Put Me On: May 2021
From Musiq Soulchild to girl in red to Lil Yachty, let me put you on.
This month’s playlist was so, so incredibly hard to narrow down. Halfway through the month, I had 61 songs in the playlist, and by the time you listen to it I’ll have whittled it down to 30. Whew. And if there’s one commonality across this month’s playlist, it’s that there’s a lot of new sounds to take in. Sure, every month has new songs but this month I invite you to focus on the myriad of sonic elements on each track; each one caught my ear because they use or reuse sounds in a way that I’ve never heard before, and that’s really the beauty of it all. Check out the full playlist on Spotify or Apple Music and be sure to follow me on Instagram or Twitter to keep up with what else I’ve got going on. Now, let’s get into it.
“Take Me To The Mardi Gras,” Bob James
At this point, a large part of me prefers listening to instrumentals - no words, just vibes. But this - Bob James’ 1974 classic with all its bells and whistles - is a classic. I’ve known this song for a while, and actually, most of us do, because it’s one of the most sampled songs of all time. I remembered it again while listening to Run-DMC’s Peter Piper earlier in the month, but of course it’s probably most recognizable on Ghostface’s “Flowers.” My personal favorite part comes around the 2:00 mark, when there’s a break into a freestyle where the bells in the background and the keyboard start doing their thing and they’re just going. It’s a bouncy, inviting track that feels like elevator music that you could actually bop to for the entire five minutes and not even realize no one’s said a word.
I had the pleasure of interviewing the California collective earlier in the month for Rolling Stone on Twitch and in the process absolutely fell in love with this track. Sitting at exactly two minutes, it’s essentially the perfect song - it starts out with some light ukelele to ease you in, with just enough twang to keep the mood airy, and then breaks into a rap verse at just the right moment before swinging back into the chorus. Even if you’ve never heard “Fumari,” if you’re on TikTok you’ve most likely heard their 2019 hit “Mariposa,” which follows a similar recipe for success only with less ukelele. But “Fumari” captures a kind of nostalgic feeling that just makes me so happy whenever I hear it.
Let me just say that Musiq Souldchild is an essential component to my First Thing In The Morning playlist and he’s essential for a reason - that man makes you feel things. We all know this, of course, but what I love about his catalogue is that you can put it on shuffle and every time find a different track that just hits you in the chest. This month, it was “Halfcrazy,” mostly because of the chorus that had me breathlessly singing along every time without fail.
girl in red is another artist who I had the pleasure of interviewing this month for Rolling Stone, and was easily one of my favorites, both in terms of her vibe as a person and her approach to songwriting. Her fans love her for how real she is in her songs - and the rawness is reflected both in her lyrics and in the sound. You can hear and feel the frustration she seeks to convey in the instruments, her voice, and all the effects she uses to change her perspective just on this song alone. And it’s for that reason that “Serotonin” became one of my favorites this month. You experience the range of emotions that she’s singing about while listening to the song, and it’s a rare, intimate experience to have an artist not just tell you how they’re feeling on a track but also bring you along for the ride.
What really grabbed me about this song the first time I heard it on TikTok (yeah, that’s right you got me!) was Cico’s voice. His voice is just as much of an instrument as any other element in the song, and the beat isn’t actually that complex in and of itself. But it’s because the beat isn’t complicated that you get to focus on his voice, and it’s got that raspy twang mixed with a subtle smoothness that makes you wonder where he’s gonna go next with it. Listening to this song feels like riding along up and down a hill that dips each time his voice drops into a slightly lower register, and goes back uphill whenever he comes out of it. The layered vocals towards the end give it an almost eerie feeling, and at the end of the three minutes you might wonder what you just heard, but you’ll also probably play it again to hear it again.
“G.I. Joe,” Lil Yachty & Louie Ray
Late last month, Lil Yachty released the collaborative tape, Michigan Boy Boat featuring rappers from across Michigan, specifically Detroit, a region that’s having a huge moment right now in hip-hop. In order to appreciate just how good this project is, you have to understand just how colorful and eclectic the style of rap coming out of Detroit can be - and this tape is a perfect start to that. Even though Tee Grizzley had a hold on all of us back in 2017 (I still know all the words to “First Day Out”), I really started diving into more of the Detroit style over the last few years through mixes like this one on SoundCloud and through that started getting into artists like Icewear Vezzo and Babyface Ray. So when Yachty dropped this tape, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that there are so many good tracks on this. What got me even more than the witty raps and ever-changing flows were the beats. And while there were plenty of songs on this tape that I’ve been obsessed with (“Stunt Double,” “Don’t Even Bother,” “Never Did Coke”), the “G.I. Joe” beat, produced by Buddah Bless, made me wish they’d release a straight instrumental version of this entire project.
BONUS: “Castaways,” The Backyardigans
Listen…I had to write about this song to give context for the people who look at this playlist but haven’t kept up with what’s been trending online, and will undoubtedly wonder Why in the world is there a Backyardigans song on Tia’s playlist? Well that’s because The Backyardigans sing their little hearts out on that show and some absolute slappers have come out of it. And it’s also because this song has absolutely taken over the internet in the last month and honestly when this ends up on my Spotify Top Songs at the end of the year I won’t even be mad.
That’s all for this month’s issue of Put Me On! As usual, you can check out the full playlist on Spotify or Apple Music. Enjoy!
This newsletter is completely free to read, but each month I highlight a different community organization, charity, or foundation for you to consider donating to if you can. This month, in light of recent news and current events, I invite you to check out the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund - an organization bringing free medical care to injured and sick children in Palestine.
See you next month!
Tia