Chris DeLine

Blackbird Blackbird is a California-based producer who churns out music described by Nialler9 as “reverb-heavy” “dream pop jams,” and I Guess I’m Floating as “sunny, idyllic dreamwave.” Star Slinger is a UK-based producer who creates a sound which Dazed Digital has called “heavily rooted in the fundamental laws of hip-hop.” Emay is an Ontario-based producer and MC who has “a way with words and lets loose thoughts that seem like they’ve been internalized and scratching at the door waiting to be freed” (Pigeons & Planes). Together, the trio of like-minded beat-makers has gathered for the creation of the Seeing Suge collective. In this edition of Influenza, Emay explains the formation of the trio, the internet’s role in bringing them together, and the idea behind his lyrics for “Breaking,” the first single from the group’s forthcoming digital cassette titled Collaborations.

Seeing Suge pretty much started when my dude Star Slinger showed me his remix of the song “Lately” by Memoryhouse. Although I’m a big fan of his work, I’m usually not inclined to just write for every single dope beat I hear. It has to be the type of instrumental that tingles my spine from beginning to end. So, in other words, I loved it a lot. I listened to the instrumental for about a week before I started writing to it, just to let it sink in, and it sunk deep. Although my lyrics are obviously themed around “Breaking,” you’d probably assume it’s about me breaking up with a girl, but it’s actually about me “Breaking” up with apart of myself.

At first me, Mikey (Blackbird) and Darren (Star Slinger) were simply messing around when we thought of naming ourselves Seeing Suge after we’d watched a freestyle by UK rapper Giggs. It’s a freestyle promoted by Tim Westwood, and me and my friends would always quote lines from it as a joke, so as we were sharing funny videos with one another, this line made us laugh the most, “They only seeing bad, but I’m doing good/I’m on my P. Diddy ting, but they seeing Suge!/At the BET awards, chillin in the hood.” The thing that amazes me, and I’m sure I speak for the other guys to, is that this track wouldn’t of happened if I didn’t randomly stumble upon Mikey’s MySpace page earlier this year.

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]