Denzel Curry just dropped his best album to date. He confirmed as much when asked in our brand new interview. The Florida-bred rapper stopped by the office during an NYC press run for the cleverly delivered three-part album, TA13OO, where he spoke on each Act, and overall themes that were consistent through out, as well as the album-making process. It's an informative and insightful interview for any fan wanting to find out more about Denzel's perspective on his album (and really, who else's perspective would you want?).
I tried to methodically go through Act I: Light, Act II: Gray and Act III: Dark with the rapper, although inevitably some jumping around occurred. Denzel revealed during the interview, how we almost ended up with your standard Curry fare: dark, hardened bangers a la Imperial. However when life began looking up for Denzel, so too did his music, and the creation of Light began. It was the final piece of the TA13OO puzzle, which has been a year and a half in the making. It will not only allow new listeners and fans to find Denzel -- the title track and "Black Balloons" being clear examples of that softened side we've rarely heard from the Black Metal Terrorist -- it also allowed Denzel to create a cohesive, storyline type of album we don't often get, with thoughtful and narrative-driven releases disregarded in the place of speedy, bloated, and sometimes meaningless releases.
While it felt like we unpacked a lot of the easter eggs in the album, Denzel assured me as he was leaving that there are plenty more for fans to find, should they choose to listen close enough. During our interview, Denzel rattled off his own lyrics with such ferocity and confidence, they seemed even crazier than when I was listening to them in my headphones, rewinding multiple times as I tried to catch every single word. You'll get a glimpse of those lyrics in the video above, just try to keep up (!).
Below find some highlights from the interview, discussing each Act on the album. Comment with your opinions/thoughts/interpretations.
ACT I: LIGHT
"The first part, it was basically how I treated everything, you know with money coming in, I got all these females, with everything in life going smoothly, but it's only brief at that moment -- oh yeah, this money and everything is supposed to make you happy but it's not. I didn't grow up materialistic you know, that's what really spurred the Light part, because when I was very materialistic, that's what was driving me. That's when it goes into the Gray part - the Gray part shows the after affects of it, of just not caring. And that's how I was before, just not caring."
"It's supposed to sound like...okay it's that assurance that everything will be fine. Everything will be fine eventually."
On the title track, "TA13OO":
"It's whatever you want it to be. "Taboo" is everything. It's just like I'm talking to someone - whoever Taboo is, it could be a girl, it could be anything."
"People that been hurt -- that's what I was tryna connect with people. Because there's a lot of people, with the molested topic, most of it happens when you're mad young. And it happens to females and it happens to males. And I watch people either go crazy from it, or convert hat pain into power, and become some big entity, or somebody stronger form it. I just wanted to talk to people that been hurt in that way, 'cause everybody's been somewhat taken advantage of in some way. I use it as a metaphor and in a literal sense."
ACT II: GRAY
"Gray is just like the reality of things. That's why it's longer than the [Dark] part and the Light part, it has five track instead of four, because the Gray part, it just shows like..Okay, you hear "Super Saiyan Superman" and I'm flexing, I'm flexing hard, after coming from "Sumo," I'm flexing and shit, and then you got "Switch It Up" which, in an instant, just switches up the whole mood of everything, and shows you how your true friends will literally pull a gun out on a you, to show you like, n*gga, I don't give a fuck who you is, I knew you since you was this tall, you ain't gunna do that, you ain't gunna try me in no way, I ain't yo little buddies or whatever. And then when you hear the second verse on "Switch It Up," the person or character realizes, when he's not high or not sedated, he realizes what's really going on around him. So it's like his wake up call, "Switch It Up" is like a wake up call of what's going around him. Or around me, per say, cause that was a true story."
On "Sirens":
"When I wrote that hook ["when the karma comes back around, don't let me down"], it was from the perspective of God. The perspective of God is like, when shit happens, when these obstacles happen, when shit hits the fan, don't let me down, cause I know you can be stronger than that."
ACT III: DARK
"You gotta realize, when you in this game, do you at all times. If somebody try to tell you how to do you, it's not gunna look good to somebody else. The only thing you could do, is do you. If they try to tell you how to do you, "do it like this, do it like that," then you not in control of yourself, and you won't be happy. If I'm in control of myself at all times, and I can say how I feel or whatever, and you don't like it -- fuck you, suck my dick, I don't give a fuck, leave me alone -- that's how I felt writing that part of the album."
"The bass starts off soft, then it goes harder, and harder, and harder (pause), as the album goes on, and when it hits the final song ["Black Metal Terrorist"], this is the one where I'm like, I don't give a fuck about shit. This is me showing you that I don't give a fuck. People won't care about you until you actually do something very serious, to yourself, to everyone else, to the world, to your music."
On "The Blackest Balloon"/"Black Balloons" connection:
"When the black balloon pop, the first one...you gotta hear the second one, but the second one isn't on the album. Don't worry, the second one will come out soon. It will come out."
"I can't fully explain it until you hear 'Black Balloons 2.'"
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We'll leave you with that. Stay tuned.