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MusicTranscript
00:00 My name is Dax. And my name is Lexnor. And this is a breakdown for "To Be A Man."
00:05 So the origin for the song for "To Be A Man," it was a beautiful day about a year ago.
00:27 Woke up, got some coffee, and about the afternoon time, me and Lex decided to make some songs.
00:33 I walked in the room. He said, "Man, I got something crazy for you."
00:37 I said, "Alright, play it." He played it, and the first thing I said was, "I can't hide myself."
00:44 That's how it started.
00:47 It's pretty much like right there. Then I remember just being like, "Oh, I want to start right away."
00:51 Yeah.
00:52 Because I start the song right when the beat starts.
00:55 It sounds very much like a strong concept song already.
01:00 The beat gives that vibe where you can talk about something very deep and very vulnerable and relatable.
01:06 I know he likes that.
01:08 Sometimes I say I write music from four perspectives.
01:22 What I'm going through, what I'm trying to avoid, what I see, or what I'm trying to manifest.
01:28 Those are the four perspectives of what I'm writing.
01:31 For me, at that time, "To Be A Man," I saw...
01:35 For that time of season, I felt like I was doing a lot of things and not being appreciated for it.
01:39 So I was seeing my future self after 40 years of doing all this stuff and never feeling appreciated.
01:47 Not only that, I've grown older men in my life, whether it's my father, people I've talked to, people in my circle...
01:54 ...who also are able to explain to me what it's like to be a man as well.
01:58 So I've heard these stories for years.
02:01 "When you get my age, you'll finally realize what it's like."
02:05 It was a whole combination of 29 years of life.
02:09 My poetry background, I think that helps me in piecing words together to where people can read it...
02:14 ...and it sounds like you're reading a text.
02:17 You can read the song like a book.
02:20 So I think that's where my poetry background helps with that.
02:23 But what happens is, usually once I write those first couple lines, I'll sit back and ask myself...
02:28 ...how important is this song in the landscape of the world?
02:31 So when I knew this song was going to be about manhood, I was like, "You can't rush that."
02:35 Because every single man goes through it, and every woman knows a man.
02:39 And it took a man and a woman to birth everybody, so everybody's going to relate.
02:43 So I need to make sure each word is perfect.
02:45 So I knew just off of that, I wasn't even going to rush it if I had words.
02:49 I wanted to sit with it, sit with the first couple, then sit with the first verse, then sit with half of it.
02:53 I wanted it to be a process. I wanted to go into the world a little bit more.
02:57 Because I was going through some crazy stuff as well.
03:00 But typically, the way we start songs is I play the beats, and then you just vibe with it or not.
03:07 There's been some occasions where it's like, "Oh, can we change that and then this?"
03:12 But for the most part, as most artists usually like to do, they want to hear something they already like.
03:19 And at least some part of it needs to sound good, and maybe they want to develop it a bit further.
03:25 But it needs to pretty much sound how they like it, and that's how it usually starts.
03:40 For this one, I wanted something really slow.
03:43 Very kind of sad, but not crying sad.
03:48 So I started with open chords, four chords.
03:51 Piano chords is my favorite way to start a song.
03:54 And then I just added a bunch of elements after that.
03:58 So I added some more keys, I added some guitar, some reverse guitars.
04:03 So these are the first chords that I start with, and then they're accompanied with some voice samples.
04:10 That I think would just kind of bring the mood of the song.
04:14 And that's my favorite thing to do, to put voices over piano chords.
04:21 It really sets the mood and makes the piano chords a bit more unique.
04:28 And then we got sub bass that comes in, to kind of make it a bit more intense.
04:33 And then here we got some trap beats, trap drums coming in.
04:42 And everything in this beat, I think what makes it super unique is that everything is sort of EQ'd down.
04:50 For producers who understand this, it's just kind of taking out the high end frequencies of most instruments.
04:55 And it's very muffled down, if that makes more sense for other people.
04:59 And it just makes it more intense and kind of like more of an anthem type thing.
05:06 And it makes the vocals stand out more.
05:08 So almost every single instrument in this beat is like EQ'd down.
05:12 And it's sort of more muffled.
05:15 [Music]
05:24 So it goes something like...
05:26 [Music]
05:43 It just keeps going off.
05:45 [Music]
05:55 Man, it released April 14th last year.
05:58 So that means it was like 8 to 9 months.
06:02 And then I think I made the beat probably like a week before we started.
06:06 So yeah, I felt that.
06:08 I always play all my beats for you as soon as I make them.
06:11 And it's so funny because I remember that last part, "It's the circle of life."
06:15 That part, I had wrote it in the car.
06:17 And for like, I don't even know if you were, I don't think you were there.
06:20 But I remember, "Oh, I got it. Let's finish it."
06:22 And then I was getting nervous because I was like,
06:25 "Man, I hope I can sing it the way I have it in my head."
06:28 So going into the studio, I'm sweating.
06:30 Because I'm like, "I hope I can perform."
06:32 It's almost like a basketball game for me, you know?
06:34 So yeah, there's a lot of cool things that go into these.
06:37 But usually, yeah, the beat, it's usually perfect by the time I hear it.
06:41 Yeah.
06:42 [Music]
06:50 So once the chorus hits, the unique part of it is that I added extra drums.
06:55 In the background is more rock-sounding drums.
06:57 So the drums are really busy.
06:59 And it makes the beat stand out a bit more.
07:01 And that's, you know, makes the vocals stand out a bit more too.
07:03 And people know it's the hook.
07:05 [Music]
07:09 And then I add some pads in the background too.
07:11 To make sure that there's just more depth.
07:15 And the beat sounds more full.
07:17 And again, that kind of complements the fact that it's a chorus.
07:20 [Music]
07:36 That second verse, you know, he says, "Don't give up, keep fighting.
07:41 As a man, our son is our horizon."
07:45 That's a hard line.
07:46 That's hard.
07:47 Yeah.
07:48 You know, it's a double meaning.
07:49 Son, son is our horizon.
07:50 It sounds good too.
07:51 It's hard to make that happen.
07:52 And then our actions play a role and we end up like them.
07:55 So they can't let us see them hurt.
07:57 So they can't let us see them hurt.
08:00 So we embody what they do.
08:02 Start a generational curse.
08:03 Like, it's like, that's something every man has to go through.
08:06 So I think the second verse, I just think it's like, it can fit in with any story
08:10 someone wants to add on the first.
08:12 It's more descriptive than the first one.
08:14 The first one is very general, but it still describes things very great.
08:17 It's just more generalized.
08:18 The second verse, I feel like you went in depth.
08:20 Exactly.
08:21 First verse, I'm setting them up.
08:22 Yeah, you're setting them up.
08:23 [Music]
08:39 So with Darius, I have some amazing people on my team who knew people from his team.
08:43 And they reached out, showed him the song.
08:46 He loved it.
08:48 And then he laid that amazing verse.
08:51 And then I was actually on tour.
08:53 And I wanted to get the music video.
08:54 Like, I love music videos.
08:55 And I was like, no, I'm not putting out just audio.
08:59 You know, I want a music video because a music video is going to really drive home that message.
09:04 So I was actually on tour.
09:06 Found a day in between.
09:08 I forget what show it was, the two shows.
09:10 Flew to Nashville.
09:12 Had like 16 hours to get the music video done.
09:15 And then luckily, Darius is, you know, the easiest.
09:17 He's a legend, easy to work with, you know, and pulled up.
09:20 And we got his part done in like three hours, maybe less.
09:25 And it was just smooth, man, super smooth.
09:28 We were just chopping it up.
09:31 So, yeah, I was really grateful, honestly.
09:33 I was like, in the moment, you don't really like--I'm trying to be more present in life.
09:38 So in the moment, I'm sort of just back and forth.
09:42 I'm on tour, you know what I mean?
09:43 But I took a couple moments to slow down.
09:45 Even when I figured out that we were getting Imani, I was even just listening to a lot of his music that I'd listened to in the past.
09:51 Just getting myself in the right mind state.
09:53 So it was really just a legendary moment, especially considering what Darius has done, all he's accomplished.
09:57 He's Hollywood Walk of Fame, all the number ones in country music.
10:00 He's got the star.
10:01 Hootie and the Blowfish.
10:02 So for me, it was a great moment that I was really trying to take in.
10:05 Obviously, what he said, his verse, absolutely amazing.
10:08 Amazing compliment to what I have in the second verse.
10:13 So just an amazing experience.
10:30 I think as someone who was growing up, I always had trouble communicating and expressing my feelings.
10:36 Once I wrote my first poem at the age of 22, I was like, "Oh wow, maybe this is my outlet."
10:41 I was always just bad at communicating.
10:43 So for me, To Be A Man wasn't--it's not a sympathy song.
10:46 It's a song about understanding exactly what men go through.
10:49 And then once you have this understanding, you can then move accordingly.
10:52 And I think that's what--that's why I think there's so many women who love this song as well.
10:55 Because it's not a song that's pitting men against women.
10:58 It's explaining what most men feel.
11:00 So I think it was like a purge of emotions when I wrote it, but I was also like,
11:05 "Wow, this is going to be a really good song that's going to open a conversation
11:08 that is a tough one for people to have, but it's an emotional appeal to the subject
11:12 and not something that's going to be divisive."
11:14 Because I think that's the message I'm getting the most is like,
11:16 "Wow, I heard your song and it just made me think of my dad, my uncle, my sons,
11:22 my husband, my this and my that."
11:24 So that's what's really hitting me the most.
11:26 It's like a voice for people who are sometimes screaming silently.
11:30 Yeah, honestly, I couldn't have asked for a better subject to be spoken on that beat.
11:35 So I think that it went definitely--the beat went to a great place, you know?
11:42 The subject's really good. So, appreciate that, man.
11:45 Appreciate you, man.
11:47 ♪ I don't expect you to understand ♪
11:49 ♪ We just hope we can explain ♪
11:52 ♪ We can't explain what it's like to be human ♪
11:55 ♪ It's like to be human ♪
11:57 ♪ It's a mirror ♪
12:00 ♪ And you don't care about what we know ♪
12:02 (whooshing)
12:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]