Polymath Actor, Recording Artist, and Filmmaker Amir Royale Releases His ‘Stories of the Lost, Rich & Tormented’ EP

Mr. Disney Dilla Grills Up A Brand New Modern Hip Hop Classic Phenomena

By StageScene MagazinePublished about a year ago • 6 min read

Amir Royale rehearsing for a performance at The Peppermint Club in Los Angeles, California ; photograph by Kyra Williams

From Amir Royale

Sophomore year, NYU Tisch’s Clive Davis Institute, 2017. I created the concept of Stories of the Lost, Rich & Tormented as a "Writing the Hit Song: Deep Cutz" homework assignment. Over the course of 14 weeks, I crafted and reworked about 12 or so ideas. Suddenly, my songwriting professor at the time (Eren Cannata of Cove City Sound Studios, Facethouse Records & Warner Chapel Music), directed us to use all the content we created thus far to formulate an EP. This project would then become one we’d pitch and present to potential A&R scouts. It was our final project. I curated 5 of my best records across the class to showcase a conceptual narrative and description of greed, lust, and youth insecurity within American culture. It is the final entry within my four-EP-long music chronicle (dating back to my 2015 EP, This Is for You.). To let this project go free finally—feels like a blessing. Thank you.

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• Lyrics on Genius.com

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artwork by: Amir Royale

deluxe artwork by: Sir Swamp

lyrics by: Amir A. Oliver, Josh Zhong & Eren Cannata

composed by: Amir A. Oliver

performed by: Amir Royale

background vocals by: Josh Zhong

exec. produced by: Prince Royale

music consultants: Eren Cannata & Kia Eshghi

produced by: Amir Royale

arranged by: Amir Royale & Austin Brenner

engineered by: Amir Royale

mixed by: Amir Royale

mastered by: Amir Royale

runtime: 23:17

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NEW YORK — December 16, 2022 — Amir Royale, a polymathic actor, recording artist, filmmaker, and entertainment entrepreneur, released his new musical EP, ‘Stories of the Lost, Rich & Tormented’ (“SOTLRAT”) today, a collection of hip hop and R&B records that take a critical look at American society.

Click here to listen to The SOTLRAT EP.

SOTLRAT is the fourth EP in Royale’s official discography (beginning in October of 2013), the first EP of his to be released on all music streaming platforms (ie. Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube Music, etc.), as well as the final entry to a conceptual narrative tetralogy that Royale had begun crafting via. his euphonious extended plays in 2015 (dating back to the original release of his debut EP, This Is for You.).

The tracklist of SOTLRAT features “God | Prayers Up,” “Crawl,” “Going Under (Interlude),” “Diamonds (feat. Eren Cannata),” and “Paper Girl,” a diverse lineup that melts an array of musical disciplines together with thoughtful lyricism, spotlighting Royale’s versatility. The EP is a breath of fresh air in today’s music industry stratosphere, where the same ideas are often recycled for corporate greed, while creativity is punished. The records across SOTLRAT recite important and familiar life stories of fear, insecurity, lust, and tainted self-love in modern-youth America.

The Stories of the Lost, Rich and Tormented EP had been in one of Royale’s musical vaults since its creation in 2017. After a flurry of new successful releases through 2020 and 2021 and a slight creative hiatus in 2022 (post the passing of Royale’s grandfather, Robert Oliver Jr.), Royale finally felt comfortable dedicating enough time to mix and master SOTLRAT for public consumption.

“To let this project go free finally—it feels like a blessing,” said Royale, who crafted the records of SOTLRAT while still enrolled at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts – Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.

Royale performed various roles in the creation of SOTLRAT, including being the lead songwriter, melodicist, composer, producer, arranger, mixing and mastering engineer, as well as being the lead performer for every track on the EP. The project also includes lyrical and musical arrangement contributions from two fellow university collaborators of Royale, Josh Zhong and Austin Brenner (“a-side” of The Telescreens), who both graduated from Clive Davis Institute with Royale in May of 2020.

The songs of SOTLRAT were all recorded and mixed at various studios around New York City, including numerous studios owned by NYU Tisch’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music (Studios 505, 510 and 21North within the original 194 Mercer Street and East 25th Street CDI facilities), Royale’s home studio in St. Albans, Queens – Splendor Palaces Screen & SoundWorks, as well as Lisendeep Productionz (a previous iteration of the Afro-Latino music production house, LDMG Studios) in Brooklyn, NY. The EP was also officially mastered at Royale’s home studio in Saint Albans, Queens – Splendor Palaces Screen & SoundWorks. The promotional artwork for The SOTLRAT EP was imagined and realized by Royale with an alternate deluxe cover of the EP being re-imagined by Royale and executed by Floridian “anthromysticist” Zalman Lazar Zukier (Sir Swamp of Swamp Zik Productions).

In his sophomore year at NYU Tisch’s Clive Davis Institute, Royale realized The SOTLRAT EP as a final homework assignment to the class “Writing the Hit Song: Deep Cutz.” The “Deep Cutz” class was, at the time, part of a mandatory sophomore year songwriting course that all students of Clive Davis Institute must complete in order to obtain their official degree. Ironically, Royale’s songwriting professor for “Deep Cutz” ended up being his now – close friend, collaborator, and musical mentor, Eren Cannata of Cove City Sound Studios, Facet House & Warner Chappell Music. Cannata serves as a music consultant across the entirety of SOTLRAT (alongside his co-professor for “Deep Cutz,” Kia Eshghi of Hanging Moon Records) while also holding a songwriting and production credit on SOTLRAT’s fourth track, “Diamonds,” where Cannata appears in the credits as a featured artist.

The release of Stories of the Lost, Rich & Tormented EP follows Royale’s dance banger “For A Day” in February 2022, the thought-provoking masterpiece “Paradox” in Spring 2021, and a flurry of releases in 2020, such as Amir Royale’s debut horror/comedy short film Les Poissons Morts and the “hip-pop” infused electronic hit “Turnin You Out” (which was a collaboration with fellow NY/NJ polymath and pop songwriter/producer DOMENICO). Prior to that, Royale re-released his 2015 debut mixtape Magnificent, released the surreal short film drama Please Stop Calling Me, and acted in the comedy sitcom podcast NEXT STOP. In 2020, Royale also dropped the soulful hip-hop record “Hold it Down (Freestyle),” and his debut emotional single “People Say.”

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Cover Art for ‘Stories of the Lost, Rich & Tormented’ EP

Promotional Artwork Imagined & Realized by Amir Royale ; Deluxe Artwork Re-Imagined by Amir Royale & Executed by Sir Swamp (of Swamp Zik Productions) ; Designed by SPECTRUMM Animations.

Click here to listen to the record.

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Back Art for 'Stories of the Lost, Rich & Tormented' EP

Artwork Imagined & Realized by Amir Royale ; Designed by SPECTRUMM Animations.

Click here to listen to the record.

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About Amir Royale

Photograph by Kyra Williams (of The Kyra Williams Media)

Amir Royale, is a multi-talented actor, recording artist, musician, filmmaker, producer, and director with M. StageScene Communications / Blues Bell Music. Royale is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music (where he also earned a minor in Cinema Studies, and currently teaches as an adjunct professor). Royale also is a graduate of the acclaimed Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where he studied drama. Royale hails from St. Albans, Queens—a neighborhood that was once home to many legendary musicians, such as James Brown, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, A Tribe Called Quest, and Count Basie.

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