What It's Like

If you listen to it, it's well over half hip hop.

I was playing what were the beginnings of what it's like in my producer's living room where I was crashing at his house.

And he came running out of the back like, what is that? And I was like, I don't even know.

He's like, finish it.

And the producer, Dante Ross, took those and put them in between certain songs.

So they were almost like palate cleansers, to use the nomenclature here at the show.

And it made it easier to go from some just crazy rap song into something like What It's Like.

So it just worked.

Hello and welcome to Trusty Chords, the podcast which aims to celebrate music and those that create it.

It's always fascinating to see how songs can catch on and, in some cases, become emblematic of an entire era.

For many, the early 90s hip-hop scene is typified by songs like Jump Around, the debut single from Los Angeles trio House of Pain.

They charted around the world, and while that debut single hit number 3 in the US and number 15 in Australia, they never quite matched the same critical and commercial heights.

By the time they'd hit the big time, one member of the group, Everlast, had already gone solo with a debut album in 1990, having previously emerged as a member of Ice-T's Rhyme Syndicate.

But I went into a bit of a depression for a few months and my buddy Dante Ross in New York was calling me up, definitely detected it and was like, get your ass to New York and let's just start making music.

And Whitey Ford Sings the Blues was originally just going to be a hip-hop record.

Half that album is straight rap songs.