Every genre has its soppy moments. Even death metal and extratone can get all emotional at times and dubstep is rife with romantically-inclined vocal songs.
But the spiky, brittle, headbanging badness of riddim has yet to have its ballads or heartfelt sessions… Until now as this week sees Oddprophet bless the riddim world with its first dedicated love number.
Riddim Love Song isn’t a combination of words you often see together (if at all) but it’s a certainly a combination of sounds you need to hear together. Not only does it involve the young Never Say Die artist’s epic, urgent production, but it also features voices and messages from fans in the form of voicemail messages.
does any girl here want me to write them a riddim love song cos i actually will
— oddprophet ? riddim lov song ? (@oddprophet) July 19, 2019
What started off as an interesting experiment on Twitter last summer developed into something much bigger with a jokes dating site page to upload your recordings and, eventually, this…
Moved by these dear dedications – even the one that calls him a slag – we called up Oddprophet for a little more smooth talk. This one goes out to all you lovers out there…
What inspired this?
Twitter and the music I was listening to at the time. Occasionally, I like to listen to a little bit of emo rap and felt inspired to write something equally as sad and emotional. I then went on to Twitter to express my disappointment as to why there are no love songs in riddim, as a joke of course. But it seemed like since I brought up the idea, my followers thought it would be fitting for me to create the first one. And here we are, I guess.
It’s not often you get to collaborate with people who support your music in this way. Was it fun?
Making a tacky dating site was a lot of fun, with fake adverts and a glittery heart as a cursor was the icing on the cake. Having the fans contribute to the track is just a good way to give back. I’m sure the selection of voicemails I used will pleasantly surprise the original submitters when they hear themselves in the song. Thanks to everyone that submitted and took part!
Have you used clips just as they are? Or have you processed the audio?
You can do a nifty trick with an equaliser to simulate the timbre of a phone call. Band pass cut the lows and highs and boost at around 3khz. There’s a preset inside the EQ in FL Studio that can get a similar effect. I also added some tape noise and vinyl effects to set the mood! You hear a lot of emo rap artists put voicemails at the start of their ballads, usually from wistful ex-girlfriends or current ones.
Have you had any jokes submissions?
Of course. I got everything on there. Ones confessing their love for me, one calling me a slag, farts, and other noises that I hope weren’t real. It wasn’t supposed to be that serious but some of these messages were actually very emotionally deep.
What will YOU be doing this Valentine’s day?
I’m actually going on my first valentine’s day date ever. Like, ever ever. My girlfriend and I are going to see Oliver Smith perform in London that night for a bit of a romantic trance rave. While not usually my vibe, after being shown his music I’m dead excited to go, plus she’s been waiting ages to see him live.
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