Wave Chapelle is heading into the weekend with brand new music.
The rapper, who hails from the north side of Milwaukee, is ready to drop is New Wave EP, which is officially out Friday, but he's giving Variance an early listen of the project, which follows his past offerings such as his It’ll All Make Sense Soon mixtapes and his Only the Beginning release.
The seven-track project includes the EP's title track, a fiery standout, as well as Chapelle's previously released single "In the Morning."
Check out a Q+A with Chapelle as well as the full stream of the EP below.
Walk us through the journey of the project.
I’ve been working on this project since March. I traveled between Milwaukee and Memphis recording songs with my favorite producer/engineers: my homie Coldway in Memphis and my homie Ridley Bronson in Milwaukee. Traveling between the two states just gave me inspiration to write. Also, going through real life things, losing friends, family members, going out, having fun, meeting new people. You know, the highs and lows of life inspired a lot of the content. We ended up recording about 30 songs all together, but I ended up picking the ones that perfectly fit the sound I was going for.
What's the meaning of New Wave as the title?
The title basically represents what I’m bringing to the world, a new wave of music. I call the sound “New Wave Hip-Hop"; it's basically up-to-date production and raps that sound very fresh but still have elements from classic hip-hop. Mashing soul samples with 808's and synths with raps that are more focused on bars and cadences than melody. I truly feel it's a new sound that no one is doing right now. Being different and not being afraid to take a different approach. It seems difficult for artist specifically rappers to approach songs differently these days because they want to be accepted so they conform or compromise what they truly what to bring to the game. So this is me, not conforming, truly bringing a New Wave.
We hear you already have a new project lined up?
Facts! I got mad songs left. Like I said, I recorded up to about 30 songs, probably more; they’re all really great songs. So after I picked the seven songs out for this project, I went ahead and start putting the next one together as well. I don’t have a name or date for it yet, but that’ll be coming soon as well.
