That being said, a really nice bridge occurred to me just now. Seeing that the seminal Geto Boys track (Mind Playin Tricks On Me) is coming up on Universe and the seminal Bushwick Bill (of Get Boys) track has just passed on Lanterns (Ever So Clear) it seems to me a good time to relive the very first KINGS homework assignment (which was mentioned in the Lanterns post), and treat us all to another spin through the videos for those two chilling songs (dunno why this didn't occur to me at the time I was actually writing about that hw assignment but oh well).
I still remember really vividly that day, sitting at my battered desk at the window of my Allston room on my (then not quite so) ancient computer finding these videos and, I think, talking to either Z or C on the phone and assigning the assignment. I may very well have been about to leave to go to Bmax, it was a sunny day, the trees were full and green, it was hot, I was sweating. I can't be sure how far into mixworld we had traveled at this point but I'm guessing we were still in the zone of the holy 1-8. I was still out here trying to, in some way, make these strange and brutal golden-age hip-hop songs make sense to, at least, Coree.
So, with no further ado (and comments to follow) here they are...
Ok so just a few thoughts here. It should be noted that this is an edited for TV mix of the song which makes for some awkward rhymes here and there, (I swear he says, in place of "shit", "hard ship is kinda hard to swallow...) but eh, it's nice to hear a slightly different take on a classic.
First off, I always enjoy seeing album cover approximations in videos and on t-shirts and whatnot (not just pics of the cover, mind you, but well, like we see here, it's his point of view from the stretcher in the hospital, the one where he "took a picture for an album cover" seen in all its literal glory here:)
In the video we are treated to this scene relived, but through his eyes, rather than the camera lens. And, as a final note to it, lets not miss out on the fact that, though he has just, in a fit of grain alcohol-fueled mania, threatened his ex-gs life and threatened to throw her baby (who he admittedly loves) out a window, and is then shot in the eye and rushed to the hospital, the man is still so hardcore that he can sit up on the gurney, with a bullet in his head, and pose, holding what might be, the very first cell phone, or, even better, a portable phone from someones house used in place of the worlds first cell phone.
Secondly, the scene right at the beginning where he is, presumably, wigging out on being on "planet Earth" on the seashore in the tie-dye Bob Marley tee is clearly prophetic of where the Kings were headed, eventually.
And finally, the bit where he's talking about "the odds" he's up against and it shows him holding this like comically oversized die (singular of dice, get with it). Like, what is that? Are we supposed to think that not only is he a midget but he's also so small that dice seem gigantic in his tiny, drug-addled hands? Or is this like, a literal image of how "big" the odds are that he's "up against"? We need answers.
Now, this contrasts even more inscrutably with the later scenes where he is holding the gun which he will threaten his ex-gf with and eventually be shot himself with. The gun he is holding is like, RIDICULOUSLY small. I mean maybe its a .22 but it looks like it might be even smaller than that. I mean it looks like a miniature version of a little kids toy from CVS or something. Are we really supposed to believe that this pee-shooter did irreparable damage to someone? Come on.
One last note, Bill has practically dedicated this song to Everclear, and it is worth noting that, on my last trip to Boston, in an effort to understand what Old Thompson meant when it proclaimed itself to be a "blended whiskey", we learned that it is, in fact, about 60-80% grain alcohol, much like Everclear. No wonder it gets you so fucked up so badly so quickly, as Zoe would find out on that fateful night of the last PAPER. (More on that story later? Feels like a stand alone post at some point).
Next up...
What can really be said about this masterstroke? I love, in classic rap fashion, all of the extremely literal images acted out in the video to correspond to the song. This video, for me, works perfectly in conjunction with the song. It has always sounded like the sound of very,very hot nights in dangerous parts of Los Angeles and the video looks just like it sounds, hot, hot nights, dangerous, dangerous LA. It all pretty much speaks volumes for itself.
I'll just add a couple final thoughts about the Bushwick "Halloween" sequence. Watching this again I am hit again with just how utterly frightening and disturbing this scenario is, in thought and, as seen here, in concrete reality. I mean, just trying to process all of the details of this scene, how thought out and complicated it is, the kids, the costumes, the events of the night, the presence of his friends, and then finding out that NONE of it was real. He was, in fact, completely alone on the night time city street, punching and punching away at the asphalt and, in the final turn of the screw IT WASN'T EVEN CLOSE TO HALLOWEEN!!!
And you thought blacking out after The Pill was scary...
Hope you've enjoyed this tiny diversion. Hopefully next up: Universe.
it is 3:28 AM
this is the seance.
xo
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