Conrad Clifton is an artist who blends sounds in unique and daring ways. The Brooklyn-based, label-owning producer brings hip-hop and electronic music together in an eloquent manner – one which tells a tale through each tune, and illuminates the souls of those who come across and feel what he’s evoking.
We’ve been following Conrad for some time now, and he’s vastly evolved over the past year alone. His most recent project, Time, is an EP based around the single of the same name from his preceding album, Beautiful Tragedy. It’s also a solid extension of where the album itself leaves off – especially when both are played back-to-back. Conrad and I got in touch to discuss the EP, some of his past work, and the combining of the electronic and hip-hop realms into what we hear from him today.
From start to finish, It’s like everything is made of little pieces from that combination, and fleshed out into full songs.
What led to Time being created?
On the Beautiful Tragedy album, [the song] was definitely one of my favourites, and one of the songs that I felt didn’t get as much exposure as the rest of the singles that came out. That was always something that I wanted to highlight, because it was, in my opinion, that perfect combination of experimental electronic music, and modern rap. That’s why I put together an EP that was kinda spaced to that whole combination specifically. From start to finish, It’s like everything is made of little pieces from that combination, and fleshed out into full songs.
I wanted to continue the Beautiful Tragedy album, so I made something that you can play right after Beautiful Tragedy, and I thought that it would be a dope way to continue that vibe.
This was, to me, the final piece of the package for Beautiful Tragedy. I don’t really see myself packaging any other songs that way. I just wanted to create a continuation, and a final “puzzle piece” to the whole thing, with this EP.
Do you have a favourite track from the EP in particular?
I go back and forth between ‘Kneel Da Grass/Tight Son‘ and ‘Kylo‘, since they are two very different tracks, and they live in two very separate worlds, with the “tech house” vs. “heavy trap/future bass-inspired” sounds. Those are two totally separate worlds, but I feel like somehow, I was able to bring them into the same space and make them make sense. So definitely one of those two.
[‘H.E.R. (Tattoo)’] takes the crowd into a whole different headspace, and everybody zones out with me.
Outside of the EP, do you have an all-time favourite tune that you created?
I really like ‘H.E.R. (Tattoo)’. I don’t get to play it as much as I would like to, when I go out and perform – but whenever I do play that song live, it takes the crowd into a whole different headspace, and everybody zones out with me. That song pulls on your spirit a little bit, and I believe that people connect with it a lot. That’s probably one of my favourites outside of the EP – that, or ‘Blackliight‘ – which came out a while ago, like years ago… but it’s still got that vibe.
Can you tell us a bit about Infinity Pool Recordings?
I created Infinity Pool Recordings to give a platform to what I’m trying to push, which is the connection of electronic music and hip-hop. Also, I haven’t been able to fit into what labels are necessarily releasing over the years – I’ve gotten a lot of ‘no’s in regards to people wanting to release things and support things, so I’ve had to release things and support myself. In doing that, I’ve basically learned everything that it takes, from distribution, to contracts, to playlist placement, promotion, marketing, and all that kind of stuff. I figured I would just go ahead and take all of these skills and put it to good use, and create a label myself.
That started a little over a year ago, and it’s been very good – and I’m also starting to put out other artists. I’ve got a few things in the works, and you’ll see more of what we’re talking about here: that marriage of electronic music and hip-hop.
…Hip-hop is always the main influence, and then experimental electronic music is like the technique, or “seasoning in the cake”, you might say.
Would you say you have any sort of general influences for your music?
Yeah, definitely! Everything usually comes from a hip-hop kind of foundation, because that’s been my main influence for as long as I can remember, really. But hip-hop is always the main influence, and then experimental electronic music is like the technique, or “seasoning in the cake”, you might say. *laughs* It always starts with a hip-hop foundation. But, being able to experiment with all of these new technologies and music plug-ins and different digital workstations, that’s when you get into the experimental electronic side, where you can literally create anything you could imagine.
Also, the experimental aspect of it brings things that you wouldn’t have ever thought of. I like to just try things out and see how they come out, and then create things that way.
Who would you say are some of your favourite artists in either genre?
There’s too many, there’s too many! I could just go on forever – I’m gonna try to narrow it down. I’ll definitely say in the world of J Dilla, Flying Lotus, Hudson Mohawke – which is a set of certain sounds. When we get into rappers, we’re talking Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Kid Cudi – and that’s a whole sound right there. Also, I’ve been listening to a lot of Smokepurpp lately as well. I wouldn’t say he’s one of my favourite artists, but the whole modern hip-hop sound, I’m lovin’ right now. And then, in electronic music, people that I aspire towards are Bonobo, and Four Tet.
Now, I love that you can find whatever you want, whatever niche sound is your thing, and it’s just all out there for you. It’s super-easy to get anything that you love. I really love and appreciate that. I’m so happy with music and technology; the marriage between music and technology right now is really, really beautiful to me.
What would you say is next for Conrad?
Hopefully, I’ll be putting together a tour this summer, or at least in the fall. I would love to visit all these cities, states, countries that have been showing me so much love, online and on Spotify. I look at all that data, and see who’s been playing what, and who’s really loving it; I would love to go and visit these places and play. So I really wanna get a tour going, and do this live, and just connect with more people – that’s what I really wanna do. But, other than that, I’ll be focused on finishing up projects for Infinity Pool, and releasing some more stuff for new artists that I’m working with in the next few months.
…Yeah, I’ll be busy.
