Randolph the Grey still moves slowly, but the vapes flitting between the table and his fingers give him a less solemn air. It’s an afternoon of pouring rain in September, owing to a hurricane passing north of Taipei. rgry wave-introduces his wife and points out his two infant sons before pulling me into his production cave for some peace and quiet.
灰衣Randolph动作还是挺慢的，但是从他手指里跟桌上之间舞动的vape让他显得不那么老气。今天下午，台北九月刮台风，下大雨。rgry挥手介绍他的太太，指向自己的两个小男婴，方才把我带进他安静的的production cave。
Reaper – rgry’s DAW of choice – is open on an expensive custom rig, along with a simple microphone and keyboard setup. But the award-winning producer tells me he only needs to make use of tools in Reaper to make chords and beats now, which he proceeds to do with startling speed.
Reaper在一个昂贵的MacBook上准备就绪，房间里还有简单的mic和keyboard。但是得过台湾金曲奖的rgry说他现在都只需要Reaper里的脚本就可以写chords跟beats了，而且特别迅速。
“One radio show said we [rgry and his collaborators] must really like music, if we were so deep into the industry. But I told him, I don’t like music, I was never into music, you know, like other people who were trained in it, grew up in it.”
“有广播电台主播问我跟我的collaborators一定很喜欢音乐吧，不然怎么会这么深入这个industry。但是我跟他讲，我不喜欢音乐，我没有那么into音乐，你知道吗，不像那些其他从小就跟音乐长大，受过音乐教育跟训练的人。”
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1GW411B7c3/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click
The host was pretty taken aback by that. But it’s not about the enjoyment for rgry, it’s about the act – other people send him music or artists, he listens and mostly finds them to be garbage.
主播吃了一惊。但是对rgry来说，音乐不是享受的事，是一种表现出来的样子 – 别人把音乐或歌手发给他听，他会听一听然后断定说这些大部分是垃圾。
“But not like garbage, garbage, just that the rap scene is not all that good here. I have to stay involved in the pop stuff,” by adding lighter riffs here and there to survive and working with more pop-focused artists. rgry thinks Mainland rap is better, more competitive, and, like its audiences, more open to new ideas.
“我不是讲他真的是垃圾，就是这里的rap不是特别好。我必须不断在我的音乐里加pop的成分,” 才能存活下来，比方说跟pop类型的歌手合作。rgry说他觉得大陆的rap比较有竞争性，让后跟那里的观众一样，比较接受新的思想。
It sounds like an act, because Taiwan just doesn’t have as big a market or as many artists to generate a critical mass of content and experimentation. Plus, you can tell how dedicated rgry is to the rappers he mentors. But he says it’s more than that: “No one wants to experiment or go out of line to get creative. I was only lucky to have gotten along with the right people who were breaking out with material at the right time.”
听起来还是有点像表面功夫呢，因为台湾本来就没有跟大陆一样大的市场或者那么多艺人，比较不可能会创造出一个让内容和实验性泛滥的critical mass。rgry是很关心他旗下的rapper的。但是确实 “没有人想要实验或者是体现跨线的创意。我自己是因为刚好跟对的人对接了，那些人也刚好开始上来了，才幸运的有今天的成果。”
He now serves as creative director for NXWV (pronounced Nextwave), a rap combine of sorts that also sells designer clothing. It’s true that a lot of rap I’ve heard in Taiwan sounds the same, and much the same as its counterparts in the US, which is why I was fascinated by rgry’s FINX-182 and NXWV Ciphers. This time, there was no turning away from the experiment.
rgry现在是NXWV的creative director，一个既推广rapper又卖高级服饰的公司。我所听过的台湾rap都是满类似的，也很像美国的饶舌。所以我对rgry的 FINX-182 和 NXWV ciphers 很感兴趣。这次，就没有办法不实验了。
“We were sitting in the studio and started throwing hooks around, things that popped into our head. Pretty soon we had a clip of entirely hooks, and we made those into songs.” rgry played the original studio recording that started everything with hooks like “Street Fighter 2,” “Tom Hanks out the Plane” and “I ain’t even play chess” auto-tuned in time with an echoing backdrop.
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV15r4y1h7do/?spm_id_from=333.788
“我们反正就坐在studio里丢hook，任何想到的就说唱。很快的我们有了一整首都是hook的录音，然后把那个编成了歌。” rgry 开始播放了当天启发了这一切的录音，hook都是什么“street fighter 2” “汤姆汉克斯出飞机” 之类的恶搞。
“The first time we went up to do it, we did the songs the whole way through. You could see a few people wildin’ out but most people were just like what…the fuck.”
“我们第一次上去就唱整首歌。观众里有些人反应不错，其他人都在想。。。这什么鬼。”
Experimental rap is not exactly the mainstay of Taiwan’s musical output, but hooks like “shipment on the deep” are catchy and very millennial-friendly (hint: it’s a Castaway reference). So how do you branch out from the mainstream? Like rgry, you have to assume everything is garbage. Only the freshest beat and illest vibe will suffice in a sea of imposters, posers and haters.
实验性的rap不是台湾最热门的音乐，但是凡事看过Castaway的80，90后都会appreciate这些hook。究竟要如何与现实的俗气脱节呢？学rgry，否认所有垃圾。只有最fresh的beat跟最ill的vibe才会让你在众多的复制品里脱茧而出。