If you are a steady reader of our site you need no introduction to ASAAD. For the past couple months he’s been constantly releasing top-notch music for free, readying for an immense year in 2012. He dropped the Dirty Middle Class mixtape in December and today he keeps it moving as we are premiering his most recent banger, “Top Floor” another collaboration with the familiar duo Nascent & QB. Definitely one of the finest songs making our #OTTN project, which will be coming out very soon. Stay tuned and check what ASAAD has to say about his latest masterpiece.
“Top Floor is like an actual story. The rich luxury life, post coital cigarettes, the vividness. I feel like I can see everything on that was Top Floor, thats like the luxury rap shit. Top Floor is Raekwon esque.” – ASAAD
RubyHornet: “Top Floor” is another record with Chicago’s Nacsent and QB (Paint on The Fur, Dirty White Leathers) can you speak on that relationship?
ASAAD: I mean with me Nascent and QB, its really like my manager Ammo, he had sent me some beats, and im real picky with my beats. They were some of the only producers I heard I liked. I don’t care about what people have done, I don’t care what they’ve worked on, it could be some super producers and I’d turn them down. It’s not about the producers name its about the quality. The thing I like about Nascent and QB is they got style for days. I like that hip-hop sound and I felt that feel was missing from music so much because of trap music and whatever quirky alternative shit, I wanted to take it back to the roots with this. So them what really hip-hop can do. That’s how it started, from me liking the Dirty White Leathers beat. Two or three months before I even recorded the song.
RubyHornet: So were all those songs recorded around the same time?
ASAAD: Yeah, I recorded like 50 songs in like 2 months. I don’t really know what day or… I know I recorded Top Floor and Paint on The Fur in like maybe the same session, I don’t know. I really don’t remember at this point but I’m pretty sure they were made in the same weekend. Because they sound so much a like. I got inspired by the Rick Ross, I was reading this GQ interview and he was saying how he doesn’t get that much time to record so he talks ever day like its his last, that’s why a lot of his records sound the same because he did them in the same session. I was like ‘Ok, that’s dope, that’s fresh”, if people like one record they’re going to wanna hear another one that sounds just like it, not exactly like it but that same feel so. Top Floor is like is like my favorite song out of all of them though.
RubyHornet: Why is that?
ASAAD: Because that just goes to show you the reach, some people been working with for a couple of years that I’ve been working with, they happen have like exotic super cars. The Buggati Veyrom, the Frankfurt Auto show edition, the 101 jawn, the one Birdman couldn’t buy. They got it. They had it first, riding out in the Bugatti. I’m literally feeling like a geek because mys music, like I’m from North Philly, where motherf*ckers don’t even have cars. Yet I have the most expensive car in the car world has my music in it. That’s nostalgic to the point where it’s like when I say “My b*tch is drop dead, Bugatti suicide doors” that music is really being played out of a Bugatti Frankfurt auto edition, i don’t even know you’’ have to google that. Shouts out to my nigga Susu (spelling), Jason and Rob yo. I’m telling you that shits wild. That;s why it’s my favorite because, Paint on The Fur was about the story telling thing, like the fiction story. But Top Floor is like an actual story. The rich luxury life, post coital cigarettes, the vividness. I feel like I can see everything on that was Top Floor, that’s like the luxury rap shit. Top Floor is Raekwon esque.
RubyHornet: So how does the Top Floro ascetic match the Dirty Middle Class movement motives, or does it?
ASAAD: See my thing is Dirty Middle Class is Dirty Middle Class and I’m always involved in because, I’m a nigga from the hood as you can see. From North Philly, and I’m not going to say beyond my means but let’s just say I have a higher taste level than most people that I know and live around. Like Walt (Fraize) is more grungy, INI is more dirty, I’m more clean, like (unknown brand of lotion) rap, they probably don’t even wear lotion. That shows the many levels of dirty middle class, It’s not like a bunch of dirty ass kids. It’s like na, we want better. That’s why I said Dirty White Leathers, I want better. I’ve always wanted to indulge in the finest of things, just because I want to have a good life, I’ve been working hard, so I might as well treat myself with the best lotion. If i’m going to spend $68.00 on some midnight recovery to get my skin looking beautiful, I’m going to do that because, as a wise girl once said to me “The face is the largest organ on your body, you should treat it like it’s the best”. So I got to take care of myself man, that’s where that comes from. The Top Floor is a testament to that, like showing you the lotion I’m wearing, the drinks I’m drinking, I’m telling people to be healthy, drink Kambucha, you know what I’m saying. I rock with Top Floor the most.
RubyHornet: Finally Where do you see “Top Floor” in 5-years. Where does it fit in in your catolgoue then?
ASAAD: See my songs, if you notice my cover art never have text. I’m not trying to promote nothing. It’s not advertising to me it’s art. You know. All of my sh*t is dated, so when I record a song my engineer marks that session as to what day I did that song, so it will go in the archives, and it’s for people to enjoy. It’s free music. People are going to appreciate it so much because I’m giving out constant free music, that I spent time on. It’s not like I just rapped over an instrumental. The song “Mikes Cafe” I had string an horn arrangements done. I orchestrated all the shit myself. It’s alot that goes behind this, so these songs are going to last forever. Like people, people, see I’;m getting new fans everyday so it’s always somethings someone hasn’t heard, the fact that I’m being consistent with it… If motherf*ckers are lazy, I’m just saying if your hot rite now and you’re not dropping new music constantly you’re slacking.