Etheral is an Atlanta native rapper and producer who worked with carti in the early years of his career.
I was introduced to Ethereal’s music earlier this year when I was scrolling through Spotify’s daily recommended albums and saw his 2014 project “Cactus Jack”. What drew me in to listen was the cover art which features Ethereal on a white background, shirtless, doing some kind of gesture to the camera, I was intrigued. I was also curious to see if he, or this album, had any relation to Travis Scott who’s label is called Cactus Jack, and who refers to himself as Cactus Jack frequently. I found that Ethereal is not connected to Travis at all, but was rather an early collaborator and seemingly influence of one of the biggest rappers at the moment, Playboi Carti.
Playboi Carti is featured on “Cactus Jack” and it made me curious so I looked into other work that they have collaborated on and, to my surprise, I recognised a couple of the songs. “Pump Fake” and “Beef” are two quite popular songs yet I had still never heard of Ethereal before.
After I started to listen to more of his discgorpahy it quickly became apparent how much of a role Ethereal played in the music we hear to this day. Ethereal started off producing mainly with his first project I could find on spotify, “Car Therapy”, just featuring his production while on some songs he has collaborators vocals over the instrumental.
Throughout his discography he fleshes out his unique, simple and effective production on “Heat Death” with the intro track “Forteana” being a standout to me with his use of Synths and a step away from the normal Hi-Hat focussed trap drums with more of a loud and present drum line.
Then on Cactus Jack we see Ethereal’s rapping and producing come together, while not for the first time, in a way that fits like a puzzle piece. His production on this album and his later 2017 project “Mankind” to me sound like a blueprint of some of the Pierre production that Carti blew up from.
Ethereal still makes music all though has not collaborated with Carti in a long time as while Carti has evolved into new soundscapes, Ethereal seems to try to master his craft. While Carti has grown Ethereal’s music still creeps in here and there for example “Place” (a Pierre Bourne produced beat) on “Whole Lotta Red” features a familiar sounding synth instrumental.
Hopefully Ethereal and Carti can come together and work again but if not, I Implore any Carti fan, especially of projects like his epnonymous mixtape, to listen to what Ethereal has to offer.
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