BeatRoute Magazine AB Edition - March 2020

According to Curry, UNLOCKED was based
around their shared joy in exploring the outer
boundaries of their capabilities as musicians.
“We needed to challenge ourselves—but it was
still no challenge for us. It was just a fun, new
thing to do. Creating keeps me going, you know,
and I think it does for Kenny too.”
UNLOCKED’s nu-retro sonic direction is a
major pivot for both artist and producer. Curry’s
most recent projects Zuu and TA13OO were
classic Florida records, loaded front-to-back
with the frantic, syncopated flows and distorted
instrumentals that brought him to fame in the
middle of the 2010s.
Kenny Beats spent most of the past decade
as half of the now-defunct EDM duo Loudpvck.
When that project folded, he locked himself
in the studio and reemerged with progressive,
floor-filling trap instrumentals for everyone
from Rico Nasty (Anger Management), to Key
(777), to FKA Twigs and Future (“Holy Terrain”),
and even Ed Sheeran (“Take Me Back to
London”). Most recently, he’s become the most
popular producer on YouTube with his series
The Cave, where his extended universe of famous
collaborators will often drop by to record
impromptu, high-octane freestyles.
On paper, the two would have seemed like
an obvious combination, but in practice, they
found that the overlap between their trademark
sounds drained their early, unreleased collaborations
of their urgency. Plus, Curry needed time
to move past his (understandable) frustration
with Beats giving another artist a beat he
thought he had claimed for his own. Now, Curry
laughs when asked about the long-dead conflict.
“I was mad as fuck and didn’t want to deal
with him for a while. But time passed and my
cousin showed me The Cave and told me I had
to do an episode of my own. I did, and that got
us back together in the studio last summer.”
The more diplomatic of the two, Beats never
brought up this disagreement, but he did
agree that the UNLOCKED sessions were a
break from their previous experiences working
together. “Our whole conversation that first
day in November was about the new Wu-Tang
documentary on HBO. We started with a drum
break, I pulled up weird old movie samples
for the intro, and we made “Lay_Up.m4a” and
“Pyro (leak 2019)” that first day. When I played
them back the next day, I thought: ‘what the
fuck is this?’ I had two sessions that day with
other people, and I cancelled them both and
told Curry he needed to come back so we
could do more.”
Curry was equally enthusiastic about the new
direction: “Kenny was like ‘bruh, keep coming
back, keep coming back.’ I’d go to his studio,
come back with two more tracks, play them for
my girl, she’d say ‘oh shit, this is fire,’ and then I’d
go back to Kenny’s the next day to do it again.
After three days, we had the project done.”
"DENZEL’S PERSONALITY
IS LIKE HE’S IN THE MIDDLE
OF THE SUPERBOWL AT ALL
TIMES. HE’S SO HYPE, HE’S
GOT SO MUCH PASSION AND
ENERGY, AND HE’LL PUT
ANYTHING ON THE LINE
TO GET HIS POINT ACROSS"
KENNY
Curry isn’t lying about the remarkable speed
of the duo’s recording process allowing them
to enter, almost effortlessly, an entirely new
sonic territory. On “DIET_”, he slides seamlessly
into DMX’s raspy-voice lane, growling into the
microphone as Beats pitch-shifts his voice
to fit the lurching beat. “So.Incredible.pkg” is
the most quintessential New York track on
UNLOCKED, and wouldn’t sound out of place on
a Busta Rhymes or Nas album. Beats builds the
instrumental off of punchy, sampled drums and
washed-out Rhodes lines, giving Curry plenty of
space to combine interpolations of glossy Puff
Daddy hits with straightforward death threats.
Carrying over the nostalgic groove from
“So.Incredible.pkg,” “Track07” combines
the filtered low-end groove of A Tribe Called
Quest’s early albums with the crisp horns
that permeated so many of Pete Rock and DJ
Premier’s classics. Here, Curry plays the party
host, as his warped vocals wash in and out of
the mix. It’s the soundtrack to a mid-1990s
BBQ, composed by two men who were barely
out of infancy at the time.
“Pyro (leak 2019)” is another clear standout
– it might be the closest we ever get to a Kenny
Beats-chipmunk soul crossover episode. A
spectral choir that sounds like it’s being played
underwater washes throughout the background,
while the slow-crawling drums reinforce
Curry’s every lyric. The Floridan pours his
rhymebook out as if his life depended on it, and
delivers hands-down the best opening line on
the entire project: “My bitch bad like battle rappers
that make albums with no [Alchemist]”
Beats laughs when I bring this line up—it’s
one of his favorites, too. He’s clearly proud of
how Curry’s lyrics bring energy to a room.
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