Jango has been bridging the gap between the 509 and the 206 for years now. Often coming out to Seattle from Spokane to simply get to know the community and be able to chop it up with people in person. With his new music video, “Merchandise,” he continues to build that bridge further with a feature from Sam Lachow.
To really understand how this music video came together, you need to know how the relationships between these artists started. I called Jango and asked him to tell me the story of how this video came to be. “I met Sam Lachow in 2017,” Jango told me over the phone. “Him and some of the Black Umbrella crew at the time were performing at the Pin in Spokane.”
Later on in our conversation he talked about how this wasn’t the first time they collaborated on a song. “Me and Sam have been friends for years now. We’ve worked on a couple tracks. We finally found the track that compliments my sound, compliments his style, we can both speak on it and be happy about the final project.”
While talking about the process of collaborating with Sam, Jango said, “He was so open to having multiple writing sessions. Sam Lachow is the only artist that I’ve gotten on the phone with multiple times and talked about what he’s doing on his verse and what he’s talking about. Then really talk about what I’m doing on my verse and make sure all of that correlates. We really made a great composition, not a song. That’s why I don’t call this a song, it’s another anthem for the upper left.”
Jango “Merchandise” Music Video feat. Sam Lachow
Conceptualizing The “Merchandise” Music Video
In the music video for “Merchandise,” you see Jango in one of many display cases for the Pacific Northwest Auction. The displays are showcasing memorabilia from different artists and entertainers from our region. “One thing that I wanted to touch on,” Jango told me, “in the music video, I wanted to represent, as an independent hip-hop artist, it’s super important for me to keep hold of my music, my words, my thoughts.”
He elaborated, “That is the merchandise, that artistic integrity that we as artists have. Whereas, labels always want to own your masters, I wanted to speak out against the label heads. I wanted to speak against the idea of people owning work that they didn’t do. That’s why in the hook it goes, keep your hands off the merchandise. This here is reserved for the working minds. Meaning the artists, the people who actually put together the art.”
He continued to tell me, “You see all this merchandise or all of these artists’ integrity in these display cases ’cause people always are constantly putting a price on it. Where, in my heart, this stuff is limitless, these are time stamps that will live forever.” Jango emphasized to me how important it was to him that his music lives on forever, that his words, his thoughts, all lived on well after when he would be gone.
Jango added to that, “Also, I thought it was an important time to jump on – very loosely, I didn’t want to heavily hit on this – but as people of color, we’ve always endured the majority trying to own what we create, what we possess, what we do. Whether it be just us as beings back in the slavery days. To now, just trying to own our music and own our thoughts. I wanted to speak out on that and that’s why you see me, myself, in a display case.”
How Jango Met Justin Frick
I commented on how the visuals really enhanced the overall message, and asked Jango about his relationship with director, Justin Frick. “Let me start off with telling you why I met this man. What attracted me to Justin Frick, his artistry, and his style of work was seeing the Sugar music video that he did. I was like, wow! This almost to me feels like a scene from a movie. Following that, I told my team, this is the videographer that I want to work with for everything I do next.”
A pretty bold statement to make off of one video, but Frick’s talent backs it up. Jango continued, “We ended up meeting him during Karma’s show at the Uptown Theater, the Pineapple Island show. That wasn’t to ask him to do any videos, it wasn’t to ask him to do anything for me. It was to simply show face and meet him. You know how we do in Seattle all the time. We go out there, we meet people and we just connect… Now I see Frick once, twice a week.”
Production For “Merchandise” By Jango Feat. Sam Lachow
The production is a unique blend of Sam’s funky hip-hop bounce combined with the edgier, grittier, EDM influenced sound that Jango is known for. “As far as the producer side goes, Benn Suede at Blare Sound Suite Studios is more of a metal producer who has had history and experience in EDM. Now, he has a lot of experience in hip-hop over the last two to three years since working with me.”
Jango kept explaining why Benn’s diverse history is an important piece to the puzzle. “When you hear this song, it really touches on the roots of what I believe the upper left, or the PNW, is. Which is the EDM roots, the rock roots, even the hip-hop roots. I touch that funky sound. I touch that futuristic EDM sound, you hear rock riffs, that is all entwined into one song. That’s what the project is really going to dive into.”
Connecting even more pieces of the Northwest, Jango and Sam recorded their verses at two different studios. “On Sam Lachow’s side, he did all of his recording over at Lost Boys studios in Seattle with Milo [Eubank]. If I’m going to collaborate with the 206, I’m going to make sure I do it right… Collaboration doesn’t mean anything if there’s no reason behind it.”
In my eyes, Jango has been doing a great job making his name known west of the Cascades. His passion transcends through his projects, his collaborations, and quite frankly everything he does in general. Talent knows no boundaries, especially when you have a team like the one Jango has to help support that talent.
If you want to actually hear his passion when talking about making the “Merchandise” music video, working with Sam Lachow, or even being a part of the Seattle Sessions, listen to the full interview below.
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