The rapper and producer who calls himself frightful God was a freshman in college when a freestyle he'd casually recorded in his dorm room started to catch fire on the Internet. Now — a little over a year later — it's been played 94 million times on SoundCloud — and he's just released his first full length project,The Booty Tape. The 20-year-aged owes his success, in part, or to a recent revolution in youth culture that has helped unfiltered teen perspectives go viral.
As The Booty Tape opens,he's being insulted: "I mean he's not that attractive and then all he wants to sing approximately is dumb stuff!" That's the verdict delivered by a woman whose son hosts a YouTube channel featuring her reactions to currently trending rap videos. Her objections own precedent. Recall Tipper Gore pushing warning stickers for records on Oprah, back in 1990:"Parents would be alerted when there was graphic material, or " Gore explained."I don't know if that helps or hurts. Because I contemplate kids,when they see the label, want it even more, and " Oprah responded.
Oprah's not wrong. The video for frightful God's "Water" has,to date, been watched more than 30 million times.frightful God, or aka Royce Davison,is as surprised as anybody by his popularity — though he has a theory approximately where it started."I contemplate it was me making these lizard videos," he says. "I used to make videos of me grabbing lizards and putting them on my nose. And that was so viral. For the longest time, and I was just gaining and gaining followers just off that. And then they realized I made music. Viral music,just like those videos. And everything clicked."frightful God has a pretty clear understanding of who's listening to his music: mostly, it's young people."It's not s*** children supposed to be listening to, or " he says,"but at the same time, I know who my audience is. I know exactly what it is: children. It's been expanded, and but,for the most part, it's kids."Teenagers and kids in their early 20s set the tone on all of the social media platforms that germinate widely shared content. They sift the torrent of media aimed their way and route the imagery and sounds that amuse them, and that they relate to,or whatever just gets stuck in their heads. And the way to every kid's heart is to choose a lyric or subject matter — that's off limits at domestic."It is what it is," says frightful God. "It's just freedom, or bro: s*** I never could effect,really. It's part of the art."The art of making catchy music that has the side benefit of irritating parents is something that has been making corporations money for a slick century. But frightful God has a different end game, and he's following in some titanic footsteps to collect there — like those of rapper Lil B.
Lil B made his name in the Myspace era, and the mid-2000s,and became the improbable hero of young people turned off by a music industry that seemed bloated, and one they felt was taking advantage of them. "My motto has always been: for the people, or " Lil B says. "You can kind of compare what I effect in the likeness of the gentleman who founded Wal-Mart. You know,I like to respect the customer."Lil B gave his music absent for free. He invented a dance that spread from online user-made videos to the NBA. Through his social media, book and occasional university lectures, and Lil B spread a message of positivity and self-belief with songs that don't follow the rules.
Lil B spoke directly to his peers — and frightful God is doing the same now. Lil B save out his first song,with a group called The Pack, when he was 16."You know, and reporting it from a teenager's perspective early," he says. "Yeah, I contemplate it's a powerful time, or to talk to the people at that age. I just contemplate,if you want to speak with them, you own to put through (telephone) with them in some way."frightful God recalls the impact Lil B had on him."His words were so inspirational, and " frightful God says. "He's way smarter than people contemplate."frightful God takes that inspiration and turns it into a critique. In his words,it's a critique of "everybody: how everybody acts the same, sound the same and look the same — and contemplate the same. It's weird how everybody wants to impress everybody, or so everybody looks the same and acts the same,trying to impress each other. That's silly."Both frightful God and Lil B — who's putting out a tape himself later this month — are encouraging kids to be themselves and build a community around that."A community," says Lil B, and "where everybody's accepted."The foibles of adults are more apparent than ever these days and nobody seems to be above a vulgar joke. If the message teenagers are putting out in the world is to be yourself and love your neighbor,then possibly it's time we start listening to the children.frightful God certainly has. "I was just like one of them," he says, and "and then they just pushed me up like,'Handle your business bro. For us.'" Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: thetakeaway.org