WEEKEND MUSIC PT. 84 – ROCHELLE JORDAN
Rochelle Jordan: In this interview, the British-Canadian artist talks about 15 years of…
WEEKEND MUSIC PT. 85 – DENZEL CURRY
DENZEL CURRY drops new Album with Hip-Hop-Supergroup “THE SCYTHE”
US rapper Denzel Curry is known for his experimental nature. Whether it’s rap songs or metal collaborations, for him, only artistic excellence counts. Most recently, he toured as the support act for the metal band Deftones.
As an uncompromising perfectionist, the Florida native works on his tracks until they are flawless in his eyes. With today’s album release of ‘Strictly 4 the Scythe’ and the single ‘Mutt That Bih,’ he is turning a new page. Together with Bktherula, TiaCorine, A$AP Ferg, and Key Nyata, he forms the hip-hop supergroup THE SCYTHE. The project is a tribute to the core of hip-hop, blending classic, raw Southern sounds with the combined creative power of each individual member. It’s an album for the ‘day ones,’ born from patience and passion.
He talks about the challenges of making an album with such a large collective, why he tends to only remember his bad shows, and jokes about his inability to ever truly relax.
SOPHIA NOWAK: Hi Denzel, thanks for taking the time before your concert. Tonight, you’re the supporting act for a metal band, and your own new music also leans into that sound sometimes. What drew you to that genre, and how does the experience differ from making rap?
DENZEL CURRY: When it comes down to my influence, how I got into it, it was mainly because of Toonami and Dragon Ball Z and stuff like that. There’s this band called Pantera and me and my brother was into metal when we got tired of listening to rap a lot. Yeah, we got into it through, you know, just Dragon Ball Z and finding those songs and stuff like Korn and Rage Against the Machine. But mainly, Pantera was like my favorite band, and that’s how I got into it for real.
SN: And is there a difference between making rap music and metal?
DC: Not really. Bro, like, they’re doing the same shit we’re doing. It’s just over a different kind of instrumental.
SN: I thought it would be way different, feeling-wise, or in what influences it.
DC: I mean, yeah, but you know, they could interchange. You could put someone who’s a metal vocalist on a rap record, and then you could put a rapper on a rock record, you know what I’m saying? But it depends on who you get. For example, DMX. DMX had Marilyn Manson on his record, which was ‘The Omen (Damien II)’. And then vice versa, you got people like Eminem shouting out Marilyn Manson also. And then you got people like Korn, and Korn did crossovers with Ice Cube. We had Linkin Park who did crossovers with Jay-Z, on the Collision Course album, where they put Linkin Park instrumentals over Jay-Z tracks and Jay-Z instrumentals over Linkin Park tracks. So they’re pretty much in the same vein, in the same pocket.
SN: You’re bringing out a new album called “Strictly for the Scythe”.
DC: Exactly. Yeah, Strictly For My R.V.D.X.R.Z., we got a new album coming out. It’s a collaboration project and it’s with this supergroup, which is formed as The Scythe. It consists of myself, BKtherula, TiaCorine, Ferg, Key Nyata, and Working on Dying members, such as BNYX, Oogie Mane, Lukative, Swaggy Uno, et cetera. And also my boy Ilovetramane, who’s part of Ultra Glound Records.
SN: That’s a lot of people. I could imagine it’s much harder making an Album with so many people involved.
DC: Yeah, yeah. Because you got to catch these motherfuckers, man. But when you got them, you got it. And because they all have their respective solo careers, it’s kind of hard to narrow it down and get everybody on the same page. But once you get them all on the same page, it’s magic.
SN: Does it happen that you’re all in the same studio at the same time?
DC: Nah, nah, nah. Certain members will all be in a studio at the same time and other members will be in different studios, or different places of the world. It could be me, James, which is Oogie Mane, and Austin, which is Ilovetramane, will be at a studio and we might have Ferg in there, cutting records with me, or Key Nyata. And then if we’re on the West Coast, we got to wait for people to come over because they always got to come to LA to do some kind of work. Then they’ll end up chilling at my house for some reason, and then we’ll end up going to the studio, or they’ll end up being at a studio and I go to them, or they end up coming to the show, or I’ll go to their show and they’ll come to my house. But the majority of the time I’m with the producers and we’re coming up with ideas. And then we’ll send them, and when we got them in proximity, that’s when we start making the shit for real, for real. Everybody processes differently, but all of us at the same time, the exact same time? We didn’t start seeing that until we started making the music videos and doing the press runs, and all of us were actually together and shit. Yeah, funny as hell.
SN: You’re really good at freestyling, you’re top tier.
DC: You’re not gonna make me rap in front of you, are you?
SN: No, no worries. I was going to ask, if you were to have a freestyle battle, who would be hard for you? Like, who would you be like, ‘Oh shit, that’s going to be hard’?
DC: Nyck Caution. Because he likes to battle. With any MC really, you gotta bring your A-game. As you can see what happened with Drake and Kendrick and everything. You gotta bring your A-game with anybody, because anybody could take you out.
SN: You’re performing here in Berlin tonight. Do you ever get to spend some time in the cities where you’re performing?
DC: Not really. But I explored Berlin before, but that was years ago. Nowadays, it’s more you get out there, you go in the city, you do your thing, and if you have time, you can go explore and do some stuff. Other than that, we’re just on the Bus a lot.
SN: Is there a show that sticks out in your memory as being absolutely fire?
DC: Man, the crazy thing is, I don’t remember my good shows. I remember the bad ones.
SN: Why?
DC: Because it sucked.
SN: When is a show bad for you?
DC: Oh man, I remember the sound cut out at Revolution Live and I didn’t know what to do. So I was on stage awkwardly trying to figure it out, and then the music cut back on at an awkward time. And then I was performing at Timberland and, it just wasn’t a good night. And then there’s a festival that I’ve done called Something in the Water. Totally hated that show. Show sucked. Sucked balls.
SN: Well, you’re about to perform I know I’ll go crazy.
DC: Oh, this is going to be a good show, for sure. This whole tour has been amazing. Everybody from Drug Church to the Deftones guys, everybody’s being super chill, super nice. And it’s kind of tight-knit. Everybody’s on a roll, we all want the same thing, we’re all laughing all the time. And it’s only a three-week tour. We got a good slot and it’s pretty easy for us. Compared to our own headline live shows, whenever we’re in support of somebody, it’s less work in a shorter amount of time, but we manage to get it done and get it down effectively.
SN: Happy to hear you’re having a good tour! You know your response at the beginning, that there’s no difference between making metal and rap music, surprised me a lot. I would have thought that there was. Do you have different inspirations when making different genres, or does it just depend on your mood?
DC: Well, back in the day, it was more mood. Now, it’s mood and calculation. So, if I feel a certain mood and I want the vibe of an album to be a certain way, I go and study the albums that sound that way in my mind. I study them to a T—to the tiniest detail. Even as far as: ‘Who can I get from these past albums to incorporate into the stuff that I’m doing?’
I want to make it the best way possible, studying everything to make the record as authentic as possible.
SN: When you’re writing a track, do you hear the different rhythm patterns in your head before the lyrics? Like, before the words even exist, or do the lyrics themselves dictate the flow?
DC: More so nowadays, I usually just go with the same flow over and over. And then, the more you start scatting and babbling and stuff, you start figuring out different ways to say things and just trying to piece lyrics together.
It’s the hardest part, because you want to say something clever, but you don’t want to be just ‘overly punchline’—you’ve got to say something real.
Nowadays, I’ll come up with one thing, hate it, come up with another thing on that same beat, hate it. Go again, write something new… may like it in the moment, hate it the next day. I just keep going through renditions until I land on the absolute best one.
SN: So, you’re very determined when you make music.
DC: Mm-hmm. It was less of that on KOTMS, but for the majority of my work, when I’m really thinking about it, I go in-depth. I write and write and write until I figure it out.
SN: That’s probably why it’s so good. Being an artist, do you feel pressure that the next thing you do has to be a success? And if so, how do you handle that?
DC: I don’t know to be honest.
SN: Well, what do you do to relax and calm down?
DC: That’s the thing, I don’t really calm down at all. Anybody who knows me knows I don’t calm down, at all. And when I actually do calm down… it’s a problem.
SN: Why is that a problem?
DC: Because people think something’s wrong with me when I’m actually calm. They know me for being at a hundred all the time. And the moment I’m not, and I’m just like, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna chill. I’m just not gonna talk to nobody’, they’re like, ‘Hey bro, you alright?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m just… just chilling’. But I find comfort in drawing a lot.
SN: Really? What do you draw?
DC: I’ve got an iPad that I do it on, but it really depends on the medium. It could be the iPad, it could be construction paper, it could even be on fax paper. But my favorite is the composition book, because it takes me out of that headspace where I feel like I have to overthink what I’m drawing, it’s just a doodle.
SN: Would love to see your doodles. But I’ll let you get ready for your show now. See you on stage.
DC: See you.
