Brian Fresco released his most personal project yet through the Casanova mixtape. He says the inspiration for the project, besides wooing women, is to continue the momentum from “Bae,” a track off his SoulMoney EP that was released in 2014.
“It was the most fun song I created and the easiest song I created,” he says in an exclusive interview with HipHopDX. “Once I seen how big a response I got from that, I felt like I’m going to take my whole album in this direction.”
The Savemoney rapper is contributing to the group’s “Savemoney Summer” that has also featured releases like Joey Purp’s iiiDrops and Vic Mensa’s There’s Alot Going Onand Chance The Rapper’s Coloring Book.
“I’m digging what the newer generation be doing for Chicago because our generation set it up,” he says. “We had it, but we never had it like this.”
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“Who wants to go to football practice when you can go crowd surf?” he asks. “We’ve been influenced by each other for our whole high school years, all of us in Savemoney.”
Fresco points to Chance The Rapper’s success in showing the growth of the Chicago scene. He remembers Chance’s #10Day mixtape, which dropped in 2012. Four years later, Coloring Book made history by becoming the first project to ever chart on Billboard’s Top 200 albums off streams alone. He says Chance’s success mirrors that of the Windy City’s as a whole.
“Chance is like the biggest rapper in the world,” he says. “So to go from nobody talking about Chicago rappers to the best, the biggest rapper in the world, the most talked about rapper is from Chicago and the most talked about scene is Chicago, to go from that in four years, I say we went through a hell of a lot of work. I’m proud of Chicago.”
For his own project, Fresco has 13 tracks and features Chance, Savemoney’s Sterling Hayes, BJ the Chicago Kid, Drey Skonie and GLC, who was among those that performed at Fresco’s album release show in Chicago.
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On “Fam,” Fresco blends elements from two different Kanye West songs to create his personal favorite track on Casanova.
“I was stuck on those two songs for like a week,” he says. “I was only playing those two songs. Ironically, my friend [Spanish] Diego, he’s the producer of many Savemoney songs, he did Sterling Hayes, his own tape. He gave me the beat and I was like, ‘Man this sounds exactly like “Hey Mama” and “Family Business,”‘ and it was not even that much of the beat you hear now it was mainly just the sample and the loop. I really liked it and I took it and me and him worked on it and I actually have production credits on that song as well. I made the drums for it and the breakdown with whistles and claps — those were all manually done. We would be in the studio doing claps for the kicks and that was one of the most experimental processes for a song for me.”
Besides the production, Fresco says he likes the song because the message of “Fam” is personal. Fresco wants his loved ones to know he cares even if he can’t show it all the time.
“It was big emotions, wake-up, reminder for my family,” he says. “Because I’m always moving and working and hustling so I’m not around all the time. I wanted to let them know through what I’m working on that I still think about you guys. I’m not just forgetting about my family while moving.”
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Another standout track is Casanova‘s conclusion, “Golden,” which features Jasmine Guerrero. The song features piano throughout and smooth bass lines along with an uplifting message that “came straight from the heart.”
“We’re golden, golden living life, walk with angels by my side, see the devil he’s behind, I got glory on my mind,” Guerrero swoons for the chorus in between Fresco’s heartfelt verses.
“Those words were the most powerful words on the tape for me,” he says. “If you’re feeling slowed down or too down, I think ‘Golden’ is a song that lets people know things are going to be alright. Life is golden, and to be alive is golden and that’s a message and a thing that people take for granted a lot. They take living life for granted. Be glad you’re alive because a lot of people don’t wake up every day. So the fact that you got up this morning is golden.”
Listen to Brian Fresco’s Casanova below:
