#Smash hit music 2 without endless movie
#Smash hit music 2 without endless series

It is well worth the time it takes to find them and evaluate them. There’s no need to spoil the plot of either song.

So Many Other Realities Exist Simultaneously by Atmosphere So Many Other Realities Exist Simultaneously by Atmosphere Atmosphere’s song matched the samples and the narrative tension of the original, offering a surprising second act. In Atmosphere’s “Millie Fell Off the Fire Escape”, Slug picked up De La Soul’s story of a teenage girl named Millie who is traumatized and assaulted by her father. Atmosphere wrote a continuation of someone else’s song, like the hip-hop version of fan fiction, but much more faithful to its source material. In 2009, Atmosphere successfully crafted a sequel to De La Soul‘s groundbreaking “Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa” from 1991’s De La Soul Is Dead. Within that series, the first three releases devoted a few song titles (“Suzanne Vega”, “Rick James”, “Morris Day”, “Marvin Gaye”, “Kevin Spacey”) to celebrities other than the one in the album name. The 2020 installment was titled Felt 4 U, so possibly “U”, or us, the audience, could be the celebrities. We’ve even seen Slug team up with Murs under the group name Felt for their celebrity-themed album series: first was 2002’s Felt: A Tribute to Christina Ricci then came 2005’s Felt 2: A Tribute to Lisa Bonet and the third was 2009’s Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez. Atmosphere, though, has been preternaturally innovative when it comes to extending and expanding on musical and lyrical themes. The duo’s talents sit comfortably alongside other Minnesota artists, notably Brother Ali, Big Quarters, Dessa, P.O.S., Eyedea, I Self Devine, and Lizzo, among many others. Unsurprisingly, producer Ant (Anthony Davis) and emcee Slug (Sean Daley) of Atmosphere are accustomed to taking musical and lyrical themes they’ve already established and building upon them to create new musical chemistry. Once a novel concept is introduced, we enjoy its growth, its impact on other songs, and what we learn about ourselves as we internalize it. I prefer the idea that hip-hop examines familiar characters and motifs in detail because the culture is composed of storytellers at heart. This also explains why we deride artists for sounding too much like their own “hit” records or signature sounds and why we claim they’ve veered too far off track when they try to experiment. Or perhaps it’s rooted in the artist and the listener becoming bonded to a musical sweet spot, so continuing a thematic convention satisfies our need for familiarity. The “series” concept is the backbone of television programming, and it’s readily apparent in commercial goods, like the endless variations of scented (and unscented) laundry detergents or the constant updates of our favorite chewing gums and candies. Consider film franchises like John Wick, Mission: Impossible, Rocky and Creed, and nearly everything set in the Marvel Universe.

#Smash hit music 2 without endless movie

Perhaps hip-hop is influenced by other industries, such as the prequels, sequels, and spin-offs of the movie industry.

#Smash hit music 2 without endless series

Similarly, there were EPMD’s series of “Jane” tracks on the group’s legendary run of albums with the word “business” in their titles.Ī few theories account for this business of carrying musical or conceptual themes across hip-hop songs and albums. For this, we need only recall the back and forth of diss records and battle tracks from the old days, such as the perpetual stream of songs by, for, and about “Roxanne” in the 1980s or the “Bridge Wars” of the late 1980s-early 1990s between Boogie Down Productions and the Juice Crew. followed Ready to Die with Life After Death.Īt other times, hip-hop artists maintain a narrative thread through a series of songs rather than across albums. Nas referenced his legendary debut Illmatic when he made Stillmatic. Carter) before he conceived his Blueprint albums. Sometimes the phenomenon occurs in chapters or volumes, as in Three 6 Mafia’s Chapter 2: World Domination and Jay-Z‘s Volumes 1-3 ( In My Life Time, Hard Knock Life, and Life & Times of S. 2, Lil Wayne‘s Tha Carter albums, Migos‘ Culture albums, and Nas‘ King’s Disease releases. We see it in “Part 2” albums like Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…Pt. Hip-hop’s affinity for sequels, serials, and installments is well known.