Dreamville "ROTD3" documentary
Dreamville, a record label with many strong individual artists, such as, J. Cole, Bas, J.I.D. Earthgang, and Ari Lennox. Imagine when all of these individual powers come together to form a collective such as this. Now imagine if that collective links up to work on a single project. Now imagine if you were to mix the Dreamville camp with other dope artists like DaBaby, Ski Mask, Maxo Kream, Smino, Saba, Rick Ross, and Vince Staples. Not only is this a legendary linking of artists, but they also went beyond to employ the aid of amazing producers, including Mike wiLL Made-It, Kenny Beats, T-Minus, Christo, ChaseTheMoney, and many more.
When so many creative and talented people are interacting there’s no way that they wouldn’t create an insane amount of music. Over the 10 day period of recording Dreamville’s Return Of The Dreamers III, 142 songs were recorded from the strength of 35 artists, and 27 producers. This goes to show how your environment can contribute to the energy and ambition that is needed to survive these marathon style studio sessions. Out of the 142 songs made only 18 made the album, including J. Cole’s single Middle Child, as well as Down Bad, Under the Sun, and Costa Rica.
In the documentary, REVENGE, directed by David Peters, you can see the pure enjoyment and fun these artists have working together and the ideas that they used to make songs. It also is an in depth look at a good example of what kind of environment artists need to record. They are all relaxed, enjoying themselves while also remaining focused and using the vibes they created to fuel their inspiration. You can see how each artist adds their own flavor to whatever they were included on, from their freestyle ciphers, to just cutting up with each other, to the actual recording of music. One important thing I found was that they kept stressing how competitive the environment was without anyone actually having to state it. It’s important to feel a slight level of competition because it ensures that you will give a true effort in producing a great final product rather than settling for mediocrity.