Here to put Rhode Island on the rap map is Code Green. The trio — made up of Nesi, ER and Evo — released their debut project, 7 Day Trip, yesterday (November 21) after moving from Pawtucket, a city on the outskirts of Providence, to Los Angeles a year ago.
“We took a seven day trip out here and we never looked back,” Nesi says in an exclusive interview with HipHopDX.
The project stands at seven songs with their “D.W.U.D.” single serving as a bonus cut. Code’s breakout track, “Too Silly,” is featured on 7 Day Trip despite being two years old. ER says the song has served as an “anthem for the city” that people still rock with today. Nesi adds that “people needed something to champion” and explains the moment he knew the group had something with the cut.
“‘Man, this fucking thing is catchy, it just keeps playing in my head,'” he remembers telling himself when recording “Too Silly.” “Usually, I’m the biggest critic of myself and I’m like, ‘Man, I really like this.’ I got past myself.”
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Evo adds how “Too Silly” gave Code a direction to finally piece together a project.
“It wasn’t any direction until like ‘Too Silly’ came out and we started to create a buzz in the city and it created a lot of momentum,” he says. “From there, we were pretty much inspired by the trip we took to L.A. and we created a world around it.”
“Too Silly” was graced with a verse from King Mez for the official remix that didn’t make the 7 Day Trip cut, but the other tracks feature production from around the world as Code connected online with producers they were impressed with. The project includes more turn-up tracks like “Luv and Vibe” and more reflective songs such as “Wild Wild West” and “Estranged” that portray the reality of the struggle of moving to the big city. 7 Day Trip reflects a journey through the jungle as each member channels their inner beast: Nesi a bear, ER a bull and Evo a wolf.
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“It took a while for us to figure out how to introduce ourselves to everybody, how to make a good first impression,” Evo shares.
Code is heavily influenced by the Gorillaz and Daft Punk and have a group mentality as the project serves as a tribute to their friend Nonny, who brought them all together and encouraged them to take music beyond freestyling in the streets.
“He always knew there was more,” Nesi says.
Nonny passed away before he could see his vision for the trio come to life, but he remains in spirit with them. On the opening track, “Nights in LA,” Nesi shouts out Nonny and their friend Sid, who is currently living in Paris after running into some trouble back home.
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Code’s dream is to pave the way for the rest of their friends to dream big and live beyond what Pawtucket can offer. What started as Code Green standing for simply getting money and smoking weed has transformed into something more meaningful.
“We just trying to keep everything positive,” ER explains. “The color green relaxes you. we just trying to bring good vibes to the forefront. We always got good vibes we always lifting people’s spirits up. When you think Code Green just think good vibes, positivity.”
Check out Code Green’s 7 Day Trip above and view the group’s behind-the-scenes documentary directed by dirxarx as well as the project’s cover art and tracklist below.
- Nights in LA
- Too Silly
- Luv and Vibe
- Irregular
- Damn, I Took Too Many!
- Wild Wild West
- Estranged
- D.W.U.D. (Bonus)
