The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Friday, September 22, 2017 — 5
Arts
At
3
p.m.
on
Saturday,
September 16, the day after his
most recent album was released,
Open Mike Eagle — the pen
name of Los Angeles-based,
Chicago
native
Michael
Eagle
— responded to
a
tweet
asking,
“Who’s
Uncle
Butch?”
“my uncle that
served in vietnam
and used to cry in the kitchen
when he thought no one was
around,” he wrote.
The question is a reference
to “No Selling (Uncle Butch
Pretending It Dont Hurt),” a
track off of Eagle’s new album,
Brick Body Kids Still Daydream,
his fourth official release in as
many years. Brick Body Kids,
though, has far more weight to
it than his other recent releases,
with a more concrete mission at
its core. Eagle’s tweet is a good
proxy for the intensity that
permeates the album, whose
songs repeatedly reference the
Robert Taylor Homes housing
project.
Located on the southside of
Chicago, the project was home
to 11,000 residents, 99 percent
of them Black and 96 percent
unemployed. Its demolition was
completed in 2007, and it was
“considered the worst slum area
in the United States” according
to a 1998 New York Times article
titled “Razing the Slums to
Rescue the Residents.”
While the article frames the
demolition as a largely positive
event — an opportunity to help
move
underprivileged,
low-
income
individuals
to
safer
communities — it’s clear that
Eagle has a more nuanced
take on the issue; he lived in
the project until late in high
school. The popular media saw
salvation in the demolition.
Eagle saw friends, family and
memory all unempathetically
displaced by an indifferent-at-
best government.
Evidence of Eagle’s personal
investment in the Robert Taylor
Homes project is found most
clearly on two tracks. In the
single, “Brick Body Complex,”
he raps from the point of view
of an apartment building in the
development (“My other name is
three nine two five / Make sure
that my story’s told / Sixteen or
so stories high / Constructed 55
years ago”). The second track
being the album’s final cut, “My
Auntie’s Building,” on which
Eagle is at his most politically
direct.
“They blew up my auntie’s
building / Put out her great
grandchildren / Who else in
America deserves
to
have
that
feeling,” he raps
over
a
stilted,
percussive
beat.
He moves from
confused
grief
to not anger, but
enlightenment, with a pointed
jab at bourgeois America: “They
say America fights fair / But they
won’t demolish your timeshare.”
He closes out the song repeating
a line —“That’s the sound of
them tearing my body down to
the ground” — where he is once
again the project itself.
The Robert Taylor Homes
that Eagle knows was not simply
a place, nor were its tenants as
one-dimensional as the media
insist. If there’s one thing Eagle
wants us to get out of all of
this, it’s that the residents of
Robert Taylor Homes (and every
other poverty-stricken housing
project in America) are people,
just like us and just like him, not
a problem to be neutralized and
relocated.
Brick Body Kids isn’t purely a
work of lament and subsequent
criticism,
though.
Songs
like
“Daydreaming
in
the
Projects,” an ode to childhood
innocence (and its premature
deterioration), are more hopeful
and less rebuking. The chorus
is almost-cheerful with a brass-
accented melody: “This goes out
to / Ghetto children, making
codewords / In the projects
around the world / Ghetto
children, fighting dragons / In
the projects around the world.”
Leading single “95 Radios”
is similarly nostalgic, as Eagle
reflects on moving between
homes and listening to music as
a kid. “The OGs, I miss my old
hood / Miss my homies, is lonely
/ The radio host is like they know
me,” he raps over an unhurried,
whimsical beat. Though innately
hopeful,
Eagle’s
apparent
nostalgia
juxtaposed
against
the destruction of his childhood
home ultimately serves to show
just how out of touch the higher-
ups of America’s socioeconomic
hierarchy truly are with those
on the lower end.
Sonically, Brick Body Kids
is relatively easy listening and
distinctly Open Mike Eagle in
style. The kids probably wouldn’t
say that the album “slaps,” but it
is lyrically dense and candidly
poetic, drawing on a diverse
body of sounds and samples.
Eagle’s poetic tendencies rarely
come
across
as
pretentious
though, and it’s evident that he
knows when and how to take
himself seriously. References
to pop groups, old video games
and comics — “Legendary Iron
Hood” is riddled with mentions
of names from X-Men — run as
thickly as allusions to personal
struggles and politics — “When
the king is a garbage person / I
might wanna lay down and die
/ Power down all the darkest
urges / Keep my personal crown
up high,” he raps on “Happy
Wasteland Day.”
Ultimately, this release feels
like Eagle refocusing, not just
permanently
cementing
his
place in the alternative rap
scene (where he was already
a prominent figure), but also
asserting himself even more
overtly as one of the most
politically-minded
hip-hop
artists of the modern day. He
balances nostalgic introspection
with exceedingly clever external
critique, creating a thoroughly
cohesive piece that functions
as a near-perfect reaction to
the times. Eagle’s calm wit and
precise poeticism in combination
with his scathing tongue deliver
in a way that no one else can
consistently do, making him a
unique standout in a community
that’s becoming more politically
conscious by the day, and with
good reason.
SEAN LANG
Daily Arts Writer
Brick Body Kids
Still Daydream
Open Mike Eagle
Mello Music Group
Open Mike Eagle balances
introspection and critique
E-mail arts@michigandaily.com for an application to join our section.
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MELLO MUSIC GROUP
ELR/DAILY
Literati welcomes new
author of ‘The Girl’ series
Before he was an author and
a journalist, David Lagercrantz
was destined to be a star
athlete. But it wasn’t until he
was intellectually
touched by a book
(“Albert Camus”)
for the first time
in
high
school,
where
he
soon
put
his
passion
into
writing.
Coming far from
his days of sports,
the
writer
was
suddenly handed a
plot, a cast of lively
characters and an
unfinished series.
His task? Finish
the story.
In
2004
renowned author
Stieg Larsson, creator of the
first three novels in the world-
millennium series “The Girl
with
the
Dragon
Tattoo,”
died unexpectedly of a heart
attack.
In
2013,
Swedish
publisher Norstedts contracted
Lagercrantz to finish the job.
“Of course it was important
to me to be faithful to the
wonderful universe of Stieg
Larsson but to make it a good
book, but I also had to add some
of myself and my own passions.
In the first book, I was scared
to death about not writing good
enough. Maybe I also had a
quality complex. Stieg Larsson’s
books were not only good, they
were great,” said Lagercrantz of
his journey with the book.
Taking over mid-series was
not an easy task, but Lagercrantz
has been successful thus far,
having written both the fourth
and now the newly-released
fifth book in the series. Picking
up where Larsson left off came
with one major obstacle: how
to stick to Larsson’s intention,
while also adding Lagercrantz’s
own voice.
In response to questions about
the challenges he faced taking
over mid-series, Lagercrantz
remarked:
“My
goal was live up
to Stieg Larsson’s
quality and then
of course to get
the
characters
into my veins and
DNA.”
Though
Lagercrantz
always wanted to
write novels, he
originally
found
himself
working
in the field of
journalism,
especially
with
far-left movement
politics.
He
spent many years working as
a photographer and editing
political journals in Sweden.
He also worked as a graphic
designer for a news agency and
became the editor of Expo –– a
Swedish magazine dedicated
to counteracting the growth of
the extreme right among young
people.
“I always say if you want
to write good journalism use
literary techniques, and if you
want to write good fiction
use
journalistic
research.
Journalism
helped
me
to
understand the life of (character)
Michael Blomkvist. In my heart,
I am always a reporter.”
Lagercrantz
uses
his
reporting
techniques
and
journalistic background to help
write the life of protagonist
Lisbeth Salander — the volatile
seeker of justice for herself
and others — the girl with the
dragon tattoo. His journalistic
and political background has
helped him to breath life into
Lisbeth and the other characters
in these books.
Though he has stuck closely
to the plots and intentions of
Larsson, Lagercrantz does say
that with the newest novel, he
takes more risks.
“In ‘The Girl Who Takes an
Eye for an Eye’ I was braver. I cut
more and dared to put even more
of myself in it,” Lagercrantz
said. “I consider it a better book
but as a writer maybe you always
would like to think that your
latest book is your best.”
Though he is writing novels
now, and no longer completely
involved
with
the
world
of
politics
and
journalism,
Lagercrantz still believes “The
Girl Who Took and Eye for an
Eye” has a deeper meaning that
relates to the political divide in
the world right now.
“I, of course, daydream that
that I can make people a little
wiser and more tolerant and
understand that we are in all
central aspects, the same,” he
said when asked what his newest
novel means to him. “It is so
sad to see the society getting
more and more divided. Hate
is obviously growing thanks
to terrible leaders and if I can
bring just some of us a little tiny
bit closer, I would be so happy,”
he said.
It
can
be
said
that
Lagercrantz
writes
for
the
purpose of storytelling, but his
writing evokes an underlying
intention to make a statement
for democracy and the essential
nature of art in this world.
“Nothing
can
change
the world more than good
storytelling. You can have facts
of numerous people getting
killed of poverty and injustice
and maybe could not care less.
But if you read a story masterly
written about just one of them,
you may actually change and
do something about it. Art
and good stories, both fiction
and nonfiction are vital for a
democracy.”
Lagercrantz
will
be
at
Zingerman’s
Greyline
with
Literati
bookstore
to
speak
about “The Girl Who Takes
an Eye for an Eye.” Tickets are
available online and include a
copy of the book.
ELI RALLO
Daily Arts Writer
“The Girl
Who Takes
an Eye for an
Eye” by David
Lagercrantz
Sunday September
24th @ 7 P.M.
Zingerman’s
Greyline (100 N.
Ashley Street
Lagercrantz uses
his reporting
techniques and
journalistic
background to
help write the life
of protagonist
This release
feels like Eagle
refocusing, not
just permanently
cementing his
place in the
alternative rap
scene
Taking over mid-
series was not
an easy task, but
Lagercrantz has
been successful
thus far
COMMUNITY CULTURE
MUSIC REVIEW