Into The ‘Basement’

A while back I met an infinitely talented artist/producer by the name of Gudina. I interviewed him after taking a listen to his sounds.

My first impression?

Gudina has an eclectic, experimental sound that hip-hop, hell music in general, is missing. The sounds were off kilter and hit the ear in such a way that was close to addictive. Suffice to say, I loved everything about his sound and what he does.

One day while checking out my Twitter I happened upon a few tweets speaking of a project by Gudina called Basement Therapy. My excitement knew no bounds upon hearing this. At my earliest possible convenience I downloaded it.

BamaLove Soul presents Basement Therapy (the full title of the tape) is probably one of the coolest grooves I have ever heard. Each track hits you with an all over vibe of infinite relaxation. In my mind’s eye I see this mixtape being played in a cannabis smoke diffused basement as three guys just relax and just talk through the things on their mind. Based on that respect, the album title is dead on.

As I expected, so is the music.

I will be skipping around through the mixtape so please forgive the order.

“Video Chat” is one of the instrumental tracks on the project that shows of Gudina’s talent as far as composition. At first I wondered why the song was title thusly. I closed my eyes and listened in an attempt to see if I could feel the inspirations of its creator. What I felt is that trepidation you have sometimes with those late night phone conversation or (even better) quiet little Skype conversations that go past midnight. That mood was captured from the beginning to end of the 2:31 runtime.

“Death From Above” is quite amazing as well with features of Frank Leone and Uchenna. To me this one feels too much like a neo-soul love ballad for me to ignore it. And when I say neo-soul, I mean like the sort of stuff you’d expect from Bilal or D’Angelo once upon a time. The vocals are strong and the rhymes seem to just float over Gudina’s smooth production.

“In Livid Colour” paints an amazing picture to me. It’s an abstract one in that I may see something different than you do when you hear it. To me this song is about the morning after taking a girl home from the club or the aftermath of a bad break-up. Once again Uchenna and Frank Leone come through with the vocals and the bars that only add to what Gudina has set forth.

A few other tracks to check out would be “Between Lovers”, “War Of Art”, and “Bad Mutha Fucka”. All are guaranteed to be great on the ears and filter out all of the stresses you have suffered during a long day.

Gudina may be underground but the talent is undeniable. He has created a classic here and once he blows up, history will look back on it as such.



written by Lucius Black for Royalty Magazine