This Atlanta artist iivrson blessed us with an album! After the singles he has released since 2019, it has been wanted from the fans since his first drop. Having this perfect set of 9 songs, including his popular single Pressure. Having his first album being feature-free, keeping the project about him and have it as an introduction to the world. You will hear about how some of his inspirations come from basketball further in this article but you will quickly notice at the end of Still (Intro) the first track of his album. You hear the basketball shoes squeak, the basketball bouncing as a scrimmage goes on and wrapping it up with the motivation speech talking about the excellence of Kobe “Bean” Bryant, him losing the 2008 finals against the Celtics and coming back to get the championship win over the Magic in 2009. As they discuss the excellence of Kobe, one line stuck out to me.
“That’s what excellence is about. It’s about perseverance, not being perfect”
That was just the start, with such a strong start we are thrown into a spiral of the amazing sounds iivrson has created for himself, with the nasally sounding of his voice makes for such a unique feature about this artist. Over a range of different beats as he works with many talented producers on this project including; Archer, slimwav, Oddgenetics, Heyboy, zone6danny and Robbie Soukiasyan.
I had two tracks stand out to me besides his obvious hit Pressure, which was Morphine + Ms. iivrson and Trapped in LA. These two tracks were so different from each other, but they both hit in different ways. Morphine + Ms. iivrson is a heavy 808 hitting track that is gonna shake everything around you, making anyone who listens want to rage then you switch it up with Trapped in LA, which is a wavy track that makes you imagine Travis Scott or even a Kid Cudi to work with this artist. With the range of sounds, he puts on this album these two songs show the different ends he goes to with his music. But now let us continue onto the interview with iivrson
Q1: Who are your inspirations?
“my inspirations range from sports icons like Iverson, Kobe, Chris Paul to musicians like Lupe, Kanye, The Weeknd, Yves Tumor, Gunna. ii enjoy hearing stories from different perspectives. Some of these people are some of the most bravest talented creatives 1of1s, how can you not be inspired by them.”
Q2: What is your favorite lyric from your discography?
“my favorite lyrics from myself would probably be from my song 4Lifers. ii say “stand by me regardless if u noticed I done changed, shower holy water when im burning in the flames” those lines might be some of the most honest selfish things u might hear me say out loud haha. a lot of people feel like this tbh. the line means even if im in the wrong still want my people to ride with me being wrong or at least help steer me away from myself and my ego.”
Q3: What is a typical recording session like for you?
“ion really like recording unless there’s something on my mind. sometimes ii punch line sometimes imma already have the lyrics written. i’ve kinda learned to do both because being in Atlanta you never want to be one dimensional. There’s so many situations that you might end up in a session with a few important people and u might not have time to write anything or you might be in a packed session with 20+ artists in the studio where time is of the essence so you might want to write your lyrics in order to save time in recording.”
Q4: How do you feel about Artists fighting for more ownership
“artist ownership is a relatively new concept if you think about it. there’s never really been a time in history where it was actually possible for the creator of the works to own a majority stake of it as well. ii honestly think this is the greatest and most lucrative time to be an artist. think ALL artists and executives should be fighting for our rights to own our works. the future of creation speaks to that. we are entering a no middle man era of art and creation. Artists don’t necessarily need all the traditional tools of distribution, the internet-connected a lot of those lingering dots. it’s extremely important that we all fight for a more fair split of the Pot bc eventually the middle man will have the smallest portion so let’s just be on the same page. Whether you are on a Major Label or you are Independent, let’s try and give the future artist a better tomorrow”
Q5: Has the Streaming Era changed the way you approach making a project?
“the streaming era is a big reason for artists having a chance to own anything. streaming changed the way we consume music forever. the rapid international consumption of music is scary. that’s what’s so lucrative about being in the game right now. You can legit create a superstar in 1 year. Think about how long it took Cardi B to reach certain milestones vs Nicki’s Journey. Both superstars but Cardi’s journey to superstardom was quicker because we in the streaming era. Songs are also shorter. They short af now lmao”
This interview should prove that iivrson is really with the culture and knows a little more then you think he would being a smaller artist. He is ready to be an established artist, his sound is evolved to main stream sounding. It is just a matter of time people come across this artist, he has so much potential with this being his ONLY album, just wait until his second or third.
Stream “Behind THE Hunger” Below!