There isn’t another rapper in the Kansas City metro area who has the kind of reputation that DawgGoneDavis has. Love her or hate her, DGD has made a legend of herself through some of the most unique indie hip-hop to arrive in a generation, and her new single “Clean Slate” only adds to her legacy. Built around a throbbing beat and anthemic, heavy metal-style guitar riffing that collapses on the lyrics in a haze of fuzz and old school hip-hop swing, “Clean Slate” is a track about breaking free and, essentially, eating Pringles, and it could be one of the more charming songs of its kind out right now.
BANDCAMP: https://dawggonedavis.bandcamp.com/
First off, let’s break down the biggest instrumental component in the master mix – the guitars. From the moment we first make contact with their sizzle, they’re a commanding force to be reckoned with. Unmatched in terms of volume but far from overpowering beside the vocal, the riffing that slowly but surely ascending towards the chorus is undeniably overindulgent, and intentionally so. The excess is a reflection of the narrative’s subtext, and actually one of the more artistically provocative features to behold (at least from this perspective) in the track.
DGD’s approach to her vocal part in “Clean Slate” is, for lack of a better term, swaggering to put it quite mildly. There’s almost an ironic arrogance to the way she strings together the verses, as though she wants us to notice the forcefulness of her attitude more than the actual substance of a particular lyric. It immediately grabbed my attention and made me reconsider some of her previous work in a more positive light, as the line between satire and actual social commentary becomes all the blurrier in a release as compositionally striking as this one happens to be.
There’s no resistance in our leading lady’s delivery in this song; on the contrary, she seems eager to attack every verse like it’s the last opportunity she has to make a statement on tape. Her adrenaline is trickling into the bones of this song freely, and scarcely is there a moment in which she seems the least bit hesitant in something she’s unfurling. Maybe it’s the repetition of her rehearsing schedule, or perhaps just the experience she’s built up over the last couple of years, but she’s sounding a lot tighter in this single than I had initially expected her to.
APPLE MUSIC: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/dawggonedavis/1363060019
If there’s one thing we can collectively take away from “Clean Slate,” it’s that DawgGoneDavis is still on fire and making the most of her skillset in and outside of the studio. COVID had a crippling effect on live music but acted as a virtual stimulant to the indie recording culture cultivated by Soundcloud, and it would appear from the ambitiousness of this new document that DGD didn’t spend her quarantine sitting back and reflecting on old wins. She’s got a focus that sets a fine example for her peers in “Clean Slate,” and I think her longtime fans are going to be very happy with what they’re getting here.
Jodi Marxbury
The music of Dawg Gone Davis has been heard all over the world in partnership with the radio plugging services offered by Musik and Film Radio Promotions Division. Learn more https://musikandfilm.com