Today I was scanning the news reports and saw that Lil Peep died.
I'm old so I didn't know who Lil Peep was. Asked my teenagers, "you know Lil Peep?" I got 2 nos.
So I started to read some obituaries and he was described as a musical visionary. How in the world was Peep not on my radar? I'll tell you how.
One of the worst bands in the history of music is the steaming pile of crap known as Dashboard Confessional. I don't want to get into it right now, but Dashboard Confessional almost single handedly ruined one of my favorite music magazines, Alternative Press. Anyhow, posthumously, I watched Peep's video for Awful Things and was very impressed. I liked the video, I liked the cinematography, I liked the style.
Click Photo for Peep's Awful Things Video
The song, you ask? The song sounded like a cross between Dashboard Confessional and average Rap. Which means it was terrible. Listened to a few more songs to see if maybe I missed something. Nope.
Emo + Rap = Pure Rubbish
I do not want to disparage the dead, drug addiction is a terrible thing. But as a rule of thumb, rap and emo should not be mixed.
Like Asparagus Cake....
Or Octagon Shaped Wheels...
Or Sandpaper Toilet Paper....
Or Fertilizer Scented Febreze....
Or, hell, you get the picture.
I stepped away for a moment to take a shower and to think...
Way, way back in 1987, Anthrax mixed rap and metal and it was one of the greatest things I had ever heard. I remember being one of those young fans who loved something new...
...but lots of metal fans were aghast, rap and metal would never go together. Lots of OLD metal fans thought that. "Screw those old people," I thought.
Now the shoe's on the other foot and now I'm one of those old codgers. I don't begrudge young rappers, it's their time now. And I don't begrudge young emo kids, it's their time now, too. What I do heap scorn upon is anything that reminds me of Dashboard Confessional....
You could yell back at me that twentyonepilots are emo-rap. Eh, I don't think so. Hollywood Undead? They're just the next generation of Nu-Metal.
Maybe I just don't like Emo-Rappers?
Or maybe old age is perched upon my back like a vulture.
Editor's Note: When doing some light Beacon of Speech Housekeeping, we noticed that the Anthrax link disappeared. We accidentally Updated the Post to today instead of simply updating the link.
Lil Peep didn't die again today. He died last year. We still feel the same about everything else in the article, though.
Editor's Note II: Updated Link again. It should stay this time.
Editor's Note II: Since our old article is "new" again. Here's a warning to the listening public from NBC News. Click on photo below for the Link to the Exploding Emo Rap Scene article:
