4B — Thursday, January 19, 2017
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
I know I’m in on “The Young Pope” from its first shot: a baby’s bare ass, climbing
across a mountain of more naked babies. And who emerges from the infantile rubble? None
other than
my main man, David Jude Heyworth Law. I love this show already.
I feel like I could write about “The Young Pope” for hours.
The incredible, blistering, surreal, subversive, miraculous
opening 15 minutes (Buzzed, who went to Catholic
school: “This is NOT the Catholic Church”), the
lush cinematography, Jude Law’s career-best
performance, its winking self-awareness that
renders any and all previous Twitter-based
memes dated, if not outright irrelevant — but I
can’t stop thinking about “Pope” ’s complete
and utter command of tone. The supposedly
wide chasm between pretentiousness and
camp isn’t so much a yawning gap as it is a
circle that bends back upon itself. Sorrentino
pitches the show at that perfect intersection,
and it’s a minor miracle that he pulls it off.
Which is why this whole viewing might
be an exercise in futility. “The Young Pope”
knows its premise is absurd, it’s aware of
the inherent outrageousness; it’s essentially
a living, breathing meme. You’re not laughing
at this show because it’s bad, you’re laughing
because the writers literally wrote a joke. It’s OK
to laugh! It’s the anti-prestige drama, a splash of cold
water in the face of HBO stiffness. As Buzzed looks
through her laptop files to find a sonnet she once wrote to
Jude Law in middle school and Baked is unnervingly silent, a
Cardinal on the screen is scrolling through his iPhone. It’s such a
simple but outlandish image, cartoonish but effective. Jude Law, the Pope, asking for a Cherry
Coke Zero — incredible.
There are so many other things I’d like to pontificate on, but Baked just yelled out, “WHAT
IF THE POPE BLASTED CIGS THOUGH?” Shouts to Brandon Wardell.
— Nabeel Chollampat
‘The Young Pope’ ft.
Catholic Guilt
in this series, three daily arts writers in varying
states of mind do the same activity and write about
their experiences.
this week’s event:
What if the Pop blasted cigs??
What if the Pope blasted cigs?????
What if the Pope blasted cigs???????
What if the Pope blasted
cigs????????????
dAmn he does lmao
— Daily Arts Writer
“You don’t just cast a guy with a small pee-pee as a pope”
And off we go to Neverland! So many dead babies dear
lord. But lords are all the rage these days, didn’t you know?
He drops his robe and my oh my Catholic education never
gave me a jude law it gave me some homophobic priests, a
puppet, and catholic guilt but NOT jude law.
Catholic guilt and insecure men, what did I tell you. All
the ingredients you need to enter priesthood is right there.
Fourteen years and what does it get me? Several bible
passages and a woman telling me that we “can talk to her”
about our problems “because she was a college counselor
and she understands.” It also gave me Pam Stenzel. Why did
one girl in my graduating class get pregnant and two drop
out? Pam Stenzel. Why did my sex education consist of the
identification of defense mechanisms and the map of the
female vagina? Catholicism.
Lenny’s a contradiction. He’s the pope, but he’s also Jude
Law. I can’t tell you what this does to my psyche. Because in
high school, yes, I wrote a sonnet about Jude Law. 14 lines,
and a rhyming couplet at the end. Oh how rich, how sweet,
how rich.
My teacher had me read it in front of the class as the
“ideal example of a sonnet.” I told her it was about Jude. She
made me return to my seat.
And now, I bestow it onto you my dear readers. Please,
remark on it in peace and in pure adoration for the art of
those who came before us —
There holds not much use in comparing thee
To the summer’s day, or rose buds of springs
For such drawings are made in falsity
You are more pristine than either beings
Those eyes shine bright, full of life and laughter
A voice melodious with an accent
Mirroring a song, but a bit faster
If only from thy lips a kiss be lent
Deceit can be seen in thy awful past
But there is mercy for a handsome face
My love for you is sure to always last
But your heart may not always keep the pace
From afar these feelings have collected
While any hope of requite has melted
Timemark: October 27th, 2013.
I also did an interpretation of Macbeth’s murder based
on the Sopranos. There were nerf guns involved and i made
them buy wifebeaters. Ask me about it sometimes. And then
ask why I didn’t have any friends.
— Daily Arts Writer
Back in high school, I
remember my friends and
I once had a contest to see
who could get the most
rappers to follow us on
Twitter. It all started one
day, when totally out of the
blue, frequent Riff Raff-
collaborator TKO Capone
blessed me with a gracious
follow. It wasn’t much, but
it stood as the beginning
of something truly special;
in the ensuing weeks, my
friends and I would scheme
and strategize our way
to eventually earning the
prized Kanye West follow.
I
decided
I
would
circumvent
all
of
the
mixtape scrubs and jump
straight to the big shots.
I called the White House
Communications
Agency
to see if I could get a
follow
from
President
Obama (not a rapper), but
I guess my request was
deemed
unimportant.
When V-Nasty leaked Riff
Raff’s phone number that
same week, I spam-called
him at least 15 times to
see if he would follow me
on Twitter. He eventually
picked up up the phone, but
I was only on the receiving
end of swear words in his
surprisingly authentic Texas
drawl (though, it should be
noted that he did follow me
sometime thereafter).
My friends had begun
to rack up all sorts of
struggling rappers, and yet,
I had nothing. They angled
for shoutouts on Datpiff
cuts, while all I could do
was refresh my page. I felt
directionless, worthless —
unworthy, even.
One friend happened to
become particularly close
with Soulja Boy through Xbox
Live, and mentioned that Mr.
Boy was very responsive to
fans that repped his label,
SODMG (Stacks On Deck
Money Gang). It was free
marketing and made the
fans feel acknowledged on
an individual level. At that
moment it became very clear
what I had to do to redeem
myself. I updated my Twitter
handle to include his label,
and within a few days, I was
in.
The internet proved to
be
shockingly
powerful
guerrilla marketing tool for
up-and-coming artists, and I
think early internet rappers
that existed between the
years of 2008 and 2011 were
most exemplary in their
approach. Wiz Khalifa was
an infamous Twitter user
in his pre-Kush & OJ days,
keeping his ears to the pulse
of his cargo short-wearing
fans.
Curren$y
typically
responded at every time of
asking, and all it took was
a name-change to receive
affirmation from the first
guy to ever “superman” on
us all.
None were quite as prolific
as
Lil
B,
though.
Born
Brandon McCartney, Lil B
‘From The Pack’ BasedGod
was (and continues to be)
the greatest Twitter user
of our time. Before the
cooking dance memes, ESPN
appearances,
Pitchfork
endorsements and university
lectures, there were the
tweets. My god, the tweets.
From
the
beginning,
Lil
B
was
the
most
unpredictable and eccentric
rapper at the intersection
of
popular
culture
and
Twitter, populated with a
wide variety of characters
ranging
from
Father
to
Earl Sweatshirt. His tweets
were most identifiable by a
childlike
juxtaposition
of
vulgarity and sincerity —
tweets about mental illness
awareness were released in
tandem with confusing and
offensive takes on feminism
and sexual violence.
He was so passionate on
issues that most rappers
couldn’t give a damn about,
and yet, his Twitter presence
amplified his status as the
poster child of “whack new
rap” that his music gave
him. His virtual signature
gracing the end of every
tweet, it almost feels like he’s
speaking to you personally
when he tweets that he loves
you every day.
At this point it’s gone too
far to be a joke or gimmick;
in a recent interview with
Noisey
he
discussed
his
challenges
of
coexisting
peacefully
with
insects.
I would love to hear, say,
Tyga’s take on insect rights
(not that it matters).
Lil B followed me on
Twitter on September 14th,
2011. I was a junior in high
school, and it meant a lot to
me. Having grown up and
experienced music fanhood
without the direct lines of
communication,
Twitter
was awesome to me because
I could hear about Kanye’s
favorite
movies,
Earl’s
favorite books, Tyler the
Creator’s favorite Roy Ayers
albums, etc. It brought me
closer to my favorite artists
in a way that removed
them from their respective
pedestals (in a good way).
They were regular “music
kids” like me, and Twitter
made me feel like a genuine
part of the artistic and
cultural movements I most
identified with.
I was 16 at the time and
admittedly
thought
the
“Thank You Based God”
jokes and cooking dance
celebrations were hilarious.
I once tweeted a video of
an American soccer player
celebrating a goal against
Suriname with the Lil B
cooking dance, and a guy
from Lil B’s camp named
“Caseeno
Truwop”
(no
longer online) retweeted it.
It eventually found it’s way
to Lil B, who then shared the
video on Facebook. To this
day, I still think he wouldn’t
have found it had I not
tweeted; his incredibly close
internet-relationship
with
his fans makes it possible
to influence the artists who
most influence us.
A faction of his fans,
affectionately known as the
“Task Force,” have been
responsible
for
elevating
Lil B’s most infamous beefs
to
unforeseen
levels
via
Twitter. One fan ordered
30 cheese pizzas to Space
Ghost Purrp’s home, and
collectively, they managed
to make Joey Bada$$ delete
his
Twitter
altogether.
They are very much a force
to be reckoned with, and I
think the dedication these
fans show Lil B is merely a
reciprocation of the respect
he has shown to us in every
tweet, like, follow and song.
Lil B is the 21st century
iPhone-wielding Black Monk
of rap, blessing us with
aphorisms and criminally
underrated
music
with
each extension of his digital
consciousness. He generally
doesn’t
use
punctuation
in his tweets or music,
constantly finding ways to
express
himself
through
the
constraints
of
our
satellites and keyboards. As
a generation of kids typified
by a feeling of loneliness
from incessant connectivity,
Lil B’s resilient messages
of
all-too-real
positivity
really do hit close to home.
SHAYAN SHAFII
Daily Music Writer
Lil B and the age of
digital music fandom
BASEDWORLD
Lil B, rapper and Twitter personality
How artists like Lil B, through Twitter, changed the
way in which fans and musicians interact forever
None were
quite as
prolific as Lil
B, though
I was 16 at
the time and
admittedly
thought the
“Thank You
Based God” jokes
were hilarious