As I pull out the key to my dorm room, I hover in front of the entrance for a moment. From the other side, loud music, boosted bass, and laughter- undeniable sounds of niggatry- permeate from under the crack of the door.
As I open the door, the volume of the music decreases as Zenas Jones, and up-and-coming music producer out of Broward, turns to check the entrance, as if there isn’t a narrow list of people who would even be able to get in. He’s wearing a durag; I guess wearing those as an accessory is coming back in style now. As he smiles, I can tell something slick is about to come out of his mouth.
“Boy, it’s a good thing I wasn’t getting jumped,” he says referring to both my habit of not picking up the phone and my lack of punctuality. As I look around the room, Cartier Caetano, another Broward artist on the come-up, smiles from the makeshift studio in the dorm room, along with the Gutta Twins, two local legends, from the desk.
“Shoot, I didn’t know y’all were coming, too,” I tell the Gutta Twins, grinning as I dap everybody up. As Caetano moves back toward the microphone, I ask the Twins if they’re recording as well, to which they reply that they’re only there to chill. They like to record in the morning, before the motions of everyday life distract their process, and it was a little too late in the day for their usual grind.
“That three o’clock in the morning studio sesh sh*t is romanticized,” Twin #1 tells me. There are some twins that are easily distinguishable, who have different personalities and dress differently, and then there are the Gutta Twins. Since I’m usually not around in a timely enough fashion to determine who’s who early on, they’re assigned numbers in my head based upon proximity.
“Like, I’m a family man, dawg,” chimes in Twin #2, “I’m not tryna be drained throughout the day, ‘cause after I handle business, I’m tryna kick it. But it’s like y’all said, that grinding life is romanticized. N*ggas like that sh*t. A lot of times, it seems counterproductive, though.”
“You know what else is romanticized?” I ask, since we’re on the subject, “Trapping.” As everybody nods in agreement, Caetano Chimes in, asking if everybody’s seen the episode of Atlanta where Paper Boi “and them” go to the trap with the Migos. I thought this was ironic, because Caetano bears a slight resemblance to Paper Boi, and as I say something, he laughingly fires back at me in respect to the irony, being that white people always comment that I look like Childish Gambino (at least, before I cut my hair). I don’t see the resemblance, but as we start to roast each other, Zenas brings everything back to center.
Zenas is about getting work done. Having been in music production since early high school, he has in the past few years produced for people such as Joe Millie, the aforementioned Gutta Twins, and more, as well as having several of his own projects on Soundcloud. Mostly making money from beat sales, he prefers laid back, low stress studio sessions, where everybody can take their time. However, being that it’s turned into a partial roasting session between Caetano and I, Zenas brings everything back to focus. Caetano is here today to record a new single, either to precede or follow up with his upcoming project, titled Life at the Pump, which is completed and due to drop soon.
As the room gets quiet, Caetano begins to record vocals for his signature style, which includes rap-singing, layers of back-up vocals, and dance-inspiring beats. Down the hall, I can hear the voices of the girls I was previously hanging out with, who are oblivious to what’s going on, and before they can knock on the door and mess up the take, I crack it open silently, putting my finger to my lips, and whispering to them to step in quietly.
Between takes, everybody gets acquainted.
Within our collective conversations between takes, as well as our segregated, whispered conversations during recording periods, many subjects were covered, and many of the world’s problems were solved. Some of the highlights include:
“Oh, so you guys are like the Migos…” (to the Gutta Twins, to which they look at each other and smile.)
“Dude, which one of y’all was it that said that Quavo was like the Beyonce of the Migos?”
“I find it funny how these Second Amendment guys think. ‘Cause when black people own guns, they automatically assume we’re criminals. Like, the irony…”
“Anybody else notice that Slim Jxmmi actually has bars, though? Like, potentially, anyway.”
That last comment created a transition to a new conversation in which it was explained to me by one of the twins that while the other half of Rae Sremmurd does have more bars, the poppy music style that the group currently uses is probably more lucrative. To this, Zenas and Caetano chime in that many times, one is either a pop star or broke, even if one is a more substantial lyricist.
At that, I looked around the room and laughed to myself. I guess it’s a good thing we’re still students, then.
