Everything you wanted to know about the inspiration behind the sound of Marr Greys “Trapped” Album

Marr Grey Vibes with us here next door to talk about His Process on Creating new sounds, writing and more. 

Marr Grey and I caught up over the week to talk about his origins in music, singing, rapping and what inspired the nightrider sound. Marr Greys' dad became one of the initial catalysts to inspire his musical journey being that his dad owned a gospel group. Marr Grey found himself at many of his dad's rehearsals. Marr Grey’s Father played guitar for the likes of K-Ci & Jo-Jo, way before they were RnB singers in a quartet gospel. "if you listen to quartet gospel, it's pretty similar to the RnB/Boy Band type of music like Jodeci or Dru hill, actually my cousin jazz was in Dru hill too, had a solo in five steps, so it ran in the family, and from there I took heed to the rap side of things and realized if I want to be the best I gotta learn how to do both so I taught myself how to sing" Marr Grey explains. "I used to sing over Chris brown songs and just teach myself how to sing, and then the notes started connecting, and that's how it happened."

WavyRonin: self-made singer, rapping too, you've been intensely versatile, especially listening to your most recent album that was some of the waviest music I've heard in a long time, and you dropped this recently. So for people that might not have listened to your music before, seeing this article, how would you describe the music you typically create nowadays?

"Basically, it's still the same nightrider sound, basically just getting in the car and driving around at night time and having music that fits that specific time. Wherever you're going, you just want to have that music to fit that scenery wherever you are, wherever you live, even taking the scenic route. Wherever you just wanna have that music, that vibe to get you to wherever you're going. Luckily I have a producer that gets it, Ashlee. I got YLX, a guy from London Ashlee is out in South Carolina, and they basically helped me create that sound and helped this whole vision come to life."

WavyRonin: The nightrider sound, even in Toronto, hits so hard in the city and for the people first getting into your music, that vibe alone can really encapsulate new listeners. The way you put this together and the producers you worked with definitely wasn't an easy thing to do tho, and I really wanted to find out what your creative process is like, especially in your most recent project.

"Well, the nightrider sound started off even back to how I got my name Marr grey." Basically, this one girl told him that sea means mar in Spanish, and "and I added an extra r which sounded pretty cool, and my style of balancing rap and singing was like a light, vibrant side colliding with a more dark and gritty side so when you mix white and black you get grey." He adds, "and my mom worked super late nights, and wouldn't get back till 11 pm 12 pm, and I didn't have a whip so I only really got to drive at night. (It) was the only time I could really go out. So having that sound and the people that could put it together. When I used to go into the studio writing songs, let's say I went to the studio, but two weeks ago I went through a heartbreak, but two weeks later I'm over it, and I'm going into the studio I'm turnt up now, I'm not tryna go into the studio and sing about heartbreak. So I realized that my energy wasn't there when I would do it and id be on a trap beat talking about heartbreak, and if I'm tryna rap on some trap shit, it won't make sense cuz I'm talking about heartbreak, so I decided to stop doing that and just talk about what's on my mind, and I would just stop writing, and I would go into the studio, and whatever energy I'm on in there that's what I'm giving. If I wanna talk about heartbreak, what just happened three hours ago or turning up, I can do that, so that also played a big role as far as the sound, just like freestyling it.

WavyRonin: listening to your songs too and your brand, I consider your writing one of your biggest strong suits. On a lot of your songs, you're very lyrical, and I was wondering how often you might write something for a piece through some kind of inspiration and even produce a song off of it?

The only thing I pretty much jot down now is just on the production side, whether it be a voice memo to my producer, but as far as lyrics go, I haven't written outside the booth in a long time. I pretty much just go off the top of the dome now. The only thing that is planned like, for instance, "Trolling" I was just riding around and I heard the beat, and then the hook just came in my head and the melody, so I did a voice memo so that I'd remember it, but that's pretty much as far as it goes when it comes to writing outside the studio. I might write down topics of what the song should be about tho.

WavyRonin: I mean, the studio is where most of the magic happens, it really is a sacred space for music, so I feel that, but you're also a very versatile artist; you both rap and sing while incorporating vibes and elements from various genres. How do you stay so versatile in your music but figure out a way to get it so cohesive with the nightrider vibe?

“I really think it drives off of me wanting to get better. I've always wanted to be the best. I feel the only way you really can be the best is by tapping into every genre possible. Understanding melody and music kinda drives me, so if I hear something or I hear somebody did an amazing job on it, it could be a Spanish record, but if I hear somebody do an amazing job at it, it inspires me to where it's like okay that was good, but I know I could do something better with it. I could attack it this way or that way. I feel like it just adds to the catalogue. I listen to all different types of music anyway, so I also want to have a song for every vibe or situation. If I'm in Mexico, I got a Spanish vibe for that, or if I'm in the club and they playing house music, I might just throw on some house music, so I attack every genre."

Wavy Ronin: Speaking of Genres, what are you listening to these days? What's your library looking like, or your playlists looking like?

"I listen to a lot. I got my producers with me too, that put me on a lot of different artists, but as far as the daily, future is my favourite rapper right now. I rock with drake and what he's doing, a lot of Travis Scott, Sade, Aliyah, of course, Thugga, Gunna; I like all the new artist because I feel like I'm 24 now, so I did a lot of my homework as far as going back and listening to artists from the 80s and 90s, so I'm just embracing all the artists now, I listen to a lot of the artists that are out right now, Playboi Carti too."

Wavy Ronin: Do you hope to collab with some newer artists or some of the artists you mentioned? Who do you see yourself collabing with in the future?

"I would definitely love to do a song with Chris Brown, for sure like on the RnB side of things I think that would be crazy, I would love to do a song with future of course, and I would love to do a song with Drake, that was actually supposed to happen but its a long story but ima save that story for when everything makes sense, and all the pieces are together. I listened to drake ever since so far gone; that dropped when I was in the 6th grade n shit, so I always go back cuz thats what inspired me to start rapping and singing and all that type of shit, so id love to do a song with those guys for sure."

Wavy Ronin: In your album, you talk about your experiences recently, even with the pandemic and covid happening, and I'm sure you were performing before that at many shows, but if I could ask you what you would be doing if it wasn't for covid what would that be?

"I really wanted to do this right before covid happened, I wanted to do a lot of travelling to a lot of places, I was even telling the crew not too long ago I want to book Airbnb's and just set up a nice little studio and just record like somewhere off the beaches or something, I was gonna go to LA and go crazy just hit a few sessions with some people I know and give a helping hand wherever my work is needed, but covid kinda slowed that down a little bit."

Wavy Ronin: Are there any key venues or key spots you want to tap into in maybe LA or some other area?

"If we talking about venues, then I think DC was like, cuz I used to rap outside of venues to Artists, the Verizon centre where the wizards play out, so one day if I get a sold-out show there, that's the goal right there."

Wavy Ronin: That would be huge, your journey so far has already been massive tho, and I hope you get all the success you deserve. You've been grinding so hard, and you've experienced a lot of hardships when it comes to being in the industry and making music, so if you could give a piece of advice to upcoming RnB artists or rappers, what would that advice be?

"The number one thing is consistency, consistency and persistence man, and it sounds cliche but never stopping. it gets crazy it gets so crazy to the point where you feel like a lot of doors are being shut on you, and it feels like a lot of people are locking you out, but at the end of the day, you're the gatekeeper, you know what I'm sayin, you're the locksmith you can get into any door you want to, all it takes is persistence and consistency as long as you have that and you never stop. Eventually, it's gonna happen, in whatever you do, that's just life period not even just music, that's the best advice I can give."

Wavy Ronin: Definitely a good piece of advice for the younger generations, being relentless. You definitely exemplify that through and through. You've been going hard for so long I don't even think you've dropped a single track that I didn't rate; you go IN all the time, and that's not easy to do, especially in this industry. Many managers, many artists, many producers talk about how difficult it is to succeed in this space, so if you could change anything about this industry, what would you change?

"I think the one thing that should be changed is why people make contracts so difficult to read, like you gotta get a lawyer just to read it, i know they dont talk like that i know they dont even text like that so why go outta your way to make a contract look confusing, i also feel like a lot of OGs in the game, pharrel actually spoke about this not too long ago but once youre in that position just giving game especially when you want your sound to be getting better, a lot of guys get upset when the industry starts to change and doesnt sound like how it used to sound, a big part of that is because a lot of people dont share information and a lot of people dont give game because they dont want to pass the torch, you gotta realize that like i said theres gonna be that guy that has the persistence and the consistency and has that drive to where theyre gonna find another door and because they didnt go the way you went, they went the opposite way that means the music is gonna sound completely different then how you expected it to sound, so if OGs start giving game and helping artists out and not being so bitter about things,i feel like everything would go a lot more smoothly, thats just my opinion."

Wavy Ronin: I wanna circle back to "Trapped" cuz I've been bumping that album all day long for the past week. It's crazy, it's fire, but tell me what some of your favourite songs on the album are cuz my favourite songs are, tell the truth, Rematch, racks on me, those are fire.

"Aw man, Rematch was actually supposed to go on "start of forever," my last project before "trapped," but for some reason, my tattoo guy was like, bro put this shit out, cuz I didn't really like it at first, I dont know what it was"

Wavy Ronin: It hits!!!

"I actually wrote that song for Trey Songz; by the way, it was actually supposed to go to him, but he was like bro put that song out man, out of nowhere I was like damn this shit does sound pretty good, so there's a funny story on that one.

But my favourite songs, I would say, and this is not in any order but just for setting the tone, my guy YLX when he came through with that Trapped beat, I think that set the tone for me because I was actually looking for that specific sound, but I didn't know how to explain it, so he just came through sent it to my phone, and I was like bro this is crazy, so ima say trapped, ima say trolling, ima say too long, and if I could throw one more in there its between racks on me and my Beyonce interlude, 

WavyRonin: I actually wanted to personally ask; I really vibed to "tell the truth," do you want to tell a little bit of the story or what inspired tell the truth specifically?

"That story is actually an old situation that I had two exes ago; I felt like I never got a chance to speak on that situation, I just felt like it was a mixture of two different girls like the more recent situation was like when the beat switched and shit. Dwayne, he was in the studio that night, and he helped me with the hook a little bit and with some placements n shit and what I should say and how I shoSteviey it, and I was a little late telling that story, but it was just something I had to get off my chest, for sure man now you know why I had to go stevie you get it now."

Wavy Ronin: So what are you planning next for your music and your career? You just dropped an album almost a month ago, and hopefully, things do open back and get back to normal, so what can fans expect next from Marr grey

"We were back in the lab coming up with a new project, and it sounds amazing. I got a new producer he's a kid; he's like 14 years old, Timbaland is bigging him up, yeah he's been helping me a lot, especially on the production end of things, taking the sound to a new level in sounds I've never used before, I'm also taking a lot of label meetings too, kinda wanted to build my buzz up a bit more but yeah things are looking pretty good but my main focus as far as the team is staying focused, staying in that lab, I got a project coming, should be around late April, early May, it's coming, I got a new single dropping Saturday from that project, we got some nightrider merch coming too, so its boutta be crazy, it'll all tie together with the project it'll all make sense you'll see."

WavyRonin: I feel you, judging by the last one, I can't wait to hear it; just know Toronto fucks with you; your music is wavy

"Toronto is like a second home to me, man, for real."