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Think of family bands, and your mind might go to colorful outfits/buses and smiling faces singing about puppy love or lollipops or sunny days. On the single we’re premiering here, Milwaukee South Side rapper GP El Magico utilized some of his closest crew to square off with some issues the Partridges never faced.
Poverty. Violence. Living in a country that doesn’t seem to want you there.
There’s no sense ignoring reality, which might be why the first lines on “It’s Easy (1,2,3)” aren’t delivered by GP El Magico; they come from his family — children’s voices that make the lyrics even more devastating:
It's easy, easy one two three
Took me a while, now I know my ABC’s
Please let me get out this cage I just wanna be free
I just wanna go home to my family
Yeah yeah yeahhhh
It's easy, easy one two three
The artist himself knows the immigrant’s journey firsthand, having been born in Mexico before relocating to Dallas at the age of 2 and then Milwaukee as a 14-year-old. He deals with every step along the way unflinchingly: loss (“When they took pops away …”), hunger (“All we had at home was rice and beans”) and death (“RIP for the ones that never been found / And that they don’t drown me with no help around”).
“The song is about my life and the struggles as an immigrant kid growing up in the States,” GP El Magico explained, adding that this collaboration with his family is meant to connect them to his journey in the hope of writing a new story for them.
You can listen to his experience in “It’s Easy (1,2,3)” on 88Nine throughout the day (6:30 and 10:30 a.m.; and 2:30, 6:30 and 9:30 p.m.), as well as on demand here on the website. The single gets its official release this Sunday, May 5.
