METAMORE
On Thursday, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis released a new song, and this one’s a doozy. “White Privileged II” is a sprawling track that devotes its 8 minutes and 42 seconds to the MC spitting self-reflections on his own privilege as a white rapper that wants to be involved in minority social justice causes. Ideas bounce around with interjections by poets, source audio from Macklemore marching in Black Lives Matter protests, and more. It’s as messy and complicated as the topic its addressing. The list of collaborators on the song is unsurprisingly long, including Seattleites like Ahamefule J. Oluo, Hollis, Evan Flory-Barnes, and Nikkita Oliver.
Like everything Macklemore does these days, the “White Privilege II” has already drawn plenty of praise and scorn. Critics deride the lyrics for being clunky, while others (including Black Lives Matter’s DeRay Mckesson) have lauded the song for bringing the racial conversation to a wider (whiter) audience (still others split the difference applauding the song’s intent while still saying it fails musically). Everybody will settle on their own opinion of the tune, but you should remember that at this point Macklemore functions primarily as a pop star more than a rapper, so his message is really intended for the white kids that may not have spent much (if any) time thinking about white privilege before listening.
DUDE… DUDE
The melodic rockers of Seattle’s Dude York are back on the scene with the one-two punch of fresh music of “Love Is” and “Lose Control.” The former features a new recorded element (that’s been present at the band’s live shows for a while): bassist Claire England on lead vocals. When paired with guitarist Peter Richards’s aggressive yelps that previously led all of Dude York’s music, England’s pop singing gives the group a much wider dynamic range. Both songs can be purchased now on Bandcamp, and there’s certain to be more new Dude York tunes waiting just beyond the horizon.
(SPORTS) TWEETS OF THE WEEK
These are good tweets about sports, y’all…
“babe, want to explain what I found on your phone?” “I use it for work” pic.twitter.com/zdzWlRdhcA
— Jeff Sullivan (@based_ball) January 21, 2016
— joe mande (@JoeMande) January 22, 2016
That must have been one fucked up physical. https://t.co/lvsIlMqBPc
— Grant Brisbee (@mccoveychron) January 20, 2016
hugely underrated tweet here, get your game together twitter https://t.co/orYWNCEaZ3
— The Mountain Goats (@mountain_goats) January 20, 2016
OH B-E-H-A-V-E
Grimes’s “Kill V. Maim” was the most blissfully insane song released in 2015. With lyrics that imagine if The Godfather‘s Michael Corleone had been a gender-swapping vampire (no, really), the jittery electronic pop tune with bursts of cheerleader chants slamming into banshee screams. Last Tuesday, Grimes dropped a music video for the tune which visually lives up to its sonic spasticity. The clip combines video game motifs, the Law and Order credits, dirty subway station dancing, bloody moshing, and plenty of far left field fashion choices. With the “Kill V. Maim” video in the pop culture ether, do we really need a Suicide Squad movie? (Side note: Someone please give Grimes a lot of money, zero oversight, and let her make a Harley Quinn movie.)
SQUAD GOALS
Fittingly, mere hours after the aforementioned Grimes video dropped, Suicide Squad released a new trailer. While there are plenty of reasons to think this big screen comic book adaptation could be terrible, the tight teaser—set to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”—showcases the ragtag supervillain strike team at its sassy, action-packed best. There’s a pretty decent chance this trailer will end up being better than the actual movie.
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