On his first album, right before he starts his first verse on his first proper song (although I am still mad he doesn’t actually rap on The Genesis because that beat is so good, but I digress), Nas says “I don’t know how to start this shit, yo”
He, of course, was lying.
Nas says this lie at the beginning of N.Y. State of Mind, and what follows is over 4 minutes of some of the most vivid storytelling and iconic bars ever recorded. He obviously knew how to start.
Sitting at my computer right now, I very much do not know how to start this. For no reason in particular, I felt nervous about starting a newsletter, as if it were some big and risky venture. Probably just uncertainty about what I would say, and who would be interested.
But as I’ve become increasingly more disenchanted with relying upon the whims of the omnipotent algorithm to spread the word about anything I’m doing, I figured this is at least one way to take matters into my own hands. Which is why I’m grateful that you would be here as we cut out the algorithmic middle-man and connect at least a little more directly.
There are, as I write this, 50 subscribers to this newsletter. That small number means more than the apparent 3000 people that follow me on Instagram (who knows how many of those are real people, not to mention how many of them Instagram will choose to grace with any given post.) The idea of giving you guys news and updates directly is so exciting to me; so again, thank you<3
So my plan is to give updates every month or so. Maybe more frequently if there was a reason to? but things often move pretty slowly.
So far this year, Asher Roth and I put out our WISGO? follow up, Temporary Heaven - an album that was a delight to make. Hopefully it’s as fun for people to listen to as it was for us to make it.
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But for anyone that’s a fan of some real rappity raps, this upcoming project is for you. It’s an album with my favorite rapper. We started in 2019. There were times when I thought it would never get finished. But as of last week we turned it in and have it scheduled for release in September, with our first single dropping in August.
If things had gone how I wanted them to back in 2019, then we would have put out the project 4 years ago. But I’ve come to appreciate a plan and timing that is greater than my own. In my experience: when things don’t go according to plan, you’re often getting set up for a nice alley-oop that you may not have been expecting. In this instance, we get the opportunity to release this upcoming album on the producer L’Orange’s record label Old Soul Music, an opportunity that wouldn’t have been available to us had we followed through with our original plan.
Anyway, it’s getting late. Good thing I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death. That was forced, but I had to do it. Sorry. Thank you for being interested at all in what I do, it means the world to me. Lots of fun things ahead in the coming months, with new music in as soon as three weeks.
Talk soon,
HG
Ayeee first newsletter!
The kid can write!