Iāve been thinking about music a lot. I love musicāshocker, I knowābut I always find it hard to pin down, to narrow down exactly what I love about it and to find artists that fill that me niche. Maybe there is no such artist, after all, Iām the only me, but then again, thereās so many musicians youād think thereās at least one out there that doesnāt miss. The closest Iāve come to finding musical perfection is MF DOOM. Heās unmatched, in my opinion.
For a long time Iāve had this idea in my mind, itās not crazy or anything but itās a bit weird. Itās this band, I call it āRouge, itās the colour of the maskā and itād be two peopleāa writer-vocalist and a producerāand theyād make hip-hop about the current state of affairs.
I think that peak music is made when people are united in the pursuit of a vision. DOOM and Madlib, BROCKHAMPTONā¦ Iām sure thereās others but Iām blanking on it right now. Thereās plenty of amazing individual artists (Michael Jackson, to name perhaps the greatest) but I really do think that bands are just better. I guess because thereās more humanity, more people so itās more people-like, and thatās what makes music (art) great; people make art. Thatās really all that needs to be said.
Still, this hypothetical band would make conscious hip-hop, as itās called. I love Kendrick Lamar and heās notorious for operating in this space; heās really good at it too, but thereās something missing from his music that I just canāt put my finger on. I think itās that he works alone. I say alone but really, heās never alone, he has tons of featured artists on his stuff and heās not a producer at all, as far as I know, so thereās always gonna be someone working with him to make the final track, but thatās not good enough to be truly great. Itās great, yes, but itās not truly great. I think the issue is the consistency. Because he works with several producers on any given project, they can feel disjointed, even if not at the surface levelāKendrick is amazing at keeping his albums feeling connectedābut when you delve deeper it feels disjointed, like it was made by a bunch of people that didnāt really talk about what they were doing, that didnāt have a same, unified vision. Itās one personās vision being executed by a bunch of talent, rather than a bunch of talent executing a shared vision.
Topics that could be tackled include the environment, the rise of the alt-right in Europe (and world-wide), and living a comfortable life in a fundamentally unfair systemāliving with the reality that some suffer so that you may thrive, and the questioning of whether some must suffer for others to thrive. Stuffās complicated, but I think music is a fantastic platform, or medium, for these topics to be breached. See, music is something you can put on in the background and let wiggle itself into your subconscious, but itās also something you can sit down and dissect. I really feel like literature doesnāt have this, it misses this big aspect of inertia. You really need to focus when you read, the medium demands attention. Good music will make you pay attention, but itāll never require it. This reminds me of that one Outkast song, Hey Ya I believe, wherein AndrĆ©3000 says something along the lines of āyou donāt want to listen, you just want to dance,ā and heās right. People donāt want to listen, they just want to dance. You canāt write a book that people will dance to, but you can write a song. Thatās the difference, thatās what makes music such a powerful tool for both dissemination and the exploration of complex topics. You can write a song that people dance to, but that as they listen they may just understand what youāre saying, they may engage with it even as they engage with something else. I love music.
I keep drifting away from the point. The band I was talking about, it would make conscious hip-hop tackling relevant, current topics. Well, thatās all dandy, but so what? I guess the what Iām wondering is why is that not already a thing? I mean, is it such a niche interest? It doesnāt feel like it, then again, Iām me so nothing about me feels particularly niche even when it obviously is. The most likely possibility seems to me to be that I have just not foundācome acrossāthis band. Itās out there, I just havenāt heard of them yet. I donāt know, Iām holding out hope, at least. Iām a musician actually, not by profession or vocation but just in a matter-of-fact sort of way: I know how to play music and I have played music for a long time. Maybe I could make the band. Then again, I donāt have a producer and I donāt know how to produce. As I spent some time establishing, at least one other individual would be required for this to work at all, and my antisocial nature is rather unlikely to result in me coming across that particular golden goose.
Thereās also something else, and reading Babel is getting my mind wondering about this more than usual: language. I speak a couple languages and, while similar, they are categorically different. I find English poetry to be dreadful, simply put. I would hate to write in English. The problem with that is accessibility. English is the de facto lingua franca (sorry about the Latin) of the world, so writing music meant to be for the world in any other language feels like a missed point. How to reconcile Englishās barbaric lack of grace with its reach? Mayhaps impossible.
Speaking of Babel, Iām actually reading a translated edition of the novel. Hilarious, I know. Itās not even a very good translation, or at least it hasnāt been up to now. The problem with bilingualism is that I can imagine what the original mightāve been and the translation really upsets me at times. Itās not terrible, mind you, itās just clearly imperfect. Itās beautiful though, which in a way I can almost excuse the technical shortcomings. Technical. Really, talking about this after reading Babel makes me feel so silly; thereās so much discussion about what makes a good translation and they never seem to reach a meaningful conclusion. I already knew this, to an extent, but having it shoved in my face is rather painful, especially when I have to read the discussion about translation via a translation.
By the way, look at this monstrosity: twelfths. Thatās 5 consonants in a row. Crazy. I saw that on TikTok a few days ago.
Iāll read more Babel today again.