Recently I’ve been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work on some upcoming projects, and looking for inspiration. These are two different projects that have inspired me at this time, not necessarily through tone or feeling, but more in the pure creativity showcased. If you’re looking for a boost in inspiration, I’d recommend checking out these!

Fada<3of$ by Niontay

Now I would like to right away give a shoutout to Shemar’s new album emerge "n" see. I wanted to write about it, but it just came out and I’d like time to digest what is one of my favorite albums in recent memory.

Instead, I get to write about what is my favorite record in recent memory. Niontay is someone I heard for the first time on Real Hip Hop with El Cousteau, MIKE & Earl Sweatshirt and initially struggled with. However, all it took was more time and experience with his music for me to appreciate then truly love his style. I’m still newer to his stuff and deep diving but at this point, I’ve seen him live twice in Orlando and he's quickly become one of my favorite artists. His live performances hooked me even with a smaller discography due to tracks like Ain’t Shit or THANK ALLAH being some of my favorites ever. At this last show, I saw him live the night of the new release and that energy translated to my first listen of this album. Fada<3of$ takes what feels like magic on previous shorter records and distills it into an amazing album. This album feels like the clearest presentation of what makes Niontay so great. His incredible beat selection, signature flow, punchlines, and great presentation shine on tracks like Top da Top, Vice Grip, mumbleman, Post game pskr with El Cousteau, while still shaking it up with different sounds like Stuntin’ like my baba, Souljaman by SMV, Old Kent road freestyle and GMAN balaclava (like09) which all shine in their own unique choices in production. This album truly shines in just being fun and replayable though, with the 45 minutes just flying by. Each feature adds just the right aspect to the tracks they’re on, especially the aforementioned El Cousteau and MAVI. This album is extremely well put together in every way, with each track flowing into the next and feeling unique but still well within the established and palpable atmosphere. Niontay has been someone to watch going forward for a while now, but this album feels like it’s a statement and that statement is that the magic of his previous work is absolutely sustainable.

The Sopranos created by David Chase

Like a lot of people, I’ve heard my entire life that The Sopranos created by David Chase was the greatest show ever. Especially growing up in the northeast around Italians, I knew some people who seemingly were always watching it. As a fan of the crime genre in general, I find even a lot of the great Mob/Crime adjacent stories can be very surface level in their exploration of the genre, and through my previous attempts to get into the Sopranos, I felt similarly. Outside of the seminal Godfather Part 2 directed by Francis Ford Coppola, even the great mob movies seem to be more focused on honor and morality in regards to the affiliation to the mafia and not from an everyday perspective, which I think is a huge missed opportunity. This time around, I was very pleasantly surprised to find myself incorrect and even started to entertain the ideas previously presented to me about the show's place in the grand context. 

The first thing to address in this conversation is the all-time great theme song and intro to open the show. The Alabama 3’s Woke Up This Morning is a perfect tone-setter into the murky and morally grey world these characters inhabit as Tony drives home from the city. There are very few show intros I will watch in every episode and this is one of them. The big thing I noticed on this watch is how much the Sopranos breaks every preconceived notion I had about the Mob genre. It genuinely was interested in how this life and world would slowly creep into every facet of life. Exploring things like Tony’s kids being treated differently because of his father and the impact of cheating and murder on a family makes this infinitely more interesting than most of its film and television counterparts. Another thing I enjoyed is the period puts the mafia on its back foot. Gone are the golden years of the mob, replaced with an era of paranoia and new technologies. The titular family is constantly under attack, whether from outside forces, internal issues, or the police. This along with its main character creates a world of moral ambiguity, where the ideas of good and bad from a viewer's perspective are toyed with constantly. 

Now, to some of the more obvious statements that you’ve heard about the show but feel obligatory. James Gandolfini is performing at a level that very few have reached in his performance as Tony Soprano. The balance he can strike between one of the most despicable characters put to screen and a vulnerable child who’s reeling from a lifetime of parental physical and mental abuse creates one of the most compelling characters put to screen. You can never truly sympathize with Tony after a certain point, but you always know exactly why he’s doing what he’s doing. The use of therapy in this show is so good that it has inspired years of copycats, and I understand why. The opportunity to genuinely psychoanalyze the character is used to its fullest extent, slowly building out more and more insight while things fall apart outside of the office. Edie Falco as Carmella & Michael Imperioli as Christopher Moltisanti are also putting on all-time great performances and help accent the incredible work done by everyone on this show. The last thing I’ll touch on is the very controversial ending to the show, which I personally adored. It’s a rug pull in the truest sense, but feels very in line with the rest of the show’s attempts to be grounded, yet so focused on the surreal.

Written By Blank Thought: linktr.ee/b1ankthought