“

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