'x Infinity'
George Watsky is an artist who responds to his fans’ comments on Facebook, gives away his own car to a fan in promotion of his latest album and jokingly challenges himself to rap more aggressively by rapping over a loop of the words “don’t be nice” on “x Infinity’s” “Don’t Be Nice.” What George Watsky is not is static.
Fans who came to know rapper and slam poet Watsky from his viral Youtube video “Pale Kid Raps Fast” are in for what should be a welcome surprise with “x Infinity,” his latest show of dynamism. Released on Aug. 19, “x Infinity” is energetic, bombastic, at times selfaware and at other times deliberately larger than life. With its dramatic shifts from light-hearted to serious and political subject matter, Watsky’s fourth studio album proves his dexterity extends far beyond just verbal eloquence.
One of the most striking tracks is the album’s last, “(Bonus Track) Exquisite Corpse [feat. Dumbfoundead, Grieves, Adam Vida, Wax, Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs & Chinaka Hodge].” Closing out the serious and sometimes shocking series of “Lovely Suite” tracks, “Exquisite Corpse” provides a much-needed respite from the serious subject matter those four tracks covered.
“Exquisite Corpse” follows a mostly goofy narrative about an apocalyptic zombie-robot-clown invasion. While most of the verses focus on the track’s story, Hodge’s verse takes a more explicit political turn. Hodge draws comparisons between the everyday lives of black women and the narrative’s apocalyptic setting, noting that even in an apocalypse, “Nothing’s all that different, been the same for black women … the lights been out, the water smelling of flint.”
Watsky ends the track with a sentiment similar to those in “Tiny Glowing Screens: Part 3,” the album’s first track. Both tracks express ideas about individuals’ small place in a vast universe that outlasts them. In “Exquisite Corpse,” Watsky notes that he is happy to have used his time thus far making music. Or, as he called it, “yelling [his] opinions loudly.”
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