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Last Monday on Rawrr Scorpio P came for his long awaited interview and he dropped his latest single the exclusive of Constellation Blues
The artist well known for his recent hit Mother's son has put out Constellation Blues as a form of a poem , ballad about his music and how it gives him the power to do what he wants, what he goes through as an artist and makes you feel what you are listening to. As a lover of jazz music I love the fact that the song had a jazz type saxophone type feel. It was relaxing while it made me think about so much. This has been one of our favorites that we have premiered thus far and it by far was worth the wait that Scorpio P put us through.
Check out our one on one with Scorpio P below
1) Tell us what inspired you to write Constellation Blues.
• I wanted to create a piece of writing that directly addressed what I and so many of us go through as artists, and artists of so many varying disciplines. Our daily struggles whether it comes to depression and self-doubt, to making friends with the wrong people, to just plain fighting for what you believe in, I wanted to document my own experience as well as other’s I’ve seen first-hand or know of.
2) Did you have any sound in mind in the process of putting this together?
• Not originally. Once I had finished the initial pattern of the rhymes, the song kind of took shape on its own. The words pretty much just flew out of my head onto the paper, and it ultimately became a stream of consciousness into the creative process I personally go through and I ended up using that as the engine to depict the mental gymnastics and questioning of the world that artists do just to write something the fuck down.
3) Why did you keep this track such a secret even from your manager?
• It wasn’t even so much of a secret; I just was meditating on the music once I recorded it, and have been trying to find flaw or changes on my own. Bizzy has been very meticulous when analyzing my music with me, and I usually always take initiative to make necessary adjustments before I'm suggested to do so. So I wanted to give myself as much time with it as possible before I began implementing Bizzy’s feedback.
4) What was your process of putting this song together?
• As with a majority of songs I write, they start as poems and stanzas of poems first. I wrote Constellation Blues as a poem initially, and once I began re engineering it to a format of a song, elements of its poetic structure didn’t only stick; they became more vital to the overall message and character. It made sense to not have an actual hook or chorus, rather a constant generalization I ended up building around and breaking down in detail throughout the song.
5) What does Constellation Blues mean to you?
• I’ve always felt that as an artist, no matter the discipline, we all have looked to the stars for some sort of inspiration or sign. I was big into astronomy growing up—I loved to learn about space and the stars I saw each night in the sky. I also grew up listening to the blues, folk, rock and jazz, before I began exploring hip-hop and spoken word. To me, Constellation Blues are the blues you feel when you’re doing nothing but tracing constellations, trying to find truth, and shed light during dark times, which is what we challenge and champion ourselves to do as practitioners of art on a daily basis. It’s also an ode to the phenomenon we know called Artist’s Block (or Writer’s Block, as it’s more widely known), where I start the song with the line “Gotta write this shit down before I forget it,” I'm basically dispelling Artist’s Block as what happens when you don’t write down your ideas as they appear, and once you get around to it, you’ve forgotten it. That’s why we’re tracing constellations; we’re either trying to remember those ideas, or trying to replace them, all while dealing with the troubles of the world in hopes of ushering in a better one.
6) Do you feel like other artists are doing what you are doing?
• I definitely do feel that way. I think so many artists like myself go through bouts of depression, insomnia, and so many other mental ailments, and that their art is their only solace. We all have day jobs and 9-to-5’s, and we’re constantly trying to create masterpieces while securing rent or caring for children, or any combination of things of that nature. This song is inspired by other artists like me going through the exact same if not similar things.
7) What do you have planned for the video for this track?
• I have an idea that I'm currently outlining for a short film of the song, centered on its subject matter.
8) What inspired the jazz feel in this song?
• I had originally heard the beat for the song around a year ago, and didn’t really know what to do with it. I was like, “I have no idea what I'm gonna do with this, but I’ll do something.” But the beat always resonated with me, and as a jazz musician myself, playing the saxophone for ten years, I felt indebted to ensure I created a track like this at some point. It also gave me a sense of freedom and unchained expression I’ve felt in jazz and in playing jazz music. In many ways, I feel as if I'm putting the lyrics together in the same succession I would if I were crafting a improvised solo; I'm rapping like how I would play the saxophone.
9) What is next post Constellation Blues?
• Finishing my EP, Street Food, and getting started on the short film for the song, as well as performing it in various ways. Stay tuned.
10) Would you like to add anything else, what should we know?
• The funniest thing about the song is that It wasn’t even supposed to be on the EP—I was planning to save this song for a lengthier project, possibly and album or compilation in the future, but it felt right to have it complete StreetFood in many ways, and I couldn’t see myself holding onto it much longer once I completed it. I personally feel as if Constellation Blues is not only my best piece of writing I’ve ever created, it’s also my most personal. The song isn’t Scorpio P.’s writing; rather it’s who Phil Williams is in the purest sense. Scorpio P. is the one reciting the piece, but it’s who I am as Phil in all of my glory and flaws. I documented a lot more than I expected to do so when writing and recording the piece, so if you’ve ever wanted to learn about who Phil Williams is from Scorpio P.’s perspective, I feel as this is the track that best exhibits my life and who I am in all of my creative spaces I inhabit. Recording it in one take as opposed to 4 or 5 as I usually do, it was the freest I’ve ever felt in the booth. I hope it’s enjoyed and received as well as I felt recording it.
FOLLOW SCORPIO P AT @MRPHILLIAMS ON TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM