MP3: Ignite Mindz – Chill

The brand new single Chill, by Ignite Mindz and his wife Kayla Marie is inspired by an inside joke that Kayla and her father have, “let’s do it tomorrow”. It’s about how sometimes, “you’ll get to that, but you just may do whatever you want today”. It’s dedicated to those days of dropping everything in today’s fast paced rat race, and rehabilitating yourself by the pool or however you prefer to recharge your batteries.

Usually a keyboardist, the main instrument on this beat is a laid back, jazzy, almost Hawaiian guitar with a tremolo effect. It’s Ignite’s first time putting out a song that he played guitar on. It floats over hard drums from a lost 10-year-old drum folder, and an 808 glide melody that is deep and satisfying at precisely the right parts. Fender Rhodes-style electric piano comes in halfway through the verse.

Kayla Marie is a classically trained singer and her harmonies marry perfectly with the guitar on the chorus. They had to go for an extra long chorus as it just felt like 8 bars wasn’t enough for it. Ignite has a more melodic rap flow on this song, and the two verses share a similar rhyme scheme with throwback metaphors in the beginning, though it switches up at the perfect time in the 2nd verse. It was executive produced by their 2-month-old baby, who had to be bounced around in the control room of the studio to be appeased. Kayla finished recording the chorus just in time to feed him on the studio couch. Stream it on any platform of your choosing.

About Ignite Mindz & Kayla Marie:
Ignite Mindz and Kayla Marie met when he was opening for Naughty by Nature. A classically trained singer herself, they began making music together soon after they started dating. They are both from Winston-Salem NC. Ignite raps live while playing the keyboard and/or bass (sometimes the bass with his toes if a drum set is involved with the keyboard). And produces his own beats.

Ignite began rapping after breaking his arm at 14, when he watched a skate video whose soundtrack was freestyles from Method Man, Ghostface, Fat Joe, Busta Rhymes, and a host of other legends. The skating was interlaced with the footage of the freestyles on Stretch and Bobbito’s legendary NYC radio show. Being stuck at home with a broken arm all summer, he watched it so many times, that it became ingrained in him. Ignite started a group with his friend Imagery at 17. At 18, they started burning discs of recordings they’d done with local producers, passing them around high school. Some rival rappers at a rival high school made an entire diss mixtape about them after Imagery punched one of them at a party.

At 20, Ignite learned to make beats on a free version of Fruity Loops after witnessing a Little Brother show and seeing how 9th Wonder was changing the game to be more accessible to producers. His second beat he ever made is still one of his favorites. He produced several Ignite and Imagery albums, and Ignite Mindz albums. He performed extensively across the East Coast but especially North Carolina. He hit his stride being a part of the Raleigh, NC scene. The same group of people in this scene at the time were Rapsody, Kooley High, and King Mez. It was such a hot bed of talent in Raleigh at that time, that it’s a shame more of its legends aren’t well known yet.

After he moved back to Winston, he joined a band called I&I + 3 with a guitarist, bassist, drummer, Imagery on the mic, and Ignite on the keyboards and mic. He met Kayla, an exceptionally talented singer with much wider tastes in music, who still loved much of the same hip hop as him. Through repeated exposure to a blend of the storytelling of country, the emotion of singer/songwriters, the energy of pop music, and the pain of rhythm and blues, Ignite’s writing became more well rounded. It improved his understanding of song structure and of the underlying elements that move people and make them feel.