Sometimes, it’s easy for fans to put artists in a bubble. If your branding comes across one way, people are inclined to hold you to it for your whole career. Big artistic shifts aren’t always welcomed. This is especially the case if these same listeners think of the music as inherently lesser. How do you move forward if it feels like you’re not allowed to do so? For Frank Kole, it was simply a matter of action.
Kole used to go by the stage name Comethazine, making a pretty unadventurous brand of SoundCloud rap. He was often criticized for sounding eerily like Tay-K, Smokepurrp, or Playboi Carti. But at 17, his attitude was to just go for it. “A microphone was $200, and anybody could do the s***, so I was like, ‘F*** it,’” Frank Kole told XXL in 2018.
After starting out “flowing on some Joey Bada$$ type s***,” he pivoted accordingly to see what would stick. Some streaming manipulation eventually worked out in his favor for his song “Bands”. Back in 2018, SoundCloud would allow for an original sound file to be swapped out. Consequently, when rising rapper YBN Nahmir was racking up plays for his record “Bounce Out With That”, Comethazine’s song was switched not long afterwards.
How Frank Kole Pivoted From His Comethazine Days
It was never quite clear who was responsible for the switch. Regardless, this made Kole seem much bigger and gave him the boost in virality he was looking for. Fast forward past his debut mixtape and an inevitable inclusion on the 2019 XXL Freshman class, Comethazine was certified with his fanbase. However, eventually his hype waned, and the initial criticisms of him stuck. By 2022, he wanted to put his rap persona to bed after the release of Bawskee 5.
Then, insert Frank Kole. He reappeared from the void with “SMOKESTACK LIGHTNING“, an alternative rock record that would serve as the intro for a yet-to-be-released album, Electric Mazeland. However, plenty of rappers have tinkered around with rockstar aesthetics over the years. This isn’t a new phenomenon and could’ve easily been swept under the rug.
Still, Frank Kole clearly wasn’t deterred and released “Autumn Leaves”, a famous Jazz standard by Hungarian composer Joseph Kosma, adapted by legends like Nat King Cole. In the video, you’ll see the former rapper with a trumpet in hand playing alongside an accompanying pianist. Amid his second brush with viral fame, people are flabbergasted that he could go from Comethazine to a respectable jazz artist. “what drugs did this man take to convince him to transform this drastically musically speaking,” one person writes on Reddit. “shocked at how good this is.”
It’s not certain if Frank Kole plans to include this on the teased Electric Mazeland record. Regardless, fans seem open to this surprising pivot.
The post From Soundcloud Rapper to Jazz Artist? How Frank Kole Pivoted From His Hip-Hop Days As Comethazine appeared first on VICE.
