Blaketheman1000
When I ask if he prefers to be referred to as “musician, rapper, artist, entertainer, or performer,” he replies, “all of the above.” He explains that he’s looking to be a sort of “public character,” and that making music is a vehicle for that. Some might see him as a shameless clout chaser, but he sees his self-promotion as “all part of the performance,” and that his ultimate priorities are the technical proficiency of his music, creating “hype,” and planning events that he’s actually excited to invite his friends to.
Last night, Drunken Canal hosted a screening of the music video for his new single “Dean Kissick” at Hair of the Dog, a sports bar in the Lower East Side. He views the song as a commentary on the relationship between the art world and internet rap; for him, Dean represents that intersection. In the video, he hangs out with Dean, drives around in a Tesla, and goes to O’Flaherty’s.
For the premiere, office sat down with Blake to talk about the release, Drake, his lyrics, and making music for the current moment in New York.
What made you want to make a song about Dean Kissick? What would you say this song is about?
I love internet rap. I've always loved SoundCloud and YouTube, and I think internet rap is such a cool style in general. And living in downtown Manhattan, the art world is omnipresent within the culture scene here. So, lately I feel like I've really been on an Internet rap kick, and I think that it's always been interesting the way rap as a whole and fine art interact. Like, there's like all the Jay-Z and Kanye stuff, where they have sculptures and shit. I also think it's funny, if you're on like Twitter, the way people will be like, “Frank Ocean is actually art,” and how people will label things as “actually art.” And then during “Drainchella” - which was when Drain Gang was here, and played two shows, and then had, like, ten afterparties - Dean posted a video of Drain Gang at Joe and the Juice. And at that moment, I was like, “Oh, my God. Dean Kissick is the intersection of Internet rap and fine art.” And then also Dean had posted a photo where he was hanging out with Kanye. So I was like, “it’d be really funny to make an Internet rap song.” Because there's a lot of rap songs that are like, “Tom Ford”, you know what I mean? I was like, “Someone's got to make a song about Dean Kissick.” And then of course, I thought “I should make a song about Dean Kissick.” Also, the way his name sounds is phonetically really satisfying and it's very rhythmic. The song felt like a fun way to fuse two aesthetics, and kind of just play with the space between those two aesthetics, and then also insert my personality in the gap between those two aesthetics, and kind of play with where I fit in. I wrote the song in, like, 20 minutes. It was really quick, and then I recorded it on my laptop, and it comes out on July 27th. It was very fast.
Had you ever met before that? How’d he react?
Before that, we were Instagram mutuals for maybe six months or so. And I actually saw him at one of the Drain Gang shows. But we never talked or hung out. Then I made the song, and just started posting about it, and it happened to be his birthday. It just lined up that way. So, I wrote the song on his birthday unknowingly, and then he was at an event that night and heard it play. I hadn’t send it to him yet, but I’d sent it to Walter Pearce and some other people. And someone was playing it on the speaker at the event, and he was like, “What the fuck?” And then I posted the song and tagged him. He DM’d me and said, “What's the song? I want to hear the lyrics.” And I was like, “Oh, I'll send it to you,” and I sent it to him. And I was like, “We should do a video,” and he was just like, “Yeah, let's do it.” And it came together real quick. We're friends now. He's had to spend a bunch of time with me.
In the song you say that after [one of your other singles] Blake 2 came out “the whole city hopped on your johnson”. Do you actually feel like things have changed since you started?
A lot more people are into it now. Even with this song, you knew about it before it was out, right? ...There are people who are like, “oh, my god, I can't wait for this to come out.” And I also think there's people who are like, “this is so stupid. I hate that this guy's doing this.” But they didn't know who I was before. And I think that having created any sort of culture where people are talking about something I'm going to do before I've done it… that's the magic. That's what's really fun about music too. Even if people don't like it, it's cool that I've created some sort of a conversation.
Why the Tesla, and why O’Flaherty’s?
I asked Dean if he knew of a gallery that would let us shoot in it, and he’s tight with Jamian [Juliano-Villani, co-founder of O’Flaherty’s]. I really wanted it to be a relic of this moment in New York - which was shot by Fiona Kane and directed by Rich Smith. The larger culture of New York more often than not is like a reflection and amplification of the internet at large. And I can see the whole world in some sort of way. “The American Internet.” I don't want it to just be like music for music sake, but rather music that's part of the culture. So, Julian [Ribeiro, who styled the video] is someone whose style I really love, and someone whose kind of to me a refclection of what I think is cool in New York right now. And so is O’Flaherty’s. And the Telsa is kind of a meme in itself. It feels like the car that is reflective of the internet right now. It was just kind of putting things that all felt reflective of a certain subscect of this moment right now - asking where do I exist within it. Every choice in the video was made to excenture the crossover of internet rap, and art world, and New York.
In terms of your music in general, you prefer to consider yourself as “pop,” and “not hyperpop”. What’s the importance of that distinction for you?
In terms of the sound of it, I say it’s pop because I think pop is a genre that is less focused on the way that it sounds and more so the way that the ideas are delivered, and the way the personality interacts with the music. Ultimately, I think my genre is interacting with pop culture as a whole. I like all kinds of music. Sometimes I feel like making different kinds of music. To me, an album that I think is really cool is Beyonce's Lemonade - where almost every song is produced by a different producer. There’s even a rock song from Jack White. There's hip-hop songs, and dance songs. But because her voice is consistent in its lyrical content and vocal production, the whole thing feels like a cohesive album - even though every song sounds different. I've played with a lot of different genres in my music - there is some hyperpop stuff - but ultimately the consistent thing is my personality conveyed through lyrics.
You also talk about Drake a lot.
I think Drake is kind of like the thesis of music of the current moment. It's like streaming music, and that's interesting to me. And I'm not saying this because I'm like, “Oh, I'm trying to make money.” I'm saying this because we listen to music via streaming. To me, streaming represents infinite information, which I think is the definitive quality of this time in history. There is access to infinite information. It wasn't actually infinite ten years ago in the way that it really is now. Drake's music is - within its medium, within sound - the equivalent of a selfie. The way it’s mixed, the way it's produced, and the way it's written. Drake's music puts Drake's face right at the center, in the mixing and in the writing. And the face expresses different parts of his personality. And so, in that way, you can mimic the beat, you could make something that sounds similar, but it still won't be a Drake song because the most important part of a Drake song is Drake. And if Drake's not in it, it’s not a Drake song. They’re the most popular image of this era, because within a feed, it's the only distinguishable thing someone can present. Your face is the only actual thing that can't be replicated by ads, or by other accounts, or whatever. To me, Drake is one of the most popular, and Kanye does it too. Doja Cat does it. The most central thing is the personality. The reason for this is that, in an era of infinite information, the only meaningful idea is the personality. Since recording technology is getting cheaper too, there's more songs that will be made today than any day in human history. If you're just getting some guitars and recording something, it already exists. And so from a capitalist consumer perspective, the only thing that sells is “the selfie,” “the face,” right? But also, from an artistic perspective, I think that the place to be interesting in music is in the face, and in the personality. Because I just think that that's where the meaningful conversation in music is to be had right now. And it's not just hip-hop. The rock example I always give of “selfie music” is Mac DeMarco. And the reason he went to the top of his whole genre, among so many things that sound similar to his music, is that it was all about his personality. And the music was like an extension of the personality, and an expression of the personality. Practically, Drake is also all very musically minimal. And the result is you can hear a Drake song from a mile away - you know what song it is.
How do you feel like the idea of “selfie music” impacts how you make your own work?
Where I come in is I like to work within the parameters set by the creation of the style for the sake of selling music. I feel very inspired to set the Drake parameters as like, “these are the rules for making music,” and then try to be expressive with them. And I'm not the only one doing that, but that's why I am so inspired by Drake. Do you ever go to a show, and you don't know what any of the songs are about? Like, no impression was left on, “what are the ideas of this person?” I have found that the selfie music - the Drake music - is the most effective musical medium to say things to people and to play with ideas. Because the whole point of that music is to communicate personality. So, it's very lyrically focused. Putting down like a kind of minimal, vulnerable beat, you can really say distinct things, and it's as effective as texting it to someone. And that's something I'm really after, is the music is just the background that I'm in front of, and it's just a medium for my voice and personality to exist, so I can change the style whenever I want. I can make a hyperpop song, I can make a rock song, I can make a rap song. But the surroundings are unimportant. I can change that every song, and I'll still be me. People will still connect with my ideas. And that's what I've been doing.
Listening to your songs, the lyrics really stand out to me. Someone recently described them to me as “metaironic.” In “Pixies,” something that stuck out is how you're referencing yourself as “a poser” or “a loser you can trust.” What are your intentions or thoughts on the way you write? How literal do you feel like your lyrics are?
There's kind of like a range. Within lyrics, lyrics are a vehicle. So, the point of the lyrics is to communicate the personality. And the personality is the main expression. The personality - like Drake, or Charlie XCX - is an exaggerated version of me that is things I feel, but also interacts with the larger narrative of the world, and the internet specifically. Right? So, with the lyrics, I have a few kind of modes. I think sometimes I use lyrics to communicate aesthetic ideas. “Pixies” exists in that space. So, sometimes it's like aesthetic to communicate persona. Sometimes it's like storytelling to communicate persona. Like, Blake 2 is like a cheating fantasy to describe this character. I've never cheated on someone. That's one where it's like, you know, I'm telling a story that's a narrative one that is describing a character that is me interacting with the world in kind of an exaggerated way. Whereas “Pixies” and “Dean Kissick” are like aesthetic songs where I'm like just interacting with other icons, and culture, and relating myself to them. And I think with “Pixies” too, that one's really about like style and genre, and wanting to relate kind of the concept of like identity consumption, you know what I mean? Like the idea of you becoming you via the things you consume - the music and the clothes you consume. And kind of the root of that being a feeling of inadequacy, and overcoming the inadequacy by consuming, is kind of the idea. And so, you know, that's why I say, like, “I'm like a loser, I’m a poser.” It's kind of like, I feel inadequate and I can overcome inadequacy by acceptance by way of consumption - was kind of like the main idea that I kind of based that song around. I also like braggy shit, and I consume a lot of braggy shit, so it's fun to be that way too. So, I guess [my lyrics are] maybe less literal. But I sometimes I do write really literally. There's some songs where I say really literal, personal things from my life, and then there's some where I'm just kind of interacting with ideas. Sometimes when people ask what kind of music I'll say, “autofiction.” I think a lot of music is autofiction. But the other thing I say is, “I say two truths in a lie.” I'll say real things, and then I’ll say fake things, and put them next to each other. And then people don't know what's what.
Why do you think the people that love you and your music love it so much?
I think because, within my artistic expression, I holistically and thoroughly touch on the range of interests and emotions that people have on a personal level. My lyrics are funny, like real people, but also earnest and emotional, like real people. And my music is inspired by lots of different genres of music because I listen to all genres of music, just like most people, and I think people are attracted to it because it's postmodern in the way that it doesn't aim to be tightly in any sort of box, but it aims to express the full range of emotions, and interact with the full range of influences that are people in the information age experience. I think that's what people really like. It isn't one genre, and it isn't in one mood, it's true to the way people actually are. And the way I am, and the way you are.
