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No Matter What

by Jackson Whalan

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Music video on Youtube: youtu.be/EZ9gNm4ruoo

“No Matter What” is a prime example of a serious problem that every artist in every medium faces. How do we know when something is finished or if it’s even worth sharing publicly?

The truth is: we don’t know. We just decide to share it. Or we don’t. It’s the decision that makes it complete. Everyone can chime in with their opinion. We can let our inner-critic or others’ opinions shelve our music, but in the end, it’s about our decision to call it done and put it out.

I started this song almost ten years ago when I was still living in Brooklyn, NY after graduating from The New School around 2013-2014. I had some rhymes on it that I wasn’t happy with at all, so it just sat there on an old hard drive. Years went by and one day I needed to find a missing file on that hard drive. Of course, when I listened to music that I hadn’t heard in so long, I become fascinated with it. That’s how I re-discovered this abandoned song. It’s like all the time that went by just made all my criticisms of it go away. All those things that I’m super critical of when I create something, end up not really mattering as much after so many years go by.

I was in love with the beat. It’s one of a few times in my music production where I feel like I achieved that classic hip-hop vibe that I love. I produce all my beats in Ableton. I layered breaks with drum sounds and put sounds from my visit to India into the melody and added some instrumentation.

Flash to 2020-2021. I copied the project onto my current drive and started buttoning up the production, completely scrapping the rhymes that were recorded already. I started focusing on the lyrics. I’ve always wanted to rhyme like this, just straight lyrical bars that aren’t about one thing. I’ve been swayed in other directions with songwriting in the past, but this one just really brought me back to what I love about hip-hop. I love just speaking my mind, boasting, and operating with pure confidence. I wrote and re-wrote the lyrics, re-recorded, second-guessed everything, mixed it, called it done, and then sent it over to the U.K. to my mastering engineer, Bob Macc. Bob has been mastering my music for almost ten years now. He said this might be his favorite tune of mine.

lyrics

I do this cuz I have to
No matter what I'm trusting my gut
And making beats to rap to
I do this cuz I have to
I'm coming at you
With rhymes that will blast you
No matter what

Various clowns trying to be tearing me down
Cuz I'm getting more spins than merry go rounds
I'm walking up in the room and they're staring me down
Cuz they're seeing I got a purpose and I carry it out
Success is one thing I'm very about
Doing this for my people and I'm sharing the clout
Haters are feeling threatened getting scared and they pout
In this rap game you never know how it's gonna shake out
My rhymes squash doubt never anything less than
Telling my story like a book that's sitting on your bed stand
I'm out in the woods where it's nothing but dense land
Pitching and I'm hitting while you sitting on the bench man
Couldn't strike me out even with your best plan
Still need skill even if you got the best brand
Crowd shouting I just hit a grand slam
Covering all the bases that's just who I am

I do this cuz I have to
No matter what I'm trusting my gut
And making beats to rap to
I do this cuz I have to
I'm coming at you
With rhymes that will blast you
No matter what
I do this cuz I have to
No matter what I'm trusting my gut
And making beats to rap to
I do this cuz I have to
I'm coming at you
With rhymes that will blast you
No matter what

I'm un-debatably unrated never looking
Back thinking I might have made it if I wasn't isolated
Dealing with the facts I'm un-faded and unabated
Excelling fast cuz grinding daily is my staycation
Getting inspected like a truck at a weigh station
Though my moment is belated I've learned to stay patient
All the hating you can save it sit back and watch me make it
Don't mistake it it's a full-time operation
Waves oscillating flow fully concentrated
Pour rhymes like orange juice tight cuz I tore it loose
Paying dues to Hip Hop's propagation
While you coming up short like the emancipation proclamation
I spit bars you at bars chugging booze
I'm up at dawn doing drills while you snore and snooze
Sleeping is a choice and that's yours to choose
But how hard can you work when you can afford to lose?

I do this cuz I have to
No matter what I'm trusting my gut
And making beats to rap to
I do this cuz I have to
I'm coming at you
With rhymes that will blast you
No matter what

credits

released January 21, 2022
Produced, written, recorded, and mixed by Jackson Whalan
Mastered by Bob Macc (Subvert Central Mastering)

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Jackson Whalan

Recording artist and producer from the woods.

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