Last month, Miami bass outfit Basside teased listeners with a remix of "NYC2MIA" by the late producer Sophie.
The track was part of the long-awaited project between the duo and Sophie, who died after a tragic fall in January. Que Linda and Caro Loka wanted to honor the future pop champion with the release, donating all the proceeds of the track to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a collective working to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression.
When New Times spoke to Basside, Linda and Caro also revealed that an EP would soon be released.
Yesterday, they announced that Fuck It Up will be released through New York's Sorry Records on April 2. To celebrate the announcement, Basside has also released the title track on Bandcamp.
"I'mma go fuck up these snaps/I'mma go fuck up your snaps/I'mma get high and get snacks/Then I'mma go fuck up your snatch," the duo sings on the track's trap-like beat. Sophie's production is, as usual, superb, allowing the beat to breathe between the metallic clangs. (The most interesting aspect of Sophie's work was always the negative spaces the producer placed within a track.)
The six-track EP, which was entirely produced by Sophie, features the aforementioned remix along with the title track and studio versions of "Me & My Boo (Best Friend 2)" and "Crazy Expensive." For years, Sophie's fans would trade crude live recordings of the tracks taken from DJ sets and Basside's live performances, hoping they would actually get to hear them as they were intended one day.
After Sophie's death, fans seemed more eager than ever to hear new music. This even led Shygirl, one of Sophie's most recent collaborators, to ask everyone to "stop dm’ing me about any tracks with SOPHIE" on Twitter.
Basside's EP should quench some of that thirst for new Sophie music. In particular, the tracks "Swipe" and "Girl" seem to harken back to the producer's Product era, with beats that stretch and squeal. That's not to say Basside's contributions are absent from the EP. The Miami bass influence is clearly evident, and Linda and Caro's humorous chemistry bubbles up.
The EP was recorded in 2016 after Sophie saw Basside perform in Miami at the III Points music festival. Because of that, the record falls in between the time the singles compilation Product and the Grammy-nominated album Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides were released.
Fuck It Up's release was delayed as Basside sought to get permission from Sophie to release the songs. According to Linda, they were able to reconnect with the producer in 2019.
"[Sophie] said, 'Oh, I made those for you. You could have released them the next day, and I wouldn't have cared,'" Linda remembers.
Fuck It Up is available for pre-order digitally via basside.bandcamp.com.