X. Kubrick and his debut EP, The Seven Levels of Happiness

It was another afternoon of idly scrolling through Twitter when I seen a retweet by Texas crossover band Fists of Fury that promoted a hip hop ep from an artist I wasn’t aware, mainly due to the location of the artist. Eager to listen to new music, I tapped a couple of links and ended up on the page of Delaware hip hop artist X. Kubrick and the release of his debut e.p. The Seven Levels of Happiness. I felt the wonderful sensation of nostalgia fill the airwaves: the ep was reminiscent of the grimy influence of 90’s hip hop that many artist from that era stylized. After listening to the project, I wanted to get a better understand of the artist X. Kubrick.

Originally from Colorado, Kubrick moved to Delaware, where he currently resides, at the age of 9. From there, life was changing and things were getting weird. Kubrick expressed that he wasn’t involved in music until he was 10 or 11 years of age. Primarily, his attention was spent on his interest in art and drawing comics. At the age of 10 is when Kubrick was introduced to the guitar and from there on played in hardcore punk bands for the better part of the decade. Some of his major influences were mainly consisted of heavy music in the beginning of 2000’s: Converge, Korn, Slipknot, System of a Down, etc. Outside of that, he was also inspired by pop artist Prince and Michael Jackson.

His introduction into rap was inspired by his mother. She played a role in contributing his hip- hop influences by allowing him to listen to artists such as Biggie, Tupac, Ma$e, Big Pun, Nate Dogg and more early on. His love for the urban artform continued as time moved forward and he was introduced to artists Kanye West and Eminem. Along with his mother, his peers made their contribution by introducing him to mid 90’s artists like Mobb Deep and Wu Tang. Even then, the thought of rapping didn’t appeal to him.

It wasn’t until the year 2020 where the thought of rapping became prominent. Due to the COVID-19 that cause a massive shutdown including being laid off and the severe drought of live music events, Kubrick found himself quarantined in his house for three months. It was then that he decided to use the time wisely and exercise his abundance of creativity by teaching himself how to rhyme and how to produce beats after acquiring Ableton’s 90- day free trial. As expected, the first half of his endeavors was filled with trial and error. He spent his time freestyling, studying rhyming words, writing verses and teaching himself how to use Ableton. After producing up to 15 beats, he finally produced a beat he felt was good enough to rap over. His familiarity in writing music from his experience in participating in bands helped with the process, thus making it easier for him to grasp. His consistency and work ethic never ceased due to his determination and his keen sense of creativity.

It served as no surprise to me that everything involving The Seven Levels of Happiness including producing, recording, mixing, mastering, cover art, etc was done by Kubrick. He did receive a little help from his friend Ken who helped open his mind to other creative ways on using Ableton and teaching Kubrick how to record by recording his first two songs. Afterwards, Kubrick continued to work on the ep for 6 months: constantly working out the kinks of perfection, song after song.

“ I figured since I was 22 (23 now) I didn’t really have a window to be a struggling rapper, uploading shitty music to Soundcloud then deleting it later. I felt I had to go all out and give people great work right out of the gate.”

As mentioned before, The Seven Levels of Happiness breathes the same air as its predecessors when its comes the grimy mid 90’s vibe of the ep. What I found interesting is the title of this ep is a total contradiction to the lyrical content. The distinguishable East Coast influenced production is highly favor to true hip hop heads and skaters that love to skate with headphones, preferably AirPods, His influence and interest into darker subjects presented in this ep is refreshing to me as its the opposition the glamorous lifestyle of money, drugs and guns that the conventional rapper promotes. The clear pronunciation and aggression in Kubrick’s voice is digestible in this ep, strikingly similar in comparison to 90’s hip hop artist Jamal but nonetheless distinctive. By Any Means Necessary is one of my favorite tracks because he presents an interesting perspective in the social climate that we live in and his angst behind it. Dark, menacing, articulate and compelling, this ep gets two Bored thumbs up. The dark side of hip hop is back.

Let us know what you think of his ep by engaging in the comments!!

Check out The Seven Levels of Happiness by tapping the image below