Day 03 – Cory Gunz (YMCMB), Jessy Shung Lee, LiveSosa
I make all kinds of records: street anthems, emotional ballads, club bangers or story-telling beats. I do not limit myself to a single style, because I personally enjoy many kinds of music. With the opportunities in the world today, there is no reason why someone should stick to one particular style. Why not explore different avenues and try new things? That’s the beauty of collaborating with other artists: the opportunity to discover new things and to learn from one another.
That was the case with this record, “The One And Only”. I reached out to Cory Gunz from YMCMB through my New York contacts (“A Milli” Ft. Lil Wayne was his biggest hit), and I wanted to have LiveSosa, an up and coming artist from Arkansas. And to make things interesting, unique and different, I reached out to my good friend Jessy Shung Lee, from Lausanne, Switzerland, and asked him if he’d like to be on a song with a Young Money Cash Money Records artist. Shungleezy is a French-speaking rapper. I wanted to give him an opportunity to be on a record with a big US-Artist, because his style fits the American Trap / Southern style, the only difference being that he raps in another language. And boy did these artists deliver!
Like with all the songs on the Real Dreams album, I wanted to make sure that talented independent artists I know would get the shine they deserve. That is also the beauty of collaborating and producing, the ability to mix different artists and styles to come up with something that’s never been done before. With the connections I’ve made DJ-ing around the world, I’ve been put in a unique position to make this dream come true.
There are so many great aspects of this song. Firstly, Cory Gunz is one of the best lyricists in the game, and a member of the world’s most successful hip-hop labels in the world, YMCMB. I had asked him to record a verse, but he loved the beat so much, he recorded a chorus to it too! Jessy Shung Lee then added his part to the hook, playfully adding to the words rapped by Cory. All the artists involved ended up blending their parts perfectly together. Cory and Jessy complement one another on the chorus, Gunz and LiveSosa both went for more than 16 bars on their verses…
As a result, this is the longest track on the entire record, going well over 6 minutes. “The One and Only” is a special record to me, because it’s in my two main languages, namely French and English, it has a piano-led melody, which is my main instrument, and represents the concept of my album, Real Dreams. A truly universal collaboration track which shows that no matter how far apart, how different or how famous artists are, when the music does what it’s supposed to, you can just feel it. I think this is around the time when I started thinking about the Real Dreams concept, which started to take shape. I’m really looking forward to the official release on March 6th.
You can pre-order the full album here Check out the snippets below or directly in my web-store.
https://soundcloud.com/swissivory/real-dreams-album-snippets
