#DaFiveFingerDiscount: Moteleola – Oasis Black [Editorial]

Moteleola is one of my favorite up and coming producers out there! The soulful producer from the UK has been sending me very high quality music for a while so I was very excited when he finally hit me up with a debut album of his own – Oasis Black. It features some of his frequent collaborators and new ventures as well including Has-Lo, Ozay Moore, Dubz D, Chaundon, Sene ,Olivia Louise, Lafayette Stokely, Allen Poe, Signif, SWB, Big Rooz, Jeff Spec, Melodious Mike, SoulThePoet, Tre DeJean, Cheer Dolor, J. Manifesto & Chakkra.  He gave Da-What #DaFiveFingerDiscount, breaking down a few cuts from the new album.

Y.D.B.I.M. “Still trying to get rid of my ghost, still searching for my soul, cold”. The last song to be completed for Oasis Black, but yet the intro that sets it all off. As soon as I finished the first draft for this beat last September I immediately emailed it over to Olivia Louise for a chorus. I’ve created more songs with Olivia than any other artist to date, she’s always a pleasure to collaborate with and has also such an incredible work rate. Y.D.B.I.M was originally supposed to feature my younger brother Taunts, who features on Lights as part of SWB, and two different other artists who in the end ultimately couldn’t get it recorded in time. I reached out to J. ManifestO who also features on H.W.A.D.C, and Dubz D, who I produced a song called Empathy which can be found as the outro on his project, Dreams. Both of which got their verses to me within days and really saved Oasis Black from falling behind schedule. Olivia truly brought out the emotion of the song fit for an introduction to an album, perfectly with the first line “Is there a reason you don’t believe in me?”. A line all of us dreamers can relate to in it’s simplicity.

The Foundation. “If my job supports the work that supports my family’s vision, then the village that we build can be the kingdom we envision”. Incredibly intricate writing from Ozay Moore plus dark production to compliment. The original beat that was intended for this track sounded completely different to the song we have now. This song was also originally supposed to feature the late Praverb The Wyse who had written his verse but unfortunately passed last winter, R.I.P. It was becoming too late to reach out and wait for another verse to add to Ozay Moore’s so I decided to transform it into a short interlude-type song, so to counter the long length of the Oasis Black intro track Y.D.B.I.M. The sample for this track is actually taken from another beat an artist turned down earlier this year, just restructured and reworked to fit. I also decided to use this song as the opportunity to add a hint of trap to the project through the drum work, to balance out the boom bap influence found later on in the project

Fast Lane. “They keep trying to pull us back from the edge, but I love it when you follow me into the fast lane”. This a two part song. The first part a short interlude featuring Olivia Louise, before getting into the main segment of the song featuring Allen Poe & Signif. Olivia comes through once again with amazing song writing, with a soulful, alluring voice that makes her part sound almost dreamlike. Highlighting our generation’s fascination with materialism “tryna to get that house and that couch and that car” and the lust to live life fast “but we ain’t got no time to savour it, we’re too busy living reckless”. With Signif ending the song off with her retelling being in love, which flows into the next story subject seamlessly.

Scared. “To my unborn sun I wish you nothing but light”. Signif truly shined on this song more than I could’ve expected. To begin with I had the idea of the first verse being delivered from the view point of a father fearful of his daughter growing up in this world. And then the verse Signif wrote, a mother fearful for her son growing up in this world. With this idea I thought this track was certainly the intro for Oasis Black. Although I was unable to get the second verse to complete the song and then Y.D.B.I.M came along, and that changed the tracklisting order of the whole project.

Lights. “Waiting to glisten, we just wait ’till they listen, it can’t go wrong me and music bond, i’m James on a mission “. Featuring SWB, consisting of Blessed, my younger brother Taunts and finally Tragic. This song was actually recorded late last summer if my memory is correct and was initially created for their EP, Somehow Someday. I actually had a few completely different beats that I picked for them to rap over that would’ve brought more darkness to Oasis Black. However time was running out to have this completed for me so I had to pull Lights into the project, and rearrange the tracklisting for it to make sense with this new addition to the intended story throughout. Lights also runs with the continuation set by the song before it, Scared. Where SWB flip the script immediately with the first lines of the song “I just want to see those lights and more”, wanting to prevail in the unjust world Signif leaves us with from a mother’s point of view “to my unborn sun I wish you nothing but light”