By Charlie Maybee
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Atlanta-based rapper ILOVEMAKONNEN is back with a new collaboration, featuring Yellow Trash Can, titled “Don’t Tell Me What To Do.” The track echoes with a sea of bass while the autotuned vocals reverb through space like waves on the ocean.
Despite the confrontational title, there’s a certain restraint that permeates the song’s core. The vocals feel relaxed, but the way they get sampled and remixed gives them a choppy, rhythmic groove that balances the openness of the driving bass and drums. It bookends with choruses where ILOVEMAKONNEN repetitively asserts “Don’t tell me how to live / Don’t tell me what to do.” It’s a simple message that’s musically well executed in a way that is fun and endlessly listenable.
Sandwiched between those choruses, the verse lyrically places ILOVEMAKONNEN in a club scene where he proclaims, “I just got some money,” and he’s ready to party into the night with whoever he wants as he sings, “Took your old girl made her into my new lady.”
Any attempt at controlling him will fall on deaf ears because he is here strictly for a good time. It seems like if you’re not rolling with ILOVEMAKONNEN’s crew, then you’re going to get left behind, so take the hint and tag along for the ride. It is sure to be a night of debauchery with no end in sight.
“Don’t Tell Me What To Do” is available on major streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, YouTube, TIDAL, and Amazon Music. Follow our Alchemical Weekly Spotify Playlist for more great music featured on the site.
Charlie Maybee is a dancer, musician, educator, and writer based in Charleston, South Carolina who currently teaches with the Dance Program at the College of Charleston. His primary work as an artist is with his performing collective, Polymath Performance Project, through which he makes interdisciplinary performance art that centers tap dance as the primary medium of expression and research. He also currently plays rhythm guitar for the Charleston-based punk band, Anergy, and releases music as a solo artist under the name Nox Eterna.
After AFI DOCS’s departure, the capital city once again has a documentary festival.
Alchemical Records is a Washington, D.C. based music publication. We cover the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, VA metro area music scenes, including band interviews, articles about your favorite musicians, new music and concert dates.
