Stream: Nocando, ‘Alaska’

Andrew Veeder on October 1st, 2015

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Los Angeles rapper and Low End Theory resident Nocando, née James McCall, hadn’t released any new music in a year until Wednesday, when he dropped a new track called “Alaska.” On his Soundcloud page, he explains, “I wrote this for a friend as a gift. He took it as a slight or a diss and since then our relationship has never been the same.” Produced by Nate Fox, the moody piano-driven beat is propelled with dark synth tones and echoing percussion, with Nocando beginning his hook with the often-used stereotypical line, “I fell in love with a stripper, she fell in a love with a rapper,” but finishes it out with the metaphorical, “Ain’t no happily after ever, n*gga, I’m Alaska / I’m cold and I’m lonely / Keep my enemies close and I feel distant from my homies.” Other gems of wordplay include, “I’m sorry for the confusion / I know no man is an island, I never had those illusions / What the f*ck in god’s name of sam hell was I doing / Fixing small town problems with big city solutions,” and, “My sense of self in ruins / I read some self-help books and made some senseless self improvements.”

||| Stream: “Alaska”