Death By Icon f/ Deer Emerson – Namesake

After premiering across the pond on BBC Radio 1Xtra yesterday, Windy duo Death By Icon bring their latest drop stateside for everyone’s listening pleasure. Before you hit the jump and get an earful of the Deer Emerson-assisted “Namesake,” find out how the track came together below.

Simply put, Namesake is about the value of truths.

The original idea for the Namesake beat came from listening to Biggie’s “Party and Bullshit.” The sample used in that beat is an old jazz instrumental cover of “I’ll Be There” by Johnny Hammond. It’s Ants favorite Biggie song for a bunch of reasons, but mainly for the production and how that sample was used. The sample on “Party and Bullshit” was chopped in a confusing way, and isn’t as clear cut as it sounds. He also loved the subtle melody and grittiness in that beat…something he wanted to capture in the production of Namesake.

Vic came up with a rough melody, and him and Ant wrote the lyrics. Since Ant has sung on a lot of the tracks, he gave it go, but after listening a few times they knew that someone with higher pitched vocals would fit the track better. So, they reached out to Deer Emerson and asked if she would sing the chorus and the result came out perfect.

Ant messed around on a piano and eventually found the chords, he played them a bunch of ways till it felt right playing this 6/8 or 3/4 swing to it. He knew he wanted a gritty New York type beat in 4/4 time, so he tried fitting a 6/8 feel in a 4/4 time signature and just adjusted all the instruments to that 4/4 feel; that’s why it sounds off at times. It’s also the reason why there is a switch in the second part of the verse sections.

Listen to and download “Namesake” below.