The music, rhymes and flow of Chicago-based rapper, singer
and multi-instrumentalist Frankie
Carrera represent an introspective and surreal aural journey--a hazy
time-lapse portrait of survival, grit and grace, hauntingly captured on his
official self-titled debut. Imagine regaining consciousness, washed up
on a Cabo San Lucas shoreline, face down, sand in your teeth, beaten with your
wallet and belongings gone, with severe neck and spine trauma: Injuries you
don't even detect right away for all the adrenaline pumping through your
system, mysteries clouding your mind, and anger steadily rising to test the
gauge of your emotional content and character.
Mere hours before, you were celebrating your return to
Mexico's party capital, about to share a sold-out Saturday show days later with
superstar Waka Flocka Flame at the legendary El Squid Roe, a double-bill that
you as a co-promoter were bringing to town. After leaving a small bar near the
Marina with a Texas dream girl on your arm and three others, suddenly the last
thing you remember is running. This is ground zero for the seven songs of Frankie Carrera. Pulsing at the
center of this feverish and sensuous offering is the cyclical dichotomy of
sweet dreams and bitter reality, propelled by the audacity to maintain hope and
faith.
Frankie Carrera
boasts hallucinogenic tracks produced by aural illustrators Bread Doe, Yuya Michael Ohashi, and Millz, among others--swimming in
synths and sound effects yet punctuated with the live instrumentation of piano
and trumpet. Short songs in which vivid verses burst out of the Andy Kravitz mastered tracks that keep
the listener steadily pushing rewind, submerged into the mindset of a man
piecing his puzzle back together.
"I felt like this was what everyone would want to
hear," Carrera states. "I was in a recording studio after my surgery
in a neck brace on Percocet, stiffened up by a permanent screw in my spine and
out of my element. Bread Doe assured me, 'No, this is it. I can hear your pain.
This is your Through The Wire moment.'" This studio session
resulted in the track "Medication." "Making this music takes me
back to Mexico. Coming home from paradise to Chicago where these streets don't
ever change with folks dying every single day, I turn my nightmares into
dreams," Carrera states. "The experience gave me a bitter taste of
the world. So I said I'm going to ground myself, regroup out in L.A. and come
back with something real that my fans will appreciate and respect. I could
have just faded away but I came back even better with a sound that is
shocking."
The lead single, "Noche," waxes poetic of drowning
one's sorrows in a blissful night of debauchery with a mystery woman and
features a verse from guest artist Khalil.
The video, directed by LOUIEKNOWS,
is an arresting introduction to a heady meditation on recovery. Other
highlights include "Godly," featuring Ezkiel, "More Than This" and the intensely evocative
"Cold Summer," with singer Kaye
Fox.
Carrera, as well as his younger sister were born in
Chicago to a loving mother and father, the latter a drummer in a traveling
Spanish rock band. He grew up with Sinatra and Santana simultaneously in his
ears. One day around the age of eight, Carrera heard Eminem's "Stan"
in his dad's car and was transfixed by the Detroit rap maverick's voice and
delivery. "I thought what he was doing was so cool and wanted to rap like
that." Carrera's cousin Beto continued his education keeping Carrera fed
on hip-hop staples from Biggie to 2Pac, but Carrera was also obsessed with
music from his mother's classical piano lessons as well as playing drums in
high school. His dream became to blend musicianship with hip-hop as he started
posting up in Westside and Southside Chicago recording studios, soaking up the
finer points of his craft. Engineers Eric
Welton and Na'el Yusef Shehade,
who worked in the studio with Chance The Rapper, saw potential in Carrera and
were profoundly encouraging.
Since 2009, Carrera has been building his reputation making
experimental mix-tapes such as Colder Than Chicago, Rookies to
Legends, and Opulence--which he dropped from his hospital bed after
the incident--and No Bad Days, which was released with a GoPro shot
companion video at his favorite place of Cabo during spring break two years
prior to the incident. Carrera also wrote and recorded a verse on Cyhi The
Prynce's "Flower in the Attic," was featured on Crooked I's
"Don't Close Your Eyes," and has recorded and produced with James
Thomas (a.k.a. YB, ghostwriter/voice of Kanye West's Grammy® Award-nominated
song "Mercy").
Carrera has come back from his near-death experience with
agitated creative energy to burn, grabbing his second chance by the horns.
"My story is a kid from 'Chi' who's seen it all from the bad neighborhoods
where it's treacherous to be out after 9pm, to the vibrancy of the music scene.
My Mexican heritage plays a definite part in the sound of my music. There
should be more people opening doors for our culture. There's lots of talent in
Chicago (Gotham City) but I focus on my own sound, which is for everybody, coming
from my own unique space."
Overcoming the defining moment that took place in Cabo has
only helped fuel Carrera's passion and progression as an artist. The self-titled debut tells a tale
of resilience and the ability to prevail even during the most troubling
experiences. Although that night tested Carrera's character, he used that pain
to ignite his desire to create and bring into existence a distinctive and
compelling soundscape.
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