Earlier this month, Toronto’s production group Fameless teamed up with Michigan rappers Bones and Danny Brown for “SeanPaulWasNeverThereToGimmeTheLight” off of Bones’ NoRedeemingQualities project.
The track itself is a hauntingly dark, comedic track about lighting up spliffs and trying to find light in the darkness.
Bones comes though with his signature humour-ridden bars, while Danny goes straight savage on his verse. And of course the hook is a grim nod to not one, not two, but THREE of Sean Paul’s biggest hits (“Temperature”, “Give Me The Light”, and “Get Busy”): “Sean Paul was never there to gimme the light/ He was too busy getting his temperature right.”
On the production side of things, Fameless actually sent this beat out to Bones a while ago. The beat was originally intended for DillanPonders but he passed on it. So Fameless sent the beat to Bones, and they had no idea he’d decided to use it until a Facebook teaser surfaced recently.
The song was engineered using strings and synth sounds that were made to sound like samples. But the only sample on the entire beat was actually lifted from a random YouTube video with wolves and ambient background music.
Listen to “SeanPaulWasNeverThereToGimmeTheLight”, scope the track instrumental over here, and check out our interview with Fameless below.
Q&A: Fameless
HipHopCanada: Start off by telling me the story behind how you guys ended up collaborating with Bones and Danny for this one. I know you guys have previously worked with Bones.
Phil: As I was talking to Bones about the last track we did together, I sent him a new beat pack. I was on vacation in England at the time so just sent him whatever I could find saved on our drive. And then I didn’t hear from him after that until the track came out as a teaser video with Danny Brown on it.
HipHopCanada: Walk me through the process – from start to finish – behind how this beat was made.
Chris: Our process is pretty varied. Sometimes we work on shit together [and] sometimes individually with the other guys giving feedback. This particular beat was made last summer when I was living in Spain. I had originally made it with DillanPonders in mind, but when he passed we sent it out to a few other artists including Bones. We didn’t actually know he was using it until he put out a teaser on Facebook. When we heard Danny was on it, we lost our shit.
HipHopCanada: Talk to me about that sample you used and the story behind that.
Chris: There aren’t really any samples in that track. All the strings and the weird menacing synth sound are from synths and VSTS, which we messed with to make sound like samples. We wanted to make something really dark and eerie like on some monster movie shit. The only “sample” on the entire thing is in the intro with the ambient noise in the intro. Pretty sure that was some random YouTube video of wolves in the artic.
HipHopCanada: What’s the significance of the use of “give me the light” for you guys. Bones is using it in reference to smoking dope (which is what the OG Sean Paul did too), and Danny is using it in reference to finding light in darkness.
Phil: I think it just means pass the Bic.
HipHopCanada: This track is a bit of a trip because on the one hand… it’s light-hearted and comedic because of the Sean Paul wordplay, and title. But taking in the actual song is a very dark, haunting kind of experience.
Phil: That’s one of the best thing about Bones is that no matter how dark he goes, he’s not without his humour. The beat’s extremely dark and heavy; Danny’s verse is menacing and Bones – even with his with dark monotone raps – still brings a bit of levity with his humour.
HipHopCanada: Explain the significance of the title “SeanPaulWasNeverThereToGimmeTheLight.”
Phil: Again, I think it just speaks to Bones’ dark sense of humor. He named the track. The nostalgic reference with a dark and sort of comedic twist is great. And Sean Paul is never really there when you need him.
Written by Sarah Jay for HipHopCanada
