Now that Mellow Music Group has given their blessing to Red Pill in the form of an inked multi-album deal, we get to see what he can do on beats from production giants the likes of Oddisee, Apollo Brown, and Duke Westlake. An infinite gift to have these labelmates handing over instrumentals to say the least, but as we previously heard on “All Of Us,” and now “Smile” and “One Day,” it seems that Pill is ready to meet expectations with meaningful bars and mature song craft that demonstrates he is hungry on the mic. Read about the back story below, stream these from the Learning To Punch EP, and look out for him to make moves on the upcoming full length project.
His opening track is produced by new-teammate Oddisee, who back in 2011 after watching Red Pill preform at SXSW spoke to Apollo Brown suggesting he produce something with him. “Red Pill was thoroughly impressive on the mic and in front of the crowd,” says Oddisee about the experience. Apollo then went on to form the group Ugly Heroes with Red Pill & Verbal Kent in 2012 before releasing their first group record in early 2013. Interestingly Red Pill had purchased production for Oddisee about 5 years before and sat on it, waiting until he felt ready enough to do it justice. Cut to five years later and Red Pill has signed a deal as Oddisee’s teammate and is working alongside him. Appropriately, this forms the first track of the “Learning To Punch EP” and is titled “Smile.”
The second song on the album is the heartfelt journalism of “All Of Us” – an emotional and well thought out response to the violence and brutality recently shoved into the forefront of American communities. Finally west coast producer Duke Westlake brings an introspective soundscape over which Red Pill unleashes the angst of being hungry and the focus of turning “one day” into today. “Learning To Punch” is a concise power punch combination from the newest Mello emcee, and an indication of the musicality to come.
