The following is stuff from a failed "essay" of mine, hopefully improved by the music links...
"Here's my chance / to dance my way / out of my constriction" - Bootsy Collins
I think the world would be a better place if we could all plug in to the cosmic current and "let it flow." Every bit of the universe throbs with rhythm, layered & syncopated, from the pulse in your wrist to the lighthouse strobe of a pulsar, and all we have to do – to feel at home – is find the beat. (I blame the hippies for giving cosmic talk like that a bad name, and what with the drugs, light shows and bare feet, there was no way they could find the beat.)
[ Bootsy's Hollywood Squares remix at YouTube* ]
"I can drink a whole Hennessy fifth / some call it a problem / I call it a gift" - Xzibit (pronounced "exhibit"), rapper
Now that we have the technology to become gods we choose instead to become Fantastic Voyeurs, snorkeling through the dyed hair and dead brain cells of D-list celebrities, watching them sin and suffer in our place.
I just hope Xzibit sounds as clever now as he did when he spit out those fearless lyrics, and isn't drinking generic vodka at the back of a supermarket parking lot, listening to his brain cells burst like bubble wrap.
I've been a big hip hop fan since the mid '80s. Though too much of it is brain-dead pop music, or vicious just to make a buck, there's a huge amount of beauty if you know where to listen: to the life-affirming intelligence of the layered soundscapes, the playful boasting and bittersweet yearning. And that's what I love about the music beyond its sound: the recognition that life is a struggle, a bittersweet thing that's trying to kill you just as hard as you're trying to love it.
[ Rhyme Poetic Mafia's bittersweet lament G Life at YouTube ]
"Life is the only thing worth living for" - Flipper, a sometimes glue-sniffingly-slow punk band
[ Flipper's Sex Bomb at YouTube ]
That might be the deepest one yet, and a good way to close – but here's just one more, from Too Short, a rapper who turned a sparse sound and dirty mind into gold, at least for a while:
"Life is / ... / too short..."
[ Too Short's Life is Too Short at YouTube ]
* Warner Music Group (WMG) made YouTube remove the video I used to link to here, likely cheating Bootsy out of some money, and certainly some glory, because listeners unfamiliar with this tune will never hear it and become fans.
There's a difference between outright piracy for profit and low-key sharing on the web, but corporations like WMG, Sony and Disney are only interested in protecting their profits, not the culture they've been allowed to monopolize and suck dry.
