Offset ‘wanted to bring rap back’ in era of singing stars
Offset recently released his ambitious second solo album,
“Set It Off.” In doing so, he also announced a new era.
“My goal changed,” the Migos rapper said in a recent interview.
It has been four years since Offset released his debut solo album, “Father of 4.”
“‘Father of 4’ was giving you the inside of me, but I wasn’t really focused on doing solo stuff,” he said. “So, for this one, it was just a process of me learning for myself and pushing myself more as an artist.”
And specifically, as a soloist. Last year, rumors circled around a second album tentatively titled, “Blame It on Set,” that would be released in late 2022, seemingly delayed by the fatal shooting of his Migos bandmate and cousin, Takeoff, late last year.
Offset says some of the songs written in that time made it onto “Set It Off ” — but the title was just gossip.
“‘Blame It on Set’ is just a song. People just, like, ran with that narrative,” he said.
He’s grateful to have waited to put out his sophomore release. “Some of the songs I made within them two years is, like, magical,” he said. “I feel like with this album you can just ride it through, top to bottom, one to 21.”
In that way, he thinks of “Set It Off ” as possessing a kind of theatricality.
“Instead of it being a movie, it’s a series,” he said. And one with a lot of players. His wife, Cardi B, drops bars on two tracks, “Jealousy” and “Freaky.” Elsewhere, Latto, Young Naddy, Chlöe,
Mango Foo, Don Toliver, Future and Travis Scott feature.
That may very well be the result of a mindset change. Offset is interested in being a wellrounded entertainer these days, like his hero Michael Jackson. The influence is apparent on the album’s cover, where Offset wears a single white glove, and certainly in the MJ parodies throughout the music video for his single, “Fan.” But there are other connections, too: MJ left the Jackson 5 to embark on a solo journey, like Offset’s work in a world after Migos.
“Creativity — I wanted to push myself there,” Offset said. “And I’m in my Mike bag right now.”
He’s also acutely aware of the power of strong visuals, one of the many things Jackson mastered, and how that extends to content creation in the modern era.
“I don’t want to put myself in a box. I would challenge myself — that’s why you see me pulling out choreo, just taking it to the next level of entertainment without being scared of thinking about what people are going to think,” he said.
On “Set It Off,” Offset offers 21 tracks of real rap records
— a change of pace in a genre currently led by a trend of rappers who, well, sing.
“I wanted to bring rap back, not so much melody,” he said. “Metro (Boomin) was telling me, ‘Hey, bro, people wanna hear you rap, dog. The singing … is cool, but people want to hear you, specifically, rap.’ ” He took the advice to heart.
As for Migos, the familial group that started it all, Offset considers
his performance of “Bad and Boujee” with Quavo at the 2023 BET Awards, celebrating 50 years of hip-hop, as “a great way to close that chapter.”
He also doesn’t consider “Set It Off ” to be an homage to his late cousin, either, unlike Quavo’s solo record “Rocket Power,” released in August. That album featured posthumous verses from Takeoff.
Though references to Takeoff do appear on a few tracks, like “Say My Grace” with Travis Scott and “Night Vision,” where Offset raps, “Thinking ‘bout spinnin’ bout my brotha Take that (expletive) been eating me (crazy)/ I can’t get no peace when I be sleep be seeing.”
He pauses: “I’d rather just have his legacy keep going. Take is that guy, like, I don’t want to lean on that.”
And on “Set It Off,” he doesn’t — instead, Offset reintroduces himself.