In the current rap arena,
simplicity is key. Few people want
to spend hours laboring over a
heady underground release with a
fine-tooth comb. The people want
bangers, and they want them fast.
The only way to keep up with the
demand is to strip the songs down
so only the essential elements
remain. Those best equipped to
dominate the current climate
are those operating in the realm
of “derivative rap.” That’s not to
say they imitate other rappers
in an effort to gain clout; these
rappers are stripping rap songs to
exactly what the people want, and
somehow, they continue to keep
them fresh and exciting. They’re
quite literally changing the rap
game as we know it.
In a match of Derivative Rap
King of the Hill, the contestants
include stalwarts like Playboi
Carti and Westside Gunn and
newcomers like Lil Keed and
645AR. Carti and Gunn have been
at it for years, with Carti starting
in the mid 2010s and Gunn in the
early 2000s (2004!). Keed, on the
other hand, is just getting his start
after sneaking his way into the
arena around 2016 and gaining
notoriety in 2019. Then there’s
645AR, the absolute newcomer
in this battle for supremacy, who
entered the arena in 2019. Who
will win? Who will fail? Who will
come in off the top rope and turn
heads? Stay tuned to find out.
Contestant Profiles
Play
boi Carti
After a mere couple of years
of toiling under the surface and
releasing
countless
songs
on
SoundCloud, joining forces with
Atlanta’s Awful Records crew and
later joining A$AP Mob, Carti is
now a bonafide rap star and has
shown no signs of slowing. The
notably reclusive Atlanta rapper
drops infrequently and at a whim,
but when he does drop, he takes
the world by storm with some of
the simplest songs ever recorded.
With Carti, the line between
chorus and verse is blurred. In
fact, it’s nonexistent most of the
time. His choruses are his verses,
and his verses are his choruses.
Every song he makes is catchy,
and he doesn’t really have much
to say, often rotating through a
set of a few lines and ad-libbing
constantly. Carti even uses his
voice as an instrument, rapping in
various versions of a high-pitched
yap and his now signature “baby”
voice. He strips Atlanta-style
trap music down to its simplest
elements. Listen to “Magnolia,”
“wokeuplikethis*”
and
Young
Nudy’s “Pissy Pamper.” They’re
buoyant and playful, but most
importantly, they’re infectious
earworms
that
stick
with
everyone ranging from the casual
listener to the diehard fan.
Playboi Carti is an absolute
behemoth in the derivative rap
game and will be difficult to take
down.
Westside Gunn
Having recently signed a deal
with Eminem’s Shady Records
and a management deal with
Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, Westside
Gunn and his crew Griselda
are poised for big things. The
Buffalo, NY crew is known for
making hardnose revivalist New
York boom-bap and features two
outstanding rappers in Conway
the Machine and Benny the
Butcher. However, Westside Gunn
is the standout player. He takes the
boom-bap sound where no rapper
ever has. His song “The Cow” is
a prime example of this. All the
signifiers of boom-bap (gun talk,
drug talk, slick talk and bizarre,
esoteric references to things like
professional wrestling and high
fashion) are there, but that’s it.
There is no fanfare to it. The music
is barebones, and it’s capturing
the attention of rap purists
everywhere. On the surface, his
songs sound like typical fare, but
it becomes quickly apparent that
they are anything but typical. The
wordplay and lyricism is present,
but it’s not as complex. He leans
almost as heavily on ad-libs as
Carti, but he’s tasteful about it,
belting out a hearty “doot doot
doot doot doot” every few lines.
Gunn also doesn’t use typical song
structure, depending more on his
verses and flows than hooks.
Westside Gunn brings boom-bap
music to its most primitive state.
He’s an absolute wildcard, and
that’s why he’s gaining notoriety
across the scene.
Lil Keed
Who would’ve thought that
Young Thug would already be
the most influential artist of his
generation? Me, that’s who. In his
brief career, Thug has influenced
countless rappers, but none have
ascended to the same heights as
Lil Keed has. In this proposed
derivative rap world, Keed is
certainly the most derivative, but
he leans into it and fully commits.
He takes the yelpy exuberance of
Young Thug and forms his entire
career around it. And just like
Thug, Keed isn’t very invested
in making normal trap music.
Instead, he wants to make trap
music that sounds good, and he
does just that on his recent release
Long Live Mexico. He uses more
typical structures, but nothing
about his delivery and flows are
typical. On his standout track
“HBS,” Keed does everything he
can to challenge what it means to
actually rap. His flows are bouncy
and simple. They are perfect
extensions to his beats, only
breaking free to occasionally let
out an autotune-drenched shriek.
Even when Keed pushes his
delivery to a lower register, he still
sounds triumphant and outright
overjoyed.
Lil Keed is happy to be here,
but that doesn’t mean he’s not
aiming for something more. As his
career develops, it’ll be interesting
to witness how he uses his
unconventionality to his advantage.
645AR
645AR has literally appeared
out of nowhere, but it’s a good
thing he did. No other rapper is
challenging rap as we know it like
he is. He’s a pretty standard trap
rapper, but with a twist: he raps
almost exclusively with his pitch
shifted to the heavens. His voice is
so high-pitched that it’s difficult to
discern what he’s rapping about.
His style has been referred to by
Twitter users as “Mickey Mouse
rap,” a hard descriptor to beat.
Songs like “I Want the Money”
and “One Way” are normal trap
songs delivered through a helium-
infused lense, but his most recent
track, “4 Da Trap,” is where
he really starts to shine. “4 Da
Trap” is a sickly sweet trap tune
about his roots and how he’s now
created his own movement. As he
raps, he pushes his voice to the
limits of human hearing, and the
internet is loving it.
645AR won’t be turning many
heads now, but he’s just getting the
Mickey Mouse trend started and
could soon be a real force, or at the
very least a critical influence for
those to come.
The Fight
Sadly, there is no way to tell
who the real winner of Derivative
Rap King of the Hill will be. It’s
all based on personal preference,
but in the current arena, personal
preference is changing by the
minute. Currently, Playboi Carti
is still dominating, but that could
change at any moment. Any one
of either Westside Gunn, Lil
Keed, or 645AR could easily take
the attention away from Carti,
but that’s the great thing about
the current scene — prominence
changes so quickly, each rapper
could get their chance in the
spotlight.
Regardless,
each
rapper
is going to continue to tinker
and augment their respective
sounds. Playboi Carti is going
to
continue
to
capture
the
attention of the masses with his
accessible-yet-challenging
trap
experimentations. Westside Gunn
is going to continue to appeal to
old heads and new fans alike with
his boom-bap redux style. Lil Keed
is going to continue to publicly
question what it means to actually
rap. 645AR is going to continue to
do whatever it is that he’s doing,
and people are somehow going to
dig it. Each rapper has the ability
to create genre-altering music and
is already showcasing that ability,
so it’s only a matter of time until
each artist is their own king of the
hill that is derivative rap music.
6 — Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
WHISPER
puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com
By Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke
©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/28/20
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
01/28/20
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Tuesday, January 28, 2020
ACROSS
1 Sister’s attire
6 Transmits, as
a text
11 Young guy
14 2019 Australian
Open winner
Naomi
15 Get used (to)
16 King Kong or
Donkey Kong
17 Corporate
acquisition offer
19 Pampering place
20 “You should
leave now”
21 Studio stand
23 Crew team’s
blade
24 Unfair hiring
practice
27 Nixon’s older
daughter
30 Belfast’s province
31 Coil of yarn
32 Geometry
product
34 Marquee actor’s
honor
39 “Close
Encounters”
hoverers, briefly
40 Arrange loosely
43 Christie of
mystery
47 Without exception
48 Life-changing
incident for Peter
Parker
51 “Yada, yada,
yada” letters
52 Link to the
internet
53 Has an easy
catch with
56 Soufflé need
57 One batting
cleanup who
gets a lot of the
stat hidden in
17-, 24-, 34- and
48-Across
60 Big name in jeans
61 Airport shuttles
62 “__ Jacques”
63 Give permission
to
64 Final authority
65 Fork-tailed
seabirds
DOWN
1 Family-style
Asian dishes
2 Just for fun
3 Bear claw
makers
4 DIY furniture
store
5 Art community
NNE of
Santa Fe
6 Prolonged
battle
7 Scandal-plagued
energy giant
8 Well-worn pencil
9 Soft & __:
deodorant
10 Matzo meals
11 Collie of old TV
12 Become visible
13 Handshake
events
18 “Tom’s Diner”
singer Suzanne
22 NYC dance
company
25 Dramatic
one-on-ones
26 Airline that
doesn’t fly on
Shabbat
28 Op. __: footnote
abbr.
29 __ flash: quickly
32 Britcom starring
Jennifer
Saunders
33 __ Grande
35 Industrial area
of western
Germany
36 Words of
commitment
37 Agency under
FDR
38 Casino regular
41 Dressmaker’s
guide
42 Concert extras
43 Orbital high point
44 1959 Sandra
Dee title role
45 Drink suffix
46 Dangles a carrot
in front of
47 New Age pianist
John
48 Get a whiff of
49 Market express
lane units
50 Sculpted form
54 Sort (through)
55 Basic French verb
58 Man-mouse
connector
59 Method
SUDOKU
Sudoku Syndication
http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/
1 of 1
9/8/08 2:05 PM
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1
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“Mingi uses “Crtl P” to paste”
Thoughts on derivative rap
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
FLICKR
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
JIM WILSON
Daily Arts Writer
If an opera is a feature-length
movie, Andy Shauf’s concept
albums are short films, expertly
crystallized images of one night,
one character, one lost love or
the beginnings of another. Neon
Skyline, the follow-up album to
2016’s The Party, displays Shauf’s
skill for creating these carefully
crafted vignettes of characters
and their backstories within just
11 songs. The songwriter has
refined his storytelling abilities
throughout his entire career, and
this record is the very obvious
fruit of that effort. Lines like “Why
do I do the things I do / When I
know I am losing you,” cut right
to the core of the listener, building
on one another to create a mood of
reflection and self-interrogation.
Neon Skyline, much like The
Party, focuses around a specific
night and its context in memory,
this time at the Skyline Diner in
Parkdale, Toronto, instead of a
house party. The narrators do
not change or bump into each
other like they do in The Party,
but instead the album maintains
a steady first-person perspective,
as the speaker goes through a
night at the diner with his best
friend
Charlie,
reminiscing
about
his
failed
relationship
with
ex-girlfriend
Judy
and
chatting with whoever comes in
the door. The album reads like a
diary entry, tunnelling through
the narrator’s memories, good
and bad, as one reminds him of
another. Each character gets their
own spotlight, but it always comes
back to him, each image and line
of dialogue leading him further
into himself.
For a record that centers around
emotional discord and confusion
so predominantly, being anchored
in one location lends itself to
deeper introspection. The listener
can hear the door shut behind
the narrator as he walks in, the
metallic pop of the waitress, Rose,
opening a can of beer for him,
Charlie’s laugh as he stumbles in at
midnight. It’s a cinematic universe
held within the bubble of a diner’s
neon lights and hazy incandescent
memories. Shauf resourcefully
revitalizes the familiar sounds of
his previous discography — lilting
clarinet, shuffling guitar, soft
snares and the musician’s husky
vocals — to create a 360-degree
view of not only the diner in the
middle of the night but every
moment that has brought the
narrator there in the first place.
As he watches Rose smoke in
“Clove Cigarette,” he comes to a
realization, his emotions coming
into focus at the same time: “You
take some steps forward and some
steps backward,” he sings, “And it
just doesn’t matter cause I’m on
track.”
The Neon
Skyline
Andy Shauf
ANTI-
CLARA SCOTT
Daily Arts Writer
Shauf’s work enraptures
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
ALBUM REVIEW