Local rapper Tyrie just dropped his new sophomore album, Season II, which delivers a streamlined listening experience you can roll right through. “I wanted it to have some dark characteristics to it, but also have it be more industrial,” he said.
The new album fuses experimental rap with an industrial atmosphere and hard-hitting Southern trap bass to play with the listener’s mood, switching up the standard set tempo with pitch shifts and drum-pattern changes.
With collaborative accents on the song “Volume,” from local singer Jordan and Sounds of Blackfox guitarist JC Player, plus spoken word on “Edge of Reality,” from local videographer Nick Howle, Tyrie essentially produced and engineered the album out of his closet — “pandemic music, man,” he said.
Dropped this month, Season II is Tyrie’s answer to the question, “How do I grow into the next level of my artistry?” The first track, “Lost Boys Cult,” is his exploration of how to gain creative respect in the industry by aiming to be better. It’s his narrative of the duality between the lifestyle he wants and the lifestyle he has. “Every project has been about this TV show, but this TV show is my life,” he explained. “There’s a character wandering around. In this album I am talking about how this character is changing, his sound is changing. He’s coming up with a formula of who he wants to be.”
The nonchalant mumble rap on the song, “Edge of Reality,” leans into Tyrie’s darker side. “It’s just the perfect villain song to me,” he said. But, it also offers political commentary through the spoken word Howle contributed, which Tyrie thinks is necessary after resurfacing on the other side of “one of the hardest presidencies most Americans have been through in the past 100-or-so years.”
With phrases like “to be real you gotta do it plastic” and “life ain’t too fair like losing your healthcare,” the song, “Day ONE’s,” is Tyrie’s boom-bap explanation of what it takes to push forward these days, with verses overlaid by a cycling synth melody and old school drum beats.
In addition to contributing by way of hip-hop music, Tyrie feels a responsibility to support social good with other methods. Through his brand, Collective Sounds, he intends to create a landing place for local artists with a website called Ashe Street Convenience Store, inspired by the business and surrounding neighborhood downtown to grow the local hip-hop scene.
“There needs to be a hub for it,” he said. I’m willing to do it and set up that box for people because I believe in it. I want us to break into the mainstream together.”
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