From Austin, Texas, CasinoATX is aggressively and exponentially expanding his repertoire. The artist brought an equally vociferous rapper on board, Fe’Rarri, to craft a highly engaging record named Yoda. With each personality following its own course, Yoda becomes a fun concept of what partying, smoking, and letting go means. The song’s instrumental is of the greatest eminence displaying a bewildering mixture of retro sounds with new school flow. When asked about Yoda’s inception, CasinoATX shares exclusively for Blue Rhymez Entertainment: “Every year in Austin they have this huge outdoor Reggae music festival. Austinites used to call it the Marley Fest. So I and my producer friends were at the festival checking out music. We had run across another band set up with a tent and in we went to smoke with them. My producer, Charley Brown, and I, for whatever reason, started talking to each other in Yoda’s voice. I did the Yoda laugh, and Charley said I sounded just like him. After I was done with my take for the song I reached out to Fe’rarri and she came through. Now we’re here with Yoda!”
After commencing with a bouncy, à la ’90s type synth, and short vocal snippets that quickly turn to the famous laughter, Yoda pulls in the audience with the chorus: “Whole pounds get broke down I’m a smoker/ High on the Sofa/ Chilling out with Yoda/ Party at my house tell the ladies to come over/ They’ll be popping chocha/ Once they hit this Yoda/ And we can smoke out.” At once it’s clear that CasinoATX lays out his earworm motifs like a chess player planning his crowning move. He splits and pauses at the unlikeliest moments on the hook rendering the auditory experience a lively, discovering journey. The reverb and backing style that was employed on the chorus hint of late ’90s-early 2000s mainstream Hip Hop. Or, you could say today’s indie Rap sphere. It is most interesting how music comes full circle with artistic choices going through massive cycles. To the ’90s kids like ourselves, this will be a comforting instant bop. To Gen Z, this will be a refreshing discovery with a new touch of unprocessed vocals. Can you imagine growing up with mostly autotuned music around you and all of a sudden you discover there are artists like CasinoATX doing it without?
Almost as if reading our minds, CasinoATX proceeds to address the listener directly: “Hi boys and girls/ Get down do you/ Call me Doobie Howser/ Meet your local smoking guru/ Rolling in my who-do/ Smoked out with my zoo crew/ We be acting coo-coo/ On that sh*t that doo-doo.” The initial tone of CasinoATX’s bars is very conversational and carefree. A feature that helps fill up the gap between the more melodic hook and the following part of verse one: “My Dro got colors like Froot Loops/ Stay smoked out like Big Snoop/ Clouding up my new coupe/ With Cholos wearing Zoot Suits/ I puff puff pass it off/ Stress and troubles backing off/ Puff puff pass it round/ Anger levels going down/ Helps me get my calm back/ Hold off Mortal Kombat.” The man is versatile and abundant in astute Pop culture references to the point of almost carrying a touch of madness. A particularity most indicative of a wolf in sheep’s clothing type of rapper. If CasinoATX was to diss someone, the opponent would most likely never recover and switch jobs the next day.
The second verse belongs to Fe’Rarri: “I’m lit off that Yoda Yoda/ I’m so high yeah I’m floatin’ on yuh/ I’m up in a tree handpicking reef I got that green yea got that good that will sneak up on yuh/ Yeah you want a little bit of this a little bit of that ish that will put you on track/ The green that I’m on he’s on they on now they all want to give me dap/ Yeah I’m the ish Yeah imma be that/ When I’m blowed I sit and I relax/ Feed me, yeah I eat tracks.” The rapper opens her verse quite so abruptly to send you into a small shock with a roguish and exquisite demeanor. Fe’Rarri exerts a strong grip on the audience’s imagination through the alto pipes, oozing confidence, and descriptive bars. We see why CasinoATX chose her specifically. To consolidate the first impression, the artist adds as a matter of fact that “if you don’t smoke then you’ll still bang this track.” Agreed. Fe’Rarri is successfully riding and moulding the beat to her bars although we understand from CasinoATX’s recount that she actually added her verse last. The further she progresses, the more increasingly distinct the artist becomes via eccentricity of rhyme and pattern composition. Similar to her collaborator, Fe’Rarri is not easily anticipated: “I’m so high yet it should be a sin/ I meant I’m live it should be a sin/Me and my bro had to do it again/ I’m smoked up and I’m goin’ in rewind the song go grab a friend/ Feel so good cuz I smoked it up it feels so good make you wanna bust.”
When Yoda reaches its end, you just wanna hit the replay button because it’s a song that grows on you the more you listen to it. If you like it the first time, you’ll love it the second. With a consistency rarely seen in independent artists, CasinoATX is steadily rising to greatness and recognition. His intuition about the collaborating acts, such as Fe’Rarri, is indubitably on point and grants us, the public, marvelous creations one after another.
Song Credits: CasinoATX (Malcolm Richardson), Fe’Rarri (Nikita Kemp) – Artists, Songwriters; Bobby Bullard (Bluu Suede) – Recording and Mixing Engineer; Emerson Brown (Charley Brown) – Music Producer.
Make sure you add the phenomenal Yoda to your YouTube Music HERE, on Apple Music HERE, on Deezer HERE, and on Spotify below:
Written by Mariana Berdianu
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Blue Rhymez Entertainment 