RL Grime: Resonate & Appreciate

If you’ve ever referred to RL Grime as a “trap” artist, you’re sadly mistaken. After three EPs and countless other heavyweight projects and remixes, the 23-year-old producer finally drops his debut album, and it proves to be so much more than 808 drums, heavy bass and predictable drops. In this musical era where there is an over-saturation of work by mediocre artists – especially in the realm of electronic music – VOID stands out through his incorporation of diverse sound, fitting features, and overall musical excellency, demonstrating that he is indeed deserving of all this acclaim and success he’s been getting these few years. While his first single, “Core” has already been making huge waves in festivals and clubs, songs like “Site Zero/The Vault” displays his technical expertise in with its intricate editing and percussive work. Features are diverse but proper: note the contributions from Big Sean on his more hip hop-influenced track “Kingpin,” Boys Noize on “Danger,” and a big-room, percussion heavy offering from Djemba Djemba for “Valhalla.” Yes, it is understandable why many of us like to play the classification game in this never-ending, diverse industry, but let’s just remember that good music is good music – and RL Grime gave us just that. We met the prolific beat architect in Los Angeles and spoke to him about his first full-length project, personal expectations that come along with it, his upcoming tour, as well as media misconception. Read the conversation below, and make sure to cop VOID here.

You’ve released three EPs, How does your album VOID fit in the rest of your work/catalog?

Being that it’s my first ever full length album, there’s definitely a strong push on VOID to channel some the themes and ideas I’ve been building on since the very beginning of the RL Grime project. To me, this album is an amalgamation of all the ideas I’ve put forth over the years, but finally fully built out and realized in the right way.

How long have you been working on the LP?

Well, my initial ideas for doing an album started at the end of last year, but musically I began working on VOID in February of this year, so it was about a nine-month process.

How do you choose the artists that you are collaborating with?

VOID has four features on it, and all of them are artists I’ve either been trying to work with for a while, or artists I really respect and felt would be right for the record. For my debut album, I felt it was important to use features only where they truly made sense and not to overdo it.

What is your favorite record (song) on the album and why?

Man it’s really tough to say, but I think “Golden State” is my favorite track on the album. It’s the last song I wrote for the record, and the name obviously refers to California, my home state. But even more so, it really represents the RL Grime project for me as you can hear a lot of my early influences in it. It feels almost nostalgic for me, which is why I put it as the last song on the album.

Will you tour this album? What can we expect from your live sets?

This tour is going to be special for me, as it’s going to be me playing almost entirely my own music – which is something I’ve never really done before. The set is going to feature a lot of tracks off the new album obviously, but also new remixes from me, re-edits of old tracks of mine, and other fun things. Also, the live set up/production for the show is a stage that I helped design, so all in in all, this is the first time I’ll really be touring MY show proper, so I’m really excited about it.

Besides sales numbers, what are your personal expectations for your debut album?

I’m just hoping people truly resonate with the album, and really appreciate it as a body of work. The way I created this album was as one whole piece, so I hope people hear it that way.

What is media’s biggest misconception about you?

That I’m just a “trap” artist. And to be honest, to me that’s a lot of what this album is about – showing the world that I want to be much more than that.