Monday, September 28, 2015

Song of the Day #208 - KOOL A.D. - Lagrimas Blancas

Bitch I'm James Murphy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPMJRA9HAFM

Deep cut from KOOL A.D., who lately has been blogging about being a dad on Vice and doing great and genuinely useful horoscopes and generally being a wonderful human that can remind us on dismal days that there really are things worth aspiring to. One also hopes that his novel, O.K., A Novel, will still someday emerge, although it's been a year since the first announced release date with no news, so whatever. It's a lot of writing, which seems encouraging, given that he said way back on 63's finale "Exotische Kunst" "Plus it wasn't really in the plan to even rap at all/I was trying to be a novelist/But who fuckin reads books? Be honest".

So you could be forgiven if you think the music thing might be secondary to him, but only if you were unaware of this year's Barter 7, his mixtape with Kassa. It's a followup to last year's Coke Boys 5, and is an even more extreme representation of what I felt that tape entailed - they got together, found a bunch of beats they liked, and did whatever they wanted on them. The tracks ramble in every direction in a mixture of hilarity and insight, really demonstrating both their ability to rap well and have fun rapping. Basically all of this seems to suggest to me that he's at a stage of popularity and skill where he can do basically anything he wants and it will be received well enough that he can continue doing whatever he wants. It is a sort of creative liberation that I see as the definitive endgame to artistic progression, the point of success that makes all of it worthwhile.

But then, when we look back at something like THE PALM WINE DRINKARD, it's clear that he's been proceeding like this the whole time, and that that might be his secret all along. This mixtape starts with a full-length experimental reinterpretation of "SpottieOttieDopaliscious" and if that didn't sell you right there then get out you don't deserve it. Then he hits you with this one, a banger so simple and so powerful that I don't even know if there's anything I can say about it.

Here's a few things though. I love that it somehow nails that sweet spot right between "louder than you would have thought was comfortable" and "uncomfortably loud", at least for me. I love that he says "I'm in a swimming pool". When I wrote about Fetty Wap I claimed that I had never heard the slang term "fetty" before but that is now obviously untrue, and I should have realized it. I love that he says "Bitch I'm James Murphy" and then later on the tape is "Fun" which really does sound like an LCD Soundsystem track. When I finally got under 40 seconds on 40 line in Tetris, I put this song on during the video and now this song always reminds me of that which is nice. I don't play Tetris anymore so this video will probably forever be my high water mark. I love how the beat has that sort of "chunka-chunka" progression to it, I don't know how to describe it beyond that.

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