Will Schube bumps Soundcloud-rap and psych jams in the lowrider.
Maybe it’s the eternal memory of Nate Dogg or the abundant sunshine, but the concept of the “song of the summer” seems to carry more gravity on the West Coast than anywhere else. Enter “Vintage & Adventurous,” produced by JoogFTR and made by a previously unsung rapper named Conradfrmdaaves. The dude shares the name with the founder of the Hilton chain, sure, but this shit bumps. It just snuck up on all of us like the LA summer.
One day it’s 75 degrees, the next day it’s 98 and you decided to go to a 1 PM Dodger game without sunscreen and without checking the weather forecast. Luckily, we’re only expected to attend innings three through seven. But the diehards stay until the final out, after Kenley Jansen’s sawed off another few pieces of lumber. And what’s bumping from the parking lot on the way out of Chavez Ravine? It’s “Vintage & Adventurous,” baby.
There are 20 posts on Instagram hashtagged #conradfrmdaave, only four if you add the ‘s’ and make it avenues. Dude’s got 3,000 Twitter followers and most of us still don’t know which Ave his name is referring to. This anonymity won’t last long, because “Vintage and Adventurous” is nearly perfect.
On YouTube, the track’s already got over 1,000,000 plays, mostly coming from 818, 323, 310, and 213 numbers, I imagine. Conrad’s voice is classic LA: a little wobbly, a little rough, tons of character. Post-Greedo if such a thing exists. Joog’s beat bounces like the sun off melting asphalt, spare synths and hollowed out drums digging Conrad’s voice deeper into itself.
During the chorus, Conradfrmdaaves gives us a reminder: “Remember, they didn’t wanna let me in.” They probably still don’t, because DJ Khaled is at the top of Rap Caviar and “Vintage and Adventurous is relegated to the sweaty bodies slugging along the 405 on a Friday after work. They didn’t wanna let him in, but he found a way despite ‘em. Sure, Conradfrmdaaves is currently a vessel for LA’s hottest song, but a few more just like it and we’re gonna know exactly where that avenue is.
