Week #17 MAY - Final Thoughts
Overall I am happy with the outcome of the project and the recording sessions and collaborations were rewarding and have really inspired me to continue to make music. Hansel Mac, Dodz and RODEL were all people I have known and wanted to work with for quite some time and Iâm sure that the work weâve done together will lead to more collaboration in the future. It was a shame that quite a few of the collaborations I had lined up fell through for various reasons, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, I know this has made I hard for a lot of people, and I am just happy that so far I and my family are okay, my uncle had it but recovered, and even though my girlfriend, and her mum are both key workers, they are healthy and safe.Â
Although I didn't get as many collaborations involved with the project as I originally set out to, I think the people that did give their artistic input into âThe Tapeâ really elevated the project. A massive shout out to them all Dodz, Mimi, Hansel, Callum and Laurence. I am also happy with the reaction I have got from my posts on social media, hundreds of likes on instagram with an increase in followers on insta and Facebook; hundreds of plays on SoundCloud and hundreds of views on YouTube its just the beginning but I am happy with the numbers so far. Hopefully they will just increase as I continue to do more press and promotion around the project and try and push it further. Throughout the process I have released singles and promoted the content on my social media channels to create a buzz around the project, this can work effectively at getting things noticed (Rodgers, 2013).
It was also a shame not to be able to release a physical run of cassettes but I decided against this for monetary reasons. I didn't get a chance to include some of the topics that were initially going to be explored. Such as the more political and conscious themes but both Hansel and Dodz did great jobs on the lyrical content and I think they really understood the ideas behind the concepts on The Tape and captured exactly what I was looking for, covering a lot of ground. As did RODEL with her lyrics about love and unfulfilled relationships.
I really liked the idea of a project constantly in flux, Kanye did it with The Life of Pablo. Described the work as âa living breathing changing creative expression.â (Bengtson, 2016). It was finished yet unfinished, a project in flux. It was finally finished four months after the initial release. It is one of the most powerful and introspective of Westâs projects to date. (Damico, 2016). Easy The Tape went through many iterations and changes, and unforeseen circumstances did result in lots of tracks having to be cut or rethought. But these tracks will see the light of day and my idea is after the initial release on Bandcamp to keep updating the project for a while - both Bandcamp and SoundCloud allow you to edit releases after the initial drop (Bandcamp, 2020) - so doing this will keep interest in the project and when I'm happy with the track list I will drop the beat tape on Spotify.
My time management hasn't been fantastic with the project, the gantt chart I created at the start of the project completely went out the window. I will be honest and say with some of the things that have been going on this year, it has been very hard to focus and think introspectively about anything and even make music and stay creative, because at times I have wanted to crawl into a dark hole and stay there; Stephen, a dear family friend and father figure, dying and having to see my mum breakdown was not on my bucket list; my girlfriend suddenly turning into a front line key worker, was worrying and still worries me; having to once again move as much as I could back to London after I got stuck living here during Lockdown has all impacted on my mental health and made it difficult to see through the project to the level I would have liked but I am glad I pushed through and handed in the work.
Update: It was cool to get a few of the tracks from The Tape featured on 1020 radio, cheers Joe!
You can now access EA$Y THE TAPE by clicking this link:Â https://easygreen.bandcamp.com/album/ea-y-the-tape
References:
Rogers, J. (2013). The Death and life of the music industry in the digital age. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publications.
Bengtson, R. (2016). âThe Life of Pabloâ and the Death of the Traditional Album. Retrieved October 2019, from Complex website: https://www.complex.com/music/2016/06/kanye-west-life-of-pablo-death-of-traditional-album/
Damico, P. (2019). Kanye West: Understanding The Life of Pablo [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7ktpDCTvm4/
Bandcamp. (2020). How do I change the order of an albumâs tracks? Retrieved 2020, from Bandcamp Help Center website: https://get.bandcamp.help/hc/en-us/articles/360007902053-How-do-I-change-the-order-of-an-album-s-tracks-









