CURREN$Y-PILOT TALK 2

@CurrenSy_Spitta - The making of Pilot Talk 2

On “The Day,” a track off this year’s Pilot Talk, Curren$y boasts, “There is not a adjective to describe how I work/Hard is not enough, brother, I’m tougher.” That line crosses our minds when we bump Curren$y’s Pilot Talk II, which drops today, because it reminds us that at least some rappers live up to their word. PTII is Spitta’s second album this year, and he’s got another two albums already lined up. Although he’s made sacrifices to make this record happen—forgoing sample-based production due to the independent nature of his label, DD172—the album finds Spitta in the midst of yet another burst of creativity. To document it all, we cut through a thick cloud of weed smoke and got down with Curren$y, Ski Beatz, and most of the artists involved in the project to create The Making of Curren$y’s Pilot Talk II, a track-by-track breakdown of his album...

Airborne Aquarium

Produced by: Ski Beatz & The Senseis

Curren$y: “Ski did a crazy beat and I fuckin’ rapped about a bunch of shit. At the end I named it that. I mean, the song isn’t about a flying aquarium, you know?”

Ski Beatz: “It was me, Curren$y, and Little Stevie—Steven Baker, that’s Dame’s nephew. I was going through samples trying to find something ill. And Little Stevie heard this sound and was like, ’Yo, that’s dope!’ And Curren$y was like, ’Yeah, that sounds like some Sea World shit. Like some dolphin music.’ So we chopped it up and the [my house band] The Senseis came in and played on top of it. Curren$y dropped those lyrics in and it was a match made in heaven.

“Sometimes I’m searching for tracks, and he might hear something, and he’ll say, ’I like that sound.’ Then I’ll try to make a beat out of it. But most of the time, I’ll just make a beat that I think that he’ll rhyme on and say, ’Yo, I got a track. Check it out.’ And he’ll come down and listen to it and say, ’Okay, that’s dope.’ Then he’ll start writing. But I have no idea how he titles his songs.”

Michael Knight

Produced by: Ski Beatz & The Senseis

Curren$y: “David Hasselhoff portrayed one of the coolest people I’ve ever seen. He had a talking Trans Am, wore a leather jacket in the dessert, and he wasn’t fuckin’ hot—thus he was cool. He had massive hair, which is why I’m not cutting my hair. He got the chick every time. You know the show is only thirty minutes, so within that time he saved the world and had sex with some chick he didn’t know from the previous episode, so he is baggin’ a new bitch every fuckin’ time. So fuckin’ Michael Knight. How can you argue with that?”

Ski Beatz: “I’m actually a co-producer on that. Well, me and John Cave of The Senseis. He just started playing this guitar lick, put it down, and we tracked it out in the computer. I basically treated it like a record, and just took it and chopped it up, added drums, and gave it a hip-hop feel. It’s dark, but at the same time there’s something about it that attracts you to it. It’s hypnotic. Definitely a taboo beat.

“I always make the beats for him. I know exactly what I think he sounds good on, and nine times out of ten he feels the same way. I don’t just make beats. I don’t have a list of beats that I play people. I make a beat for you.”

See the rest at Complex Magazine