Just in time for memorial day, Kanye returns with everything you love about him ( Rapping, THANK GOD! , Braggadocio for days) Leaving everything you hated ( Eight.O.Eights & HB ) Behind. This track goes. Whatever your plans are this memorial day weekend, expect this track to go with you. Either you'll bring it, or the other in-the-know kid will. Then you guys can fight over who had it first. Ha! But without further ado, I give you..POWER
I don't wanna talk to a scientist, y'all motherfuckers be lyin and gettin' me pissed...
Nobody I've ever spoken to has ever given fans of ICP (juggalos) much credit for their intellect. After this song I understand why.
Am I trying to say grown men who paint their faces, rap, and dance around like jack asses are idiots? No. They have demonstrated how perfectly capable they are of saying that for themselves. Miracles is Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope waxing appreciative of some of the more miraculous and/or magical things in this planet: hot lava, snow, giraffes, magnets, rainbows, the ocean. Humanity owes them our greatest appreciation for pointing out how miraculous it is that we can keep domesticated animals as pets:
We don't have to be high to look in the sky/ And know that's a miracle opened wide/ Look at the mountains, trees, the seven seas/ And everything chilling underwater, please/ Hot lava, snow, rain and fog/ Long neck giraffes, and pet cats and dogs/
Disregard the fact that everything they bring up is easily explained by science. Why? Because scientists are liars.
SNL recently parodied this song and music video. It can be seen here.
Fashawn's latest single gets a visual treatment. And I must say its quite dope. Punit Dhesi (Director) and Josh Harding ( Visual Effects) take a basic idea, which could have easily fell flat in the wrong hands, and produce a truly great product. And with Fash being on an indie, I doubt their budget for this was huge. Though you wouldn't know it from watching the video. So why is it that the majors continue to churn out subpar video after subpar video after...well, you get the point. Silly Dinosaurs. Anywhoo, Fashawn's (Classic Debut) "Boy Meets World" available everywhere. Do yourself a favor, and pick that up.
You could get a lot of mileage out of Ted Leo's songs at face value. The guy's got hooks, riffs, and charisma to spare. But to overlook the social awareness and defiant spirit bubbling under the surface would miss what makes him one of the most vital songsmiths going. "The Stick," from he and the Pharmacists' new album The Brutalist Bricks, is the latest in a growing tradition of sub-2:00 blasts of righteous vitriol which stand as spiky landmarks rather than noisy interludes (cf. "Annunciation Day/Born On Christmas Day" from Living with the Living).
Verse one has Leo venting frustration, first in a fairly run-of-the-mill way about politics and affairs in general, then with the stinging acknowledgment that the underexposed cruelties of the world have been watered down to caricatures by people who contrive to invoke them. In the scheme of the song though, this is just an observation; the upshot so far is simply that shit sucks. So relief is sought in the second verse, which opens with a great example of Leo's gift for imagery. But an idyllic drive can't completely tune out the lingering dread of the world's problems. Even the Old North Road itself is a reminder of oppression; it was built by the Romans as they conquered England from proto-London northward.
The song wraps up with an angry affirmation of authority's use of reward-or-punishment theory, "the carrot or the stick." Or, more appropriately, "the stick if not the carrot." The fasces are another reference to Roman power, a multivalent allegory for a delicate administrative integration of unity, restraint, and force. Twelve rods bound around an ax, the stick of the title is still used extensively in the symbology of governmental and other bodies.
Of course, this would all be another boring day in an intro-level Classics course if the music didn't shred. The opening salvo of driving beat over chugging chords is reminiscent of Wire's "1 2 X U," followed by a brief silence before Leo spits his staccato screed over the same. A softer but still intense and uneasy bridge leads to the final verse, where we get one last burst of discord on the penultimate line before the song's sudden halt. The final syllable of "fasces" hangs over the silence, echoing the specter of tyranny present throughout.
Anxious mofo, my twin my friend Election time again, I wish that I was dead Some conversation, if you're well read To calm the storm of shit that's raging in my head While languishing in basements: 10 million corpses lashed to beds Atrophied to archetypes by all the able artists overhead
Mixed light of evening, sky of the sea You take the Old North Road 'cause that's where you feel free Your hidden backroads, your hidden dreams A hidden cigarette that actually helps you breathe Play an ancient mixtape, attempt a break from the routine But dark on the horizon, form that's never fully come to being
Still need a reason for your unease You think the government it wants you on your knees But I'll tell you something, and here it is: They want you driving to the supermarket, buying milk and cheese Generating taxes to fuel their corn subsidies You're either nibbling at the carrot, or you get beat with the fasces
