By Andrew Mason | Sept. 15, 2020 | Undrgrnd Magazine
Last Wednesday Newbury Park rapper, Deo Cane, celebrated his 23rd birthday. And what more fitting way to start his “Jordan Year” by gifting “The 805” with his long-awaited debut album, PTA.
Cane first teased this rookie project over two years ago, admitting it took some time to find the specific sound he was satisfied with.
“I have made at least 50 records in anticipation of making this album, but they just all didn’t seem fit,“ he says. “[The COVID-19 quarantine] definitely lit a fire under me to really buckle down and work on my craft.”
The “TDK” artist didn’t have to leave Ventura County to find help creating the 13-track album. PTA contains six features (all from “The 805”), while the project was executively engineered and produced by fellow Newbury Park High School alumni, Steven Callan and Reilly Saavedra, respectively. GMBEATZ and Mikey Gomez also contributed partially to the album's production.
“Part Time Artist” is not the first time Cane and Callan, 24, (known as “Kid Chxp” on the mic) teamed up to cook music. The two have been friends since high school and regularly record together at Callan’s home studio, coined “the chopshop”.
“[Callan’s] progression with engineering has gone hand in hand with my artistic progress,” Cane says. “He makes me sound like a trap Michael Jackson.”
Callan confesses he had never executively engineered a project of this length for somebody other than himself before. However, him playing a major role in Cane’s new tape manifested because due to the trust between the two as musicians and as friends.
Earlier this year, Cane appeared as a featured artist on Callan’s own debut album, Nothing to Prove, which hit streaming platforms in mid-April.
“[Cane] never really approached me about the album, we just knew that once my album was done, we had planned to start on his,” Callan says. “Everything just kind of happened organically.”
For a brand new sound, Cane hit up Saavedra, a 23-year-old producer with no experience working on a full-length album before. Even so, the two worked closely together to create consistent beats which fit Cane’s overall vision.
“I actually have never really made a full song with anyone before”, Saavedra says. “[Cane] definitely knew what he wanted in terms of beats, and he would give me some reference tracks of other artists.”
On the album’s opening track, “Warfare”, Cane challenged Saavedra to create a “Tee Grizzley type beat”, one with intense piano trap and an overwhelmingly fast pace.
“I came pretty close to that vibe on that one,” Saavedra says.
While the album begins with this energetic trap banger, Cane aimed to make a versatile project, with tracks that touched on a variety of emotions. On “Inner Demons”, Cane reflects on pushing mental health struggles to the side in order to prevail in the music industry, and describes the heartache relationships can bring on “Paralyzed”.
"I can’t be boxed into a category," he says. "I enjoy doing it all and that’s what this album shows."
Crafting a well-rounded project with deeper, intense emotions is certainly not a new concept in the world of hip-hop. That being said, Cane succeeds in relating PTA’s substance directly back to the life of a young, suburban, Ventura County native.
Specifically on “Dear Blake”, Cane explains how he has dealt with the death of his close friend, Blake Dingman, who was killed in the Thousand Oak's Borderline Bar Shooting in November 2018.
“You can have fun and laugh with my music," he says. "But you can also relate, feel vulnerable, and cry to it.”
For guest features, Cane called upon fellow Undrgrnd Magazine Issue #1 cover artists, Pofsky (appears on “5ive Shit”) and Belle (appears on “Upset”), and asked Callan to hop in the booth for “Inner Demons”.
PTA also reveals the winners of Cane’s online “‘Talk Yo Shit’ Challenge”. Back in July, Cane posted a snippet of the eventual album-concluding track on Instagram, giving his followers and other local artists the opportunity to record and post their own verse. The prize for Cane’s favorite entries? A spot on the album.
The winners, who do in fact appear on the album version of “Talk Yo Shit - Remix”, are Newbury Park’s Vic Ramon (“Capital V”) and Lucas Nelsen (“Luey”), and Oxnard’s Isaac Aguilar (“POP$”).
Furthermore, the track pays tribute to Ventura rapper, KollegeKado, known partly within the local rap community for his catch phrase "talk yo shit!", which Cane repeats in the song's catchy hook.
Cane’s usage of popular local artists and strategy with the"'Talk Yo Shit’ Challenge” is what makes PTA a legendary project out of "The Five". Instead of reaching for “big brother” Los Angeles, Cane recognized the potential (and financial advantage) of keeping things local.
There is an obvious temptation for Ventura County’s artists to drop cash on Los Angeles-based producers and engineers. However, the reality is that similar quality can be found right here at home, and PTA proves just that.
Click here to listen to Deo Cane's new album, PTA, on any streaming platform! As you listen, keep an open ear for Cane’s multiple references to Undrgrnd Magazine.
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