WHHAT: Genrefication + Pivot Gang 🎶
Visualizing the wild world of music genre taxonomy + new music from Pivot Gang
Welcome to “Weekly Hip-Hop & Tech” aka WHHAT?!
In case you missed it, I split the newsletter into 2 sections last week: New Year Newsletter Pivot.
This week I’m covering a site that visually analyzes Spotify’s genre organization and sharing some music from the Friends-appreciating hip-hop collective Pivot Gang.
7 Years of Spotify Genres
Per last week, you can count on each installment of WHHAT?! including at least one dope, awesome, and interesting piece of music technology.
This week, check out this fascinating dive into how and why Spotify’s most popular genres have shifted over the past 7 years:
Published by Matthew Daniels’ The Pudding, it follows the “Instagram stories” UI pattern, which is also familiar to Spotify Wrapped users (thanks to an under-appreciated intern).
I really love how the project’s creators Matthew Daniels and Michelle McGhee mixed in fluid graphs, music, and even video clips when the story called for it.
If you enjoy this project, be sure to explore The Pudding for even more interactive and fun visual essays.
New Music
Keeping up with last week’s “Pivot” theme, both of this week’s songs come from members of the unironically Friends-inspired Pivot Gang.
As always, you can listen along to the music in this newsletter via my “Alej Archivez” playlist on Apple Music, Spotify, or Tidal. I put each week’s new music first, followed by any references or samples.
soft serve
“Soft Serve” - Joseph Chilliams, corylovesyou
The first Pivot Gang track comes from Joseph Chilliams. I want to say Joseph Chilliams brings comedic relief to the group, and while he is hilarious, that would be selling his often deeper lyrics short.
This track is super chill and it also casually name-drops Phoebe and Joey Tribbiani.
In case you’re still wondering whether Pivot Gang’s group name actually comes from the TV show Friends, here’s Isis Nicole’s 2016 interview with the group:
Joseph Chilliams has had a few more singles since this came out, but this one’s Friends references elevated it into this week’s WHHAT?!.
hue_man nature
“hue_man nature” - Saba & No ID
This week’s second Pivot Gang track comes from Joseph Chilliam’s younger brother, Saba.
Serving as a follow-up to Saba and No I.D.’s “Back in Office” which I shared last April, I’m hoping this is a sign of what’s to come with the collaboration project they’ve teased.
The beat is fire and if you’re not familiar with No I.D. you probably know him from producing/co-producing songs like "Control" by Kendrick Lamar, "The Story of O.J.” “4:44”, “Bam”, and “Run This Town" by Jay-Z, “Find Your Love” by Drake, and many more.
This song was released as I paused my newsletter last June and in retrospect this line didn’t age too well:
Never leave the team, I'm like Damian [Lillard]
(Damian Lillard joined the Milwaukee Bucks this offseason after spending his entire career with the Portland Blazers).
Meanwhile, this line is aging like fine wine:
She ball like her name Taurasi
(Diana Taurasi became the first WNBA player to score 10,000 career points this August).
Speaking of Diana Taurasi, and since this week is Friends-theme, I always smile at these lines from Saba’s 2018 “Stay Right Here”:
I said I pivot like my name was Ross
Pivot, Diana Taurasi
That’s all for this week! Next WHHAT?!, I’ll have some more hip-hop tech and some of my favorite songs since last summer.
Thanks all for following me on this Newsletter pivot/re-format 🙏🏽
Peace!✌🏽