Photo credit: Julian Cedron
Reggie Bonds
Any Milwaukee artist will tell you that nothing puts things in perspective quite like getting out of the city for a while, and more so than most, Reggie Bonds was moved by his time away. As he climbed the city’s ranks in the mid ’00s, Bonds became one of Milwaukee’s buzziest rappers, gaining the attention of regional blogs with his striking “Black Timbs” video and finding an audience in Chicago and beyond with his Mick Jenkins collaboration, “Ol Dirty Bastard.” He earned heaps of local press, as well as gigs opening for 21 Savage and Lil Uzi Vert.
But, after a stint in Los Angeles, he realized all that didn’t mean much. “Being there gave me time to reflect on where I came from,” Bonds says of his time in L.A., where he began working on his upcoming album. “It’s just a different world. When you’re in your hometown, you don’t want to do things like catch the bus, because you have this perception of who you are—or who you think you are. But, when you’re in another place, you lose that perception, because no one knows you, and you know no one knows you. I could see that the universe pushed me out there to make me see that I still had work to do, that there’s still more that I have to see. It’s not about what somebody might think of you on social media, it’s about who you really are.”
As humbling as it was, Bonds says the experience helped him realize what was important. “I like rapping, I like making music, so I can’t be at the club or be out there on Instagram or Facebook, because that takes away my happiness,” Bonds says. “Those platforms aren’t my art. Those are just platforms to promote my art. You can’t get caught up in all that. And I think I did get caught up in it for a while. But then you have to slow down and say, ‘Wait, is this something that’s making me happy or am I just drowning all my energy in this, and it’s taking away from my happiness?’”
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That back-to-basics outlook is reflected in Bonds’ new music, particularly his spartan new EP, here’s a rap tape.. hope it helps. The chest-beating showmanship of “Black Timbs” is gone, as is the dramatic, Travis Scott-esque production. Instead, Bonds looks to the no-frills raps of New York minimalist Ka and the naked sound of Earl Sweatshirt’s recent projects.
Recorded over the span of a week, with Bonds finishing a track a day, along with a lo-fi video for each, hope it helps is deliberately raw, with a straight-to-tape aesthetic that complements Bonds’ unfiltered lyrics. Even more so than its predecessors, it’s music with a heavy social conscience, as Bonds weighs in on racial and economic oppression, mental health, toxic masculinity and the forces that chip away at the well-being of people of color.
Bonds says the EP is a taste of what’s to come. He’s putting the finishing touches on the album he’s been working on since he was out in L.A.—and that he nearly lost completely after a hard drive crash—and while he says the album will be a little bigger in both sound and scope, it’ll retain “that same honest feeling” of the EP. “I grew up in a neighborhood where I wasn’t open to a lot of ideas,” Bond says. “So I’m just doing more personal studying, searching for understanding, and trying to surround myself with things I actually want to be surrounded by. I’ve always said what I’ve wanted to say in my music, but I think I’m becoming more confident with myself. I’m like, ‘Ok, I want to live my truth, so I’m just going to say what I believe and what I think the world needs to hear from me.’”
Reggie Bonds’ here’s a rap tape... hope it helps is streaming at reggiexbonds.com.
