Curious, Anxious, and Cool Listening to The D.O.A. Tape

[Note: this post is an example of what a draft post might look like. I don’t have everything figured out yet, but I’m on my way].

How I Found this Music

One of my students in another class is researching how music influences people’s emotions and one of her groupmates shared an anecdote about how drill music, played in his high school classroom, would make people go completely crazy and it was impossible for his teacher to get everyone settled down. I instantly wanted to hear this music, so I asked him to share some artists for me to check out. Here’s our e-mail exchange (I figured you’d all be amused)

Subject: What was the rapper you recommended when we talked about drill music?

I looked it up on the classroom computer but forgot to write it down! Tell me the rapper who made everyone in your classroom go nuts…I want to listen 🙂

-Dr. Isbell

Subject: RE: What was the rapper you recommended when we talked about drill music?

Hahahahaha okay his name is Kay Flock you can listen to Kyle Rich as well that’s New York drill as well.

Also, after I had “drill” in my head, I’ve been noticing it mentioned in different contexts. While I was scanning on Every Noise at Once (while I was grabbing the link to put in the assignment prompt), I saw “classical drill.” I couldn’t really listen on the site, so I just Googled the term “classical drill” and got tons of stuff on YouTube. The first thing I clicked I liked.

I also noticed that the thumbnails on these YouTube videos are mostly remixes of historical portraiture, a genre of visual art that I have also come across on Instagram and I sort of love. Sheila Bridges, for example, created an updated toile pattern that “lampoons some of the stereotypes deeply woven into the African American experience.”

So, I’m now curious what this “classical drill” (hip hop built around samples from classical music) has to do with the drill that Kay Flock is associated with.

How I actually listened

I started the other day to watch a music video I found on YouTube, but I stopped. I really wanted to experience the music without the music video first and then bring in the official videos later if I wanted.

I learned recently that a public library card gives me access to tons of music, films, ebooks, and audio books on my phone (next time I teach this class, I’m going to get everyone signed up for a library card in the first week!!). So, I used the Hoopla App to listen to The D.O.A. Tape [Care Package] with explicit lyrics. They also had The D.O.A. Tape from 2021 and clean versions of both albums. I am curious why the album was released in 2021 and then again in 2022 and what happened between the first and second, but I didn’t research that before listening.

Curiosity

I definitely never understood what anyone was saying. And that made me curious to look up the lyrics. In “Shake It,” I heard the word “shoulda” repeated often and I thought maybe someone was telling a story of regret (the beat kind of made me think this too–like a person telling a story about the past), but I looked up the lyrics, it turns out the line was “shooters”:

What is Trackhawk? It’s a kind of Jeep. This whole thing is a scene from an action film.

Another way I felt curiosity was when I’d hear a different voices in the song. I was curious who the female rapper was in “Shake It” (CardiB!) and another rapper whose style I was really liking turned out to be Gucci Mane. So, that happened again and again. Another time was in “Speed Racing.” I thought for sure he was saying “sweater.” But no. That was not the lyric.

ANXIETY!!!

Okay, when “Ain’t no love” came on, I felt super stressed for Kay Flock. Things felt overwhelming, like there was some urgency for him to say what he had to say. It seemed like he was stressed and I was stressed for him. He’s rapping like he’s just run up to someone and is quickly reporting crazy stuff that happened. Like when one of my boys run up to me and tell me really fast what the other one did to him to beat the other who is also heading over to tattle. I think this emotion was prompted primarily by the speed at which the lines are delivered and the intensity of the rhymes.

Cool

Okay, so it’s pretty common for me to feel cooler than I am when listening to hip hop (this might be a universal experience), and while at first I was just too confused and stressed to really have that feeling with Kay Flock, I did eventually feel it while listening to “Don’t Trip.” This was the first song that made me want to learn this lyrics and be able to sing along. I enjoyed the beat, the rhymes, and the sounds of the consonants.

And “Dealership” has these popping sounds that are SOOO satisfying…like snaps or clicks.

Getting into these songs made me want to put it on with headphones so I can get the full experience (at first, I was just listening on my computer in my office…not really loud enough and not totally immersed, but I think that’s kind of necessary). So, I’m going to be listening to drill while I make dinner tonight. I’m pretty excited that the Hoopla app (from my local library) lets me have this music on my phone for totally free. Definitely excited that this is possible.

How am I processing all of this?

First of all, I experienced beats and rhymes when I listened, and that’s just all emotion. It’s pretty much all separated from meaning because I couldn’t understand what they were saying at first. I don’t think this is exclusive to hip hop. I regularly misunderstand lyrics and I’ve learned not to think a whole lot about their meaning until I’ve looked at what they actually are. And so the first set of emotions I’m tracking in this draft post is are responses to sounds that don’t give me access to a story. Next, though, I’m going to think about the lyrics (after I read them) and think about the stories these rappers are telling. Because one of the big things I noticed while listening is that I could tell when a new person was rapping and I was observing big differences between their styles. Once I’m able to look at lyrics, I’m going to think more about who is presenting themselves as powerful or vulnerable and how they’re doing it lyrically. I did see that Kay Flock is facing racketeering and murder charges, and I want to revisit a podcast I discovered last year that helped me think through the long and complicated history of hip hop’s relationship to gang violence. So, when I do get into the lyrics, this podcast will be helping me think about it.

Works Cited

“Harlem Toile de Jouy Hand Screened Wallpaper Samples.” Sheila Bridges, https://www.sheilabridges.com/product/harlem-toile-de-jouy-wallpaper-samples/. Accessed 21 Oct. 2024.

“Kay Flock & B-Lovee – Speed Racing.” Genius, https://genius.com/Kay-flock-and-b-lovee-speed-racing-lyrics. Accessed 21 Oct. 2024.

“Kay Flock, Cardi B & Dougie B – Shake It Lyrics | Genius Lyrics.” Genius, https://genius.com/Kay-flock-cardi-b-and-dougie-b-shake-it-lyrics. Accessed 21 Oct. 2024.