Umu: Hello everyone!
Jarod: Hey guys, it's been a minute.
U: My name is Umu, I am ReacttotheK's channel creator.
Jarod: My name is Jarod and some of you might recognize me from
some of the older classical musicians react videos. I'm a trumpet player,
Eastman School of Music alumni and welcome.
Today, I'll be reacting with Umu and we will be reacting to pH-1's song "PACKITUP!"
Umu, and I are doing this digitally from afar. I'm in New York
She's in California right now, I believe.
And so we're really adhering to these social distancing notes here in React to the K
U: So, this is the very first time I'm reacting to his solo stuff on Youtube,
but I have been loosely following his past releases
but I have to say my two favorite songs of his are "Perfect for His Flow "and then "Malibu" for the track
because damn that flute part and the guitar part, ten out of ten.
J: Without further ado, let's get right into this video in
three
two
one
Okay, this is already like a bop
U: Ohhh, yea
Oh!
I love the interruption of the piano
because we have a really dark cloud bass sound here
and when the piano comes in,
it's an interruption of that dark sound
J: It's got some like old school hip-hop vibes
lil touch a piano
U: Yea, so far the bass bars my favorite,
but I also love like the very quiet record
sounds
J: Okay. Alright, so we've got this texture change
So use of like
This transition from the downbeat stuff that we heard earlier
and now to this off-the beat like little plucks his lil picks
Super sick, and now here we're back to that downbeat stuff happening
U: Wow
Yea! There is a shift in tonal center
I'm not quite sure what two keys are going in between
but that makes this section like such a higher intensity because where it's a
higher notes that the bass are is fine
Ooh, we got the sirens
and a new vocal like
it's gone now
J: Alright, that's pretty sick
And then just silence. I love that.
It's just bopping and then all of a sudden it's like he just goes quiet like that, okay.
U: Rewind
Simple at the end. I wonder if there's a really deep meaning for that.
Oh, I paused before it ended.
Oh gosh. Oh my god. Okay. Holy shit
Oh my god!
J: Aight, we got-
Now we're somewhere completely different.
I diggg
U: I'm guessing this might be a hint to one of the songs on the album
J: And now this guy's just like, wait, is "PACKITUP!" like packing a body? Excuse me??
And then just credits??
U: Okayy
Woooo
J: I like to approach listening to rap with a very rhythmic standpoint
so there's like lots of more like song lyrical things. It's like listening to it
It's like you admire like the melodies you admire the chord progressions
there's just how the song moves and tells the story sonically, but with rap with hip-hop
it's a little bit on a different spectrum because rapping is a bit more closer to spoken word closer
just it's very different, it's like the opposite
It highlights a different side of music, it highlights the sound of time, of rhythm of
um, just the feel. It's music that you feel here like you listen with your ears
yes, like you receive it through the ears and you feel it in your chest and
that's the kind of music that rap is
U: I'm gonna do a really quick second run through just to gather my thoughts
and to compare the two contrasting sections
cause we had the hook, which was the darker sound I believe and then we had the elevated section
which is when he like really went at it in the lyrics
J: So, lets listen a second time and we're gonna dive a little bit deeper.
We're gonna hit this song again in
three
two
one
With a serious face on, you know what I'm saying? See this
U: Silence is important in rap tracks
I like the bass part because it switches between two notes, but then
wait for it
and then it descends
J: There's just room for that lively creativity right in the end of that beat
you got something really heavy, like that gravity
and now, hear all the offbeats?
U: Damn, he is
saying things
There! So, multiple times throughout this track he uses some sort of rewind sound
as transitions
J: Okay
So these guys are like golfing
Alright, now I'm looking in this story because it was a guy in the car at the end of this
U: Yea
theres a little
[???] like that
J: And that [mimics sound]
I can't roll my tongue
It's just like classic, classic like 2019, 18, 2020, kind of vibe, you know rap nuance is the [mimics sound]
All right
U: All right, thoughts! What are your thoughts?
J: Alright, honestly that was like really sick like I was like definitely bopping and
It's got like, the way I phrase it is like it's got old school hip-hop vibes and rhythms
with like new-age sounds
U: Mhm, like the rewind sound effects? or like the "hey, hey"
J: Yea, like the "Hey, hey" and just like the type of beat that was happening
just like the rhythms felt very old-school
but yeah, and of course you got the [mimics sounds] and the "hey, hey, hey."
So and also ya. So it was sick and
There was like so much and then the guy getting off the car at the end. Like what?
U: I was freaking out because he was talking deep in the lyrics. Did you have those on?
J: Oh, I didn't have the lyrics.
I was just I was purely like listen. I just listening to the music
I wasn't even paying attention to the
U: Yeah. I was attempting to pay attention to both
J: Gotcha U: Uhm
U: But man J: I feel like I like to watch it a third time
J: to like look at the lyrics.
U: Yeah, yeah, so [reads lyrics]
U: Pack it up. Just quit now, pack it up
J: Daang
So he's like, really really really on it
See, I had a feeling he was like spitting some really deep stuff because like
because people who rock like that old-school hip-hop vibe like that really aggressive like hip-hop, you know?
Like, true to the name. They're usually spitting some wisdom in their bars
It's not usually like the water down the kind of just saying nothing, you know what I mean?
Like I actually saying something
U: and also the fact that
the track was overall pretty minimalistic, right?
J: Yeah, I would think it was like I would break it down to like there's like three elements
There's like that bass and the beat element
There's like that second element, which is like that offbeat section, that's kind of like that [mimics sounds]
You know what I mean
And then the third element is just him, the rapper.
Like those are the three things and everything else is kind of decorated around that
and it's like
but even though it's like three core elements, like the first time I was listening
I'm like, oh man, there's like so much here and, the second time around
I was like, wow, there is so much there but they made so much out of like three components
like three chord [???]
U: Yeah, it didn't take away from his rap
And whenever you have a track like that, you know the
rapper is saying some really important things that he wants to you to pay attention to
that's why the track doesn't take away from that
But then again like when I did listen to the track
There were so many small things that I really enjoy, like the bass part.
Sure, it just switched between two notes
but during the transitions it would like run down chromatically or
like once in a while like at the very beginning there was a sample of like
record noises like [mimics sounds]
Like that really quietly in the background
and then halfway through there they added this vocal sample that was
[mimcs sound]
Like so many really small things like you said, decorated what was going on in the rap
And I think what really helped propel this on forward was
Sure, like we we got this groove going the steady groove that looped
but then it was the transitions, like they had like the reverse
[mimics sounds]
sound effect and then they also had the two sections where it prolonged one key area and then it went up
and that's when like--those were the verses I believe
Where he had the faster rap and it wasn't the hook
but like it was prolonging higher
his notes
and so that's what elevated it and kept it going forward
J: No, definitely. Those transitions were like super seamless in two very distinct sections
but yeah, it just it flowed man, it flowed
U: Mhmm, and I'm happy. Honestly like
with his past tracks he has
highlighted like different classical instruments like flute multiple times over now.
and this one had a tiny bit of piano
So, that was exciting to see
J: No, that was that was super slick.
U: Thanks for watching everyone
I hope you guys go check out the music video for this
I will link it in the description and thanks for watching
We'll see y'all later. Bye!
J: Bye bye!