“
As humans, we’re always
close to destruction. Life
itself is but a series of close
calls.”
This is Darius (Keith Stanfield,
“Short Term 12”),
roommate, advisor
and business partner
to Paper Boi, the ris-
ing rapper on the new
FX show “Atlanta.” In
a scene in the second
episode, the two are
in a restaurant the
morning after being
involved in a shooting.
While Darius reflects
on the encounter,
he’s stacking salt and
pepper shakers on the table, and,
as if in response to his thoughts,
the shaker structure comes tum-
bling down. The subtext is clear:
anything Paper Boi gains could
all be taken away from him in an
instant.
The same week “Atlanta”
premiered, Bobby Shmurda was
sentenced to seven years in prison
after he pled guilty to charges of
fourth-degree conspiracy and
second-degree criminal weap-
ons possession. Back in 2014,
Shmurda rose to fame arguably
faster than possibly any rapper
in history, with the then-20-
year-old going viral off a Vine
from his video for “Hot N*gga.”
In the Vine, Shmurda tosses up
his hat (which never seems to
come down) and breaks into what
would become famous as the
“Shmoney Dance.”
Against all traditional wis-
dom, the kind that says that an
unknown kid can’t get rich off
a hook-less trap song with the
n-word right in the title, the
“Shmoney Dance” blew up. Sud-
denly, the most famous people
in the world were copying this
unsigned kid from Brooklyn.
Beyoncé did it on the On the Run
tour; Drake did it at the ESPYs;
NFL player Brandon Gibson did it
after scoring a touchdown.
“Hot N*igga” is an authen-
tic, pounding track made with
no record-label input, with no
melody, from a rapper with zero
previous buzz. Its
most famous line is
Shmurda claiming his
friend killed someone
“about a week ago.”
And yet, the dude
was on Fallon and
Kimmel, beaming his
unrelentingly hard
sound into millions
of middle-American
homes. “Hot N*gga”
got certified platinum
and became one of the
songs of Summer 2014, reaching
number six on the Billboard Hot
100 and remaining to this day one
of the most inexplicable main-
stream successes of all time.
But Shmurda didn’t even get
six months to enjoy his impossible
rise to superstardom. In Decem-
ber 2014, he and 14 others were
arrested in a New York Police
Department sting. He’s been
incarcerated ever since. His law-
yer says he’s hopeful that, with
good behavior, Shmurda will be
out in three-and-a-half years.
Meanwhile, Jay Z is one of the
richest and most famous artists of
his generation, having survived
an adolescence where he was
forced to sell crack to support
himself and successfully avoided
any kind of arrest that would have
potentially left him in jail still
today.
Kanye West, maybe second
only to Jay in fame and fortune,
had his breakthrough as a rap-
per after surviving a 2002 car
crash in which he fell asleep at
the wheel and shattered his jaw,
leading to “Through the Wire,”
his first hit.
Meanwhile, Max B contin-
ues to serve what was initially
a 75-year prison sentence (since
reduced). Pimp C is dead from
purple drank. 2Pac and Biggie
were both shot and didn’t sur-
vive. Eazy-E died of AIDS, while
Dr. Dre and Ice Cube have been
allowed to reinvent themselves
as a businessman and as a family-
friendly entertainer, respectively.
Life is but a series of close calls,
especially if you’re a rapper. Suc-
cess comes and goes more quickly
now than ever in hip hop, and it’s
obvious that, in addition to talent,
one needs an unreal amount of
luck to make a career out of it.
That’s how it is now. Shmurda
throws his hat up in the air, and
by the time it comes down he’s
one of America’s most beloved
felons. Trinidad James makes the
iconic “All Gold Everything” and
the next we hear from him he’s
broke, dropped from his label and
watching Netflix. ILoveMakon-
nen has the club going up on a
Tuesday, and by Wednesday he’s
retiring from music.
We’ve undeniably been gifted
with several classic hip-hop
records in the last few years, but
still, the machinations of the
industry seem messier and more
volatile. “There’s not even any
money here anymore. It’s all lies,”
Makonnen told The Fader last
year. Is there such a thing as too
much democratization?
As Lil Wayne, who may or may
not be retired, and who may or
may not ever be able to release the
long-awaited Tha Carter V, noted
in an interview with Jeff Weiss,
“When I first started doing it, you
only did it if you wanted to be the
best. There was no such thing
as doing it to have a hot song …
(rappers now are) doing it to be
known and not for the future and
not to be incredible or consistency
or any of that. They doing it for
someone to know.”
The game has changed, and on
the surface it seems to give more
opportunities to young artists,
but I’m not fully convinced. As
Wayne points out, when up-and-
MUSIC COLUMN
Fleeting fame of rap
ADAM
THEISEN
coming rappers see that it’s truly
possible to go from unknown to
star in one Vine, they stop thinking
about the future and focus on just
getting that instant gratification.
But I can’t say I blame them. If
you’re poor and living in a danger-
ous neighborhood, the Chance the
Rapper model of releasing high-
quality, album-level mixtapes until
you eventually have a huge follow-
ing of people who love you doesn’t
seem as appealing as chasing those
hot six seconds that will put you on
national TV within a month. And
looking at what has happened to
so many rappers that have come
before them, why wouldn’t you try
and get whatever you can as fast as
possible? What’s the point of try-
ing to build a career when all you
have are salt shakers, when it could
all crash down any second?
Theisen has an encyclopedic
knowledge of rap. To test his
skillz, e-mail ajtheis@umich.edu
6A — Monday, September 19, 2016
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
After
the
“Ghostbusters”
reboot failed to match the prec-
edent set by the original, I had
my reservations with the “Blair
Witch Project” reboot. The 1999
film
pioneered
the found foot-
age
technique
that
has
lent
itself so well to
the horror genre.
How innovative
could the same
concept
be
17
years later?
Unfortunate-
ly, not very. The movie starts
with
college
student
James
(James Allen McCune, “Shame-
less”) finding footage on You-
Tube from his missing sister,
Heather from the first movie.
After he discovers the video, his
friend Lisa (Callie Hernandez,
“La La Land”) takes on James’s
search for his sister as a proj-
ect for her documentary film
class, setting up the plot in a
way bound to follow the formu-
la from the first film. They are
guided into the town Heather
was investigating by the people
who posted the video, contem-
porary locals Lane (Wes Robin-
son, “State of Affairs”) and Talia
(Valorie Curry, “House of Lies”).
The earthly pair live in the deso-
late wilderness and look like a
mix of “woke” vegan hipsters
and conspiracy theorists who
live off the grid. Adding to their
alternative vibe is their YouTube
channel dedicated to the Blair
Witch, driven by their relentless
research about her on the far
depths of the internet. They add
a modern feel to an otherwise
unimaginative update.
The gang is joined by James’s
friends,
accident-
prone Ashley (Corbin
Reid, “How to Get
Away with Murder”)
and skeptical Peter
(Brandon
Scott,
“Wreck-It
Ralph”),
and plunge into the
same forest Heather
and
company
did
more than a decade
ago. They are quickly driven to
their wits’ end as their surround-
ings come after them. While the
film pays notable attention to
plot development considering its
busy cast, it rarely offers some-
thing we didn’t already see in the
original “Blair Witch.” It tries to
subvert easy horror film tropes,
but these twists ultimately prove
negligible to the plot in the long
run. Lane and Talia, however,
keep the movie from becoming
too predictable by keeping their
true nature a mystery to the rest
of the characters; whether they
actually deserve the authority to
lead the group is questionable.
Once the idea that they could be
bad guys crossed my mind, I sec-
ond-guessed their every deci-
sion, making the resulting action
that much more exciting.
The special effects are great,
the one aspect in which this
modern reboot improved upon
the original. The witch’s look
isn’t far far from a stereotypical
witch, but she’s still disturbing,
appearing this time as a tower-
ing white demon with a cylindri-
cal body and a menacing scream.
She’s always seen from a distance
and in the periphery, because she
can steal you away if you look
directly at her. The crashing trees
threatening to kill the young peo-
ple looking for her and spooky
apparitions in her disgustingly
squalid house are vividly brought
to life. The evil causing the dan-
ger may be vaguely defined, but at
least it feels palpable.
For a movie that markets itself
as
psychological
horror,
the
script leaves much to be desired.
Too many horror sequences
are jump scares, with ominous
noises and trees crashing nearby
building up to characters pop-
ping out of nowhere and scaring
one another. While these scares
work well to keep the characters
(and audience) in suspense and
add dramatic tension until the
climax, they also make the movie
feel like a perpetual letdown.
Despite being a disappointing
sequel, “Blair Witch” is an enjoy-
able movie that goes down easy
for the faint of heart. The sur-
real moments where the witch
is allowed to demonstrate her
full power are truly unnerving
and make the whole thing feel
worth it, even when its attempts
to build a realistic narrative “on
camera” from the beginning
feels stale.
ANA LUCENA
Daily Arts Writer
The ‘Blair Witch’ loses her appeal
Follow-up to classic horror film can’t replicate innovative original
FILM REVIEW
C+
Blair Witch
Quality 16 & Rave
Cinemas
Lionsgate