It's quite weird starting a new blog, just like starting a new exercise book, a new football season or a new band anything and everything is fresh, clean, unspoiled and full of hope. And then you have to do the first crossing out, or witness the first spineless defeat or start rhearsing and it all turns to shit.But still, everything seems to mean something at the start, you are utterly uncompromised and every gesture you make appears significant (to myself, but then thats the primary audience for everything I write here). So, to even out the misogyny of the name (which I really do apologise for, but it's a Lil' Wayne lyric (on 'Dipset' from 'Da Drought 3') which represents by far the most eloquent, concise response to the whole cristal-not-wanting-nasty-black-rappers-drinking-their-precious-over-
priced-piss issue) I've decided to talk about possibly the finest piece of political music i've heard in the last few years.
Devlin - Community Outcast
For me, the context of 'Community Outcast' is the central reason behind its brilliance. Firstly, it sits on Devlin's 'Tales From the Crypt' alongside peerless straight up dirty drug-sales drama like 'Dealers':
'I'm an arsonist, I'll set your yard on fire,
hard to retire when the bars that I fire,
inspire so many people to admire,
see you on the road for the p's that you owe,
and I'll smash you in the face with barbed wire' (Devlin - 'Dealers')
Secondly, Devlin was 17-years old when he wrote it. Now when I was 17 my primary concern about society was which bars would be most likely to let me in for a drink without i.d. ('The Retreat' in Cheltenham as it happens), whilst my regard for the elderly mainly extended to laughing at Dave for pulling a 50-year old woman in 'Envy' (ha ha ha). Devlin on the other hand, despite existing within the hyper-competitive grime scene and spending most of his time constructing bars that directly channel the nihilism of modern, urban Britain (and blazing zoots) is able to produce in the third verse one of the most moving meditations on the ageing process i've ever heard (especially because it comes from the mind of someone so young):
'So he goes to the shop for his papers,
with his stick and he falls in the mud,
the people around him all pulled him up,
but to him thats just a reminder,
he's old and he's weak with no-one to love,
he sees clouds up above,
another bad day in the diary,
an old man, one of many killed by society,
strangled quietly' (Devlin - 'Community Outcast')
And that's on top of examining the plight of the young homeless and single mums in the first two verses. And he doesn't swear.
I love this song so much that I played it to my Mum to try and improve her opinion of 'rap music' (an opinion that remains unsalvageable ever since she discovered and listened to my copy of The Lox's 'We Are The Streets' in Year 10... although that was possibly the worst album she could have picked, I mean the 'Intro' is a guy getting shot and the second song is called 'Fuck You' for (insert chosen deity)'s sake).
I love this song so much that if I had a myspace page, this would be the song that I would choose to have on the player in order to convey just how deep and thoughtful I really am to girls.
If David Cameron had half a brain (which I'm rather glad that he hasn't), this would have been the theme song at the last Tory party conference.
As a footnote I think that the social conscience displayed in Devlin's words on this track can be traced back to his O.T. Crew colleague and m.c. mentor Dogzilla, who aside from his strangely comforting voice and presence on DVDs (and spitting the classic couplet 'I support West Ham U.F.C, i like girls in PVC, i skip through beats like I skip through scenes on my DVD' on his fucking great Johnny Rotten-channeling 'Hello') displays a similar social conscience on the quite lovely 'Nightshift' from DJ Target's 'Aim High Vol. 3', calling for more nurses, carers and teachers and shouting out The Black Watch (hate the war, love the warriors).
But yeah, enough over-intellectualising of rap music for tonight.
Further listening:
Devlin - Dealers (feat. Ghetto, Wretch 32 & Scorcher)
DJ Target feat. Dogzilla - Nightshift
Devlin on myspace
Dogzilla on myspace
peace X
