PARTYOF2 Find Their Rhythm Nation On ‘Amerika’s Next Top Party!’

SOURCE: bet.com

The hip-hop and dance music duo discuss the old-school rap and political references that shaped their new album and their reason for dedicating a song to Vanessa Williams.

Los Angeles-based duo PARTYOF2 want you to move and unite to the danceable nature of their debut album, Amerika’s Next Top Party!

Composed of members Swim and Jadagrace, PARTYOF2 is just as magnetic in person as they are in their lively sonics as we meet at Def Jam Recordings’ Los Angeles headquarters. Formerly of alternative rap outfit grouptherapy, which began with two other members, Swim and Jadagrace reinvented themselves as an innovative pair set out to electrify hip-hop’s future. So far, they’re paying homage to the past while pushing music forward.

“For this era of us, we took inspiration from the Black Panther Party. We thought it would be interesting if PARTYOF2 didn’t just feel like a party that you attend and it’s a celebration, but more of a party that you join and are a member of,” Swim tells BET.com.

On Amerika’s Next Top Party!, PARTYOF2 exhibits a deeper level of vulnerability that fans got a taste of on their three-song EP, We Owe You An Explanation, which was released in March. Spanning eleven tracks, Swim and Jadagrace reflect on the conundrum of grouptherapy’s split, pulverize their rap rivals, and meditate on their personal woes, all while keeping listeners hyped with exhilarating production. The LP shows that PARTYOF2 has nothing left to prove, even though it’s their reintroduction.

“I think we were honestly just more focused on proving to ourselves that we were good enough to make music, and now that we’re comfortable in it, it’s about opening up and really finding that depth in the music and [having] other people connect,” Jadagrace shares.

“We dropped a record called ‘All 4 the Best’ and it was focused on what we went through, going through the transition from a trio to a duo and a lot of people related to it in a different way,” she continues. “So it’s just been really beautiful to see people relate to our stories that feel really specific to us, but they also are very universal, as well.”

Among their foundational songs on the album is jazz-incorporating “Vanessa Williams,” an ode to the actress and singer of the same name, who was controversially forced to resign her 1983 Miss America title after a nude Penthouse spread was published without her consent.

“I think the idea that she was the first Black Miss America and her position was robbed feels very familiar to a lot of us, especially where we are right now in our country. I think there are a lot of times where we feel robbed of the place that we were promised,” says Swim.

“And so the idea of her getting that [title] taken away and being replaced by a white woman, it just hit,” he continues. So for that record, it really is about critiquing the flag, critiquing this country, critiquing what we see on our feeds every day, and kind of flipping that perspective into being crowned as something, but not being acknowledged.”

“Vanessa Williams” began with the chorus “Will the real Miss America stand up?” and it was through further research of the Miss America scandal that PARTYOF2 understood the weight of the song’s crucial message.

“I honestly wasn’t super familiar with that; [Swim] told me about it and then we just dug deeper into it, and funny enough like one of my good friends, her mom is Vanessa Williams,” Jadagrace reveals. “So I sent her this and she was like, ‘I love this so much.’ I honestly was really disappointed that I wasn’t familiar with the story and it just felt like the perfect thing to grab on to for the concept of the album.”

Another conceptual song was the playful back-and-forth of “Friendly Fire,” where Swim and Jadagrace trade blistering verses about each other’s insecurities. “It was like one of the first ideas we had when we turned into a duo was like, ‘What’s something that we can do that nobody else has done? And we were like, ‘We have to do a rap battle,’” Jadagrace recalls.

The duo envisioned “Friendly Fire” as similar to Naughty by Nature’s classic “Hip Hop Hooray,” with lines that replicated the storytelling charm of 1980s emcee Slick Rick, which PARTYOF2 delivered.

“We just made a note and wrote down, ‘If I were to diss myself what would I say about myself?” says Jadagrace. “What would somebody else say that I’d be like ‘Damn, they kind of got me there?’ So we wrote those down and then we gave them to each other as ammo, which was really fun because like we weren’t shocked about anything that we said about each other.”

“It’s actually a self-deprecating record. Everything that she says about me, I gave her those topics and vice-versa. I just wrote down all my insecurities and things that I would hate for someone to say about me,” Swim shares.

Perhaps PARTYOF2 can credit their improvisational skills to getting their start as child actors. It was roughly fifteen years ago that the duo met as young performers and quickly learned to transfer their knack for performance to lyricism.

“It’s definitely the cheat code that we have. I think a lot of people see being a musician and don’t understand the work that it takes behind it, and it is as much fun as it is, it really is a job,” Swim admits. “Both of us have had jobs since we were 12 years old, so this is nothing new to us, and I think being able to balance the creative but also the business side really gives us a leg up. It’s something that we’ve done our whole lives.”

“It’s funny, because creating together has always been sort of the epicenter of our friendship,” Swim continues. We have to force ourselves to do regular shit, and I don’t think it’s in a bad way, but it’s like we both are obsessed with working. Partially because the work is creative and it’s fun for us.”

Now preparing for their first Camp Flog Gnaw performance–where they’ll join the likes of modern rap acts Doechii, AG Club, GloRilla, and Paris Texas–PARTYOF2 looks to hip-hop progenitors who’ve paved the way for their originality to take center stage.

“We weren’t conscious enough to appreciate it at that time,” says Jadagrace. “And so it’s been interesting for us to go back and see where hip-hop really came from and to study that art like Biggie and 2Pac all the way up to Wu-Tang [Clan]. It just has been really eye-opening for us production-wise, too.”

“I think signing to Def Jam and kind of really having an understanding of the history of hip hop, it was really important for me to kind of do even more due diligence than I had already done just as a fan and a listener, but more so as a student,” adds Swim.

If Amerika’s Next Top Party! is any proof, it’s that PARTYOF2 is destined to school hip-hop’s next generation.