Inside The Credits 007: Louie Lastic
Louie Lastic’s Lasting Soulful Elasticity
This is the first Inside The Credits post where I had to go back to a 2014 mixtape, thus going beyond what is available on streaming credits. However, this journey started in October of 2023, when Florida bred R&B crooner Destin Conrad released what I believe to be his opus thus far in Submissive. At nine tracks, not a moment of vibe is wasted. Conrad slides through multiple facets of Alt R&B pockets from the Latin fusion of “Mariposa,” to the Indie rock twists of “Tantrum!,” and the Afroswing of “Switch.” While Conrad sits comfortably within his R&B core feel, he maneuvers with sheer elasticity through a variety of subgenres while maintaining seamless cohesion for the full body of work. This took a composition magician to execute smoothly and Louie Lastic has production credits on eight of nine tracks.
I first heard Lastic on DC area bred sonic innovator Goldlink’s premiere mixtape, The God Complex. I remember the project evoking a very similar instrumental feeling to what I experienced on Submissive. But rather than having a core genre feeling, the album had more of a core soul to it. This soul had a funky passion-filled urgency. On the three tracks that Lastic produced, containing his signature bass voice “LASTIC” producer tag, Goldlink spits swirling melodic flows on a UK Garage DC Go Go fusion track, a Funk-Soul-House track, and an Alt Electro R&B track. Somehow within all this controlled chaos each song bleeds into the next with piercing fluidity.
My dive into the credits here became tracking all that took place between these two monumental bodies of work.
The first track I found which Lastic is credited for on streaming, is Kali Uchis’ 2015 track “Sycamore Tree.” Her feature on Goldlink’s Lastic produced track “Divine” from The God Complex was also the first time I remember hearing her. “Sycamore Tree,” which is the opening track for Uchis’ debut solo album Por Vida, is delivered entirely acapella. However, Lastic arranged Uchis’ background vocals much like he layered sampled vocal chops for Goldlink. He began his post The God Complex path precursoring a dive into minimalism while still holding onto what made him.
Lastic’s next credits came on Goldlink’s debut studio album And After That, We Didn’t Talk. As opposed to his production on The God Complex, Lastic matched Goldlink’s transition into a more restrained R&B leaning vibe. While The God Complex felt like it existed in a sweaty warehouse party in Bushwick, And After That, We Didn’t Talk felt like it moved to a lounge in Soho. Lastic still pulled in DMV sporadic rhythms here, but tactfully filtered them through a Contemporary R&B lens. When listening back to these songs they feel much more futuristic than myself and others gave credit for at the time. To be honest, songs like “Dance On Me,” “Dark Skin Women,” and “Spectrum” felt like they lost some of the gripping bedlam of The God Complex songs in 2015. Yet in fact, Lastic’s ability to grasp more silky R&B nostalgia within them would pre-date many of the R&B sounds to come while still being ultra regional.
Lastic would move with Goldlink into his legacy-defining “Crew” era, but only produced on two tracks on his 2017 At What Cost album. While many caught the Goldlink wave around this time, and “Crew” was an undeniable hit that would introduce the world to Brent Faiyaz, the lessening of the sound he and Lastic created here made me lose a bit of my fandom. Lastic seemed to take a reset here potentially due to the same lack of inspiration I felt. For the next three years he would have minimal and sparse credits as he found his way back to building something from the ground up. That said, his late 2017 through early 2020 credits feature some intriguing work on Vanjess’ “Til Morning,” Ambré and BEAM’s “Slip,” Masego’s “Veg Out (Wasting Thyme),” UMI’s “Introspection,” and Kehlani’s “Water.” What all these songs have in common is they are Lastic’s most pure R&B compositions up to this point.
This proving ground resulted in a fully produced EP by Lastic in 2020, where he only collaborated with fellow producer Jack Dine for sweet Pop/Soul singer Grace Weber. On How Did We Get Here, Lastic sheds his bombastic skin entirely, opting for minimal instrumentals that purely evoke sleek R&B/Pop. This feels like Lastic proving to himself that he could actually sustain an entire project separate from chaos and centered on tranquility. This would spur another journey to slide his roots back in and propel sonics once again.
After a few rogue credits, Lastic is a core producer for two seminal back to back projects in 2021. This marks his debut with Destin Conrad and his fellow Floridian R&B upstart Phabo. On both projects, you feel how much Lastic had to find his mellow groove so he could truly get his edge back. On what is still Conrad’s most popular song “In The Air,” you hear sharp pocketed drums and stretching synths delivered with necessary restraint. Then on “Colorway,” the album’s title track, the choppier transitions of 2014 are filtered through a prism of sunshine. On “LNF,” “The Homie,” and “Local” from Phabo’s Soulquarius, there’s some popping and shifting elements of the DMV drums Lastic first caught ears with, but this time they cut through lustrous keys and acoustic guitars. Instead of controlling the chaos, Lastic began to carefully place some of its vigor within the calm and the smooth.
Lastic would contribute to projects for both Conrad and Phabo after these two and before Submissive, but the two in 2020 were a real turning point. Off the strength of those releases, he also constructed really compelling bodies of work with Chicago songstress Jean Deux, New Orleans lyrical crooner Ambré, and sax wizard Masego. Each new project seemed to help Lastic experiment in different left field ways within R&B and Soul to give him a boundary-less scope. Yet, he never let go of his understanding of the genre’s necessary elements to maintain an album’s throughline.
Submissive is when every element collided at its peak. Lastic found a new central pocket in Contemporary R&B. Then he brought back his subgenre acrobatics within an overall composition in a fresh way. The question is, will Lastic ever get some of that explosive party energy back? He’s from the DMV, so maybe he just needs another artist from the area to revitalize his controlled chaos in a new form. I’d have my eye on someone like Joony.
Inside The Credits 007: Louie Lastic- The Playlists