When a musician embarks on a solo endeavor after performing only in groups, it can be daunting, and Kudaa—aka Juan Rodriguez, from hip-hop duo BluVarity—is doing exactly that with his debut solo release, together we wonder what’s next.
The EP is both emotional and versatile. There are moments of somber lyrics and depressing instrumentals (“Summer”), lively and loud rap (“DEVILWEARSPRADA”) and even funky, chill vibes (“Sit there and breathe”). Rodriguez works through a cycle of emotions, feelings, themes and more throughout the six-song effort. His debut single, “DEVILWEARSPRADA,” featuring $LADEGEEKIN, was released June 1; the whole EP will be out June 29.
During a recent phone interview, Rodriguez explained how “Summer,” the first track, stems all the way back to his introduction to creating music.
“What started me making music, and BluVarity in general, was this car accident I had back in 2018, and just some crazy shit happened,” Rodriguez said. “I was going through a lot. I had a lot of friends who saw me as this music guy, because I love all this music, but I didn’t make (music). I made this whole project in my head, and one of the first things I ever wrote was this song. I’ve had three of these songs since the start of my career. For some reason, it felt perfect to have it as the starter, even though it’s kind of dark. It’s the calm before chaos.”
Rodriguez started the Kudaa project because Rodriguez wanted to improve his music.
“About a year ago, I realized I had to put myself in check, because I was almost faking a life with BluVarity,” said Rodriguez. “I just rapped, and Sebas (Sebastian Flores) mixed everything, mastered everything, made every beat. I almost lived this facade where I would say I’m a creative director of this band, but I’m really not. I told myself to switch everything around, so I made everything on my own.”
BluVarity’s vibe has moments of emotion, but Kudaa’s EP is darker. Rodriguez felt comfortable unloading more of his personal life into a solo setting.
“I don’t want to be too dark on the stage with Sebas,” he said. “I think our purpose is just to make fun music, and whatever comes out just comes out. … I don’t want to put all this emotional baggage in BluVarity when Sebas just wants to rap.”
“Summer” features moments of Rodriguez having a conversation with someone with a deeper voice.
“When I was writing, I was already having conversations with myself,” Rodriguez said. “All I do is overthink, and then in my head, I was like, ‘This is a perfect conversation to have.’ … I got really emotional lyrically, because I keep to myself a lot, so this was my way of talking to my therapist, I guess.”
“MURDERMECUTE!” is the third track, and it showcases the producer side of Kudaa, chopping up a soul sample into a funky rap beat.
“I really wanted to show myself in this project that I can just switch it up,” he said. “I can make a slower rap song like ‘Summer’; I can make a banger like, ‘DEVILWEARSPRADA,’ but I could also chop samples, and that’s how I got this one. I wanted to do different things when it came to genres of rap, and just different sounds in general. I didn’t want to put myself in this bubble. If you make a different sound that you usually don’t feel comfortable with, that’s where you’re going to take the biggest step forward. This was my therapy, just making random beats and seeing where it goes.”
“GMFU” features punk-rock drumming while still maintaining the hip-hop formula and booming bass. It features local rapper Nico Satí.
“I’ve been trying to make a song with this guy for, like, three years, and all the ones we’ve thrown at the walls just never stuck,” Rodriguez said. “I met Nico my freshman year of high school; he was, like, a junior back then. He was my inspiration. I was like, ‘This guy makes music, and he goes to high school; that’s tight as fuck.’ … This guy wants to make the same thing I do; he just wants to hit every genre as many times as he can. He just really gets me in terms of the idea of just doing whatever comes naturally.”
Half of the songs on the EP have a featured artist. Rodriguez said he had to overcome some mental hurdles when inviting collaborators into his solo music.
“I really had to put my ego down for it,” he said. “With BluVarity, it was so easy. I’ve known Sebas since I was 12, so we just talk like that; we play games together, and we give each other that criticism anyways. With Nico, we don’t game together; we’re just homies, and in that creative process, I catch myself getting defensive of my ideas, but I had to be open to it. He’s nothing but knowledge for me; he’s not trying to hurt me or my mindset of things. He just wants to welcome his thought process into my head, too.”
On “YDOUH8ME,” Kudaa takes a laid-back approach to the vocals—while the instrumentals’ many layers of audio texture create tension.
“I wanted to feel comfortable being uncomfortable, both with music and on a day-to-day basis,” Rodriguez said. “I’m just not going to have good days, and I just have to work with what I can do. I’d had a shitty day. It’s so weird, because that day (when I recorded the song), I didn’t feel like the song was uncomfortable, and then the next day, I’m like, ‘Holy shit; what were you on?’”
Final track “Sit there and breathe” is a mellow instrumental with some happy, groovy guitar, featuring Aoster, aka Chris Ramont. Rodriguez took inspiration from artist Kenny Beats when deciding to have a closing track with no lyrics.
“I was watching an interview with Kenny Beats, and he said, ‘I just had to figure out that I had to speak through my sound,’ and that really stuck with me,” Rodriguez said. “This kick drum, as stupid as it sounds, could mean more than what I wanted to say in this song. … The whole point of it was for me to gather my thoughts. I wrote this when I lost someone close to me, and this was almost me pushing my boat to the ocean and just accepting what happened. Without saying my pain, I wanted to make it sound as beautiful as I could, and just speak literally through sound.”
The EP goes through the cycle of emotions most of us go through every day. There are highs and lows—but there are also friends along the way to help. Rodriguez saw creating the music as therapeutic, and collaborating with his buddies offered a mental boost.
“I’ve been friends with Chris and Nico for years, and they knew what I was trying to express, and they would enhance that,” Rodriguez said. “They helped me push me from 6 to 10. My other friends I worked with, they’ve been making music for years. … For me, it was this crazy thing of, like, ‘Whoa, they genuinely like my music enough to work with me.’”
For more information, visit www.instagram.com/ayookudaa.