Within the past decade or so, the infusion of melody into the craft of MCing has gone from a specialty to a veritable prerequisite. Artists explore the line between rapping and singing more than ever, representing a gradually forming fusion of multiple genres. LA-based musician and multimedia artist Rhys Langston has seen the transition first hand, and analyzes it on “Mixed Media,” the first single from his forthcoming Full Frontal Incumbent, An Incongruous Mixtape.
He’s exploring his vocals as an instrument throughout the track, augmenting the cold, methodical keys, with rhymes about his journey in terse, spoken-wordesque pockets. Langston describes “Mixed Media” as a “mood piece” and an an audial self-portrait—a consequence of his desire to have his cross-discipline creations “in conversation with each other.” Indeed, lyrics like, “I’ve never felt this, stronger than when I’m inside, my own” belie an internal inventory resolved by contentment.
Of the track, Langson says:
Overall, it was one of the more surreal moments making music, in the sense that it felt as easy as breathing, writing and putting it together. I’m used to relying on my ear for lyrical puzzles and digging deeper than my first thought or line, so it was a tremendous release of energy in that it happened so fast.
Full Frontal Incumbent, An Incongruous Mixtape will be out on November 4th on his very own Black Market Poetry label. You can listen to “Mixed Media” below.
