So apparently this kid has been on 106 and Park’s Freestyle Friday battle series for a hot minute (for all I know this happened years ago, seriously, I have no clue), but I have no TV so I’m late on this and didn’t hear about this kid until I saw him in a VladTV e-mail blast. Yeah, I too waste time out of my day on VladTV or Worldstar. After watching a video of him channel the spirit of Chris Brown during a battle and literally sing his opponent into a shameful stupor, it hit me that the kid is actually blind. The sunglasses? The other guy having to reach to touch mics with him (er, pause?)…it was so obvious. But it made me think that being blind could revolutionize the rap game.
Not saying that URL or Grindtime should be having blindfold emcee battles or anything, but think about how many times the real definition of a freestyle has come under attack in recent years. Oh, Mr. Always-Has-Bars was seen in a video reading his “freestyle” on a radio show off of his Blackberry. Oh, I’m battling a fat guy, let’s just throw mad fat jokes into the battle, that should do him in. You know how it goes. But think about if you can’t see. There is no room to write rhymes in advance because you can’t see them. Unless you get your rhymes published in braille ahead of time it just won’t fly, you need to work on memorizing your shit for weeks. It also forces the emcee to be more creative in a battle – you can’t take the easy way out and attack your opponent’s physical appearance because you literally can’t see them. It’s like the guy’s weakness makes him a stronger emcee. It’s dope.
Plus, I’d hate to battle a blind man. That’s someone who has a legitimate reason to be at least a little mad at life.
Seeing this blind guy battle intrigued the shit out of me, for real. I can’t be the only one because dude gets hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Maybe Hip Hop needs to close it’s eyes for a second and listen to music again. Just saying. Imagine Lil B’s music without being able to see his cooking dance. Imagine these club anthems without actually being able to see how people rock to them in clubs. Imagine hearing some of these guys without seeing their skinny jeans. In some ways I think visual elements corrupt the perception of music, and I think Blind Fury reminded me of this.
That’s just my musing for today. I got a ton of work to do as I’m finally done being sick. Expect links to some interesting articles soon.
