Liner notes · music · production · jazz-rap
The Two Takes of The Sticker Price Lies, One Ends on a Single Piano Note
Same triage chorus, but one take closes the meeting quietly instead of walking out mid-groove.
In short
- Take one is 88 BPM jazz rap built on Rhodes piano and jazz guitar, cool and reflective throughout.
- Take two picks up to 92 BPM with brass stabs and an upright piano, and winds down to a single quiet note.
- Same case, same chorus, two very different ways of leaving the meeting.
Both takes of The Sticker Price Lies keep the same chorus, 'the sticker price lies, forty to sixty percent on top across its life,' and the same setting: a capital budget meeting run as jazz rap. What changes is how each version leaves the room.
A groove that stays, and one that winds down
The first take sits at 88 beats per minute, cool and analytical, built on boom-bap drums, Rhodes electric piano, jazz guitar and turntable scratches. It never really raises its voice; the groove stays head-nodding and reflective straight through the rap verses and the scratch-heavy hooks, like someone making a case they're confident will land.
The second take picks up to 92 beats per minute and trades some of that cool for brass stabs and an upright piano, witty and more openly satirical, corporate-savvy rather than reflective. It peaks harder on its hooks than the first take does, and then does something neither the first take nor most of the catalog does: it winds all the way down to a single quiet piano note instead of ending on the groove.
How old is it? (Too old!)Parts on the shelf? (All gone!)Downtime? (All week!)Put it on the list! (On the list!)
What to listen for
Listen for the ending. The first take stays in the pocket to the last bar, letting the groove make its own argument without ever raising its voice further. The second lets the room go quiet, brass and scratches falling away to just the piano, like the meeting has actually adjourned and everyone's filed out. Even the vinyl noise on the first take reads as texture, not tension, where the second take's brass stabs punctuate the case like a closing statement. Like the rest of the station, both takes were shaped with AI-assisted production and by our team, working the same case toward two different closing arguments.
