ON THE RISE
NEWPORT NEWS, VA – If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen cause Luck Chapo is straight fire with his latest masterpiece album that’s brought Classical Trap to the front burner.
There’s so much to this music artist, you can’t take just one bite. Luck Chapo – the writer, producer and self-made music label Major League Music Group – went all out for his crescendo of 2022, “Classical Trap: Volume 3.” To put it mildly, it was an amazing comeback year … and he’s just getting started.
“In January I did the biggest show I’ve ever done in my career, and 13 years ago to the day I was doing my first show,” he said. “It was full circle, you know. I’m proud of my first two ‘Classical Trap’ albums but I pride myself at bettering my craft. It shows my progression. ‘Volume 3’ is my best work and I plan to surpass that with my next project.”
This month, be watching for “Classical Trap: Volume 3 Reloaded” – which will include some of the tracks Luck Chapo absolutely hated to cut. Another album will drop next month, and in mid-February, the artist will hit Atlanta with a 10-stop tour to serve his growing fan base there. After all, it was a trip to Atlanta two years ago that rekindled this artist’s fire.
“I was invited to a studio and spending time in there just opened the flood gates,” he said. “I’ve been able to create, invest in myself and I’m bringing along two other artists with me – KpFrmDa3 and Tudarella. Rick Rogers is an excellent engineer and videographer – I’ve loved his creative input. You gotta surround yourself with quality cause iron sharpens iron … I’ve been pretty good at a lot of things but I never put my all into anything. So this is one of those things I don’t just want to be good – I want to be great – So if I put my all in it, put the work in, I’ll get those results. I’m chasing my dream but I’m serving my purpose.”
Born Garcia Whigham Sr. in Newport News, Va., Luck Chapo had an athletic childhood, and continues to use references to sports and working out in his music. Coupled with his Classical Trap rhythms, bridging the gap between Old School and today’s Hip-Hop style, this artist doesn’t hesitate to share what ingredients he’s used for his success.
“People see the wins and they think it’s easy,” he said. “It takes loss and work – gotta crack the seal – focusing on my craft and being the best artist I can be. To do that I have to put the work in … I was one of those kids blessed with natural talents, and I regret not playing and going to college on it. I could have done more, more work – really locked in. Now, being on this path, I see the mistakes I made. I’ve seen you don’t want to leave nothing on the table. If it doesn’t work out, at least you can be confident and say it didn’t work, but I put the work in. I did everything I was supposed to. It’s something I instill in my children now. When it comes to anything – like school – gotta practice. Can’t just show up and be good. And don’t quit. I can’t quit. What kind of message would that give my kids? We’re gonna put the work in, get the bumps and bruises – what better way than to lead by example.”
Volume 3’s track 19 says Luck Chapo is “all in” and that applies to everything – his music career as an artist and at home because he’s his kids’ biggest fan. He said all the encouragement he needed was when his daughter told him to go for it.
“I hope my music is a breath of fresh air in the realm of real music – real Hip-Hop,” he said. “It’s the kind of music people can listen to every day – doing everyday things in life – it’s deeper. I don’t get caught up in thinking my music needs to be at the clubs or on the radio because it’s different … I did a show with a four-piece band with Boosie and it was magnificent. It brought such a real vibe – that place was packed – it was reassuring for sure. Experiences like that put me in my comfort zone and makes me think I can be the best of both worlds – bridging two very different generations of Hip-Hop.”
Make sure to stay connected to Luck Chapo on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
Websites:
Major League Music Group
Amazon Music
Apple Music
Spotify
YouTube
Socials:
Facebook
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ON THE RISE
Even more than 6,000km away from her hometown of Santurce, Puerto Rico, RaiNao still manages to keep a piece of home with her. It’s Monday morning in Madrid, and the 32-year-old, born Naomi Ramírez Rivera, is calmly sipping on a cup of black coffee surrounded by fan palms and chestnut trees inside the terrace of her hotel. Coffee is her morning ritual back home, and things don’t change even if mere hours ago she was performing in front of 70,000 people as a guest on Bad Bunny’s ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ residency in the city.
“I think it was the biggest venue I’ve ever performed at, or maybe it was Brazil,” RaiNao gushes, referring to her February appearance on the tour in São Paulo. Ultimately, the numbers don’t matter; for her, it’s all about the experience. “Even if I had done it 10 times over, it’s always beautiful and a different surprise.”
Music has always been a constant in RaiNao’s life. She began playing the saxophone at 11, but she never thought it would be the way she would make a living. “It’s all Wiso Rivera’s fault,” she says with a laugh. During the pandemic, her then-boyfriend and now creative partner and go-to co-producer encouraged her to go for it. She was stuck in a rut, juggling part-time jobs, when she realised that was not the life she wanted to lead.
“I felt overwhelmed that I thought, ‘Am I really going to spend the rest of my life working inside a bank?’ Wiso told me, ‘We have the tools, the studio is right there. Let’s just do it.’ And we did it.” Her stage name followed naturally. The moniker, a play on her nickname “Nao” with the creolisation of “right now,” is her own carpe diem. “It’s become a mantra for me,” she explains. “I’m in the moment all the time now. It’s a goal and a way of life.”
That now is what has taken RaiNao to global stages, performing ‘PERFuMITO NUEVO’ across the world, on US television, and gaining new listeners along the way. The song is what has put her on the map, and she’s more than grateful to Bad Bunny for the exposure. “He’s an artist who knows what he wants but also gives you your space to create,” she says, adding that their collaboration flowed as smoothly as a hot knife through butter. “I had a lot of freedom, and I’m always going to be thankful for that. I love that type of creative connection; it’s intuitive. We listen to each other. It’s great when anyone connects with your music, but he’s obviously a very important artist for Puerto Rico. Knowing he appreciates my music and my art, and that he says it every time he gets the chance, is incredible.”
She believes it’s precisely this type of interdependent local network that makes the Puerto Rican music scene as special as it is. “The support between artists has been key in careers that blow up,” she says. “We really do rely on each other and uplift each other constantly. It’s beautiful.”
The same way she got the cosign from Bad Bunny, RaiNao is also sharing the spotlight with Puerto Rican talent on her latest project, her second studio album, ‘Marcría’, a play on words that refers to both the PR slang for “spoiled brat” and “sea-raised”. In the 16-track album, RaiNao lends the mic to up-and-coming local musician Frido Vargas, who released his first song, ‘Mareo’, as part of the project.
“I’ll always make space to draw attention to the talent coming from my island, which I know goes hard and deserves as many ears and eyes as I do,” she says. Her debut studio album, ‘Capicú’, followed a similar pattern with the inclusion of Gyanma’s ‘Bajo Candau’.
“I’ll always make space to draw attention to the talent coming from my island, which I know deserves as many ears and eyes as I do”
“Puerto Rico’s indie scene is bustling, and you need to be on the island, soaking it up, to know [local artists],” RaiNao shares. Her label was “sweating” when she proposed including ‘Mareo,’ but when Vargas played the song for her, she knew it belonged in ‘Marcría’.
That’s not to say the project isn’t entirely RaiNao’s. Though it borrows its name from the sea, her ultimate “safe space”, ‘Marcría’ is born from RaiNao’s experience at 10, when her mother enrolled her in a school for the visually impaired. The album is a sensory journey accompanied by guided meditation, colour visualizers, and more to tell the full picture. You’ll notice green is a predominant theme. Emerald is RaiNao’s birthstone and the central piece of a ring she received in sixth grade, when she graduated from said school. As such, the hue has tinged the entire album, manifesting in music videos and in the small orb featured on the cover art.
On YouTube, she has microstories for each song that complement the sensory experience. “Not everyone has seen those, and they form a little story that I wrote based on the sensorial treatments,” she explains. “That came first, and then came the songs. It was an experiment.”
Only two tracks were created before the overarching theme was set: ‘Chamberí’ and the single ‘Gris’, which the artist initially intended to give to someone else. Legendary producer Tainy reached out and asked her to send over a few songs for his repertoire, and RaiNao obliged. “I sent him a few, but I kept going back to ‘Gris’ and thinking it was my song; someone else might like it, but they aren’t going to like it as much as I do.” It wasn’t until she was already structuring the project’s concept that she felt she needed to ask for it back. “I felt no other song exemplified water as much as ‘Gris’ did.”
Another emotional crux on the album is ‘Cántaro’, featuring salsa legend Andy Montañez, one of many remarkable collaborations alongside the likes of Omara Portuondo and Cultura Profética. The song marked the first time RaiNao recorded her own sax in her career. “I know that there are better sax players in Puerto Rico whose sound is way better than mine, and I always tap them to record,” she explains, “but this was a very personal song, and it needed to be me even if the result is not the best.”
The melody for the track was born from a sample of her voice and was later re-envisioned and reworked into a brass comp. Her sax is complemented by a bassoon, played by her best friend, who sent in recordings from Jacksonville, Florida. The result is her take on the “Death of the Author” literary theory and, in a way, her own eulogy. “Once you put out a project, it dies for you,” RaiNao explains, “but with that death comes another birth, another interpretation.”
‘Marcría’ comes to a close with the track that lends it its name, which sees RaiNao reciting a poem by the late Puerto Rican artist Ángelamaría Dávila, included in the 1966 poemario ‘Homenaje al ombligo’. RaiNao serendipitously came across Dávila’s work while working on the album. Upon reading this poem, she was stunned. It perfectly encapsulated the project. “It’s remarkable that this poem was born years ago from the mind of another Puerto Rican woman who’s no longer with us.”
RaiNao toyed with the idea of borrowing from the poem and playing around with vocal layering to use it as an interlude in a song that she’d call ‘Garabato’ (slang for “scribble”). “I wanted something simple that’d bridge the project from its more danceable side to its darker side,” she recalls. Ultimately, she felt the poem, as it was, was the perfect summary, a bio to ‘Marcría’.
Throughout the process of working on this album and the accolades it’s brought her, including a spot in YouTube’s Foundry Class, RaiNao feels “blessed and happy”, but she knows the final word no longer belongs to her; it belongs to the world. “For me, art is very spiritual. I knew I came into this world to leave it a better place with my art,” she says. “I’m always going to try not to dehumanise myself, not to stray too far away from myself to create.”
RaiNao’s ‘Marcría’ is out now via Rimas Entertainment.
