@5thchildmusic Breaks Down #MCWG w/ #TheProcess: "Walkaway Love"

The fourth track on the album "Walkaway Love" is interesting because it's a very true story. I had a real situation with a young lady that prompted this song. I had just gotten off the phone with her ending it by telling me that we should take some time apart. It was definitely a curve ball but rather than posting some Facebook status or anything dramatic like that, I just opened Logic like I always do when I'm having woman trouble.

I picked up this album that I'd been meaning to sample and chopped up this cool piano part.  Before I knew it, about 15 minutes had passed and I had the whole beat laid out. While I was making it, I started mumbling this hook to the melody "It's okay, love. You can walk away, love." It started as just a simple chant and i didn't want it to be anymore complex than that. Once I had the hook and the concept, it took no time to write the verses. Really about 20 minutes.

I went ahead and did a dry run of the vocals so I could memorize the lyrics and re-record everything later. Once I got to the rerecording phase of the album, I was never able to recapture the same feeling like the original so I just kept the 1st take of the song. It's the real initial reaction where I'm reading the words off the page that you're hearing on the album. I guess you could say this is the most "raw/natural" song on the album. Inspired, produced, written, recorded, and mixed all within about 2 hours.

#TheProcess #MyConversationsWithGod #5thChild #WalkawayLove

@5thchildmusic Breaks Down #MCWG w/ #TheProcess: "Motherless Child"

The third track on the album "Motherless Child" was fortunately/unfortunately the first track that was recorded for this album. It pretty much set the standard sonically and lyrically for this project. My intention was to make every song that came after better  than "Motherless Child."

It's basically about developing a thick skin when facing hardships. I discuss a lot of stuff on the song such as hearing hateful words from someone that I loved to rejection to frustration with an oppressive culture, etc. I needed 3 verses to vent apparently, lol. Yet, I knew that I didn't want the entire album to take this tone so I just told myself to "get it out now and then let it go." All artists can understand how putting a problem in a tangible form sometimes takes away it's power over you. That was the intent here.

I probably spent more time on this beat than any other one on the album because I chopped up the vocals so much and added extra instrumentation including strings, synths, piano solos, etc. I honestly hate the title of the song but I couldn't think of anything better to call it. Ah well... lol

#TheProcess #MyConversationsWithGod #5thChild #MotherlessChild #5thchildmusic

@5thchildmusic Breaks Down #MCWG w/ #TheProcess: "What You Need"

The second track on the album and the first single "What You Need" was really special because I got to work with one of my heroes, Lionel Crawford. I grew up listening to cassette tapes full of beats that he used to make. Fast forward about 20 years, I found out he was living in Jackson again and I stopped by his studio to check out some new stuff he'd been working on. About 3 tracks in, this beat comes on with these military-esque drums and a choir singing these apocalyptic notes and immediately I just knew 'Yeah, that one."
I rode around a couple of days listening to just the beat because I rarely get time to just sit and write. I was on a long road trip for work and just had a playlist of the beats for the album as I would try to think of hooks. I started doing adlibs to the beat like "Uh... yea... Yo... Yea... Whatcha need." And then i just kept saying that over and over... "Whatcha need." Then I wrote the rest of the hook in my head and hurried back to work so I could write it on paper.
Once I had the concept, the song only took about 15 minutes to write. (I HAVE to have a concept). Because I didn't make the beat, I didn't have any idea of the format so I just wrote one really long verse. It was kind of meant to be an anti-"Hometown" (from Pianos in the Dark).
Once the record was finished I sent it to Melvin C. Robinson because I saw that he was running a deal to shoot videos and I saw what he'd done for Skipp Coon. I had the idea to do the comparison with the candy and the drugs a long time before we shot the video but I wasn't sure about it because someone told me that it might come off cheesy or people might not get it. We shot the video in a day and he took about a week to edit it. It came out better than I'd even envisioned it.
I always perform this track acapella because of the gasps and reactions that the lyrics get. There are always so many words in my songs and the beats have a lot going on so sometimes the actual meanings and sarcasm can get lost in the shuffle. I remember performing it...uh... somewhere and Michael Milnick suggested that I make it the first single. A lot of people have told me that it's there favorite track on the album. Gotta respect ‪#‎TheProcess‬ ‪#‎MyConversationsWithGod‬ ‪#‎WhatYouNeed‬ #5thChild #5thChildMusic

@5thchildmusic Breaks Down #MCWG w/ #TheProcess: "My Conversations..."

The first track, "My Conversations..." was produced by Traxx On Deck and features a soundbyte from the movie Fresh. It's one of the most powerful scenes in the movie IMO. The song was really based on these real life conversations that Brett Johnson and I have all the time about not really having a blueprint to follow to achieve success in the music industry. In the movie clip, Sam Jackson is playing Fresh's dad and is just telling him that he's going to have to suck it up and face these challenges without waiting for someone to hold your hand anymore. At the same time, sometimes I feel like God has been preparing me for every situation that I encounter and I can't get scared now. I have to do what he built me to do.

"Only Family Matters. Forget Friends. When ya Boy Meets World, finds Life ain't a sitcom, Superman on Krypton. Misfit. Folks that I lived with couldn't see me getting on."

‪#‎TheProcess‬ ‪#‎MyConversationsWithGod‬ ‪#‎5thChild‬ ‪#‎5thchildmusic‬

5th Child Releases 7th Album: My Conversations with God

On October 17th, 5th Child released his 7th solo album, My Conversations with God. This 12-track LP is produced entirely by 5th with the exception of three songs. My Conversations with God features fellow Mississippi artists 7evenThirty, Kerry Thomas, Eunice, and Drew McKercher. The album is available on all major online distributors including iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Tidal, etc. Hard copies are available for purchase by contacting: 5thchildmusic@gmail.com.