If Classical Composers Were Rappers - Zach

 This post is dedicated to my friend Aakash, with whom I perform Classical music at our college. Recently, he’s become more fascinated with hip hop than a pubescent boy with his first pube. Conversely, he has made me adore Classical music more, which got me thinking about wanting to bridge the gap more between the two genres. Believe it or not, there are lots of parallels between the personalities of rappers and composers. This is a brief list of the ones that I have noticed. If you’re a rap fan, treat it as a gateway to understanding Classical, and Classical fans, vice versa.

Mozart & Playboi Carti

Most everyone knows Mozart’s work even if they aren’t Classical fans: Some of the same melodies used in his work are children’s songs (“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” which I know is originally a French folk melody and not technically Mozart’s. My point stands. Don’t come for me). Suffice to say, Mozart takes extremely simple melodies and dresses them to the nines. This makes him the Playboi Carti of the Classical Music world (Yes, I phrased it this way just to piss you off, elitist classical music community). Carti is well-known for his sparse but effective vocal performance over wonderful psychedelic trap beats.

Beethoven & DMX

Both of these dudes are just mad at the injustices of the system, and that anger is channeled into a virtuosic delivery. Beethoven’s hammering keys and vigored orchestral stabs might as well be the Romantic version of “Stop!” and “Drop!”

Wagner & Kanye

Aside from both being Nazi sympathizers, Wagner and Ye share a mentality that has revolutionized the culture. Both artists reconceptualized what the projects of their respective genres could be, Wagner with the leitmotif, which was the monomer to his evolving, prodigious stories, and Kanye, with meticulous sample metamorphosis, which manifests into grandiose projects unbeknownst to hip hop before.

Fanny Mendelssohn & Ms. Lauryn Hill

The titans of hip hop and Classical music may not have much in common, but they could sure bump elbows over their misogyny. Mendelssohn and Hill were simply too class to not school their contemporaries. Both artists' works are ingrained with beautiful and clever flow, making their discographies timeless and tireless, albeit limited.

Puccini & Outkast

The discographies of Puccini and Outkast are volumes of brilliance that one can fall into for years. I cannot help but feel like omniscience is being revealed to me while I experience their works. Furthermore, both Puccini (with the help of Pavarotti), and Three Stacks and Big Boi, are credited with making songs that will live forever in the history books for their elegant fusion of hip hop/opera and pop: “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini and “Hey Ya!” from Outkast.

Lil B and Steve Reich

Steve Reich’s sampling habits are enough to connect him to the world of hip hop (I could also bring up Madlib’s sampling of Steve Reich’s own sampling included in Madvillainy). In his own world, he is a controversial figure, casted aside for his avant-garde interest in turning samples into art. He unapologetically ushered electronica into the Classical world, pioneering movements like minimalism. Lil B, who will also never receive a bouquet of flowers big enough to match his influence, changed the values of hip hop by letting his creativity and aesthetic speak for itself, rather than needing to rap with more literal lyricism.

Schumann & Danny Brown

These guys both laugh in the face of their own insanity with their music. Just listen to “Ain’t it Funny,” where Danny Brown expresses the suppression of deep-seeded troubles. Schumann is no different, writing pieces that are the kind of happy that scares you, as if you are at the borderline between sanity and psychosis.

August Album Recommendations

 

 

                                                               August Album Showcase

We all need new music for the last month of summer! We wrote a couple paragraphs on albums we're enjoying right now- feel free to do the same in the comments!

Absurd Matter by Shapednoise - Zach

Strolling through my DSLs, which recently you can effectively think of as my drip-pipes for Zelooperz, I found a new feature of his on Absurd Matter. If anyone frequents the Boiler Room, they might have bore witness to a gray-black warehouse room cutesied with wall-flowers who’s slant curiosities intersected at one particular techno producer. The occasional courageous hero would step forward in an attempt to dance, in reverence to the exorbitant polyrhythms and big, blurry soundscapes coming from the mind of the man in front them, but not even the most experienced cowboy could ride the beat of this Brahma Bull, and the dancer would resort to a humble head knock, and then nothing at all. That techno producer is named Shapednoise, and these tragic dancers-turned-onlookers symbolize my experience with Absurd Matter. This project is an intense wash of ambient, techno, and hip hop, and by God, does it scratch the itch.

This is what Flume wishes his intersection with hip hop was (and I like that mixtape too): Metallic hi hat stutters, bass-breaking 808s, and a sultry but understated snare make up the skeletons for most of these tracks. Then layers of obscene, spooky noises are summoned to confound those rhythms. Ever accidentally change the channel on an old tv to the black and white fuzz with the volume turned up too loudly? This project is that on PCP with some bandpass filters. And we call it music. Well, at least I do. Anybody getting into the distorted hip hop aesthetic (a la Death Grips, Billy Woods, JPEGMafia, etc.) will want to give Abstract Matter a chance. It even features the aforementioned Zelooperz, as well as Moor Mother and Armand Hammer, who are the only people I could have predicted to be able to flow on Shapednoise’s beats.

            For Lovers by Lamp - Quinn 

Not many albums exemplify the time of year we find ourselves in like For Lovers by Lamp does. I also have absolutely no idea what any of the lyrics actually mean, as for albums in foreign languages I don’t usually like to look up lyric translations, choosing instead to attribute my feelings to the songs. So I could just be completely wrong about the subject matter of this album. But as summer is sprinting toward the finish line, I find this album is there for me in ways other albums have failed to be. This album is like the last day of vacation, a melancholic reflection on all you’ve done, but sprinkled about are bits of hope for the future. The first two songs personify this perfectly, with the first one being an emptier, melancholic almost folk song- and the second being an upbeat pop song with a more hopeful feeling to it. It’s like the realization that summer is over, and being a little upset about it, but then realizing that fall is around the corner- and as the autumn leaves fall around you, the energetic feeling of summer is replaced with a quiet peace, where you can reflect on all that brought you here. 

Obviously, you can’t really talk about this album without talking about relationships, which seem to be the driving force for this album’s creation, as it is aptly named For Lovers. Relationships are confusing and all over the place, and this album captures the essence of that quite well. One song will be an encouraging ballad that fills your soul to the brim with indescribable joy (see Out on a Sunny Sunday), and the next you’ll be staring at the ceiling listening to a saxophone bring all your less-than-ideal feelings to the forefront of your mind like a snake tamer with those magic flutes (you cannot tell me those flutes are not magic (see Behind the Moon Shadow)). Relationships are tough. I’m no good at them. But luckily albums like this exist, which help remind me that there is always more to look forward to. Tomorrow is always just a day away. Spend the last days of your summer freedom listening to For Lovers by Lamp! You won’t regret it!