- RAPSTAR started right around the time Polo was doing
his rollout for his album "The Goat"
He'd done a bunch of interviews
and the day was winding down.
So I'm sitting in the living room
and I'm playing this melody.
Polo looked over and he's like, what's that?
It was one take, I looked over afterwards
and as soon as it ended, and I was like, that's the one!
Like, what was that?
♪ Lately I've been prayin', God, I wonder, can You hear me? ♪
♪ Thinkin' 'bout the old me, I swear I miss you dearly ♪
♪ Stay down 'til you come up, I've been stickin' ♪
♪ to that theory ♪
♪ Every day a battle, I'm exhausted and I'm weary ♪
♪ Make sure I smile in public, when alone, my eyes teary ♪
♪ I fought through it all, but that shit hurt me severely ♪
- The crazy thing is actually like, this was the first beat
we ever made together.
We just met in like a producer room on Clubhouse
and he just popped in one day and I was just like,
Hey bro, like, you know, you from the bay right?
- It must've been like 20 people that hit me up
after that group.
And I looked at bro.
I was like, oh, he's from the bay?
Okay.
I don't think I hit really anybody else back.
I'm like, yeah, let's get, let's get going on something.
I actually got this idea I got started.
If you want to take a crack at it.
♪ Uh, I won't love a ho, after we fuck, ♪
♪ she can't get near me ♪
♪ Only bitch I give a conversation to is Siri ♪
♪ My pants Amiri yes, I'm winnin', clearly ♪
- Right after "The Goat" drop, we posted that
like more on the way, like more to come, whatever.
Didn't think anything of it.
Months later it had blown up on Tik Tok.
I've done a lot of these videos, a lot.
And I've never had people hit me up
about anything like this.
I'm like this ain't even like, anything put together yet.
Polo hit me, he's like, hey bro, we got to
do something with this.
Like it's time to make it into the song.
I'm like, absolutely.
A lot of people just put a drum kit on it.
A lot of the producers that I had reached out to.
And this one, when it came through, I just, I heard it.
And I was like, oh yeah, this is crazy.
- The thing was, like, you know
I really I knew this was an opportunity, right?
So I didn't want to just knock it out quick and send it.
I, I took my time.
I did three different versions.
There is a super complex version.
There's the super simple version.
Which is literally just drums.
And then this is kind of like the in the middle
and that's why I ended up settling on it.
Cause I felt like certain elements needed to be there
but it didn't need to be over done.
- So basically, the melody started off with me
tuning the ukulele like this.
(ukulele strums)
It's not typically how you would tune a ukulele.
- I added some like different effects on it.
I put the RC-20 for like the retro color kind of effect.
You know, it gives it like a vinyl record thing.
And I actually put the isotope vinyl on it too.
- Something about the tone just pairs so well.
Especially a lot of this like ghetto gospel type artists
like the pain sound.
- So what I added when I started off was this piano.
On the piano I just added a few effects.
There's some, you know, reverb delay.
And then I add the RC-20 retro color and everything.
It was just some distortion.
There's a little bit of de-tune,
there's this magnetic effect.
I don't know what that does, but it sounds good.
The next few sounds that I added were some pads,
some vocal chops.
(vocal chops play)
And then I paired that with another one that
comes in at the end.
So once I added those vocal chops, I added some more pads
and stuff to kind of just fill up the space that was there.
And then the final sound was just this little vocal
right here.
Every time I added an element, I went back
and listened to this snippet and I was like, does this fit?
Does it kind of, you know what does it give
or take from what he's saying?
So the final sound that I added in during the pre-chorus
and it also comes in during the bridge at the last verse
as well as the synth bass
It's a prayed synth bass.
It's used like, Metro kind of popularized that.
It kind of adds a cinematic feeling to the beat.
When I did the drums, I kind of wanted to give you
like a little different bounds as opposed to just kind of
you know, leaving the jumps straight on the line.
So the first thing I started out with was these high hats.
I added the rim instead of a clap at first.
Cause I kind of wanted to like, simulate the, you know
when he knocks on the ukulele it kind of has that
like hollow kind of feeling.
And then after I added that rim, I added a couple
more accents.
So after I did all that, I added the eight away.
I added this kick on top of it
In the first half of the verse in order to just kind of
pick up the energy a little bit.
So instead of having like the bouncier high hats
it kind of just has more of like a, you know
constant feeling.
That way that rapper could pick their flow up or whatever.
And that's exactly what Polo ended up doing.
That's where the verse started.
The last thing I did is on this part instead of the
the rim shot, I need to hit a little harder.
So I put a clap on it instead.
So once I had all the kind of percussion, it kind of
comes together like this.
So when you put all that stuff together with the intro
and the drop and all that, it sounds like this
(RAPSTAR instrumental intro plays)
♪ I ain't jokin', do it sound like I'm kiddin'? ♪
♪ I been makin' like two thousand a minute ♪
♪ So high up through the clouds, I was swimmin' ♪
♪ I'm probably gon' drown when I'm in it ♪
♪ I bet she gon' get loud when I'm in it ♪
♪ And we might have a child when I'm finished ♪
- There's a lot of number ones that climbed all the way up
but this one just shot straight up first thing.
So, it's crazy man.
- My favorite part of the song is, "stay down until you
come up, I've been sticking to that theory."
That lyric alone describes the whole song.
How this all happened.
When you build with an artist before they really turn
into the superstar they are, like, it means that much more.
And like it's turned into something where I'm still viewing
Polo as, as this, you know, new brand new artist.
I had to take a step back.
I'm like, man, this is a worldwide superstar right now.
♪ Copped a BMW, new deposit, I picked up another bag ♪
♪ Like fuck it, I'ma count while I'm in it ♪
- My folks just put a violin in my hand
when I was like five years old.
And there's this method called the Suzuki method.
It's when you listen and you hear the notes out.
If I heard any song I could just be like,
okay, boom, and play it.
But I didn't pick up the ukulele till much later.
I was staying at this house and there was a ukulele
in the garage.
We pulled out the ukulele.
Somebody was like, oh, you should try to play it.
You should try to play a Snoop Dogg song.
I just played this song.
I woke up the next morning and Brett had posted it
and I looked at my phone, I thought it was broken.
I was like, okay, this is, something's going on here.
So I started doing little covers and sending them
and sure enough, everyone's posting them.
I'm like, oh yeah, I'm running with this.