Firewater

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 2016-03-11

Label: Speedy Wunderground

Guilty Simpson appears courtesy of Stones Throw Records

Limited to 250 hand numbered copies.

While on tour with Kate Tempest in the U.S. mid 2015, Dan Carey (Speedy Wunderground head-honcho) and Kate caught Run The Jewels on a couple of occasions as well as playing a show with them. Of those experiences Dan recounts, "I loved it. And it started to rub off on me. I became obsessed with wanting to make these more aggressive beats". During that time when visiting a music shop in Austin, Carey purchased a 'swynx', a new type of MIDI sequencer. On returning back from tour he holed himself up in his studio, constantly making beats in this new type of rhythm and experimenting with new sounds. These dabblings soon formed the basis of 'Firewater'. The beat had arrived - but there was no vocal. Dan immediately thought of Guilty Simpson, the legendary Detroit-based rapper and J Dilla collaborator, who he had a been a huge fan of for a while. "There was no way I thought I'd get a reply" explains Dan, "but I got someone from my management to pass it on to the label". That label, being the critically acclaimed and seminal cult imprint Stones Throw Records, based in LA. To his huge surprise, Guilty sent a message back few hours later - saying he loved the beat but had recently completed sessions for his own album, to which Dan responded with the suggestion of putting it out on his own label. Guilty agreed - and recorded his part over the beat while he was on tour.