LA-via-Chicago emcee Open Mike Eagle is the perfect rapper for the Internet age, which is to say that he’s just as capable of skewering the zeitgeist as he is susceptible to its shiny charms. Unlike Instagram, he doesn’t have much in the way of filters, which is one of the reasons a track like “I Went Outside Today” remains captivating from start to finish. The single can be found on Eagle’s new full-length collaborative album with UK producer Paul White, Hella Personal Film Festival.
Eagle describes the track as “a song about going outside for the first time in a while. It’s from the perspective of being able to be excited about little things after not having had the strength to be around people.” Speaking of being around people, rapper Aesop Rock also shows up to deliver a slick verse that waxes on the same theme of emergence from solitude.
As he does elsewhere on the album, White lends a sumptuous, self-aware instrumental to “I Went Outside Today” that recalls classic hip-hop and a dash of ‘90s R&B. “The day Mike sent me his final vocal for this track along with Aesop Rock’s verse, was the same day I’d just got this new keyboard,” he recalls. “I was busting to try out the sounds on it and it ended up all over this song, along with me adding some chorus vocals of my own!”
The final product is arresting, and more than a little playful. Hella Personal Film Festival drops Friday, March 25, via Mello Music Group. Preorder the album via iTunes or Bandcamp, and check out “I Went Outside Today” below.
Hella Personal Film Festival Artwork:
Hella Personal Film Festival Tracklist:
01. Admitting the Endorphin Addiction
02. I Went Outside Today (feat. Aesop Rock)
03. Dang Is Invincible
04. Check To Check
05. The Curse Of Hypervigilance (In Politics, Romance, And Cohabitation)
06. Insecurity
07. Smiling (Quirky Race Doc)
08. Leave People Alone
09. A Short About A Guy That Dies Every Night
10. Protectors Of The Heat (feat. Hemlock Ernst)
11. Insecurity Part 2 (The Moor The Marry Her)
12. Dive Bar Support Group
13. Drunk Dreaming
14. Reprieve
Open Mike Eagle 2016 Tour Dates:
03/30 – Los Angeles, CA @ Low End Theory
04/02 – Palm Springs, CA @ Jashfest
04/05 – Los Angeles, CA @ Amoeba Records
04/07 – San Francisco, CA @ Thee Parkside
04/13 – New York, NY @ Baby’s All Right
04/14 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Neckti
04/23 – Norman, OK @ Norman Music Fest
