Song of the Day 6-27-2017: Rav - Solanine
A little different this time, since I couldnāt find an official YouTube video, I figured it would be better to post the bandcamp link.
So yeah, this was a song that I heard first on JSRL, and I wasnāt into it at first. But there are so many things that brought me back into it, and now I just love it, especially on days when Iām feeling down.
First off, this is a really chill beat. I donāt know if itās sampled for anything, but man, that little rhythm alone gets stuck in my head all the time. Also, does it qualify as lo-fi? Like, itās got kind of a static thing going on that works really well with the rest of the song.
However, the main thing that drew me into this song was the lyrics. Itās Rav (the artist who wrote and performed the song) talking about trying to be creative and dealing with all the stuff in his life that sucks. In that first verse he raps about how he spends all of his time in his room doing nothing but working on his music, and dealing with his mom thinking that heās just wasting his time by doing so. In the second verse he goes over some of his struggles with addiction (Iām assuming painkillers), growing up fatherless, getting caught making and selling crack, and previously attempting suicide. Itās dark, itās real, but the way heās written it never over-explains or puts more emotional weight on any of it than needed.Ā
Take all of that with a grain of salt of course, Iām only interpreting any of this from my perspective and I canāt really guess at what all Rav means to convey with this song. After listening to it many times over, there are still lines that clearly have some meaning, but I just donāt get them yet, like this here:
ā They say stay grounded, but the floor is lava for the madman
Upside down approach, in the lava doing handstands
Probably ain't no different, just a bad plan ā
Itās this kind of stuff that I love in poetry in rap, and itās something I try to do a lot in my own poetry: give enough info so that the listener thinks they might know what you mean, but ultimately leave it up to them to come to a conclusion on it. Again, I canāt say Rav was trying to do that here, but as a listener, thatās my experience and I think itās really cool. All the lyrics are great, and you can read them here: https://genius.com/Rav-solanine-lyrics
Itās not an uplifting song, but it makes me feel a lot better when I listen to it because it reminds you that life is a struggle for everyone. Sometimes knowing just how bad it can be for someone else (like Rav) can make you feel a little less alone when dealing with your own troubles. Especially for creative people, who often feel like their work may be meaningless to others but continue to do it anyway, this song just makes sense.
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