Will Hagle eats golden opulence
This past weekend, while the rest of the industry lugged their corporate goodie bags onto flights out of Austin, a squad assembled at a house in Highland Park. Their meeting was the antithesis of SXSW, or perhaps a return to the original spirit that festival veterans claim has been lost: An assorted crew of artists making music together for the fun of it.
“Squad Deep” is the byproduct of serendipity—four artists taking advantage of the fact that they were in the same city for the same limited amount of time. Trash Talk and Ratking’s joint tour arrived at the Echoplex on Friday, and Skywlkr DJ’ed that show. Antwon happened to be in town, too. Opportunity was knocking, and they let a motherfucker in.
More collaborations should be this organic. Skywlkr tweeted that it was the first beat he ever made using Fruity Loops. Trash Talk’s Lee Spielman was given the chance to scream on another rap song. Antwon and Wiki mime their verses from a stoop like they don’t remember what they just recorded. Lest the Internet have forgotten, Wiki also (possibly unintentionally) does a great Drake Hot97 freestyle parody.
The song and video were obviously thrown together as quickly as possible, but the result is better than anything that could have been made through scheduled studio time. It’s a reminder that real artistic chemistry and spontaneous creation will always drive music forward in a way that McDonald’s showcases cannot. On both sides of that equation, it always helps when chicken nuggets are involved.
