I just found out recently that the type of songs I’m drawn to is called conscious hip pop. Those are the type of songs Santan Dave typically does. The type of songs that sends messages. You have to understand how good a song’s lyrics (message) has to be for people like me not to care about whether the beat drops, or whether the rapper is singing or talking. These songs take you out of your body. They make you feel things. Remember things. And the musicians who create these types of songs are the ones I reserve the “artist” title (that musicians in general are called) for.
It’s obvious that not everyone enjoys songs like these, but that’s fine because not all musicians can create masterpieces of art like that. Like many other things, there has to be diversity in music genres so that everyone has something to connect with. My friends who only want to see Ice Spice twerk that ass would be depressed if all that existed were the likes of Santan and NF. Lol
Truth be told, much as I love conscious Hip Pop, I think even I would be depressed at some point if that was all there is. Funny I would say that, because I notice that my brain does this weird thing where it associates songs I listen to to timelines of the person I was when I listening to that song on repeat. This is why I love Santan’s Leslie so much – it reminds me of a period of my life that was peaceful, and I put it on repeat to relive that moment. Dang, I’m sidetracking…
What I was saying was basically that it won’t do us any good to encourage more musicians to sing more meaningful music. The idea behind this is good, admirable, even. But it only works in theory. A million Santan Daves won't have people turnt up in the club, and they definitely won't have bitches shaking they ass.😂
Let’s keep in mind that the essence of music is for fun/entertainment/recreation. Whatever you call it.
Our definitions of fun is different. Better still, even as an individual, we define fun in different ways depending on how/what we’re feeling. During my bachelors, my friends would frequently tell me how they couldn’t make sense out of the loud hip hop songs I was listening to. And they were right. What they failed to realize was that I wasn’t listening to them to make sense out of them. I was looking for something that made me feel like a thug. Like I wasn’t some chill guy with a very regular life. And those songs were the safest way to get it. Live it up in my head.😂 You ever seen that “me listening to the most violent songs in the world knowing damn well I’m a chill af guy, from a very safe neighborhood, and have zero opps”? Yeah that was me. I honestly still listen to those songs sometimes just for fun.
Imagine lord Future trying to turn saint-y/meaningful stuff right now. That would be the most comedic thing on earth for me. That is not suggesting that he wouldn’t do well. But the brand he’s built around himself (On Game), moral or or not, is the definition of fun for many guys and that is completely fine. I honestly don’t think music is where to seek meaning, but I certainly can’t tell you what not to do. So if that is your reason for listening to music, please do you. However, as you do that, let the rest of us listen to what we want, from musicians we want in the name of fun.
Images belong to CKT-UTAS and permission was sought to use these pictures from the SRC