Celebration Interrupted
Song Progression I
This is our first song on the album, we previously used AI to determine the Key Elements, Inspiration, Similar Songs and a starting point for the beat and lyrics for the song.
We will now take these components and iterate over those themes and ideas to to produce a beat and hook for the song.
Summary
The upbeat track opens with Pi triumphantly celebrating his career honours through lively hip-hop production and boastful wordplay. However, midway Theta abruptly interrupts his victory lap with a blistering verse attacking his ego.
Her sharp delivery, confrontational lyrics, and aggressive beats create sudden tonal whiplash. As Pi continues the party, Theta seethes with simmering frustration over his accolades. Their duelling emotions heighten the dramatic conflict, Pi's initial celebratory confidence colliding with Theta's harsh questioning.
This musical juxtaposition of styles underscores the collaborators' strained history through a dichotomous soundscape, setting the tone for the album's central tension.
Beats
For this song, we will be sampling Middle Fingers by MISSIO for Pi’s part and Can’t Hold Us Down for Theta’s part,
So let’s interpolate a beat that mixes the beat stylings of Pi, Theta, Middle Fingers and Can’t Hold Us Down.
How did we do this?
We’ve trained a model to capture all of the beats Pi has used in his career as a producer or artist, and his Hip Hop inspirations and have done the same for Theta those songs that inspired her career. We can then use this model to generate a new drum beat, or interpolate the model with other beats to infuse styles together.
It’s very similar to what legendary Jazz drumming instructor Ulysses Owens Jr. does in this video where his years of experience, influences and music understanding has enabled him to create a beat when the drums are removed from a recording.
For technical details, you can refer to this article from Google AI’s Magenta project.
Hook
“I’ll just keep on throwing Middle Fingers in the air” a persistent echo of the MISSIO classic will serve as the hook which Pi will create his rap lyrics around.
We need to make the first introduction of Theta’s part initially jarring to the ear.
Some examples of how this could be done lyrically and with instrumentation comes from these classic songs
"Paranoid Android" by Radiohead - Acoustic serenity shifts into dissonant rock chaos.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen - Operatic interlude ruptures after the ballad section.
"Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin - Changes gears from folk ballad into hard rock theatrics.
"In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins - Iconic drum fill ushers in more intense section.
One way to do this would be a change of tempo and Theta use the sassy line of “You must talk so big, to make up for smaller things“ to sample over pop lyrics in her response. Repeated use of “smaller things” might create a jarring sound for the user which allows the music to shift into the poppier sound for Theta’s contribution.
Here we have our beat now interleaved with the sampled lyrics.
Lyrical Ideas
We now have the skeleton of the song, we’ll circle back to weaving these beats with Lyrics for the Theta and Pi portions of the song after creating the beats for the remaining songs on the album.
Although ChatGPT returned mostly cliche lyrics, here are some lines generated from ChatGPT to get us started relevant to this songs key elements, inspiration, tone and lyrical themes
Pi
Iconic flows, every line a legacy, I am the game, I am my own embassy. They said my era ended, but I'm still on top, Like a phoenix from the ashes, can't be stopped.
Challenge me challengers, step up to the plate, But my skills are sharp, that’s why you hate. Slicing through, a lyrical katana, In the hall of fame, I'll be your Indiana.
Questions my worth, Questions my word, Questions my roots, Questions my breath.
Theta
And I'll stand tall, though your shadows will grow
So let the world hear, let them see