In the last album update, I told you all that I was driving down to Maryland to finish up Grey Expectations. Plans were made. My car was packed. I said by to the wife and kid and began pulling out of the driveway when my brother called to tell me that a coworker had tested positive for covid. I was planning to stay at his house, but that was now out of the equation, so I drove back into the garage and started calling some other folks.

I spoke to Kit Whitacre and some other folks and immediately realized it wasn't gonna happen. Kit and DJ Silent Beard already took the week off to focus on mixing and were looking forward to my arrival. Eh... they may have been less enthusiastic than that last sentence implies. Anyone who knows me is well aware of my ability to be a giant pain in the ass under certain circumstances. Well let's just say I'd been a royal pain in the booty for the last month. I wanted this album done and I was being less than pleasant about it. Even when there's some tension, those guys love me... I love them... and I'm sure they would have been thrilled to see me, but I definitely would've thrown off the dynamic.

In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't go because these dudes crushed it. We are two pre-mastered tracks away from mastering and I think everything sounds 10x better than I could have possibly imagined based on where we were even two months ago. Kit and Ryan leveled the fk up this week and continue to level up. These songs sound like they were mixed in a world-class studio and they haven't even been mastered yet. I was on standby, listening to bounces and sending notes remotely. It worked out extremely well for all of us.

GREY EXPECTATIONS: An Ode to Classic Rock Hip Hop Albums

As I've mentioned previously, Grey Expectations is a tribute/nod to classic rock concept albums like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon / The Wall / Animals, The Beatles' Sargent Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Parliament's Mothership Connection, The Who's Quadrophenia, and Marvin Gaye's What's Going On to name a few. 

I'm AMP'D UP to say that I think we've done an incredible job capturing the sound, soul and spirit of these classic rock concept albums while still making it different. Grey Expectations is, after all, a hip hop album, but it's far more than that. We've covered a wide variety of genres including Blues, Cumbia, Funk, Folk, Vallenato, Americana, Country (yes Country), and R&B... but at its core it's a hip hop album.

I know you're tired of hearing us talk about the album. You just wanna hear some music. Well hold your horses, cause it's coming. Back soon with more updates!

Tyler Durdin from Wolves & Sheep