DELISA: Compton rapper Roddy Ricch is known to deliver
infectious tracks and it’s his impressive vocals that continue to set him apart in the
game - but what is it that makes it so addicting?
PRINCE CHARLES: Being able to understand the beat, lock to
the beat, make sure that your rhymes are flowing is one thing. But then to be able to change
up the rhythms, I think that that's where
we're at in 2020 and that's where the magic of hip-hop is really, really coming in.
DELISA: That’s Prince Charles Alexander, a professor
at the Berklee School of Music with production credits for his work with artists like P.
Diddy, the late Notorious B.IG., Mary J. Blige and Destiny’s Child.
He sat down with Genius News to break down a few of the rapper’s vocals and melodies.
PRINCE CHARLES: I think Roddy's voice is a bit universal.
It is very much a singer's voice.
DELISA: First up is “Ballin.’”
Prince Charles categorizes Roddy Ricch as a tenor vocal, with his notes lying between
C3 and C5 on a piano.
PRINCE CHARLES: So he goes a little below
C4 to hit his low G3, and then he goes up to an E4.
DELISA: Prince Charles says that achieving vocals
in this way has to be natural - no tech involved.
PRINCE CHARLES: Auto-tune is not going to do that for you. You literally have to know that you're in
the key of G, because if you hit like an E-flat or a D, then everybody's going to say something
is off. That does happen for some performers, but Roddy, I've seen many of his performances
and he's pretty on and hits most of his notes just the way a musician does.
DELISA: Next up is “High Fashion” off of 2019’s
‘Please Excuse Me for Being Anti-Social.’ The sleeper hit has a simplicity to it that
artists like Sade have used to create their signature sound.
PRINCE CHARLES: Sade had some excellent compositions where
literally her voice range would be within an octave.
Roddy does something that most singers do where you hang out around the key of the song. His
lowest note is a D3, and his highest note in that song is an F-sharp-4.
PRINCE CHARLES: There's really powerful information that can
be delivered even when you're just using two or three notes.
DELISA: On “The Box,” Roddy uses the seasoned
technique of tension and release that pushes the constraints of the composition, creating
a special moment that keeps fans coming back.
PRINCE CHARLES: The highest note that Roddy hits is this E-flat-4, and he says it quite a few times.
PRINCE CHARLES: If you listen to them, all of his
compositions have that one peak note in his melodies that really push their way out of
the composition. It's very similar to what Alicia Keys does when she goes
PRINCE CHARLES: She really is up at the top of her range
trying to emote. I do think that those high notes help the emotion of the performance.
DELISA: On his breakout hit “Die Young,” Roddy
embraces a wider range in his vocals that showcases his skill.
PRINCE CHARLES: Roddy hits an E4 again, which
is similar to the high note he hits in Ballin'. He'll go down to lower parts of the scale,
and I think he goes down to a G3, which is actually pretty low for Roddy when he actually
starts doing the rhyming.
PRINCE CHARLES: When I'm listening to it, I don't feel like
I'm hearing him out of tune, sliding across notes incorrectly. It feels very, very precise.
I think that that precision is perceived by people that listen as somebody that really
knows what they're doing and really, really gets it and is delivering the craft well.
DELISA: In 2020, DaBaby and Roddy Ricch teamed up
for “Rockstar,” which flexed their vocal compatibility.
PRINCE CHARLES: They're both tenors. Roddy's at the higher
end of the tenor spectrum and DaBaby is at the lower end of the tenor spectrum.
PRINCE CHARLES: That's why coming together on one record,
they can compliment each other. I think the
Jonas Brothers did it on their song "Sucker."
PRINCE CHARLES: In this case, literally the range of the melody
of what both of these guys are doing on that record where they're choosing different notes
within the scale of that composition is just different enough for them to not be on top
of each other.
DELISA: Incorporating a number of styles within one singular composition is what excites fans
when they listen to a Roddy cut.
PRINCE CHARLES: When people sing, I think what they're doing is they're expanding the melody. I could
put the needle down anywhere on that record or put the play cursor anywhere on that record
and I feel like I'm getting a different composition so in many ways, you're getting two songs
for the price of one.
RODDY RICCH: I don’t have a plan going into the shit, or I don't really think too hard
so that’s really why it can be anything. It can be random. I really want to be unpredictable.
DELISA: And his live performances flex that skill
even more, slipping in moments to harmonize to create new recordings every performance.
PRINCE CHARLES: We noticed that live he was able to push to go to a higher note and that
bit of innovation resulted in an F-sharp-4.
So if you laid an
F-sharp-4 against a D-4, they would be in harmony and that's definitely a musical skill
somebody has to kind of either be trained or do it or you do so much listening that
you're just getting it automatically because you've got a good ear.
DELISA: Autotune or not, singing smooth melodies isn’t
fluff - it’s an intricate practice that adds another layer to a body of work and Roddy
Ricch’s vocals, raw and treated, over crisp beats have become his trademark.
PRINCE CHARLES: I think that if anybody is questioning that
it's musical, they need to try to rap themselves. They'll find out how difficult it is
and how the personality of the vocal and the pitch of the vocal is important.
PRINCE CHARLES: If you can add to that a great melodic flow,
the world is waiting for you. We're out here listening.
DELISA: I’m Delisa with Genius News, bringing you
the meaning and the knowledge behind the music... at home.