Ok, so a couple days ago @sighswoon posted something on instagram, and it kind of accords with something that I've observed recently.
Here is her post:
I agree with her, though I hadn't noticed it before. What I have noticed, however, is the incorporation of nursery-like sounds into beats as samples. Almost like the sound of baby mobiles that hang above their cots.
I first noticed it here:
I think it might be self-referential, given that Yung Pinch and Lil Skies are both 20 - babies in the industry. There's also the infamous Shek Wes song (he's ALSO 20):
It's interesting that in this music video, he's riding around in an old person scooter. More reference to the juxtaposition between the maturity of their topics and the amount of money their making, and their emotional maturity and age?
And now, this one by 6ix9ine, who's 23:
(I'm using an unofficial video so he doesn't get money from any views this may garner)
His music video for FEFE is very much like this too, mixing very adult themes with very childish imagery:
Half of me is like, "you're reading too much into it, surely these rappers don't think about symbolism and imagery and their lyrics and videos". The other half of me is like, "your such thought is the result of racist bias that assumes black people, and their associated art forms, are incapable of the deeper thought that you apply and derive in traditionally white art forms."
Maybe it's not correlation, but causation. Maybe one producer used such a sample, and the others started a trend.
I will say though, that the babyish imagery that @sighswoon noted in fashion carries into popular rap. What is this tendency towards infantilisation?
Here is her post:
I agree with her, though I hadn't noticed it before. What I have noticed, however, is the incorporation of nursery-like sounds into beats as samples. Almost like the sound of baby mobiles that hang above their cots.
I first noticed it here:
I think it might be self-referential, given that Yung Pinch and Lil Skies are both 20 - babies in the industry. There's also the infamous Shek Wes song (he's ALSO 20):
It's interesting that in this music video, he's riding around in an old person scooter. More reference to the juxtaposition between the maturity of their topics and the amount of money their making, and their emotional maturity and age?
And now, this one by 6ix9ine, who's 23:
(I'm using an unofficial video so he doesn't get money from any views this may garner)
His music video for FEFE is very much like this too, mixing very adult themes with very childish imagery:
Half of me is like, "you're reading too much into it, surely these rappers don't think about symbolism and imagery and their lyrics and videos". The other half of me is like, "your such thought is the result of racist bias that assumes black people, and their associated art forms, are incapable of the deeper thought that you apply and derive in traditionally white art forms."
Maybe it's not correlation, but causation. Maybe one producer used such a sample, and the others started a trend.
I will say though, that the babyish imagery that @sighswoon noted in fashion carries into popular rap. What is this tendency towards infantilisation?
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