Wednesday 4/7: Pi'erre Bourne—"4U"
Today, we share our thoughts on a new solo song by the beatmaker Pi’erre Bourne.
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him), Eric Bennett (they/them), Michael Brooks (he/him) and Miranda Reinert (she/her). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. On Substack, we’re also a M-F newsletter about songs. Our format is simple: a link to a song and a short take from each of us about what we think of it. Each day of the week has a corresponding genre: Monday is indie, Tuesday is punk, Wednesday is hip-hop, Thursday is pop, and Friday is misc. Three days of the week are free but you can get access to all five weekly posts by subscribing for $5/month via Substack or $2/month via our Patreon.
Today, we share our thoughts on a new solo song by the beatmaker Pi’erre Bourne.
Pi'erre Bourne—"4U"
Michael Brooks:
Coming from the guy who produced “Pissy Pamper” and has also had a bunch of his own music leaked on Reddit, it’s a miracle that we get any actual music from Pi’erre Bourne at all. “4U,” which was called “Playstation” when I heard it for the first time during his Rolling Loud performance from last year, is one of Pi’erre Bourne’s best tracks to date. Sure, there’s plenty of people online that will argue that some random rip of “Playstation” they found on Soundcloud is actually the superior version of the song. His unreleased music gets passed around the web so much that people immediately latch on to snippets of songs in their earliest forms, but “4U” is the perfect distillation of the sound he’s been building over the past few years.
A huge part of that comes from how much more natural Bourne sounds as an MC compared to his last project, the way he gently drifts over the beat is the perfect contrast to his signature 808 sound, and the effect is hypnotizing. I’m really excited to hear whatever he follows up The Life Of Pi’erre 4 with—earlier this year he tweeted about a song he was working on that sounds like you’re “playing Call of Duty the whole time”, which, to be honest with you, I’m not even really sure what that means but it sounds awesome. And if “4U” is any indication of what the rest of the record’s going to sound like, I’m all in.
Eli Enis:
I also think this is the best solo Pi’erre Bourne song I’ve ever heard. Considering how much I love all of his production on the older Carti material, I was sure that I would love an entire tape of his lush, cloudy beats, but The Life of Pi’erre 4 didn’t actually do that much for me. Here, like Michael said, I think he sounds much more comfortable as a vocalist; it sounds more like a singer on a really sick beat rather than a producer clumsily hopping on their own track. The 808s on this thing absolutely rattled my new speakers this morning, so that was a great experience. But like all great Pi’erre beats, the synths provide a really sweet sense of vivid atmosphere, which is emphasized by his smoky vocals. He and Carti clicked so well because they were able to make Carti’s vocals feel like part of the instrumental, and I think Pi’erre finally learned how to incorporate that fluidity with his own approach. It’s sick.