Sumthin’ Wicked this Way Comes: Dissecting Sleep Paralysis w/ BbyMutha
As a Chattanooga-born rapper, the bloodline of Three 6 Mafia seeps into the fabric of BbyMutha’s music. The deep horror movie influence on early Memphis rap is translated into this ominous sonic abyss she creates on her newest album, sleep paralysis. The sophomore LP delivers new layers of performance and experiments even further with her alternative sound, her cadence switches, and her darker imagery. Fused with a bit of punk, UK-grunge and house, producers such as Foisey, Bon Music Vision, and Kilder come together to paint a fantastic new sonic landscape for her — more hectic and haunting, more electronic and gritty.
The album feels like the loudest inescapable nightmare, layered with verbose instrumentation and a more garage-type sound. The drums are so interesting throughout the album, really showing out on songs like “lines”. Something in her sound has been turned up a few notches. While BbyMutha stays in the pocket, sleep paralysis finds her bending and stretching her delivery in ways I love. “rich” feels so space-y and electric, but her twang and this country cadence still comes straight through.
sleep paralysis truly is the culmination of her best work. The colorful album art directly references her childhood, where she first struggled with sleep paralysis. And as dark as the album feels, it’s still quite colorful in sound. Each song is colored with a different hue of dusk. There’s spooky sonic undertones coupled with braggadocious and sexy lyrical overtones. Made for the people who grew up loving Gangsta Boo and La Chat and liked dressing a little bit goth. I think that’s the best way to describe why I love BbyMutha’s music. She remains wickedly, colorfully, and flavorfully dark.
She’s proven that her creativity knows no bounds. She’s one of the only rappers right now that’s constantly putting out that much new AND different music. She adventures into new territory and always lands on a beautiful new discovery of self and sound. A true mad scientist. With this being her full-length debut with independent label True Panther Records, sleep paralysis forces people to move away from her past selves and receive her as she is now.
My Top Songs (but i really like them all)
- lines
- ghostface
- gun kontrol
- rich
I was able to sit down and discuss more with BbyMutha at the Chicago stop on her sleep paralysis tour.
…
How has tour been so far?
BbyMutha: This tour has been great. I’ve been having so much fun. I’m a little tired, but it’s kind of different, it feels bigger for some reason. Like this era feels fuller.
I remember reading that the sound of this album is inspired by when you were in the UK for a tour. Was there anything specific that inspired a new sound?
BM: Yeah — it was really the vibe of the city, the clubs I was going to, and the places I was hanging out. I was doing some really cool things for fashion week while I was out there. Got to go to some cool parties and just like, experience UK nightlife.
How long were you there?
BM: So, I was on tour for like almost two months. Then I spent three weeks in London working on the album. I made it, but I sat on it. The album is really three years old now. I sat on it waiting for an opportunity to have somebody to actually put some money behind it a little bit. So yeah, in the time in between I was just releasing stuff because I didn’t want to just give into the void of bandcamp, you know?
You usually self-release your work, so how was that switch working with label backing?
BM: To be honest I didn’t enjoy it… It was an independent label, but I felt like there was a lot they didn’t understand about me as an artist. And it’s not like they were necessarily trying to make me do stuff that I didn’t want to do, it was that they didn’t give me enough money to have certain input on certain stuff. If what I want doesn’t make sense to you, then why did you sign me as an artist? Like at first they said the cover didn’t make sense. It’s just like how can that not make sense if you listen to what I’m telling you the album is about…I don’t think the experience was worth it, but I am happy with what we put out. So I guess at the end of the day that’s all that matters. You’re not going to always have the best time at work.
So for future releases, do you think you really want to keep the creative control?
BM: Well, I think what I’m learning now is that I probably will be more interested in doing distribution deals versus actual record deals. And hopefully if these keep going the way they do, I can keep flipping this tour shit. If I can make money off the tour to fund my own project, and not have to pay no one back? That would be so great. That’s really what I would do for myself. I wouldn’t feel like I needed a label or needed help if I could just figure out how to get to a place where I’m financially stable enough to spend the money that I feel needs to be spent on. My art — it’s just the business of everything yeah I don’t know. Sometimes, I just want to quit for real.
My shit always fell into the wrong hands. Managers they end up finding me and wanting to come into my life and fuck it up. Just weird people that will gravitate towards you because they see that you have something going on, and it makes it frustrating. I’m having to deal with people all the time, and they also don’t have the funds to do it. It’s so crazy when you have something in your head and you don’t have the time or the money to produce it. And then somebody does it, and now it’s just like damn but I was gonna do that. If you do it now people are gonna be like “Well you copied this big, famous bitch,” Well she has all this money! That’s the most frustrating shit, not being able to fund the dream that you see in your head. It feels like it always falls flat, you know? Yeah.
Would music be the main focus? Or are there other things that if you had the money to do so, you would do?
BM: So, I went to school for fashion design. Like, I don’t even know how I ended up making music. At the time I went to school, I was kind of destroyed mentally. Like, I was living with my kids father, abusing each other and it was just so much. When I had to crawl back home I just felt destroyed. And after that, I got pregnant with my baby twins. Then I said, fuck… I have to do something. People were really fucking with my early releases, so I thought I’d try again and see where that’ll go. And I’ve been doing it ever since. And I love it, I love making music. I love touring. I love traveling. I love everything about this, except for the business side. But if not music, I’d probably be a fashion designer.
So, talking about your album, sleep paralysis — you dealt with that as a child? How did it inspire the sound, or the writing?
BM: I wanted the album to sound very dream-like, and kind of spooky and shit. I wanted it to sound like 3 o’clock in the morning.
I heard you used to be in a group called Money Over Niggas. I was wondering when you were in that group, growing up in Chattanooga, what type of rappers did you listen to? What made you want to rap?
BM: It was Gucci. It was Three 6. It was Gangsta Boo, La Chat, and then it was Nicki Minaj for a minute. Because Nicki Minaj came through and was on some bisexual shit, you know what I’m saying? That was new for me. Especially being raised as a Christian child. You have these feelings, and you have these ideas. You don’t know how to talk about it because your mom is going to tell you that you’re a demon if you even try to talk about it. Nicki woke something up in me. For a while, 18 to 20, I was a true Barbie. Used to put the pink streaks in the back of my hair, everything.
Do you ever go through a creative block with writing or creating? How do you get through that?
BM: I don’t know. It used to be… it used to be so crazy. I would be blocked and then I would just masturbate. Then I would be fine! Lol, and then that stopped working so then I started experimenting with psychedelics. It would almost clean my brain and I’d have like a fresh notepad in my head. And now that doesn’t work. Now, the only way to get inspired is just to live. Like I feel so inspired right now on tour, and so much is happening and I’m doing things. When I’m home sitting in the house looking at TV and shit, I don’t feel inspired to write at all.
Where do you wanna go in terms of your sound? Do you want to branch out to more artists and producers, or are you keeping it in your circle?
BM: I do wanna keep it between me and my people. The next album that I’m working on right now — I already have the name for it. I’m trying to experiment with classical music a little bit, like rapping over classical music. So that’s what I’m currently gearing up to work on. But I also do have a project that I’m going to put out before I put out another album, and it’s an EP based off of like the Goosebumps books. Like all of the beats are named after a Goosebumps book.
What?! That’s hard.. I love that
BM: Yeah, that’s all I’m working on at the moment.
What song from sleep paralysis is your current favorite right now?
BM: ghostface.
So since that’s your favorite right now, if you had to put that one song in a playlist of 3 to 4 others of the same vibe, what would you put? What feels like “ghostface” to you?
BM: Hmm- So Dis Bitch, Dat Hoe by Three 6 Mafia featuring Ludacris for one. What’s that Nicki Minaj song? ‘I am not Jasmine. I am Aladdin.’ [Roman’s Revenge] that’s two. Then I gotta do Meg, because Meg likes spooky shit. Uh-huh. Then, it’s this band named Kittie, they have this song called Brackish — that song is definitely one of the songs that I was listening to when I made “lines”.
Go stream sleep paralysis this Halloween! 🎃
