backing track – a backing track made of heavy synths and a cold aesthetic belying the warmth of soulful singing. The lyrics are also top-notch, something that jump out despite the distorted recording of those vocals.
As I’ve mentioned before, WILLOW (Will Smith’s daughter, you know, the girl that once did the travesty of a song called “Whip My Hair”) might not be doing anything revelatory in terms of songwriting, but she is an interesting artist for taking psychedelic twists on R&B. “Time Machine” has this really interesting atmosphere with those distorted guitars and the way she has orchestrated her vocals around the interesting backing track. I was really drawn to this song just for the mood, and although it feels like a non-sequitur going from WILLOW to an artist like Jamila Woods, I think they both capture some nighttime aesthetic in very different ways. “BETTY” unlike “Time Machine” is not about obscuring the voice or lyrics in thick layers of reverb – it’s loud and proud about the lyrics and the strong voice of Jamila. “BETTY” is such a force of a song for what it says, and is very different stylistically from most of the other songs on the mix, mostly because it feels more elegant. What she employed in her latest album (the terrific 2019 album LEGACY! LEGACY!) is a more forceful and aggressive production technique that had more Hip-Hop tendencies in the backing rhythms, so I suppose this is the element that I felt tied it to this mix along with the late night listening aesthetic.
I finished the mix with one of my all-time favorite baby-making Soul/R&B groups of the modern era. Dvsn’s 2016 record Sept 5th is already a nocturnal classic. This is one of those dark hallucinations of an album that feels so perfect on a mix like this where every song feels like it has a dark corner, or a somber lonely night highway, or big city lights pulsating to the music. “The Line” is this epic seven-minute R&B ballad that just felt appropriate to place at the end, that last hurrah to the night on a mix that was mostly intended to showcase that crossover appeal of Hip-Hop into Soul/R&B. Nevertheless, you have to put Dvsn on a mix like this, one that I really enjoy listening to nowadays even if it took many drawn-out months to finally pull together. Here’s to the late night jams.
https://youtu.be/ExgMAJJ4ioQ
