A product of Chicago’s music filled Puerto Rican community. PAPITO RED is a music producer, publisher, mixer, remixer, vocalist, and composer. Born into a Latin gospel singing and recording household, he was exposed immediately to the elements of music and life in the recording studio. PAPITO RED decided to study abroad and moved to his parent’s homeland. While obtaining a degree in communications, he spent twelve years perfecting his skills in visual art and music before returning to the windy city. His debut 10 track album “Way of the Freq (Trap Edition) [Instrumental]”, is meant to reflect his past living environments.
The sounds of PAPITO RED are ready to infiltrate spheres of music large and small. The eclectic producer, who’s toiled away in earnest for several years preparing his official debut, emerges in 2019 with a cinematic, handcrafted sound that possesses a glowing radiance despite its density.
What PAPITO is doing, feels, especially in the realm of hip-hop, new – a word that the genre has prized as a perpetual goal since the legion of bedroom producers began to flood the market with cloned loops and samples a few years ago.
The lifespan of new instrumental sounds in hip-hop is incongruous and more often than not brutally short-lived, but bemoaning it is a waste of time. This is simply how things work now. A central talking point around PAPITO RED’s beats is that they are designed to be exactly as they are.
Which mean they contain all the necessary elements to convey a narrative, without the need for wordy bars or melodic hooks. In short, they speak for themselves. The strongest moments of “Way of the Freq (Trap Edition) [Instrumental]” confirm that PAPITO is in complete possession of his own sound for him to do with it what he sees fit.
This collection of instrumentals doesn’t simply survey PAPITO RED’s production; it turns his trap infused beats into epic, rich cinematic compositions and flips the basic beat-tape concept into an album collection of standalone electronic urban music.
In essence, this lengthy and elaborated premise serves only to confirm that PAPITO RED is not to be confused with your garden variety of beatmakers, a noble art in its own right – but he is in fact a full-on composing music producer. And there is an enormous difference in composing an instrumental body of work and simply making a banging beat.
The two crafts do cross paths in the modern era of computer technology – but like trained athletes, one runs the marathon and the other is a 50 yard sprinter. For the past decade-plus, trap music has indicated a particularly narrow musical aesthetic – featuring ominous synthesizer sounds, booming bass and 808 drums.
“Way of the Freq (Trap Edition) [Instrumental]” turns that concept on its head from the minute it opens with the luxurious keys and rich pads in “Destined”. Not only does instrumental trap, of the caliber PAPITO RED is forging here expand the genre overall, but it can also expand the possibilities for creation.
It will somehow pressure beatmakers to not just sit on their hands and make a drum beat with a loop on it. And that’s how we get better music all-round. It’s hard not to feel the vibe and see the imagery described by the music on “Not Be Afraid” and “Blitz”, as PAPITO layers the sonic spectrum and drives the rhythms.
All the while not forgetting to distribute ample slices of melodic motifs to unfold the storyline. PAPITO RED is also extremely adept in capturing a pure vibe, which happens to be the thesis of trap music. They can best be heard on “Enemy Grid” and “Trap Me Once”.
PAPITO RED maneuvers through these soundscapes with such confidence that it’s not just easy to get swept up in his grand vision, but to return for repeat visits. So if you love instrumentals and are looking for something new and well-produced in the urban music sphere you should definitely give “Way of the Freq (Trap Edition) [Instrumental]” a listen.
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