By Dylan Deprey
Lena and Charlotte go on some crazy adventures while singing some catchy songs in “Lena’s Room Vol. 2 The Hip Hop Nursery.” (Photo courtesy Calin’s Children’s Channel)
There are three stipulations for a catchy modern children’s song:
1) It must repeat a word or phrase a million times in a row.
2) The music must sound cheap and barely playable.
3) It’s utterly annoying after just one listen.
Between “Baby Shark,” and “Mommy Finger, Daddy Finger,” Milwaukee’s super producer, Godxilla was losing his mind listening to the viral toddler anthems with his one-year-old daughter, Lena.
After recording a snippet of himself beatboxing to the ABC’s with his daughter and wife, he had an idea—a hip-hop children’s album. Though Godxilla’s production record hosted multiple beat battle wins, alongside a lengthy resume of solo projects and work with local heavy hitters, he was eyeing to make music for a far younger crowd.
“That little moment right there, when I got so sick of listening to that god-awful song, I decided to make an album, and we called it ‘Lena’s Room,’” he said.
Treva LaViva, his wife was a frequent vocalist on his projects. They knocked out the 10-track project in 2015.
“Lena’s Room” remixed classic kid songs like “This Old Man,” “Row Your Boat” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”
Fast forward to 2021, and Godxilla was on release rollout. After dropping six projects over the course of the year, he studied the numbers and analytics. He said he never paid too much attention to the numbers until J.R. McKee, A&R and marketing executive, said it during a webinar.
“I was testing the algorithm to see what he was saying, it was kind of a science project,” Godxilla said. “In the Q4 report for 2021, six records from ‘Lena’s Room’ were in the top 20. I was like ‘Awh hell no, we’re missing some low hanging fruit here.’”
If he was going to make another children’s project, he was going to go all out for it. Along with an album of original songs and music, he would produce a 12-part YouTube series starring his wife, now 8-year-old daughter Lena, and his two and three-year-old daughters.
It took a week to write the scripts, a week to produce and write the music, and a week to record the project. He already had a green screen and top tier production equipment, and then it was just buying all the “fun stuff.”
“I’ve always been a Muppet kid, everybody knows I love Darth Vader, but what people really don’t know is I like Kermit the Frog way more,” he said.
The family packed into the studio over spring break, and while it might have been a very long week of filming, they knocked out 12 episodes. Godxilla went into puppeteer mode while Lena and LaViva played themselves, and the other two toddlers made very cute appearances.
“It was brutal, it was a slag, nobody really enjoyed it, but I had goals,” he said.
After putting 12-hour long shifts in the studio perfecting audio and video editing, he finally finished “Lena’s Room Vol. 2 The Hip Hop Nursery” the album and YouTube series.
Each song on the project correlates with the theme of a 15-minute episode.
“Traffic Lights Song” is a trap flavored track that helps kids learn how street lights work, as well as how to properly walk across the road. It gives the viral “Traffic Light Song with Matt” a run for its money.
Characters like Monkey Mikey, CharLotte and Riley Bot help Lena explore everything from “Days of the Week” and “Months of the Year,” to “The Dishes” and “Meals of the Day.”
The project teaches children the basics while giving parents something to enjoy listening to.
“I’m not even looking at what the other guys are doing. I’ve been doing gangsta s***, and now I’m in kid zone,” he said. “It really messed me up what the kids were watching, and it’s getting millions of views.”
As he prepped for the June 6th release, he threw a minute snippet on the YouTube channel. He wasn’t expecting the traction it was going to get.
“The funny part about it was I wanted to give a little content out there to build the channel, and the YouTube algorithm started pushing us. In the last 48 hours we got 5,300 views, and 97 percent of the traffic has been from them suggesting us,” he said.
What started as a snippet of some beatboxing over the alphabet has set Godxilla and his family on a new trajectory outside of pop and hip-hop music.
“This is something I’m trying to leave my family,” he said. “They’re going to have to get in front of the camera and Jackson 5 it a little bit, but I want them to be set and be able to buy whatever they need and go wherever they want to go.”
The first two episodes of “Lena’s Room Vol. 2 The Hip Hop Nursery” are set to release on YouTube June 6, with a new episode dropping every Monday. The album is available for streaming on all platforms.
Visit Lena’s Room on social media or the website https://lenasroom.com/home.