Lecrae, CCM's Dark Horse

Dark Horse: "a usually little known contender (as a racehorse) that makes an unexpectedly good showing." - Webster's New International Dictionary

Lecrae's rise to fame is impressive for a few reasons. First of all, he has succeeded in transcending the CCM (Christian Contemporary Music) audience and has broken into the mainstream music culture, something that only seems to happen once or twice a decade. When it does happen, it's usually for one of two reasons: 
1. Mainstream music and Christian music are evolving simultaneously (see Stryper and Petra during the Hair Metal era, MXPX and Relient K during the resurgence of "punk" in the late nineties, and Underoath and Emery in the screamo movement).
2. An artist is talented/famous enough to break onto both scenes (early Jars of Clay, Carrie Underwood)
Lecrae falls into the latter category, and that is the second reason that he is an interesting character. Not only has he fought his way into mainstream music on his own merit, but he has fought his way into the rap game, the most highly publicized and competitive pissing contest in music. This is no small feat. Lecrae has made numerous BET and MTV appearances. His biggest childhood influence is Tupac. He constantly makes the distinction that he is a "artist who is a Christian, rather than a Christian artist," a distinction that has been made more subtly by artistic titans like Terrence Malik and Sufjan Stevens; their faith is the backbone of their art, but not the sole content. He toured with Wu-Tang, for Pete's sake. 

While not a big fan of his music, I had high hopes for this guy. His album "Gravity" was released to wide acclaim in the rap community and it looked as though he had established enough cred to bring his message to the masses/exist as a Christian artist who doesn't suck. 

BUT THEN HE SUED KATY PERRY. 

Duude. Come on. 

Artists get ticked about similar sounding beats/chords/words all the time. Sometimes these disputes are petty and somewhat nebulous, while other times they're totally understandable.
So I'm not necessarily mad about that part of the suit (other than the fact that the backbeat/tone/structure of the Dark Horse verse sounds MUCH more like the 1983 Art of Noise song "Moments in Love", which I'll post at the bottom). 

What I'm really miffed about is Lecrae and Flame's rational that "Dark Horse" would retroactively damage the reputation of "Joyful Noise" because of it's various illuminati, satanic, witchcraft, and occult references. This irks me for three main reasons. First, the only people who are going to care about that stuff are paranoid religious people who would side with Lecrae anyway. Second, as soon as you drop the word illuminati you lose credibility with every rational thinker on the planet. Third, Katy Perry is silly; not bad music/Nickelback-esque silly, but playful and funny. Look at her music videos. She is a ridiculous person. The phenomenal video for "ET" is about weird alien sex, "Last Friday Night" is hilarious for a plethora of reasons, etc. Conservative Christians have a lot of ground to stand on when they accuse Perry of being overly sexual, but anyone who accuses her of being a satanist needs to search for some more compelling evidence than run-of-the-mill Egyptian iconography. Pop singers have been comparing themselves to Cleopatra for years, guys... because she's a dark-skinned, exotic, powerful, beautiful, sex-positive woman. 100 years from now, people will be name dropping Beyonce the same way. 

Lecrae. I am disappointed in you, son. You're a talented dude with the opportunity to reach millions of youth. Don't squander that opportunity with petty lawsuits.

Also, I bet that this was Katy's inspiration for that slinky "Dark Horse" beat

Spring is Violent

On April 4th, 1913, aspiring composer Igor Stravinsky premiered his third ballet at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Montaigne. The theatre had theretofore been known for showcasing cutting-edge contemporary performance art, having hosted names like Claude Debussy, Felix Weingartner, and Anna Pavlova. Stravinsky himself was not a newcomer to the venue; his lauded orchestral work (and accompanying ballet) - "The Firebird" - had been performed nearly a month before to wide acclaim. It was a full house on the night of the fourth.

It became clear that something was wrong almost immediately. From the opening bars of the first movement, the crowd began to murmur, and by the thirteenth and fourteenth movements - movements which chronicle an ancient ritual where a young woman dances herself to death - the crowd was rioting. Most of them were screaming and throwing things at the stage, and some were trampling others in an attempt to leave the theatre. The prevailing thought is that the music was so dissonant that it made people angry that they had wasted their time and money; another is that the more conscientious theatergoers were disgusted with the violence. A third theory, and the one that I hold, is that Stravinsky tapped into something elemental when he wrote Le Sacre Du Printemps - "The Rite of Spring."

The sacrificial dance that the prima ballerina performs is a historical account, hearkening back to the pagan rituals of ancient Russia. At another level, though, the "danse sacrale" is a metaphor for the literal changing of the seasons, winter to spring. In spring we see an abundance of eggs and chicks, paraphernalia which are obviously symbolic of new life. We see recently bloomed flowers. As Christians we associate spring with the Resurrection of Christ, adding an important layer to the motif. The weather begins to warm. But, like a young sibling meeting his new baby brother for the first time, we miss the majority of this birth process, only arriving for the clean, cute, appealing results. What about the mess? The smells? What about the snowdrifts melting to reveal dirt and bones and oil? What about the blood and noise and wrenching of flesh that it takes to deliver a newborn? On my block spring is heralded by the sound of gunshots, the deadly fruit that succeeds a winter of gang hibernation, bullets bursting from gun barrels like buds bursting from the tips of dogwood branches. In fact, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in a recently-thawed Memphis 55 years to-the-day after Stravinsky premiered his third work. Spring is violent folks.

Stravinsky knew this. He knew that humans have, deep down and often tightly controlled, a mean, messy streak. When that streak is starkly exposed, bad things happen. Virgins dance themselves to death in front of roaring fires and chanting pagans. Mobs throw bricks in concert halls, or else flee, trampling anyone in their path. Gangbangers pepper crowded streets with lead. But when that compressed orb of aggression is harnessed, that chaos is channeled into something deliberate, the results can be blisteringly, wildly joyful.
At the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Montaigne, on April 4th,
many were dancing in time with the music.


Le Sacre Du Printemps Playlist
Volume: Loud
(this is a jumble of different genres, but the songs are characterized by underlying motifs from the Rite of Spring like chaos, aggression, passion, dissonance, sexuality, etc.)

Tell Em - Sleighbells
Lost Boys and Girls Club - Dum Dum Girls
Dead Mans Bones - My Body's a Zombie for You
Nosetalgia - Pusha T ft. Kendrick Lamar (Explicit)
Elephant - Tame Impala
Bizness - tune-yardz
Intimate - Appaloosa
Gold Sounds - Pavement
Pure Morning - Placebo
You (ha ha ha) - Charlie XCX
Age of Adz - Sufjan Stevens
National Anthem - Radiohead
Fun - Speedy Ortiz
Alcohol - Sisyphus
Debaser - Pixies
Ceremony - New Order
Abel - The National
Innocence is Kinky - Jenny Hval (VERY EXPLICIT)
Satellite Skin - Modest Mouse
Todays Lesson - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Riders on the Storm - The Doors
BTSU - Jai Paul
There's That Grin - Deerhoof
Stravinsky: Le Sacre Du Printemps - Part 2: Ritual Of The Ancients