I am not sure if I’ve mentioned before that I listen to music while I run. Until really recently, I’ve mostly been listening to rap while I run. The reason for this is primarily that the energy in rap and hip-hop is so intense that I think it helps me run. It also sometimes makes me angry, and that emotion seems to suit how I feel about running. Heh.
When the Beastie Boys or K’naan come up on my playlist, I find myself motivated and it (maybe) even makes the run easier. I even sometimes recite the lyrics while I run, though I try to make sure I’m not shouting the most vulgar lyrics while I’m within earshot of another human — that would most likely not help me make new friends in my neighbourhood. 🙂
Kanye‘s music is in my playlists. In particular, there are several tracks from his masterpiece album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I have some serious and deep-running respect for rap artists, and this album is one great example of why. It is a piece of art in its own right. It weaves stories and paints pictures from start to finish. Each song is already a complete work on its own, but together they are magnificent. It might be tough to access the beauty of rap music if you’re not familiar with its culture. I’ll be the first to admit that I come from a very different culture than that which created rap and hip-hop — I’m “white as” (as the Kiwis would say) and grew up in suburban Calgary, for starters. But if you’re willing to learn about the contextual history and the stories behind the music, with a wee bit of research and a lot of paying attention, I do think you can come to appreciate the genius that is behind what many perceive as just rhyme with a buncha curse words and nasty things being said about women. Rap and hip-hop is rich with subtext, metaphor, and constrasts, and offers sharp insights into culture that may be difficult — if not impossible — to access unless you have experienced it… but it’s certainly worthwhile accessing, IMO.
(Upon reflection, I’m realizing that perhaps I might like to post more about my personal feelings when it comes to hip hop and rap culture. I feel like I’m just scratching the surface here, and that’s okay, because this post is about only one aspect.)
As much as I love Kanye’s music (what I think of him as a person is another story), I realized last week that I was going to have to take some of his tracks off my running playlists. The reason was simple, actually: I love listening to his music, but the lyrics of some of his tracks are just way too intense for me to be exposed to on a regular basis. I’m running 3-4 times a week now, and hearing some of these lyrics so often was just wearing me down. They are so negative.
I get it: art imitates life. Kanye writes about things he has experienced, and they are very real. And while his songs tell his stories, like many pieces of art, they inspire the listener to draw on his/her own experiences, and bring those to the piece, too.
This is true for me.
Of course, I have not had Kanye’s life (d’uh), but I have experienced many emotions and situations similar to those he writes about, and dangit… so many of them are just flat-out negative.
Take Blame Game as an example. (Important sidebar: if you’re not familiar with this song, and you’re at all a sensitive listener / reader, be warned. It is graphic and has language that many could find offensive.) This song is widely known to be autobiographical in detailing how Kanye felt after his split with Amber Rose, and the bitterness that ensued as she dated someone else, and as she used (or so he felt, anyway) his influence and fame to get what she wanted. If you don’t know that context about the song, however, you could think the song was just about the bitterness that ensued after a very dysfunctional relationship ended… or was in the process of ending. I didn’t know the song’s context right away — I went several months before I did a bit of sniffing around about Kanye’s lyrics. It’s still a very accessible song, if you’ve ever been in any kind of dysfunctional relationship.
Well, here’s the thing: I have.
And so there is a lot that I can relate to in this song — as much as it pains me to admit that… gulp. And here I’m doing so publicly. (I hope you don’t think less of me.)
So while on the one hand this is why I love this song — it’s so raw, so real, so observant, so attentive to details — on the other hand, this is exactly the reason it pains me — it is too close, too raw, too real, too observant, too full of details for me to enjoy hearing it so often.
I can’t listen to the details of a dysfunctional relationship — that I can relate to — multiple times a week. I just can’t. Love your work, Kanye, but I can’t keep re-reading those previous chapters of my life. I gotta move on, yo. I got bettah chapters comin’ on up. Hell, I’m livin’ em right now. If I keep hearing this sh!t, I’m afraid it’s going to keep me from being the better person I’ve become since then.
As brilliant as Kanye’s work is for its storytelling, artistic aesthetic, word play, metaphor, rhythm, rhyme, and energy, I need to keep it out of my ears so often.
FWIW, I’m just using Kanye’s track here as an example — there are a few others I will have to re-think… I’m thinking a handful of Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg will have to go too. But y’know… ATCQ and De La Soul… I just can’t find anything too negative in their tracks. Not yet, anyway. Hmm…
If you’ve never heard Blame Game… well, here you go. (Note: There is no official video. I prefer the studio version over the live version mostly because it’s been mixed so well — listen with headphones for the full effect — it’s so well done.)
WARNING: NSFW or children (lyrics have profanity)
