"Life is about winning and losing, and your losses may many times be more important, because they make you grow."
Looptroop-rapparen Promoe bekräftade tidigare i vår att han är aktuell med nytt soloalbum i vår, med den bekräftade titlen “The Art Of Losing”. I dag bekräftas albumets releasedatum vara spikat till 26:e april.
Sedan en tid tillbaka studerar Promoe juridik på universitet och har numera mindre tid för musikskapande och turnerande. Under sommaren 2018 reste Promoe hem till Västerås för att spela in ny musik med LTR-kollegan Cosmic (under producentaliaset Isaks’Son). Resultatet blev låtar till hela två album som ska släppas under 2019. Det tidigare nämda albumet “The Art Of Losing” blir det första projektet, följt av ytterligare ett album på svenska senare under 2019. I ett pressutskick från DVSG beskriver Promoe att skivan handlar om “complicated love relationships, social structures, friendships, but of course also classic topics such as rap and graffiti.” Promoe förklarar vidare bakgrunden till projekten och skapandeprocessen numera:
”My whole life I’ve been told, and I’ve told myself, that anything I want I can get if I just work hard enough for it. This has been my motto while bulldozing through a music industry that’s always been on different frequency from me, and therefore (or despite that) I succeeded to reach the people that needed to hear my music. This last year I’ve come to understanding that this motto doesn’t work for everything in life. I reached a point in my relationship where it didn’t matter how hard I worked, I still couldn’t save it because it wasn’t up to me alone. As tragic as it was, it still would’ve been even more tragic if I didn’t learn something from it. “So I practice the art of losing.” Life is about winning and losing, and your losses may many times be more important, because they make you grow. They make you you.
Parallel to this I’ve both lost and gained a lot when it comes to music. I wanted to start studying again after 20 years, and I wanted to do it on the side of making music the same way I have during the same 20 years. I went to law school and soon noticed that there weren’t hours enough on the day to combine the two. So I put the pen to rest for the first time since I picked it up basically. I literally wrote lyrics everyday until now. This transition has affected me deeper than I thought it would. It made me question the identity I took for granted, and took pride in, for so long; that of a musician. Or more precisely, of a rapper. The one constantly at the centre, craving attention, because what I had to say was so important.
This album is about trying to find humbleness, and growth through hard times. It’s also about the joy of being productive again. This last summer, me and Isak’sSon (aka CosMIC from Looptroop Rockers) recorded two whole albums in a feverish creativity rush. This first one, The Art of Losing, is in English and the second one, in Swedish, will be released later this year. I had it all stored up I guess, and when the pressure of prestige was released it just came out naturally.”
I fredags bjöds vi på nya singeln “Dawgmatics”, producerad av bandkollegan Cosmic under producentaliaset Isak’sSon. Promoe beskriver själv låtens innebörd i ett pressutskick:
“Det här är motsättningen i vår arbetsmoral! Å ena sidan jobbar vi dogmatiskt, systematiskt och utan varken början eller slut. Å andra sidan är vi lättjefulla jyckar som bara leker fram musiken.”
Isak’sSon beskriver tänket bakom produktionen:
“Vi har alltid varit dancehall och reggae-fans men på Dawgmatics inspirerades vi av jungle från 90-talets London. Vi älskar den råa och kompromisslösa energin i jungle och den gränslösa känslan som fanns runt genren då den växte fram”.
På “Dawgmatics” hör vi en Proffs-Mårten i sitt esse, med sedvanlig skrytrap och och brinnande engagemang som lovar gott för stundande album. Värt att notera är även Cosmic aka Isak’sSon utveckling på produktionssidan, där han förtjänstfullt arbetat fram skapelser med tydliga kännetecken av det klassiska Looptroop-soundet.
/ Tobias Carlsson
Foto: Matthias Fossum
