After the final bell rang, millennial generation middle schoolers were on a mission — high tailing it home to catch Carson Daly and company cycle through 20 seconds of popular music videos and ogle over Destiny’s Child’s suede fringe situations. Before social media made these musical stars so directly accessible, Total Request Live was everything — a one stop shop for gossip, bold (well, bizarre) style experimentation, and occasional music.
Atlanta rapper Reese grew up on a steady diet of skate video soundtracks, developing an ear for Korn and Dude Ranch era Blink-182 as well as Master P and Mystikal. His output these days strikes a balance between this blistering punk energy and off-beat lyrical flow, the ingredients for an excellent skatepark soundtrack. For his newest three-track EP, TRL, Reese resurrects a few of his favorite early 2000s alternative MTV moments and puts ambitious new spins on them.
Today, i-D premieres TRL‘s first track, “Like A Chump,” a hip-hop infused edit of Limp Bizkit’s defining anthem “Nookie.” We caught up with Reese to learn more about the record.
Tell us about this EP. What first got you thinking about the TRL concept?
One day I was thinking about how shit used to be cool when we were growing up. Everything was creative and the music was better to me; It’s the time where most things I’m fond of flourished. Everything sounds the same now, so I wanted to come up with some totally new sounds.
Do you have a favorite TRL moment? Mariah Carey’s breakdown wins for me, duh.
Speaking of, the Bone Thugs-n-Harmony verses on the Mariah Carey “Breakdown” remix is one of my favorite songs. Don’t have a favorite moment I’d say; I liked it when Korn would show up.
How did you choose which songs to put new spins on, and what kind of energy or vibe did you want to bring to each of them?
I picked the songs that I loved the most growing up and the ones that were Number 1s on TRL. Late 90s and early 2000s were some awesome times. I wanted to bring the new wave to those songs and sounds, and see if I could make it clash perfectly. I think I made it shake.
Some guy in Ohio convinced people that Limp Bizkit was playing a show at a gas station. If you could hold a festival anywhere, where would it be and who would be on the bill?
I don’t know the location but I’d definitely have Korn, Limp Bizkit, 21 Savage, Young Thug, Blink-182, Frank Ocean, and PARTYNEXTDOOR on the lineup, haha.
‘TRL’ is being released via Fool’s Gold Records.
Credits
Text Emily Manning
Photography Eric Chakeen