The Alchemist

Best Hip-Hop Songs of 2021

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A year full of rising rap newcomers and seasoned vets that delivered a solid soundtrack over the last 12 months. Continue reading…

Vince Staples And Alchemist Reunite On The Jazzy ‘6 Five Heartbeats’

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It’s been a while since we heard from The Alchemist or Vince Staples about that project they supposedly worked on recently but as a consolation prize, Vince appears on the second installment of Alc’s EP series, This Thing Of Ours, which dropped today. Vince features on the song “6 Five Heartbeats,” spitting a ferocious verse in that languid delivery of his over a jazzy beat that belies the menace of Staples’ lyrics. “You had a blog, we had Berettas,” Vince sneers on the intro. The combination of the two always makes magic — the EP they’ve completed can’t come soon enough.

Vince revealed that the pair had been working together during an interview in which Vince said he recorded “30 verses on 30 beats,” blaming a delay in its release on the fact that “Alchemist moves at a very cryptic pace — he’s hella slow.” However, Alchemist refuted that account on Twitter, announcing “Vince is full of sh*t. I’ve had a finished 6 song EP with JUST HIM for over 3 months!! MIXED! Plus mad songs with him and Thebe [Earl Sweatshirt].” This got fans more hyped up but since then, the two have kept mostly mum about their plans for all these songs. Whether “6 Five Heartbeats” is one of those coveted verses remains to be seen, but it certainly bodes well for the eventual project.

Listen to “6 Five Heartbeats” above and stream This Thing Of Ours, Vol. 2, out now via EMPIRE.

The Alchemist Says Earl Sweatshirt’s ‘Incredible’ Next Album Is Done And Will Be 21 Minutes Long

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Earl Sweatshirt hasn’t dropped a new album since 2018’s Some Rap Songs but that may soon change according to his frequent collaborator The Alchemist. The producer told Anthony Fantano’s The Needle Drop that an album he and Earl have been working on was recently completed and sounds “incredible.”

“He has an album that is done and it’s incredible,” Alc reveals. “I’m excited about that and I do have some work on that… It’s insane. I think everybody will be happy. He’s in his bag.” When asked whether he had any additional details about the project, he said, “I couldn’t even describe it… that would be a disservice to it.”

Fans have no shortage of collaborative work between the producer and the rapper to judge by. Going back to last year, the duo has worked together extensively on tracks including “Whole World” with Maxo, “Nobles” with Navy Blue, and even an entire secret album hidden on YouTube under a fake name.

Whether or not this new album is the one Vince Staples recently hinted at working on with the duo remains to be seen, although The Alchemist did say, as he does in the interview above, that he’s waiting on Earl.

Watch The Alchemist’s full interview with Anthony Fantano above.

Earl Sweatshirt is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Alchemist Says Vince Staples Is ‘Full Of Sh*t’ And They Have A Whole EP Finished Already

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Veteran rap producer The Alchemist stoked the fires of anticipation in rap fans for his rumored joint project with Vince Staples after he tweeted his refutation of the Long Beach rapper’s claims that he takes “hella long” to complete work. Vince himself sparked the rumors when he appeared on Ebro’s Apple Music Radio show to make the claim that he recorded “30 verses on 30 beats” during a smoked-out session with Alchemist and Earl Sweatshirt. Vince said he got tired of waiting, so he recorded Vince Staples with Kenny Beats in the meantime.

However, Alchemist told fans Vince is “full of sh*t” today on Twitter. “I’ve had a finished 6 song EP with JUST HIM for over 3 months!!” he insisted. “MIXED! Plus mad songs with him and Thebe.” Alchemist has been known to send Rap Twitter into frenzies in the past, such as when he suggested he and Earl hid a joint album on YouTube under a fake name.

Of course, Vince was rumored to be releasing multiple projects this year, so it’s entirely possible that this was always going to be the second project and this back-and-forth is just their elaborate way of promoting it (weirder things have happened). Either way, rap fans who were already champing at the bit to hear more are now absolutely ecstatic to learn that the sessions Vince mentioned had possibly born fruit.

Now that this tidbit has been revealed, I guess we’ll have to see if Earl chimes in to make his own outrageous claim, at which point Rap Twitter might simply implode. If nothing else, this whole episode proves that rap in 2021 has been more fun than ever.

Vince Staples Recorded ’30 Verses On 30 Beats’ For A Joint Project With Alchemist And Earl Sweatshirt

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Today in “news guaranteed to make rap fans salivate,” Vince Staples revealed that he and Earl Sweatshirt recorded a joint project with The Alchemist, leading to the Long Beach native putting “30 verses on 30 beats.” Unfortunately, Vince jokes that “Alchemist moves at a very cryptic pace — he’s hella slow,” leading to him recording his new album Vince Staples with Kenny Beats. He further reveals that there are anywhere from 12 to 22 leftovers from that project after picking the initial eight songs that worked for the self-titled album.

So to recap, there are up to 50 Vince Staples songs out there that haven’t been heard by anyone but him, his producers, and Earl Sweatshirt. Obviously, this news has fans in a tizzy, wondering when — or indeed, if — these songs will ever come out. Since it’s 2021 and social media exists, they will undoubtedly be insufferable about it until they find out.

Meanwhile, Vince’s latest rollout media blitz has unearthed even more notable quotes from the Long Beach native. On Drink Champs, he recounted how he got into music and that Mac Miller never accepted royalties from their Stolen Youth joint tape, as well as explaining why he always avoided drugs and alcohol. He also broke down how the music business monetizes people’s struggles and spit a mind-blowing verse over Dr. Dre’s “Xplosive” beat for LA Leakers.

Curren$y’s Jet Life Brand Is Way More Than He Ever Imagined

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Getty Image/Paul Rosales

Everybody knows how much Currensy loves his cars, weed, and how much he loves to deliver good music to his legion of loyal fans. He’s managed to turn that love into his Jet Life brand, which keeps growing and growing since its birth in 2011.

As one of the more consistent rappers in the game, known for flooding the streets with fly tunes, what he’s built with Jet Life is a reflection of the many labels he’s had the opportunity to be part of with legends right out of his hometown of New Orleans, such as Lil Wayne’s Young Money label and Master P’s No Limit label under his brother C-Murder’s imprint.

From 2006’s “Where da Cash At” to the re-released collaborative mixtape Covert Coup with The Alchemist to 2021’s Welcome To Jet Life Recordings 2, which is a collection of songs by Jet Life Recordings artists which include Fendi P and T.Y., Currensy has proven to be as resilient as he is industrious. Over the phone, he took Uproxx on a cerebral journey of how his mind works and how he’s adapted to the ever-changing technology of the music industry.

What are you up to?

Watching some new cartoon I found on Amazon, but I think it’s just a pilot and I think that it’s called…it’s called The New VIPs and it’s not a full season, it’s just one episode. I think they’re trying to see what people think of it.

What do you think of it?

I think this is good. This sh*t is good. It’s just one episode. When we get done with this interview, I’m going to take the survey and I’m going to let them know that this is a f*cking good show and it should have went into production or whatever you call that. You should watch this when you get done.

What’s your favorite Adult Swim or just any cartoon show?

Home Movies. I don’t know if you remember that because it was four seasons. The voice from Bob’s Burgers and Archer, you know that guy? [Editor’s Note: It’s H. Jon Benjamin] He’s one of the voices on there. It’s a good f*cking show, man.

It’s so well written though. It’s like how The Office still works whenever you put it on.

Well, I guess if I ever need any TV recommendations, I’ll just hit you up.

Yeah, I’m the one.

Let’s talk Covert Coup. How long had you and Alchemist been talking about re-releasing it?

Oh man, you’re going to love this story. We didn’t know that it wasn’t on streaming sites. We didn’t even know. When we went to San Francisco recently for this Nautica and Diamond Supply photo shoot, we were like, “Damn, it’s been 10 years since Covert Coup came out.” And I was like, “Yeah, that’s crazy. We should probably jam it.” Then I was like, “Is it on iTunes?” He’s like, “I don’t know.” I was like, “F*ck, I don’t know either.” So I asked my manager and he checked, and he’s like, “No.” I was like, “Oh, what is it on, Tidal or something?” It wasn’t on anything. We missed 4/20. That would have been ideal because that would have been the exact 10 year anniversary, so we just put it out in May.

People were and still are reacting to it like it’s a new project. That’s a whole different generation of people. Some people outright did not know about it. Some motherf*ckers are jamming it like it just dropped.

A lot of artists are re-releasing projects that were on DatPiff. I look at DatPiff as a historical music archive. There are so many legendary debut mixtapes on DatPiff.

Yup. That was the avenue right there. To me, that was major distribution because it’s like, everybody go right here and anybody can get on it. They didn’t have they picks and choosers. The homies from down the street was like, “Yo, I’m uploading my tape to DatPiff tonight, bro.” It was giving everybody a shot and it still do. That’s why I always put sh*t out so much because it was just cool to go on different sites and sh*t and see and just download stuff.

It’s so dope to see a lot of those tapes on there like Wiz Khalifa and Meek Mill.

That was an opportunity for people. It was just real listeners and people who respected the game, and curators of the whole vibe of what we do. They were shining a light on artists who they felt like deserved one because, at that time, all we had was MTV jams. We wasn’t on that motherf*cker. If the people saying your sh*t is dope, then dope people will give it a chance. If it’s what it’s supposed to be, then they’ll share it with other people. That put a lot of us in position, and it weeded out a lot of the bull. A lot of sucker sh*t couldn’t really advance at that time.

What’s the biggest difference between releasing music back then to today as a label owner of Jet Life Recordings?

I’m more focusing on the rollout of the next few projects that we putting out from Jet Life because I’m putting out a Welcome To Jet Life Recordings Vol. 2 and the first one that I did, a lot of the solo songs was for me and then a few from the artist. This time, everybody is on every song. There’s different artists on every record. I’m on all of them, but people from the label are on all of them too. Now, it’s about a rollout. How you going to promote this music outside of just putting up clips of you rapping?

What I would do before is put out one record from the tape or a snippet on Instagram, 30 seconds, just bars from the record. Maybe seven records I would damn near play the whole record — just putting up clips to get motherf*ckers ready for it and then drop it.

Now, I roll it out more like the way they do movies, where it’s just sh*t around it as opposed to the actual dish. You’re not really giving them that much in the promo, you’re just promoting the idea of what’s going on instead of playing the records and giving away so much of the project before you drop it. The physical aspect of purchasing music being removed. Everybody’s just getting it right from the phone and so you don’t have the thrill of picking up the CD and having to take the shrink wrapping off, so we have to save as much of that as we can for them so that the music is fresh to them once they download the project.

If I put so much of it up the way I used to, when they download it, it’s like, “Oh, I heard this one. I know this one, I know this one.” F*ck that. So now it’s like, Nah, I’m not going to do it that way. I’m going to roll the project out like a movie and let you see the process of us working. Maybe what car I drove to the studio and what we wore, what we was drinking. But, you’re not going to hear this sh*t until the sh*t drop. Until you actually sitting in the theater to watch the movie.

Tell us more about the compilation tape.

Welcome To Jet Life Recordings Vol. 2. features the entire label and some affiliates like Jay Worthy and Scotty ATL. Outside of that, it’s everybody on my label and a lot of rising stars from my city out of New Orleans: A lot of the people who I know are about to pop anyway with or without me. These people are going to blow anyway. I had better had got in front of that sh*t and fcking helped to usher them into the industry if I wanted to stay alive.

I saw also you tried that Jay-Z weed. I don’t really see Jay-Z as a weed smoker, but curious to know how it was from someone like yourself.

Well, they had different strains, but they weren’t labeled how you would think. It wasn’t jars just saying, “Oh, this is OG Kush.” They were all numbered and named little slick sh*t like Heavy. With anything associated with Jay-Z, if it was something that he not really in the know of, he’s going to do the research and then put the best people on the team to make it happen. Clearly, he’s got some good growers because the bottles marked Heavy are f*cking heavy. Those were the ones to smoke when I was at that shoot.

I also saw that you got into NFT. I’m still a little lost on that, what exactly it is.

Well, you know what? It’s because you live in the physical world, as do I. But do you remember when Dwight was playing Second Life on The Office? Okay, now Dwight Schrute was playing Second Life so much so that his character on Second Life had started an account on Second Life himself and it was second Second Life. His video game character was playing a video game of himself in the video game.

There are people who live, heavily immerse themselves, in the cyber world and cyber real estate. All of this is real because they live in a digital space. When they hang out with their friends and people are in these avatars on these computers, they need worlds and sh*t to live in, and in those worlds, you’re going to need dwellings, cars.

I’m involved in some NFT low riders right now and car parks for these f*cking digital cars because people want to upgrade them. People sit in front of they computer and live like that more than they step outside of the house because it’s hot outside, people are shooting. They’ll just rather just sit there and do that. You going to need all that s*it, so you better figure out what you going to sell them. When we get off the line, you better figure it out. You better come up with something. They need some digital mirrors, haircare supplies… They got NFT shoes, all that. NFT weed, lighters… all of that sh*t is already in the market.

I haven’t seen a NFT fish tank yet, so I don’t know. Cook that one up.

I’m thinking about all the games I play. I buy stuff for Call Of Duty all the time.

Dude, you’re fu*king buying NFTs then because where can you use those guns? Can you protect your house with that sh*t that you bought? With your money that you’re working for? Alright, you bought a NFT.

Okay, so what made you decide to hop in on the wave?

Because that digital money transfer to real money. It’s the same reason I’m telling you if those people believe you sold them a fish tank, you need to make them a fish tank and sell them the fish and sh*t.

Welcome To Jet Life Recordings 2 is out now. Check it out above.