CelebMix is pleased to bring you the exclusive premiere of Brent Butler’s lyric video for “Baby, We Were Born To Riot!”
A song that defies norms not only in its lyrics, but also in its genre-bending sound, “Baby, We Were Born to Riot!” screams of living life without fear. The track comes from Brent Butler’s debut solo EP, L I L A C, which released earlier this year in June. It contains eight tracks that are entirely self-written and produced and show Butler’s versatility in his ability to switch from one genre to another. Keeping true to himself, Butler shows that he is an artist all on his own through this EP.
Being from Camden, New Jersey and now living in New York City, Butler is no stranger to the music scene, which is partly where he gets his diverse taste in music from. He went from fronting rock bands, to producing beats/rapping/scoring film, to doing both. Today, his titles include being a rapper, singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, actor, and host of Popdust.com’s, “Popdust Presents.”
Watch Brent Butler’s lyric video for “Baby, We Were Born To Riot!” below
CelebMix also had the chance to ask Brent Butler about his new single, the message behind the lyrics and his musical influences. So keep reading to learn more about him!
Your lyric video for “Baby, We Were Born To Riot!” just premiered on CelebMix. How do you feel?
Very excited! Huge thanks to CelebMix for the premiere!
Can you tell us about what the song means to you and what you hope listeners will take away from it?
In the song, you bring up the idea of “selective memory,” which is also the title of one of your other tracks. How would you describe this phrase and why is it such a recurring theme in your music?
That’s awesome you caught that! “selective memory” was actually the original working title of the EP. To me, the phrase refers to the way we all imperfectly build our sense of self and world view (whether positive or negative) through introspection, which is inherently biased. All songwriters inevitably spend a good deal of time looking back on their experiences and deciding how and what they present to the public. Inserting the phrase and theme of “selective memory” throughout the EP is my way of reminding listeners that I’m not a reliable narrator. Every lyric is based on truth, but it’s my truth. In “baby, we were born to riot!” the character employs the phrase while declaring he doesn’t care about his “legacy” (a reference to the final track on Jay Z’s 4:44) because everything, including our history books, are biased.
In the second verse, the lyrics talk about feeling pressured to live one’s life a certain way, specifically working in a “cubicle.” Did you receive judgement from others when you decided to pursue music? If so, did you ever feel pressured to go a different path?
The narrator in “baby, we were born to riot!” is not me, but you’ve correctly gathered that his life is largely based on my own. I’ve worked basically every job imaginable while trying to survive in NYC while pursuing music. Fortunately, the vast majority of people in my life have been wildly supportive of my creative goals. If anything I probably receive more judgement for also holding down a day job.
You were born in Camden, New Jersey. Being close to so many concert venues, both in Camden and Philadelphia, did you attend many concerts? If so, which was your favorite?
Yes! My first concert was Everclear at the Electric Factory, where I also saw everyone from Rancid to Amy Winehouse. Excellent venue. At the TLA I got to see The Dead Kennedys (talk about awesome). And of course I frequented what I believe is currently called the BB&T Pavilion (it’s gone through many name changes) every summer for the Warped Tour and Ozzfest. It’s hard to choose a favorite, but a couple years ago at BB&T I finally got to see Weezer live, which was a dream come true. Panic! At The Disco opened for them and were insanely good. One time at Warped Tour I snuck into a VIP area and got to meet Valencia (a Philly based band that I was obsessed with at the time) and the late, great Ryan Dunn. That was wild.
How did being from such a diverse area influence you as an artist?
Most of my friends growing up were either into punk and post-hardcore or hip hop, which I didn’t fall completely in love with until I moved to NYC. It was always around me and a big part of my life, but my older sister’s music taste was a huge influence on me (mainly because I would permanently borrow all the CDs I could find in her room), and she was a pure punk rocker.
Like your song, you don’t try to put yourself into a box. Is that right?
I am strictly anti-box. I recently moved to a new apartment and if I have to unpack another box I’m going to freak out.
Now that we’ve talked about your past musical influences, we want to know, who are you listening to right now?
I’ve been listening to a lot of Drake, the Kids See Ghosts album (Kanye and Kid Cudi), Vic Mensa, A$AP Rocky, and some pop guilty pleasures like Ariana Grande and Dua Lipa. Otherwise, I’m usually listening to friends of mine like Deascent and artists in the Brooklyn Wildlife scene like Parnhash & Coe, Paco The G Train Bandit, Ratchet By Nature, Crimdella, Vice Verses, and about 10,000 others.
What else would you like to say to our CelebMix readers?
Thank you all for checking out the “baby, we were born to riot!” lyric video! I really hope you enjoyed it and that you check out the rest of my debut solo EP, L I L A C. Hit me up on social media (I always try to respond) and if you’re near NYC you can catch me live at Pianos on September 8th!
To find out more about Brent Butler, make sure to follow him on Twitter and Instagram. You can also listen to his EP, L I L A C, by clicking HERE.