RaSean Parks is a hip-hop artist who is known for his innovative thoughts put into words through his unique lyricism and musicality. He has released 1 full length album and two single which is a perfect depiction of his versatility. He can make you weep with joy and laugh with sorrow. That is how persuasive his verses are. His vocal texture takes him a step ahead of others and makes him one of the best rapper I’ve come across in the past month. He paints vivid and profound pictures through his words and his music. Surely an artist to explore.
I recently came across this artist when latest track dropped which is named Black Venus which is surely one of his best works yet. The track starts off with an ecstatic bouncy melody which is followed by the addictive hook. The chorus is so addictive that it sticks to your head and keeps playing on repeat. His flows are innovative and something straight out of the oven. SO HOT! The drums are my favorite part of the track which is so beautifully structured that it makes me weak in the knees. The rhymes are complex yet sound profoundly on-point. His vocal texture is something to die for.
This is surely a great track and you should give it a go. We even had a chance to have a little chat with the RaSean Parks. Here’s how it went –
Q1.Hey, loved the way you think and are so upfront with your thoughts. What fuels your thoughts and boldness?
“I’m really passionate about the things I care about and can be very opinionated on certain matters, so I think that’s where the boldness comes from. I can’t really say what fuels my thoughts. I’ve always had an active and imaginative mind that allows me to think of weird, creative and outlandish things that I try to channel into my songs. I’m an over-analyzer, so I pay attention to minute things that really makes the difference once added up. I also put a lot of research into my lyrics and songs. I try to make sure all my references in my music are factual and make sense because it’s a lot of them. If they’re not completely true, then 9/10 I took creative liberties and made a decision to do that to fit the overarching story if there is one. When you put all those things together, you get a unique listening experience.”
Q2. What is your spark to keep going? What is the thing that motivates you the most to pursue your art?
“The feelings that I get from music. Music was one of the first things that I felt raw emotions from safely. It was the thing that allowed me to feel certain emotions without feeling ashamed or self conscious about myself. At first it was straight hype and excitement I felt because of the artist I listened to. The deeper I got into music, the more diverse my listening pool became and in turn, what I felt. Once I started making music, I wanted people to feel that same excitement I first felt. I wanted people to think how I was thinking. But as I got more into it, I started unlocking weird ass emotions I didn’t know I had making it a self-discovery journey. Now, the biggest thing is creating the type of music I want to help me convey and tap into the emotions I want to feel. I get this immense joy from music that I can’t stop chasing; the more I create, the more I learn myself.”
Q3. The track seems to be telling a story. What is the story behind ‘Black Venus’?
“‘Black Venus’ was named after the Black Venus herself, American born, French vedette singer and dancer – Josephine Baker. While in college, I was in this period of making songs about old black burlesque dancers after watching a documentary in school called ’Standing in the Shadows of Motown’. It’s two other songs that I created the same way: Lottie The Body which came out last year and Satin Doll which is unreleased. Lottie came first because she was mentioned in the documentary. Satin Doll came next after I discovered that the Burlesque Dancer Toni Elling took her stage name ‘Satin Doll’ after the Jazz song of the same name. The name Black Venus came while I was listening to a lot of Smino. He’s got a song called ‘blkjuptr’ which I loved so much that I wanted to make my own song with a similar name. I decided to go with Black Venus cause it sounded cool, but once I did some research on the name, I found out that it was a nickname given to Josephine Baker who I already knew about from a French movie I love. It was so perfect that she out of all people would have that nickname. It fitted right alongside the theme of the other two to the point where it couldn’t have been a coincidence, It felt like fate. When making these songs, I was thinking what burlesque would be nowadays. Essentially, stripping would be the modern day burlesque. So these three songs would be strip club songs of different vibes and almost like the theme songs for these women if they were around today. Black Venus would be the private and intimate section in a strip club where you feel like you found love in the club with one of the dancers and you’re wondering why you two have such good chemistry. A lot of people go off of zodiac signs to decipher why their connection with someone is so strong. So, the first verse is a guessing game of me trying to figure out this girl’s sign while the second verse leans towards me considering the girl is a reincarnated Josephine Baker. The chorus ‘shake something shake something’ was a reference to Josephine’s famous Banana Dance where she’d wear a banana skirt and literally shake her hips dancing around the stage.”
Q4. This is surely a track that makes you groove. What is the element from your track that you think makes it stand out?
“In these types of songs, the bass is usually the core component that makes you groove. But I think the stand out element in this song is the vocal sample in the background. It’s unorthodox in its sound and really provides the ambiance to the track. It comes from an unreleased song my friend made where I really loved the harmonies she did and I wanted to sample them because I love sampling vocals.”
Q5. What is your strongest belief that you would like to share with your listeners and the readers of this blog?
” Remember your emotions; remember your feelings. We might not remember what someone has said to us or what someone has done to us, but we remember how they made us feel. So when we take note of how people, situations, and things make us feel, we start to learn ourselves more and can control our emotions in ways we couldn’t before. “
You can catch a little glimpse of Black Venus by RaSean Parks here-
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Discovered via http://musosoup.com
I live to listen to and create music.
Music has healed each one of us in one or the other way.
