An EP came out in August that immediately established itself as one of the most interesting local releases in the 2023 Charleston music scene. A trio of hip-hop artists, called Hirow, EL and Ivory Keys, collaborated on the EP, released under the title One Spliff And Three Minorities, which is also the name of the group.
The EP immediately envelopes the listener in its atmosphere with the opening title track, which feels dark and cinematic. A skeletal, low-tempo electronic beat anchors the song’s moody twists and turns through movie-score string arrangements, muted bass lines and a generally haunted feel.
The three MCs shadowbox each other throughout the song, dipping into their verses with lines like: “One too many shots I turn into Keith Urban,” and “Stuck inside a house like I’m Macaulay Culkin,” drift up out of the hazy, seductive feel of the music, turning the tired cliché of rap boasting into something funnier and more universal.
Then the tracks become more interesting and more experimental. “Lethal Weapon” kicks off with a spidery, echoing guitar riff that leads into one of the heaviest grooves on the album, a bass heavy mid-tempo strut with a colossal beat.
“Like That” brings in even more guitars, imposing a dread-filled hard rock riff over an increasingly demented, fevered delivery by the trio. “Ukraine” is damn near a straight ahead modern pop rock tune with a sleek, propulsive beat and an indelible melody. The EP closes with its most brutal track, “G.Y.A.T.,” a colossal, top heavy beast with some truly demented vocals.
To say the least, the EP is a kaleidoscopic collection of songs that feel cohesive despite the fact that every song is different stylistically — so different, in fact, that One Spliff and Three Minorities won the 2023 City Paper Music Award for Electronic/Experimental Act of the Year. But for all the determined exploration of the EP, the three MCs who made it, Hirow, EL and Ivory Keys, came together in a surprisingly low-key manner.
“Hirow threw out the idea,” EL said. “He said, ‘We should go into the studio, and make a song. That was the goal, just to make a song with all three of us, and, you know, something cool. After a while, we started throwing out ideas. And then as we went on, it just became more experimental, and we’ve kind of kept throwing ideas, and that’s how we got to the tape.”
The EP was recorded over a six-month period at Hirow’s home studio, allowing the trio to work at their own pace.
“You’re not on somebody else’s time,” Ivory Keys said. “You have time to hang out and just really let things marinate. We were letting things come about instead of thinking, ‘We’re here for an hour, let’s churn something out.’ Maybe it wouldn’t have taken six months to make an EP had it been like that, but I think this happened the way it should have.”
As for the stylistic variety on the EP, Ivory Keys says it just came naturally.
“Hirow and EL, they both know how to play guitar,” he said, “and they were just f***ing around with chords and notes and just coming up with dope stuff and getting experimental in every sense of the word. Some things were intentional, but a lot of it was just letting accidents be accidents.”
As for the trio’s seamless lyrical flow, Hirow, the most reserved of the trio in conversation, offered some insight.
“A lot of it came from freestyles,” he said, “where I would lay down a quick bar, and then I would pass it to EL pretty much, you know, and he would lay down like his bar, and the whole song is just a lot of back and forth. That’s what we were going for, writing ideas back and forth for songs. Some of it was written, but really it was just whatever the vibe was at the time that we made the song.”
Now with their debut EP behind them, One Spliff and Three Minorities are planning on collaborating extensively on future projects, even if they don’t come out under the same name.
“We all individually have songs with each other aside from the project,” Hirow said. “We didn’t just start working together when this project started. Everybody is intertwined with each other as far as working together. So I’m not really sure whether there will be a second part of this project, but as far as us working together, we work together every time we meet up.”
Recent Comments