Hear Kipp Stone’s “Songs I Wasn’t Supposed to Like” Playlist

The East Cleveland rapper lists a few dozen undeniable jams that helped inspire his new EP “Faygo Baby.”
Playlist
Hear Kipp Stone’s “Songs I Wasn’t Supposed to Like” Playlist

The East Cleveland rapper lists a few dozen undeniable jams that helped inspire his new EP “Faygo Baby.”

Words: Mike LeSuer

May 27, 2021

Seems like there’s a pretty significant difference between the songs you permit yourself to like and the ones that come on in a public setting that really hit in the moment—until you Shazam the track and find out it’s an artist you’ve always had some unconscious bias against. For Kipp Stone, these songs are mostly the ones that clash with the hard-hitting hip-hop the East Cleveland rapper puts out, most recently and most fully realized on his new EP Faygo Baby. This project explores Stone’s formative experiences hitting up the local corner store for the titular drink, spanning the mundanity of that repetition to the trauma it led him to experience on one particularly violent day, all over grimey beats by Stone himself as well as guest producers including Statik Selektah. Coldplay’s “Clocks,” for example, doesn’t quite feel like an accurate soundtrack to these memories.

For a fuller picture of what sounds, exactly, Stone continues to look to for inspiration outside of what could be expected after hearing his music, we asked the rapper to put together a playlist of some of his favorite not-so-guilty guilty pleasures. “This is my playlist that I made out of songs I ‘wasn’t supposed to like,’” he explains. “The genre is mostly folk and alternative because those are the songs I used to get clowned for liking. I only share this playlist with people I deem as open-minded people and lovers of all good music, no matter the genre. It’s also where I get most of my inspiration.”

Check out his EP, which dropped last week via Closed Sessions, here, and listen to the full playlist with a bit of written commentary on his favorite cuts below.

Daniel Johnston, “Dream Scream”

My homegirl put me on to Daniel Johnston a year or two ago, but I love this particular song because it hits home for me. I be crushing a lot on girls I’ve met, just secretly in love with them like a lame. The piano and tone of his voice are just everything. If I could turn how it feels to be in love with being in love into a song it’d sound like this.

James Blake, “Forest Fire”

I don’t know what I could possibly say about James Blake to describe how much I love his music. I think he’s one of the greatest artists we’ve ever seen, or will ever see. This song is one of many favorites and I appreciate songs this beautiful because I want people to feel the way I feel when I hear certain songs. I always come back to this one whenever I need inspiration or to just vibe out. 

Gorillaz, “Fireflies”

Couldn’t have a playlist without including my favorite band, Gorillaz. That’s word to the 2-D tattoo on my left arm. Funny thing is this song/album came out a long time ago and I missed it. I just discovered it this year, and this song is my favorite by them replacing “Every Planet We Reach Is Dead,” which was my favorite song of all time.

King Krule, “Out Getting Ribs”

As much as I love Gorillaz, King Krule is probably my favorite artist. He’s the only artist I can think of that I love every single song in his discography. I love open spaces and have songs that I’ve made it my mission to listen to in the proper setting. I love how wide open this song is—it reminds me of Napoleon Dynamite for some reason. The scenery in that movie is amazing to me, and part of the reason is I love hidden-gem states with beautiful scenery. That being said, it’s a dream of mine to ride through a place like Idaho or Montana with this song at max volume to properly experience this song.