You ever wake up singing random songs? Does that make it a classic? This morning I was like “brand new diamond watch, brand new diamond chain.” “Just checked my bank, another comma in my count” and the song is called Money Affirmations, at that. And last night I was pissing off my neighbors going “I wasjustflexingmychain”. It’s like when we do this, it’s a confirmation, to maybe the creators, that they did, in fact, very much so, made a HIT. Surely doing something right, yeah? You’ve become a fan, bro, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Thing is, your subconscious will remind you, constantly. Even years later. But then you search the song and you turn it on, whatever you just blurted out, and you bump in pure bliss.
isocannabis is from North Little Rock. iso.world (Good Ending) is named after a game ending, he confirmed it, and the game he named is Puppet Combo: new horror games built on purpose to look like PS1 discs from 1998. He’s been doing that with song titles since last December, when iso.land.exe named its tracks run.exe and fuck.exe. This tape does it with sound. The first half isn’t nostalgic for 2016 cloud rap, it’s built to be 2016 cloud rap by someone who chose that. And in a horror game a good ending doesn’t mean it went well. It means you walked out. The bad one is finished. It comes in October.
[track by track]
01
iso.world
iso.world opens animated, a kid’s voice babbling before the beat settles. He spends the first stretch riding one vowel and it sits repetitive just long enough that you think you’ve got the song figured. Then he goes in, and it’s typical iso, the joyful thing turning and taking the sound somewhere darker with it. The back end stacks hummer, bummer, obama, thunder, summer, five deep off one sound. If you’re sitting down with this tape, don’t skip the intro, it settles you in for the ride and opens the door to iso.world.
02
erron black
Erron black starts off sped off, then 30 seconds in iso is home. Finally we hear him clear, 808s banging, in his most real rockstar version.
03
unanimous
Unanimous serves as ode to the year 2016. A time when SoundCloud, cloud rap, gang violence, Stephen curry, and the hoes were all in unison - hot. It’s as if it was all in one and we were all in tune. Iso delivery on this is effortless.
04
chicago 333
Chicago 333 where the tape becomes introspective and we get a peek inside the possibilities of what isocannabis is and can be. Aside from the clever wordplay and rhyme schemes, it’s important to highlight how he implemented his own interpolation of Snootie Wild’s “Yayo.”
05
money affirmations
Money Affirmations - this is ISO’s grimiest most true self side, boots on the ground, gritty. I think Chief Keef influenced this one. But it’s not brainless flexing, there’s thought behind every bar. Down to the title of the track. Almost respect for calling it what it is.
06
2-way vampire hash-slinging slasher
This is probably my favorite song right now. This is the one I mentioned in the intro and crazy enough it’s not even the intro of the project. It’s track 6.
Energetic, versatile, fun. Before this, everything seems calculated. Here is where he lets out. In fact he says “Yao Ming” like 20 times straight. It’s charismatic, and it shows you who the artist is without selling you a sound you’re already familiar with or a feature from whoever.
07
a sinner’s first pregnancy scare
A sinners first pregnancy scare - here iso brings the story telling skill and harmonizes and songs a beautiful soulful track that shows the human in him. The lyrics will make you feel for dread, pain, and love at the very least. Love for the music.
08
you do you, i’ll do me always
You do you I’ll do me always a reminder, in his beautiful atmospheric Oasis, here we have an artist that truly paints you a scene that only becomes more visible with a purple frosty or Galaxy gas or maybe a good ear and taste for lyrical and musical mixtures where the voice becomes an instrument and shit takes on another level.
”I love using my voice as an instrument. It unlocks so much musically.”
09
codeine dreaming
Codeine dreaming + it is what it is, the lyrics are there. This shit hits harder with my brother locked up now. I miss my brother.
10
f.w.b never ends well
F.w.b never ends well - the good ending tape ends with a relationship that coulda been but wasn’t. Maybe it’s better like this. Just makes you wonder what the October bad ending tape is gonna be like.
[the other ending]
We went back to him before this ran, only meaning to check a couple of small things. He ended up explaining the whole approach instead.
The rough edges are the point. He’s been listening to people who mix their own records and don’t sand them down, Black Kray and Sematary and Chief Keef, that whole do-it-yourself cadence, and he isn’t apologizing for where it landed him.
He mixes for the car. Loud, bassy, volume on 30, full blast. That’s the reference.
”It’s really just expression of myself and how I listen to music and how I like it.”
He also knows the distance he’s covered. He’s put extra time in on the mixing and on his own production, and he says it plainly: “I feel like I always get better in my craft and I learn new things along the way, and I don’t ever let my ego get in the way of that.” It’s an art form. The voice layering, using the voice as an instrument, all of it feeding one sound. That’s what zones you in.
The bad ending is finished. “This Halloween tape gon be a classic ngl & more than half of it is self produced.”
This one doesn’t close. It saves. October’s the other file.
And if you’re recording in your room, and somebody has told you the mix is wrong:
“To some people it’s like all this mixing is trash or whatever. But mixing to me is always going to be an artist’s personal choice. It doesn’t have to be a standard.”
ISOCANNABIS
Cover by @walkerator. Production across iso.world (Good Ending) from ISOCANNABIS, twinopium, Sora, Astori, omgkaz777, why5 and texnickk.
TYIC, Underising
