They're like, 'Hey, can I use this song on my project now?' Yeah, sure. Usually for other artists is more awkward. Is it different working with people when it's your project compared to when you're making beats for people? Is it different writing for Earl, to when Earl is guesting on something you've done? And then it's really just an afterthought: OK, now I can put this together and see if something works in like a sort of cohesive way. I just let myself create and whatever comes out is what comes out. I just like making and creating whatever I feel at that moment and then that's how my projects usually come together. How did you decide on the vibe for Oblivion ? Your discography is super varied, from rap to techno to hardcore. And at a point it felt like OK, this tells a story and is cohesive and it brings everyone together, kind of on the same page. I wasn't really planning on doing it this way, but I guess when quarantine started, I just started putting tracks together and made kind of a story around the tracks that I had. It was really just a lot of my friends, so it came together pretty naturally. We caught up with Mansel ahead of its release to talk creativity in lockdown, Detroit’s abiding influence, and his perfect skate soundtrack.Ĭan you talk me through the project a little bit? How did this record come together and what makes this album different to some of the stuff you've done previously? But Mansel used lockdown to assemble one of the year’s best rap records, Oblivion, a typically wide-ranging record that touches on everything from ghettotech to J Dilla-esque soul, and features an array of close friends and collaborators who just happen to be some of the most exciting and innovative rappers in the game, including fellow Detroiter Danny Brown, Bbymutha, MIKE and Earl himself. Two years on the road with Earl’s crew came to an abrupt halt earlier this year. “Detroit is where I come back to for inspiration, so it's always going to be there. “I have seen a lot of places over the past few years, but Detroit is always the root,” says Rob Mansel, whose peripatetic music under the guise Black Noi$e has touched on everything from hardcore punk to pneumatic techno to smoked-out rap as producer and tour DJ for Earl Sweatshirt. There’s a lineage to live up to, but there’s also no expectation to conform. To young artists in the Motor City, that legacy is equal parts pressure and inspiration.
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