Rapper Aazim Jafarey ’11 is back with a new album, “Live in a Dream.” This album was released just last week, and it showcases fifteen original songs. Jafarey’s album features a wide range of songs, from groovy, mellow melodies to harsher pop tones to electronic harmonies. Jafarey’s “How to Fly” features another student artist Peter Nelson ’11, who sings the repeated one-line melody, followed by Jafarey’s rap verses. “I wanted [Nelson] to sing this particular part in the song because his voice would fit in so well with the instrumental. His part balances out my verses well and that’s what I was seeking for this song,” said Jafarey. Jafarey uses his music as an emotional outlet, as he talks about life’s imperfections and the struggles in “How to Fly.” “There are just some things that I can’t discuss with the people and to let it out I vent through music and just let out my emotions,” said Jafarey. Jafarey adds variety to his songs with the next track, “Put me Down.” He said, “‘Put me down’ is a combination of hard hitting lyrics and raw instrumentals, a piece styled towards old school rap, whereas “How to Fly” is more melodic. I’m really proud of the way I was able to contrast these two [songs]. I want this [contrast] to be an example of my flexibility.” Jafarey also uses the track, “Turbulence,” to raise awareness about the flood in Pakistan. He performed this new song at IndoPak’s Diwali-Eid festival last week as a “Prayer for Pakistan.” In order to expand his choice of topics for his rap, Jafarey decided to switch gears and rap about his family, a subject he never intended to rap about before. He worked on this song with his brother and dedicated his first family-related rap to his mother, naming it “Song for My Mom.” “I don’t really do songs about my family, but I listened to this one instrumental and it was perfect to make into a present for my mom for Mother’s Day,” said Jafarey. For Jafarey, the track “La Di Da” stands out to him most. “‘La Di Da’ is based on one of my favorite songs, ‘La Di Da Di,’ which is a real old school rap, very classic hip hop. I wanted to keep a lot of this old school style but also mix it with the new school, kind of put a modern spin on the song and put it in a more contemporary setting,” said Jafarey. Once he found the right background music he knew at once that this song was going to be on the album. “Normally I’ll have some sort of idea and it might take me fifteen minutes to write out a whole song. I’m really quick with the lyrics. It just comes to me. Then when I get a chance, I play it with an instrumental and kind of see how it goes from there, changing it a little depending on how it sounds. But over the summer I kind of lost interest…But then when I came back, I kind of had this new passion to start up again…There was a stage of writer’s block, I suppose.” While making the album, Jafarey also reached out to people with more experience to help improve his own work. “There’s this underground rapper, his name is Sha Stimuli. I contacted him and he gave me some general advice to work on for my album. I want help from more established rappers than me to help me improve,” said Jafarey. Jafarey started working on “Live in a Dream” a month after releasing his first album, “Lucidity.” “Live in a Dream,” which was recorded over the course of seven months, differs from his first, “Lucidity,” because the new songs use background music that has not been used by any popular rappers. “Lucidity” featured songs covering other artists, such as Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA.” “Every beat on the album is 100% original…[I took] never-before-used beats [and] started to explore more aspects of song-writing,” said Jafarey. He added, “I felt like my other album [Lucidity] kind of ended sounding really repetitive and [had] only one type of music, so [for this album] I really wanted to have something for everybody, like different emotions, different types of tracks.” With a lot of passion and determination, Jafarey hopes to create a larger fan base. To listen and download Jafarey’s “Live in a Dream,” visit http://andoverhiphop.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/lucid-dreams-live-in-a-dream-album/
