Chapter 2269 Gotham Music Festival (I)

Accompanied by the rumbling of salutes, ribbons floated down, and the crowd around the square was like the surging waves of fountain water, with colorful banners and hand banners surging one after another.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of the Gotham Music Festival was held in the Central Square. Before the official opening ceremony in the afternoon, the float team drove out of the Central Square and marched along Central Avenue in the East District and South District where the most foreign tourists are. More than 70 floats were connected end to end. Between 8:00 and 12:00 in the morning, there will be a 4-hour uninterrupted performance.

The floats are divided into five themes: music and art, architecture and city, humanities and history, sports and dance, life and nature.

Needless to say, the theme of music naturally fits the Gotham Music Festival, which is mainly based on East Coast rap.

In the 1990s, East Coast rap was in a period of weakness, in a period of artistic exploration and commercialization. Although there were godfather-level figures like Puffdaddy who never gave up and insisted on discovering new talents, to this day, most rap fans' headphones are filled with those albums that were popular on the West Coast.

Fortunately, in 1994, a miracle album saved the East Coast. The well-known "Ready To Die" quickly became popular all over the United States, and people's attention to rap was slightly drawn back to the East Coast.

The Notorious BIG is still sought after and remembered by countless rap fans. Biggie was like a god descending from heaven, and his album killed the charts of that year.

Although the results are quite dazzling, in fact, Biggie is now in some difficulties. Some rap fans who were active in that era may know his grievances with the famous West Coast rapper Tup.

In short, the two of them were once good friends, and it can be said that they were heroes who appreciated heroes, but unfortunately, one day in 1994, Tup was attacked while recording an album in New York.

He believed that the scene described in the lyrics of the album that Biggie was recording at the time was very similar to the scene when he was attacked, and speculated that this might be the other party's dishonorable means of competition.

Based on this, a vigorous battle between the East and West Coasts began. In addition to the singers fighting each other, the fans' verbal battles have never stopped, and many of them have even become offline threats, as if they will never stop.

But just after this incident fermented for a whole year, an album from Gotham came out-"Gotham King", from a singer who called himself Gotham Boy. Within just three days of its release, it caused a shock in the rap world of the East and West Coasts.

Some people may think that Gotham's gang culture is so developed, why didn't it make any achievements in the rap world before?

You have to know that the gangs in Gotham are still traditional Italian gangs, which are completely different from the modern gangs in Chicago and Miami. They still emphasize family honor and respectability. It is almost impossible for such soil to breed any rebellious spirit.

In addition to the high-level gangs, there are of course low-level gang members, but unfortunately it is difficult to survive in such an environment in Gotham, let alone music and art.

But the facts have proved that after the order of the gangs gradually collapsed and the social environment gradually improved, the genius imagination of the people in Gotham is not inferior to any other city.

And because of the extremely unique atmosphere of this city, the art that can be nurtured is also unique and shocking.

The problem of highlighting personal style and commercialization that singers and record companies on the East Coast have been entangled has been perfectly unified in the album "King of Gotham".

The narrative of East Coast rap actually means that the polishing of the fluency of the melody is not rigorous enough, and a good commercial album should not only focus on the aggressiveness of the lyrics, but also the sense of rhythm and musicality are very important.

However, the music category of rap itself is limited to the cultural and artistic level of the musicians. In short, most rappers do not have the ability to create a relatively popular music that can be accepted by the public.

It is actually very difficult to compose music. First of all, you need to have a solid knowledge of music theory, and you must be familiar with the current public's aesthetic tendency for music, and even have some knowledge of hearing and sensory science.

But rhythm is more difficult than composing music. Composing music at least has a basis to rely on, while rhythm can only be based on talent. Throughout the ages, no outstanding pop composer does not have his own unique rhythm style.

The lyrics of East Coast rappers are indeed good, but the melody is not catchy and the rhythm is not easy to be popular, so no one buys it. The album "Ready To Die" can become a hit, in fact, it is also a compromise made by Biggie and Puffdaddy in commercialization, using lively, bright and catchy samples such as Juy and Bigpoppa to complete the last piece of the puzzle for Biggie's rap style full of visuals.

Although it is now considered a classic, at that time no one knew whether such an attempt would succeed. Perhaps the public would get tired of it if it was done a second time, or perhaps if it continued like this, it would lose its unique style.

At that time, Biggie, who only had one album, could not help but feel confused. In addition, he was involved in a war of words with his former friend. Everyone was expecting him to fight back with an excellent album, and this superstar was under a lot of pressure.

The album "King of Gotham" perfectly solves the dilemma of East Coast rap. In the title song of this album, the song of the same name "King of Gotham", Gotham Boy uses a very unique tune with a strong tragic color. Fans call it Gotham Punk.

This does borrow some elements of punk music, but more of it is the musicality condensed by the contradictory dark history of the city of Gotham. Dark, but not just dark.

The name of the album "King of Gotham" makes people think that it may be another arrogant teenager who thinks he is the king of a city, writing stories about those who drive luxury cars, live in luxury houses, compete with their good buddies and brothers for the city, and shoot all the enemies.

But in fact, it is completely the opposite. The lyrics of this song use an alternating method of reality and fiction. It tells the story of an old low-level gangster who worked for his boss for the last time, was shot by the enemy, fell in a pool of blood and waited to die, and imagined a series of pictures before dying.

The so-called King of Gotham actually only exists in the old man's fantasy. From the old man's perspective, Gotham Boy uses an extremely angry tone to expose the bloodiest darkness at the bottom of Gotham like a machine gun.

When you are a gangster, your son will definitely be one, and your grandson will definitely be one, but this is not even because the gang threatens you. You should even be grateful that your relatives can get a meal from the gang, because there are many things on the streets outside that are thousands of times worse than the gang.

It seems that Gotham Boy is just a passionate insult to the bad situation in Gotham by using fictional characters, but this can bring the greatest shock to rappers on the East and West Coasts, because most of them come from gangs, and they still don't know what the gangs are like?

If even gangs are considered orderly things in Gotham, then what are they fighting against besides gangs?

Next comes the fantasy of this unfortunate old man. This section can even be called magical realism, because the most interesting thing is that the old man's fantasy of starting his life over again is not the dream of most people, such as being born in a wealthy family, attending a prestigious school, becoming a senior executive in a company, and reaching the peak of life.

It is not even the dream of most rappers to join a gang, rule an area in the end, drive a luxury car and live in a mansion, and be able to concentrate on making music with his friends.

He actually thought that he became a magician, using his magic to kill everyone in the city step by step, exterminate the entire Gotham, and then break into the empty Wayne Building, and be crowned on the rooftop overlooking the city full of corpses, becoming the real king of Gotham.

Of course, he didn't forget to step on Batman here. The biggest enemy the old man encountered in this fantasy section is Batman. The Gotham kid called Batman a transvestite dreamer through the mouth of this old man. He said that Batman must have entered this fantasy world before he died, because he would never succeed and would definitely die in the end.

At this point in the narration, the picture still reveals deep despair. The real world part reveals all kinds of details of life at the bottom, which makes it difficult for people not to empathize. The fantasy part is too bizarre and violent, with a kind of insane beauty, which makes people's heads buzz.

The second half of the song breaks the routine and starts to flash back, telling how the old man fell here-he worked for his boss for the last time, and it was not until the penultimate paragraph of the song that people heard the old man call his boss "my dear little Shaq".

The first half of the song mentioned that the nickname of the old man when he was young was Big Shaq, which means Big Shark, which means the boss of the gang he is in now is very likely his biological son.

This unexpected reversal made the audience begin to wonder, with a gangster boss as a son, why didn't he enjoy his old age? Judging from the lyrics, the relationship between them should be good, so how did he end up like this?

Then the lyrics began to switch quickly, telling the glory of the old man's youth, from attending the Godfather's dinner, to witnessing the bright lights of Gray Street, to being framed and living on the streets, to marrying and having children with his wife who was also from the lower class, his wife died, and his son grew up.

In the middle, there are inevitable sentences complaining about his son's ignorance, and more of them are sharply pointing out the most fatal shortcomings of the gangs of this era, full of tragic perspectives of the collapse of order.

But suddenly the style of painting changed, and the Gotham kid began to borrow the perspective of the old man of the last generation to express novelty about the new things that appeared in Gotham, with a lot of black humor. He said that the last ice age was still the dinosaurs, and the gang bosses suddenly became moles digging holes and building cold storage everywhere. The equipment of the Gotham Police Department looks like it is going to take down Australia. If he had a daughter, he would never let them scream at Batman standing on the roof.

Until the very end, he finally said who he was fighting against - a gang occupied the land of his grandson's new school, kidnapped and killed his grandson's classmates, and now they are trying to take back the land.

The last sentence of the song is quite black humorous, saying that he actually has a grandson, and his grandson actually has a school, and a person who has lived on this land for more than 60 years actually has the opportunity to take back his land.

The last scene of the song's narration stays on more and more blood gushing out, turning into a small puddle, and the mirror-like surface of the blood reflects the first ray of sunlight that falls after the dark clouds break and the shocked eyes of the old man before he dies.