Features : S.A. Vents Puts His Stamp On “Streets” With A Fusion Of Rap, Hip Hop And R&B

“I want them to know that it’s me. I want to make an undeniable sound. That’s what I’m working toward every day,” he said.

His new single “Streets” is a good example. Vents raps and sings a song about a girl with whom he once had a committed relationship.

“The whole vibe with that song is just based on that relationship. I tried to keep it very, very open and honest and straightforward when it comes to that.”

The song grew out of the music. The music was not crafted around a set of lyrics. “Streets” started with one beat out of a pack that a producer gave him.

“I just liked the vibe and the sound of the beat itself,” he said.

Starting from there, Vents created an intricate, fascinating fusion of rap, hip hop, R&B and funk.

And a hook.

I keep running to you I’m not running these streets, no,
I’m not running these streets, no,

“I just went off of the hook that I made in the studio and freestyled that song. It wasn’t anything I planned before.”

Even he describes what the lyrics are about — “relationships and loyalty in relationships” — he ends up back in the music: “It was just a very free flowing type of sound.”

The sound is what he is after, and it is where he begins. Until this year, his process was the reverse.

“Previously, I would write three to five songs before I went to the studio. I would record them, and whichever one or ones I liked, that’s what I would release. Or think about releasing.”

He worked for about two and a half years with a producer who he calls his mentor, up until the producer was murdered last year. That man led Vents to the realization that “music isn’t something that can be so technical that you’re going into the studio with everything planned out.”

“It’s more of a feeling and a vibe than something that is technical,” said Vents. “It’s a creative art at the end of the day.”

His mentor was someone who “helped me craft the sound I have now.” The next project he releases will be the one he recorded with his mentor.

“That’s what I’m refining and finishing right now.”

Beyond that, he said, he is working on more “fusion type songs, trying to bridge the gap between old-school and new-school hip hop and R&B and all that.”

“All that” includes a lot of other things. Both his parents are Jamaican. Growing up, he listened to a lot of reggae, “old school” R&B and artists like Luther Vandross, Bob Marley, Beres Hammond, Barrington Levy, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

Later, when he was picking his own music to listen to, it was Jay-Z, Biggie, J. Cole, Kendrick, Drake, the Outcasts, 50 Cent, Eminem and others like them.

“When I started listening to them, that’s what really inspired me to start writing and get into rhyming and rapping and things like that.”

“And listening to some of the old school R&B, that also inspired me,” he said.

Then he says, “That’s what I based my sound off of,” and he is not talking about rap or R&B or both. He means “all that.”

“I take different aspects of different genres to make my sound. That makes it versatile, like I need it to be because I want it to be my inspiration, not me playing someone else. I want to have my stamp on my music. I want it to sound like S.A. Vents.”

Connect to S.A. Vents and his sound on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

"Streets," Youtube
“Streets,” Spotify
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