The Season / Carry Me

Album: Malibu (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • Anderson Paak's Malibu album references his early struggles. In this song he details his desire to get away from his home town. "It's a tribute to my surroundings and where I grew up in Oxnard," Paak explained to Genius. "It's only an hour away from LA but it's very different. Small town - I was dead set on getting out. Growing up I wanted to get to the big city and do my thing. But when I look back at it now I'm really appreciative."
  • Callum Connor supplied the beat for the "Carry Me" section and Eighth Wonder for "The Season" portion. Paak explained: "Callum gave me the 'Carry Me' beat - I had that for ages. I always loved it and thought this is gonna be dope. 'Six years old' - I had most of that done, the hook. 'Carry Me' went through a few of different stages. My boy Ron Avant put the bass and keys on it, and I got to build on the harmonies.

    When I was on tour with Nxworries and Earl Sweatshirt, I got to meet 9th Wonder, Rapsody, Khyrsis, and all the Jamla Squad. They were like, 'We're big fans.' I got to go to the studio with them and work on a bunch of tunes. 9th gave me a batch of music and this was one of the beats on there.

    Me and Earl were both like, 'This is crazy.' Initially we both started writing to it and it just wasn't coming to us that night. I had to sit with it and on the road it came to me. When I laid down what I had written for 'The Season,' I remembered that I had that other beat from Callum. I thought maybe this could go. I wanted to have something where the beat kinda switched up, so I went back and got that beat and they kinda worked together. The tempos were a little different so I forget which one we had to speed or slow up, but we made that happen."
  • Paak recalls, at the beginning of Verse 3, working at a marijuana farm in the early 2010s as he tries to support his Korean wife and child.

    Bout the year Drizzy and Cole dropped, before K-Dot had it locked
    I was sleeping on the floor, newborn baby boy
    Trying to get my money pot so wifey wouldn't get deported
  • Paak performed this song during his February 3, 2016 national TV debut on The Late Show with Steven Colbert.

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