Nashville’s R.A.P. Ferreira, a whimsical rapper known for his wordplay, and also a former WNXP Nashville Artist of the Month, dropped an eight-song, nineteen-minute album that was composed, written and recorded in the last seven days at his record store, Soulfolks Records and Tapes here in Nashville.
The title of the album is ASIATIQUE BLACK WIZARD LILY FUNK. Ferreira said about the album’s creation:
“I just spent a month in Europe. Everything I do got a little flourish on it right now. I was at some festival in the U.K. and the idea came to me. I was on tour with Future Islands but I had an off day. So I’m wandering around the gardens and I seen an Asiatic Black Wizard Lily and I pondered that flower for some time.
As I continued my travels over there I continued to listen to the news about America. The news about America when you’re not in America is encoded in a very powerful way. It’s much different than you’re used to.
So I started to feel like a living, breathing, being wizard. Like, we are getting the dispatches from the dying planet we are from and here I am making magic happen with music.
I just felt like I’m this funky Black wizard.
I started envisioning the project on the road and when I got back I tapped my brother vast.ness who is in Ruby Yacht and lives here in Nashville and we started doing daily sessions at the shop to get this thing out of my head.”
The album is eight songs, 19 minutes, one file. “Sleek. Sleek. That’s a beauty. Not to be tampered with,” he said. “Just press the button and sit down.”
There is a phrase in the album that repeats: “The test results have revealed that you are the father of this style.” It’s a phrase that came from earlier in the year. “We stopped in at Hot 97 in New York City. They had me in to rap,” said Ferreira. “Afterwards they had us do our own drops and it was an ongoing bit of ours on tour that we turned into a drop for Hot 97. Shout-out the good homie Jason. It felt so rapperish. I was so delighted.
Also shout-out JB Montgomery: Abstract Black who came through for the sessions. Shoutout BRAINWEIGHT. These are all Nashville heavyweight musicians who lent their sound. And my homie Nat Myers came through and just played the blues with me for a whole day. It ain’t even on the album but it influenced my head space just to have a jam session with him. Just shout-out the homies.”
The album is available at soulfolks.org.