In today’s age, technology has flooded our lives with content. Caught in the mire are modern musicians who champion an art form that’s more widely distributed than any other throughout human history. And we, more often than not, overlook the music created by unfamiliar faces because it’s challenging. We’d rather have an easy listen, a known quantity to skim through while we think about something else.
Hearing is easy, but listening is difficult. Welcome to “Why We Like It”, where we rebuke the trends in favor of thoughtful analysis and underknown sounds.
“Everybody’s Favorite” — Tracy Lamont
Listen On:
How We Found It
Tracy Lamont came to our SubmitHub inbox out of Virginia. Even calling him an emcee would undersell just how versatile and involved he is with creating music. Singing, rapping, producing, mixing and mastering, graphic design — with access to limited resources, wherever funds were lacking, Lamont opted to learn the skill himself. The modern one-man-band is master of more than the music. “Everybody’s Favorite” off his new tape, Does Anybody Make Mixtapes?, is even more impressive knowing the comprehensiveness of Lamont’s efforts.
Why We Like It
Art is hard work. Hard work is easy stress. It’s easy to forget that when the products of the work often help us to relieve our own stress. Thus art becomes the contradiction of making work fun. Knowing how many small details Tracy Lamont does himself to make his art happen, makes the joy of “Everybody’s Favorite” shine even beyond the bright expression of the song. Lamont’s brief introduction to the track reads: “I’m bringing a balance back to doing what you love because you love it.”
The beat has two main components. A tight snare rolls across a steady bass while an oscillating pattern of colorful high tones that accent Lamont’s dynamic flow. He finds the pocket in the drums, but the energy rides in the bells and whistles. He raps about making music for the joy of the art form. The sentiment is strengthened by knowing that just making the music is only one piece of the process that Lamont has nailed down by himself. There’s a sense of purity in the construction knowing the architect placed every brick to see his vision to fruition.
Lyrically, Lamont doesn’t brush off the pressure. His honesty permeates the track, with couplets like, “Yeah I’ve sold myself short / But I’ve never been bought.” Believing in your value among the pressure of doubt and the desire for results is summoning strength even where you think none is to be found. “All occupations creative or otherwise we are more than likely putting one foot in front of another with faith,” Lamont told me over an email exchange. “I do my best to remove the pressure of expectations from my work and just create.”
From Tracy Lamont
Lack of resources made me resourceful. I knew that ripping beats off YouTube wasn’t going to give me the sound I wanted or allow me to manipulate and mix the music the way that I wanted so I started making beats. I knew I needed cover art so I learned photoshop. Audio engineering can get really expensive so I taught myself the basics of engineering to clean my music up. It’s been like that most of my career. See a problem and learn the solution.” – Tracy Lamont for CentralSauce
More From Tracy Lamont
Check out the rest of Tracy Lamont’s two-track EP, Does Anybody Make Mixtapes? on Spotify, and follow him on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with new releases.
More to Discover
Subscribe to the CentralSauce mailing list so you never miss out on the freshest sauce. Check out this continuously updated playlist of songs Brandon has added to our Discovery section! Each track or artist has been featured in our “Why We Like It” section, so be sure to check out the page here on the site.
'