There are two types of rap artists—those who operate on impulse, releasing new music on a whim whenever it’s completed, and those who work methodically. Reggie Bonds falls into that later camp. For the last year, Bonds has been strategically releasing new songs designed to spotlight the different facets of his persona. He showcased his inner ’90s New York rap enthusiast on the Mick Jenkins feature “Ol’ Dirty Bastard,” his inner conscious on the mellowed-out street study “Ugly Truth,” and his modernist side on “Long Live A$AP Yams.”
But of all his recent output, it was the biggest outlier that stirred the most noise. His unruly “Menace II Society (Black Timbs)” and the song’s frantic, Mad Max-inspired video cemented Bonds as a favorite prospect of several national rap blogs and became a fast fan favorite at his live shows. It’s a magnificent pipe bomb of a song, and taken together with its chaotic video, it was the kind of breakout moment that announces a previously overlooked artist as an undeniable force. For better or worse, though, the song is a pretty narrow representation of Bonds’ music, which tends to be more contemplative and story-based. There are two Reggie Bonds: Reggie Bonds the thoughtful, God-fearing vegetarian, and Reggie Bonds the demon-eyed, slander-spitting beast. “Black Timbs” only captured one of them.
“It’s interesting that song took off so much, because that’s not what I do best,” Bonds said. “It’s not lyrical. So when I dropped the ‘Black Timbs’ video, I didn’t think it was going to do what it did. And I think a lot of artists at that point would have said, ‘OK, this is what people want to hear from me, so I’ll keep making songs like this,’ but I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to change course; I wanted to stick to my original plan.”
That plan was to make his upcoming album, From The NORF$IDE w/ Love, due July 4, a balanced representation of himself. “From the beginning, I wanted this album to be my story,” he said. “I wanted it to be my secrets, my life and my vices.” And as vindicated as he felt about the attention “Black Timbs” earned him, he wasn’t going to let it change his vision for the record. “I don’t let people’s opinions about my music affect me,” he said. “It can fuel you, but it doesn’t change the music. The way I see it, people can either take me or not. There are so many other rappers out there making music; if mine doesn’t do it for you, listen to them instead.”
Several songs on NORF$IDE run with the energy of “Black Timbs,” echoing its thunderous, Yeezus-esque death rattle. But most of the record is decidedly more reflective, grounded in updates of Pete Rock-style boom bap and the cloudy psychedelic loops of modern Internet rap. It’s a deeply reflective album, tied together by ruminations on the way Milwaukee shaped him, the limited opportunities the inner city allows its youth, and the hole in his life left when he lost his father at age 17.
Speaking from his studio last week, where he was still obsessively combing over the album despite the fact it was 99.9% complete, Bonds described himself as an outlier in the local rap scene. “How do I fit into the Milwaukee rap scene? I fit in as the best rapper,” he said. “That’s it. I don’t even see a rap scene. There’s a lot of people who rap, but they don’t understand the concept of making music and making albums.” Rap is an inherently competitive medium, Bonds explains, and there’s only room for a few top artists to leave a mark. And while these days the Milwaukee rap scene is more polite and collaborative than ever, Bonds would rather operate like a lone wolf.
“It seems like the Milwaukee rap scene is too buddy-buddy,” he says. “Nobody wants to hurt anybody’s feelings, or tell them if a song isn’t good enough or needs to be changed. There isn’t anybody out there saying, ‘Sorry, rapping isn’t for you, bro.’ So everybody keeps doing it, even if they don’t have anything worth saying. It’s not personal. Rap just brings out my competitive nature, and I think that’s healthy. As a fan, you don’t want to watch TV and think, ‘Wow, Kobe and LeBron really love each other.’ You want to see some real competition.”
Reggie Bonds hosts a From The NORF$IDE w/ Love listening session on Saturday, June 4 with Pizzle, Bankx, Supa Bwe and DJ Mando at a secret location at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available through eventbrite.com.
