Pusha T - ‘Numbers on the Boards’

As I said, I, unfortunately for myself, didn’t listen to hip-hop for the vast majority of my life, I didn’t grow up with it around me. I was introduced to this track by my friend, Crystallmess, very recently. But it’s interesting because when I hear this track I also feel like I’m somehow the daughter of this music, as if I didn’t know my dad all my life. It was like a lineage that you hadn’t met until you were an adult. The production felt very close. Kanye’s production for most people, that discography hits home. I can see myself in the approach, in the choices of the sound – it sounds quite mean but at the same time minimalist and direct. I don’t know if it sounds like stuff that I do, but I know it’s stuff I crave for. Then Pusha T as an MC, the placement of the words, the words, the writing! Both on the production side and the rap side, it felt like two dads that I hadn’t met until then. Through the past year it’s been one of my favourite tracks. For most of his life, Pusha T has written about one subject, but the writing is brilliant and fresh – it never gets tired or repetitive, and he just pushes corners over and over again. I think that’s fascinating. I wish I knew this music when I was a kid, I really do.