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Rap may be our only salvation for these otherwise ‘woke’ times. After all, in ways somewhat similar to other culture-busting genres rap is about calling things out, telling it like it is, and breaking the rules and setting them on fire.
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/iamhewas
The evolution of rap away from the 90s West Coast R&B model set by groups like NWA and Cypress Hill to more mundane, everyday topical discussions may prove the antidote to the painfully divided, often deeply complicit and backstabbing nature of woke culture in 2020. Musical genres like rap are still free from overly post-modern censorship, providing a visceral experience for the listener that is refreshingly straight-up and without ‘safe’ or ‘respectful’ euphemisms. Such is the case with songs like ‘WHOLEthing’, a decidedly anti-PC single from newfound recording artist HEwas in collaboration with music industry veteran Afroman.
The first thing one can gather about the song is its ‘stoner’ sub-genre vibe. This is clearly a disciple of the Snoop Dogg-enforced ‘marijuana R&B’ with the indicative spelling of its title. The opening of the song is graced by HEwas’s refined, high-pitched vocal range – viscerally the equivalent of being gutted during a relationship gone to hell. Could you cut up a piece of lovin’…I’m not ready to feel the whole thing…You ruin the whole thing, he bemoans of the situation. The nature of the voice is indicative of pain, and HEwas makes sure you feel it. Afroman’s inclusion in the chorus however proves to be the remedy, the antidote to said depressive qualities.
He raps lines like I can’t take you to shows ‘cuz you c*ckblock other hoes and Now I got to box you out of my life ‘cuz you lost your mind and again boxed my wife that are as irreverently funny as they are shamelessly hedonistic. The contrast between the two singers’ stances – one arguably emo machismo with declarations of lost love and the other an irate philanderer – both grounds the song firmly in reality while making it everything you wish you could say in a dream scenario. It’s visceral but not heavy, light but not without heft.
Part of the necessity of songs like ‘WHOLEthing’ is their honest evocation of real-life, everyday situations and feelings. With the growing fear in the artist and entertainer communities alike with angering the selectively offended, more and more material deemed controversial, too profane, or wrong according to a selective set of standards is finding itself trashed, demeaned, banned, censored, and culturally burned at the stake.
When a genre’s entire existence is rooted in being irreverent, that can prove the saving grace in a society that is otherwise starting to lose its edge. The themes and messages in ‘WHOLEthing’ might not be wholesome, but they are real. It’s a nice thing to hear for a change after all the self-congratulatory back-patting and woke lyrics in the musical stratospheres of pop, indie, alternative respectively.
Samuel Pratt