Southern Storytellers

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Hey.

Sometimes it takes a while.

You spend however much you need to before you let it out.

And then you go.

(RAPPING) Yo, yo, ay, ay, ay, uh, trying to fish it through.

Wondering where I'm going to go, where I'm going to do.

What am I going to say?

What can I create?

I think I'm going to make a legacy today.

I like that one.

That one fits your voice a lot better--

I like the other one better.

You like the other one better?

I like the other one better--

All right.

Let's see.

It was less busy.

Yeah, definitely less busy.

[INAUDIBLE]

Ooh, ooh, oh.

(RAPPING) Welcome to Wilmington.

Yo, put your vibe onto ten.

You are now rocking with me and my friend.

What we're doing is we're feeling our different flows

and we're feeling out different ideas.

My beats aren't finished.

His rhymes aren't finished.

And so it's-- like, it gives me an idea of how to build off

of it and it gives him an idea of the same.

(RAPPING) And I'm stressed and I said that L'Orange got

to make a mess with this beat.

And so that ish to me.

No, matter of fact, if it's hot enough,

I get it for free, because the bars

that I speak let you know my technique

and that I am too unique and there's

no one that can creep on me.

[CHEERING]

Woo!

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Meet Marlowe.

Innovative beats punctuated by fresh rhymes

and underscored by the power of a 15 year friendship.

A dynamic collaboration between beat maker L'Orange

and MC Solemn Brigham.

Marlowe mixes vintage sounds in new school psychedelic flair

to create an incredible hip-hop sensation.

We spent the day in Wilmington, North Carolina digging

for records, freestyling and working the grill

at the Brigham family barbecue.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I'm your host, Thao, and this is Southern Sounds.

Thank you so much.

[SOLEMN BRIGHAM & L'ORANGE, "SMALL BUSINESS"] Imagine me

chilling throwing dollars at my feelings,

trying to mirror what they live and could've did it but it just

ain't me.

Hold back just in case my brother flip don't read--

So how long have you all been working together?

Over a decade.

It's been a long time.

We were at UNC at Wilmington.

I was making beats, and he was rapping.

I was freestyling on campus.

We kind of were doing our own thing

in our own musical circles.

Right.

But somehow some of my music got to his ear

and that's how we ended up meeting.

(RAPPING) Always cutting something

use the hills for the inspiration.

I just need some mitigation.

Old days plotting, I had to--

We-- both coming from the South, our music taste is varied.

And so he listened to more so underground

and I was more on commercial.

I was listening to Bumby, Webbie Trill and T,

and he was listening to things like Danger Mouse.

He has-- a lot of things that I had never even heard of.

It kind of was like a musical awakening for me as sorts.

What makes hip-hop from the South stand out?

Well, rapping in the South is heavily inspired by jazz,

and it's heavily inspired by blues, funk,

some Curtis Mayfield in there.

A lot of cookout music.

So soul.

Definitely soul.

It's a lot of North Carolina, especially.

Embraces a lot of soul music.

And L, did you grow up in North Carolina as well?

Yeah, I grew up in Wilmington.

In Wilmington?

Mm-hmm.

Gotcha.

So I'm originally from here, and I love it and hate it

for all the same reasons that you would love and hate

your hometown.

When I first moved down here, it's where I discovered myself.

It's where I discovered my love for hip-hop.

It's where I discovered my love for new artists.

Do what I really wanted to do.

I started my family here, and I just couldn't leave.

I couldn't leave and honestly, it

made me want to show the rest of the world

how dope Wilmington is.

Right now, we are on Castle Street.

We do got the vintage shop behind you.

We do got the Gravity Records right here.

We got a barber shop right here, you know what I'm saying.

All on this strip, baby.

Welcome to a Willmings.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

When it comes to hip-hop, a lot of the music that's made

is inspired by sampling and chopping up your samples

and cutting.

So you want to have a good place so you

can get good material from.

Will you walk us through a typical process for--

Sure.

When you're trying to sample, you're trying to sample things

that, potentially, people don't want.

People don't know.

They haven't heard of.

This is like an example of something I would sample.

Like this has on top of spaghetti right on the cover so

my instinct is that this is very silly.

But for something like when I work on Marlowe

or when I work on my own records,

I'm looking for things that are just so bizarre and so left

of field that when I take something,

and I'm able to move it around, I'm able to change the pitch,

change the entire feeling of it and restructure it

into something that is unrecognizable to the source,

that my artistry is evident.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

(RAPPING) Whoa.

Whoa.

Uh-huh.

Uh-huh.

Over the time, I've been a little bit scarred.

Trying to go climb, trying to be more than regard.

Did it the greatest.

I walk and I hate on you haters.

I look at my plate, and I think I'm

going to save it for later--: A lot of our music making for me, anyway, in the beginning,

made me want to do it because it was just so much fun.

There's a feeling that you feel when

you're in the creative process and when

you're in a flow state--: Mm-hmm.

--and I think that translates into Marlowe

in a different way than when I'm not working with L'Orange.

Yeah.

Solemn, if you could show me MC's that inspire you.

Some MC's?

Yeah.

I am heavily influenced by MC's who have distinct voices.

Mm-hmm.

More so than your cadence, more so than your subject matter.

Your voice is the thing that God gave you that sets apart you

from anybody else.

We got some Prodigy, we got Mobb Deep.

Really, really raspy kind of voices.

DMX, if you want to talk about a voice.

Right.

Not one that you can mimic.

Just making it sound bold and powerful.

[SOLEMN BRIGHAM & L'ORANGE, "PAST LIFE"] Now stay right

there, buster, the first time I saw--

I was listening to a Marlowe track

and I actually looked to see if there were two--

if you had a guest MC on, but it was

just you doing two different voices, two

different characters.

(RAPPING) You ain't even by yourself

and gotta wait to get your cheque.

I can show you in advance to put some hair upon your chest.

See, keeping it above cause no one wants to stand ground.

I'm the one to stand up, and I'm the one to push down.

When I was making "Past Life", I wanted

to do a distinction between the high and the low.

(RAPPING) I can show you when it's spinning

and when to throw down.

Set you on your block and make your partners more proud.

Where I'm from they cover me so much that I drown.

KNow you want the spot but don't nobody tell how.

And the dark voice--: I can show you all about the game and what I found.

Met a couple gangsters, met a couple more clowns.

Showed up to the cook but they ain't ever want cow.

All in different ways I'm trying for the same crown.

Don't let em get you caught because

in the street that equal death.

I'm just trying to reach your heart see

I done put some things to rest.

Man, you ain't even by yourself and got to--

All right.

Look, if you want to know anything about me

or the music of the South, you got

to know the people that made me.

This beautiful woman in the background with the eggs

is my grandmother.

And grandma really gave me everything

I needed as a young man to become an OG like today.

This here is my beautiful older sister, Tiki.

This is my twin and my closest-in-age sister.

Here is the beautiful Renaissance woman

known as my mother.

She inspires me.

The music that she listened to when I was younger

helped inspire the music that I make now.

She listened to a lot of R&B.

She listened to a lot of soul,

a lot of funk, a lot of things I incorporate my style to.

When I think about collaborating specifically with you,

I think about--: I think about the way we were raised

a lot in terms of how we bring those elements to the music.

Man, I think it's kind of trippy how

we come from two different backgrounds

and we're so similar in music.

Can you tell me what it means to be a white producer working

in hip-hop?

It's just very important for me to listen

but it's also extremely important for me

to be cognizant of representing the culture in a positive way.

Some of the greatest producers that

have contributed to the most to the game are white people.

I don't think-- my stance isn't you

got to have the right color skin to get in.

My stance is more so what are you

contributing to the culture?

I think L comes from a place where, man, he had studied more

than me and respected the craft and the art of hip-hop.

He's more generally knowledgeable

when it comes to deep cuts.

He's like that because he just loves the game.

He just loves the game.

[SOLEMN BRIGHAM & L'ORANGE, "FUTURE POWER"] Yeah,

I need room for my flip.

Don't feel shame because I'm exempt.

Gotta go claim my piece off the rip.

Told me not to lay my feet down.

Don't say no peace out.

Just lay your feet down.

They say don't speak now.

And we might be off the hook, yeah.

I think when it comes to L, sometimes

I feel like we're so similar it's like we're brothers.

In the very next moment I'm like, man, we are so different

and this is why I rap like this and that's

why you make beats like that.

We're just so different.

I've always been really attracted

to very passionate people.

And so when I see people that represent things

on the surface the way that I sometimes feel on the inside,

it really draws me to them.

And Solemn is nothing if not extremely passionate.

And so it's always something I've really

respected about him.

I'm not emotional.

He's sensitive.

Sensitive about how emotional he is.

(RAPPING) Came from the fire to the pan.

Gotta learn about the pain with a burn to the hand.

You know I gotta plan, go and take

a better look I've been putting on my pants.

I just want to be sovereign, but I'm still trying

to get up in the heart of it.

Everything that I'm looking for a part of me, oh.

Go.

Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, go, baby.

Ay, go, baby.

Ay, yeah, yeah.

Y'all ready?

Ay.

I said I move so quick they think that, they

think I'm moving slow.

I like to treat my people, they like to see me gone.

I made it on the bleachers, I play my rudest note.

I move so quick they think that, they think I'm moving slow.

Yeah.

[ENGINE ROARING]