The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
the b-side
Thursday, November 10, 2016 — 3B

In 2009, Kid Cudi released
Man on the Moon: The End of
Day, a now-iconic debut album
that redefined vulnerability’s
place in rap and, consequently,
resonated with a cultish fan
base. The attention caught up
to the Cleveland rapper, how-
ever. In 2013, he opened up
about his perpetual troubles
with addiction and depression,
culminating in a visit to rehab
this October for depression and
suicidal urges.
This news was, and remains,
tough to bear for such a devoted
fan base. One of these fans was
OG Maco (he of “U Guessed It”
fame), who this week released
For Scott, a tribute mixtape in
honor of Cudi’s recent return to
the public eye.
“At Night” is the standout

track, for better
or worse. The
casual listener
can hear what
OG Maco tried
to do, as he
twirls over
production that’s
equally (and simultaneously)
unapologetic and Cudi-
esque. While bland, this
could have sufficed, if not for
underwhelming bars: “Halfway
late, dancin’ with the devil have
one hell of a day / And the great
escape must be another n***a
fate.”
What was probably intended
as heavy-handed thematic
implication — Cudi’s certainly
had many an interaction with
devilish temptation — comes
off as flat, or even apathetic. We

get that Cudi,
or OG Maco
for that matter,
hasn’t been
able to escape
his demons
(and instead
watches others

achieve what he so yearns to
do) but it doesn’t quite hit us.
What results is a product that
requires compartmentalizing.
Acting as a morale boost in light
of Cudi’s worst stretch of per-
sonal adversity yet, it’s appro-
priately tortured. As a message
of comfort for a friend, it’s suf-
ficient. As a singular piece of
music, it’s inappropriately bad.
Kid Cudi deserves more, even if
it’s meant to be the thought that
counts.

- JOEY SCHUMAN

SINGLE REVIEW

C

“At Night”

OG Maco

Betts DeHart is a 20-year-old

Atlanta native and co-founder
of streetwear label Lucid FC,
which he started alongside
his twin brother, Chet. I sat
down with him at Complex
Magazine’s
first
annual

ComplexCon, where Lucid FC
was a vendor, to discuss how
the twins got their start, what
they’ve done since and where
they see themselves going.

Will
you
tell
me
the

condensed version of how
Lucid FC came about? I know
there’s a lot to that story.

So, back in 2010, my twin,

Chet, and I were about to start
high school. We were at a point
in our lives where we needed to
decide what we wanted to do, I
guess, but it was kind of early.
We knew we really wanted to
do footwear. When we started
our brand, it was just Lucid
Footwear. And it just made
sense a couple months later
to add clothing. That’s where
the “C” in our name comes
from. Lucid FC, footwear and
clothing.

You were able to do all of

this as high schoolers?

We didn’t really go to a

normal high school. It was
most similar to homeschool,
but it wasn’t at our house, and
it wasn’t our parents teaching
us. Chet and I did a work-
study program there, so the
curriculum we did for school
was around our business. It
was a self-curated curriculum.

Will you take me up to

where Lucid FC is now? How
have you guys progressed
since high school?

Well, we’re still kind of young

to have a brand. So we keep
growing as the brand grows.

I’ve never done this process
before, so I’m not as familiar
as others in the business, but I
just feel like every day is a new
growth point for sure. Some
seasons, we see more growth
than others, but the growth
is still pretty steady overall.
But say you release a new item
and a celebrity wears it — the
growth is more impactful for
that part of time. But it’s a
steady growth, which is good
because that’s what I like.

I know Rihanna is in that

mix of celebrities. What was
that like?

When Rihanna wears your

hat, and it’s on ESPN because
she’s at an NBA game, and
you see her courtside, and you
see a whole bunch of pictures,
and you see your online shop
notifications going insane, the
impact is huge. Different items
vary, but celebrities bring in
huge, huge progress. When you
compare the numbers, you can
see that they play a very big
role.

Do you know how she got a

hold of the hat?

She bought it!
She just found Lucid FC’s

site?

She bought it from VFiles,

actually.

How did you guys get

involved with VFiles in the
first place?

They’re the first store to

carry our clothes. Chet and
I were customers. We’d used
their website, and soon they
opened up a store in New York
in 2012. We were kind of like,
“Hey, we have a brand, too.”
And they liked it.

What’s your specific role

in the brand?

A wise man once said that

the only two things you need
for a business are marketing
and creation, or something
like that. Although this sounds
very black and white, Chet is all
creative and I’m all marketing.
I handle business matters as
well, but I mainly specialize in
marketing. We have the perfect
balance going.

You
two
grew
up
in

Atlanta, correct?

We did. Born and raised.

When
college
would
have

started, we moved to New
York. We lived there for two
years and then Chet moved to
London for a year, which is still
going on, to go study at Central
Saint Martins.

How
has
Atlanta

influenced what you guys
have done with Lucid FC? I
know you’re not directly on
the design side, but I’m sure
you have some insight.

The Atlanta aesthetic is like

nothing else. It’s truly unique.
It’s very heavily influenced
by music and food. We’ve
definitely been influenced by
the music, not the food.

Before we wrap up, do you

have any specific goals for
the brand that you’d like to
mention?

Yeah,
win
the
CFDA

(Council of Fashion Designers
of America) next year.

(Laughs)
I’d
expect

nothing less.

ARTIST
PROFILE

IN

TESS GARCIA
Daily Arts Writer

TESS GARCIA/Daily

20-year-old fashion designer Betts DeHart joined ComplexCon this weekend with label Lucid FC.

WARNER BROS.

David fire Byrne-in on the dancefloor.

The second he walked onto

that stage, I fell in love. David
Byrne circa three decades ago has
the kind of hair — a dark brown,
straight yet messy beast — that
makes girls swoon.

It’s just him and his grey suit

on stage for the first few intimate
frames of “Stop Making Sense,”
Jonathan Demme’s (“The Silence
of the Lambs”) lauded, barrier-
breaking
concert
film,
which

enjoyed a screening at the Michigan
Theater last week. Byrne’s band,
new wave darlings the Talking
Heads, performed three nights
at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater

in December 1983, and Demme
caught it all. The smiles, the sweat,
the exposed ladders and technical
accoutrement turned digital, bright
red backdrops — it’s all filmed
with smooth pans and downright
stunning close-up shots.

The grooviest aspect, though,

is the fact that the Talking Heads’
best songs — “Psycho Killer,”

MELINA GLUSAC

Senior Arts Editor

Falling in love with ‘Stop Making
Sense’ once more in this lifetime

Iconic Talking Heads documentary comes back to Michigan Theater

“This Must Be The Place (Naive
Melody),” “Once in a Lifetime,” etc.
— play nonstop during it all.

Byrne’s eyes are freaky-wide

as the camera stays tight in the
opening scene. He’s
cringing, “I can’t
seem to face up to the
facts / I’m tense and
nervous and I can’t
relax,” and neither
can the anxious
cinematography.
We get long shots
of Byrne’s stark
white
sneakers,

his
pristine

cheekbones:
our
avant-garde

Moses is dry and new, singing
with sonorous chutzpah as he
guides us on this journey of
impending sweat and colorful
cacophony.

Bit by bit, other members of

the band join him on stage. Tina
Weymouth, one of the original
badass band chicks, smokes on
the bass. She’s donning a baggy
grey jumpsuit and swinging
blonde locks as Jerry Harrison
hops
alongside
on
rhythm

guitar, and Chris Frantz looks
like an extra from “Caddyshack”
in a green polo as he begins to
bang those essential tom toms.
By the end, he’ll be soaked in sweat,
too. These are the Talking Heads.

Frantz and Byrne met while

studying at the Rhode Island
School of Design in the early ’70s,

and formed the band officially
in ’75. The Heads’ music sounds
exactly the way you’d think art
school would sound: off-the-wall
and
kitschy,
with
inspiration

pulled
from
a

variety of muses.
There are tinges
of
world
music,

punk rock, gospel
and funk; this sexy
hodge-podge shows
in
the
concert’s

staging,
which

gets exponentially
more eye-catching
as the film rolls

on. An intense, scarlett backdrop
accompanies “Swamp.” Everything
goes dim for “This Must Be The
Place (Naive Melody),” and you can
feel the happiness simmering in
Byrne’s eyes as he smiles, singing,
fiddling with a lamp: “I got plenty
of time / You got light in your eyes /
And you’re standing here beside me
/ I love the passing of time.” There’s
also a picture of human buttocks in
the background.

Part of being human is learning

to accept the fact that we get
bored, even at concerts. But “Stop
Making Sense” never gets boring.
Even when things start to teeter
on typical, unorthodoxy prevails.
Byrne starts seizing on stage in
between lines of the chorus on
“Once in a Lifetime,” his body
gyrating from head-to-toe like an
impassioned preacher. He pops

out in a giant gray suit with bigger
shoulder pads that reduce his head
to the size of a toe on “Girlfriend
is Better.” He leaves the stage
entirely so Frantz and Weymouth
can perform a song as the Tom
Tom Club, the married duo’s side
project, which spawned the smash
“Genius of Love.”

During this jam, Weymouth

hunches over, bouncing back and
forth between each of her bent
legs as Frantz scratchily yells
out “JAMES BROWN? JAMES
BROWN” behind his drumset. All
of this is nothing short of funk-
driven madness, yes, but it feels
right — artistic — and it makes the
film’s 88 minutes unapologetically
thrilling.

Yet, I fear I’m not making

sense. It’s difficult to capture the
fundamental allure of Demme’s
work in words. I didn’t just watch
the concert: I was at the concert,
in 1983, and Byrne was singing
“Heaven” to me. I could see the
scratches on his acoustic guitar,
hear
every
imperfection
and

perfection. “Heaven / Heaven is
a place / A place where nothing /
Nothing ever happens.” It doesn’t
make sense; I’m not making sense.
But, with every fiber of life in my
human limbs, I wanted to jump to
my feet and applaud after “Heaven”
was over.

Because I fell in love with David

Byrne, this odd little talking head.
And music, too. All over again.

A+

“Stop Making

Sense”

Michigan Theater

Cinecom

You know the story — but

not like this. From Thursday
to Sunday, the School of Music,
Theatre and Dance will present
Charles Gounod’s opera, “Roméo
et Juliette,” at the
Power Center for
the
Performing

Arts. Shakespeare’s
classic tragedy is
brought to life by
the students (in the
School of Music)
both onstage and
in the pit.

Director
Paul

Curran, who has
directed operas at
the Metropolitan Opera in New
York City and Royal Opera House
in London (to name a few places),
was brought in to direct “Roméo
et Juliette.” He chose to set this
particular production of Romeo
and Juliet in the late 1950s.

“He has this concept that the

’50s were a transition from a very
conservative time into a very
liberal time, which goes along with
the story of Romeo and Juliet: the
power of peace and love against
hatred,” said Mulder, a second
year Masters student in Vocal
Performance who plays Juliette.
“He really wanted to bring out that
aspect of how the time and the
community affects the lovers.”

Mulder, who was a Young Artist

at the Ash Lawn Opera Company
in Virginia this past summer,
said the entire experience at the
University is one of the most
professional settings she could
ever imagine.

“Martin Katz, who’s conduct-

ing the opera, is one of the world’s
most famous collaborative pia-
nists,” Mulder said. “The cos-
tume department, the production
department, the stage manage-
ment team — everything is so well-
oiled and well running, and the
orchestra just sounds pristine.”

Darius Gillard, a second year

Doctor
of
Musi-

cal Arts student in
Vocal Performance,
plays the part of
Romeo.

“I’ve had a hand-

ful of professional
roles, and honestly,
the production here
is on an extremely
high scale,” Gillard
said.

The production

is filled with suspense, excitement
and fight scenes: a special fight
choreographer was brought in to
coach the cast members on how
to correctly perform combat on
stage.

“It was a fantastic experience,”

Gillard said on receiving combat
coaching. “The knives are made
out of steel, so any wrong choreog-
raphy could lead to someone get-
ting painfully jabbed. Thankfully,
we had a fight choreographer to
help us put that together, which
was amazing.”

“Since we’re using knives, it all

has to be really precise,” Mulder
added. “The fight scene is really
intense.”

The cast rehearses for six

hours a day — both a huge time
commitment
and
physical

undertaking.

“We began rehearsing the first

week of school — we had our first
rehearsal the first day of classes.
The whole process took about nine

weeks,” Mulder said.

Approximately
three
hours

long, there are two intermissions
throughout the duration of the
performance. “Bring a snack!”
Mulder advised.

The
opera
is
performed

in French, and there will be
supertitles above the stage.

“I encourage everyone to come

and see it even if you have no
experience with foreign language
because we have supertitles that
are in English — you will know
what is happening all the time,”
Mulder said.

“This performance is a very

real, honest reflection of life,”
Gillard said. “It’s a reflection of
people at their most human — at
their best and their worst — and
it also tells a story of how to work
past differences. It teaches a lesson
about how prejudice can destroy
you.”

Mulder said she believes people

should come see the opera because
of the story’s power.

“We forget so often how much

damage hate can do, and we forget
the importance of acceptance and
tolerance in our communities.
In the world we live in today, it’s
really important to always think
about that, and think about how
choosing love instead of hate is
the better choice. I really do think
that the story — now more than
ever — is important for people
to understand why they need to
accept those who are different
from them,” she said.

When asked if there were any

other modifications made to this
version of Romeo and Juliet,
Gillard said: “There is something
that’s different — but I don’t want
to give it away! You will absolutely
know it when you see it.”

ALLIE TAYLOR
Daily Arts Writer

A new kind of ‘Roméo et Juliette’

SMTD to perform Shakespeare classic at Power Center this weekend

COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW

“Romeo et
Juliette”

Thursday through

Sunday

Power Center

$22-$28, Student
tickets available

“When Rihanna
wears your hat,

the impact is

huge.”

FILM REVIEW