#for the record I'm not dissing trap

[keiachi-chan]

Genuinely pleased that we've moved on from generic trap beats as "remixes" and graduated to making everything breakcore or perhaps jersey

[deathofacupid]

ᡣ𐭩 content — older boyfriend!satoru gojo. fluff/suggestive. requested!

older boyfriend!satoru isn't great at taking things seriously, which is something you thought you knew. so, you weren't that shocked when he told you that nanami had invited them to a dinner party.

now, you've never met nanami. you've never met nanami, nor any of the others, all of which older boyfriend!satoru said would be there. it's only natural to worry a little, to want to be able to make the impression you can.

older boyfriend!satoru who suggests letting him calm you down, but you'd spent too long on your appearance to set him loose. "i'm just saying," he grinned, a shit-eating smile, plastered on his face.

"no," you said, glaring at older boyfriend!satoru. for someone in his late-thirties, he sure didn't act like it.

when you'd entered the building, you were greeted by a tall, stoic blonde. it surprises you, though you try to not let it show, how this is nanami. well, to be fair, you weren't sure what you'd been expecting, but not this. not someone so... stark from older boyfriend!satoru.

actually, all of older boyfriend!satoru's friends differ from him. there's shoko, who's quite humorous, but it's not like his. her punchlines are short, easy, and effortless. well, maybe his are, too.

older boyfriend!satoru's jokes, however, take up the room. they don't take mercy on the people around, and no matter how ridiculous, it's his energy. that's why it's so hard not to laugh.

"so," shoko paused, musing. "this is your girlfriend? i was beginning to think she wasn't real."

older boyfriend!satoru is offended. "of course, she's real! woman love me," he drawls, hooking an arm around you, to pull you closer.

geto, another one, snorts. "can you blame us?" his hair captivates you. you don't think you could ever get yours like that.

nanami shakes his head, "i apologize, y/n. gojo just has... a track record." at that, you smile, nodding slowly.

"oh?" you ask, tilting your head.

shoko takes a sip of her wine, trying to cover up her laughter. "y'know, he just means your boyfriend is a slut."

"reformed slut," older boyfriend!satoru corrects, pressing a kiss to the side of your head. and, at some point, the conversation shifts to politics, or rather, the higher-ups.

nanami, pushing his glasses up, "there's a new policy, i've heard," he says. "it's—"

"oh, save it," older boyfriend!satoru scoffs. "it's all bullshit, anyways. who's actually going to listen?" you bristle at his language, but you can't be too shocked to hear him dissing his superiors.

"believe it, or not, not all of us are loaded, you nepo-baby. i hate rich people," shoko snorts.

"right, well," nanami continues, an attempt to get back on trap. he shoots him a look.

older boyfriend!satoru who's kind of a ridiculous man-child, but you don't think you'd have him any other way.

[sinceileftyoublog]

Ashnikko Album Review: WEEDKILLER

(Parlophone/Warner Records)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

It's rare that someone's debut album is a concept record, though if anyone were to successfully on first pass navigate the murky waters between establishing a fictional narrative and making a larger statement about humanity as a whole, it would be trap metal singer-songwriter and rapper Ashnikko. On WEEDKILLER, a fairy civilization has been destroyed by machines, and the protagonist essentially becomes part machine in order to uproot the system from within. You can immediately see parallels to the crises of our time, from climate change to the legislative war on people with uteruses and LGBTQ+ folks; Ashnikko doesn't suggest to either burn it all down or incrementally pick battles, instead focusing on their own emotions to elicit empathy. It works to cement both their imperfections and wants.

Fittingly, some of the best songs on WEEDKILLER are about desire, especially queer desire. The Daniela Lalita-featuring erotica of "Super Soaker" skitters to corporeal heights. "Don't Look At It" is less spiritual, more physical, Ashnikko comparing themselves to Tony Hawk as they're "doin' tricks until my tongue hurt." "Miss Nectarine" details Ashnikko's childhood friend who they'd make out with to "practice for the boys," Ashnikko developing unrequited feelings. "The bruise of bein' fourteen / Got chlorine in our hair, my jaw is shaking in my mouth," they sing, the warbly auto-tune an effective window into their emotional volatility. And "Possession of a Weapon", written after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, effectively alternates between anger and mournful acceptance. "How dare I have private desires?" Ashnikko asks, at the same time realistically and sadly comparing their own body to a chess piece in a game played by lawmakers, their autonomy as strong against oppressive rain as papier-mâché.

Ashnikko has been making music for almost a decade and releasing it for over half that time, so they've certainly established somewhat of a visual and sonic identity. WEEDKILLER doesn't upend what they'd been exploring on their EPs and debut mixtape DEMIDEVIL, but it's certainly their most cohesive statement yet. The title track and "World Eater" form not just the conceptual but musical base for the whole album, a conglomerate of trap beats, cascading synths, and power chords. "Worms", in which Ashnikko makes the best of their own decomposition within a post apocalyptic-world, features surprisingly limber bars and inventive rhyme schemes, as they declare, "Brand-new day, got a brand-new grin / Got a colony of ants underneath my skin / My bones decay, now I'm gelatin / I swear I'm better, Miss Parasite Possessor." From nu metal jams with metallic, clanging percussion to obvious, but successful Britney and Rihanna tributes, Ashnikko fulfills the promising pop dexterity they merely hinted at on previous releases.

And then there's "Dying Star", which takes another sonic left-turn and perhaps hints at where Ashnikko could go next. Featuring gothic Americana troubadour Ethel Cain, Ashnikko finds an aesthetic nestled somewhere in between the hyper-aggression of the rest of WEEDKILLER and Cain's slow-burning epics. The two harmonize, over repeatedly echoing guitar strums and bass lines, Ashnikko at one point singing, "I want something soft." After an album's worth of diss tracks and feelings bursting at the seams, they finally let themselves be vulnerable.

[justabumatthepark]

In a world where kids my age are popping Mollies with leather

Sitting on Tumblr, never outside or enjoying the weather

Can name a sweater, but not a talent or don't know if whether

Or not they got one, tried to change their life for the better

I was the drama club kid, I run where the fun did, my nuts itched

I was defiant, always said, "Fuck shit"

Hated the popular ones, now I'm the popular one

Also hated homes too, 'til I start coppin' me some

See, I don't beez in the trap, nigga, I beez in the b's

And I be gassing up my buzz like some bees at a Shell

Fucking sick and getting bigger like I sneezed on Adele

And bitches getting touchy-feely like they reading some Braille

I bust quick like gun-holders with short tempers, and well

I tried to tell the kids, like fuck it, start being yourself

These fucking rappers got stylists 'cause they can't think for themselves

See, they don't have an identity, so they needed some help, but

Really, boy? Posers looking silly, boy

I'm in that past season 'Preme shit, older than Tity Boi

Not a diss, but same with ice cream, my shit is Diddy Riese

Na'kel Smith, Transworld page 64

Poppin' like oil ollie in fire flames

I'm harder than DJ Khaled playing the fucking quiet game

The fuck am I saying? Tyler's not even a violent name

About as threatening as stained windbreakers in hurricanes

But he rapes women, and spit wrong, like he hates dentists

God-damn menace, 666 and he's not finished

And my shit's missing, he hates women, but love kittens?

See y'all niggas tripping, man

Look at that article that says my subject matter is wrong

Saying I hate gays even though Frank is on ten of my songs

Look at that Mom who thinks I'm evil, hold that grudge against me

Though I'm the reason that her motherfucking son got to eat

Look at the kid who had the .9 and tried to blow out his mind

But talk is money, I said, "Hi, " I guess I bought him some time

Look at the ones in the crowd, that shit is barnacles, huh?

They thought I wasn't fair until I threw a carnival, huh?

But then again, I'm an atheist that just worships Satan

And it's probably why I'm not getting no fucking album placements

And MTV could suck my dick, and I ain't fuckin' playing

Bruh, they never played it, I just won shit for they fucking ratings

"Analog" fans are getting sick of the rape

All the "Tron Cat" fans are getting sick of the lakes

But what about me, bitch? I'm getting sick of complaints

But I don't hate it when I'm taking daily trips to the bank

Oh, but no but, shit, who really gives a fuck what I think?

My fans don't, they turning on me, shit, they're almost extinct

Fuck buying studio time, I'ma go purchase a shrink

Record the session and send all you motherfuckers a link, bitch

[cyarskaren52]

11th track: "I Can See You" is a song written and recorded by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her third re-recorded album, Speak Now (Taylor's Version)(2023). It is one of the album's "From the Vault" tracks that was intended for but excluded from her third studio album, Speak Now (2010). Produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, "I Can See You" features a guitar riff. The lyrics are sexually suggestive and contain flirtatious innuendos, describing Swift's attraction to a person she comes across often.

Music critics gave the song positive reviews, and praised its rhythmic production, sensual lyrics, and catchiness; some picked it as a highlight amongst the album's vault tracks. Critics have ranked it among her best "From the Vault" tracks. Commercially, "I Can See You" peaked at number four on the BillboardGlobal 200 and the top ten on singles charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It received certifications in Australia and the United Kingdom.

12th track: "Lovin on Me" is a song by American rapper Jack Harlow. It was released through Generation Now and Atlantic Recordsas a single on November 10, 2023. Harlow wrote the song with producers Oz, Sean Momberger, and Nik D, alongside Nickie Jon Pabón and Reginald Nelton. The song samples the 1995 R&B track "Whatever (Bass Soliloquy)" by Cadillac Dale. Prior to its release, a snippet of the song went viral on TikTok. The music video for the song was released the same day.

"Lovin on Me" is a pop rap track. It samples the 1995 R&B song "Whatever (Bass Solique)" by Cadillac Dale, repurposing its chorus.Lyrically, the single opens with "I'm vanilla baby / I'll choke you, but I'm no killer baby". On its verses, Harlow raps flirtatiously toward a potential lover.

13th track :  "Sweeter" is a song by American singer Leon Bridges from the album Gold-Diggers Sound released on June 8, 2020, Bridges and Terrace Martinreleased a single titled "Sweeter" in response to the May 25 murder of George Floyd. The narrator of the song is a dead man whose mother and siblings weep over him.

14th track "High Forever" is a song by American rock band The Maine from their album XOXO: From Love and Anxiety in Real Time 

Lead singer John O'Callaghan explained in a track-by-track breakdown how this song fits into the record.

We really kind of let this one live in its own world, and I’m really happy we did, because it feels like the oddball, but it’s really important, especially eight records in, to take chances and kind of experiment with your sound and see if people dig it, and if not, it’s a chance worth taking.

John also revealed that the guitar riff in this song is an homage to “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears.

15th track: "Like That" is a song by the American rapper Future and record producer Metro Boomin with fellow American rapper Kendrick Lamar. It was sent to US rhythmic radio through Freebandz, Boominati Worldwide, Epic Records, and Republic as the third and final single from Future and Metro's collaborative studio album, We Don't Trust You, on March 22, 2024.

Solely produced by Metro himself, the three artists wrote the song alongside Kobe Hood; Rodney-O & Joe Cooley are also credited as songwriters as the bass line in the song contains samples of their 1986 song, "Everlasting Bass", which in turn samples Barry White's 1973 hit "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby". "Like That" also has additional elements that contain samples of Eazy-E's 1989 single, "Eazy-Duz-It", and contains a vocal sample of Michel'le

A trap and hardcore hip hop song that is predominantly composed of lively percussions, "Like That" received acclaim from music critics, who primarily praised Lamar's performance (which btw was a surprise feature) and Metro's production. His verse, which attracted significant media coverage, is a diss aimed at fellow rappers Drake and J. Cole in response to their 2023 collaboration, "First Person Shooter."

Lyrically, Lamar uses his surprise appearance to directly respond to "First Person Shooter", rapping: "Yeah, get up with me, f*** sneak dissing / "First Person Shooter", I hope they came with three switches". He also rejected J. Cole's idea of the three rappers representing hip hop as its "big three" and claims that he alone takes the top spot: "Motherf***the big three, n**** it's just big me". 

Throughout his verse, Lamar compares his rivalry with Drake to Prince's reported feud with Michael Jackson ("What? I'm really like that / And your best work is a light pack / N****, Prince outlived Mike Jack"). Drake has notably compared himself to Michael Jackson on numerous occasions, including during the final verse of "First Person Shooter", and Lamar has similarly compared himself to Prince.

Lamar also makes references to the bay area’s hip hop group the Click ("N***** clickin' up, but cannot be legit / No 40 Water") and Stephen King's 1983 novel Pet Sematary("'Fore all your dogs gettin' buried / That's a K with all these nines / He gon' see Pet Sematary").

[theseventhoffrostfall]

When you put aside the stuff that's just fun adventure romps (which I'm not dissing, that's most of what I read) it's interesting to look at how 'high-substance' sci-fi and fantasy tend to operate. Not just in the trappings of whether a knight is fighting orcs with a sword or a a commando is fighting aliens with a laser rifle, I mean in terms of the philosophy behind the narrative

Fantasy works tend to examine man's relationship to nature, the divine, and purpose in life. Magic augments how a character interacts with the world more than the world itself, and grand-scale issues and conflicts tend to be outgrowths of baser, more personal and fundamental conflicts, not just depicting good vs. evil or law vs. chaos, but examining what that means to the characters and the author. As you might expect, the prime archetype here is indeed Lord of The Rings

Sci-fi, by contrast, tends to be much larger in scope with what it tackles. The focus is more likely to be on societies as a whole, the nature and purpose of government, how religion is among the factors shaping both individual thought and the cultural zeitgeist, and more fringe topics like the effects ecology and planetology have when shaping a people's philosophy and mindset. And, of course, how new factors like new technological paradigms, the dispersal of civilization across multiple planets, contact with non-human sapience, and even the removal of certain factors ranging from computers to senescence affect all of the above. As you probably predicted, the poster child for this is Dune.

Where it gets interesting for me is when a work of one genre seems to be written with the mindset of its counterpart. The Hyperion Cantos is a sci-fi series to the hilt, but its focus and mindset trend much more towards fantasy, with different characters going through crises of faith and being forced to confront their understanding of their place in the universe as they encounter strange factors outside their conceptions of what was possible. Conversely, The Prince of Nothing is a fantasy series, but a huge amount of focus is given to how various characters' cultural and religious backgrounds shape their thinking, and as the series progresses it examines the way a new government forms and the methods and reasoning that shape it. As a more surface-level detail, the way it handles plot-important magical devices is a lot closer to how sci-fi handles precursor artifacts and LosTech than how fantasy tends to handle magical relics and wondrous items.

Certain books are likewise a more even mix of the two. Book of the New Sun has examinations on both personal, spiritual topics and the nature of society in an exhausted, ancient world facing none-too-distant extinction, while Sun Eater explores both the personal internal strife of its protagonist and the oppressive, alien nature of a society that in the story's context is a pretty believable evolution of our own. These are actually perhaps unsurprising, since the author of the former is on record as saying "all novels are fantasies, some are just more honest than others" the author of the latter is an outspoken advocate of a no-more-brother-wars attitude among what he calls 'weird fiction'.

Though where it gets confusing again is that, despite what I said at the start, all of these books do indeed play with the trappings of the respective genres as well, with quasi-magical elements in Hyperion, Not-Angband being a crashed alien starship in Prince of Nothing, and Book of the New Sun having strange, time-breaking quasi-divine intervention in a primitive feudal world where a castle's towers might be derelict rockets and a knight's mount might be a bioengineered war-alien

[justabumatthepark]

Sitting on Tumblr, never outside or enjoying the weather

Can name a sweater, but not a talent or don't know if whether

Or not they got one, tried to change their life for the better

I was the drama club kid, I run where the fun did, my nuts itched

I was defiant, always said, "Fuck shit"

Hated the popular ones, now I'm the popular one

Also hated homes too, 'til I start coppin' me some

See, I don't beez in the trap, nigga, I beez in the b's

And I be gassing up my buzz like some bees at a Shell

Fucking sick and getting bigger like I sneezed on Adele

And bitches getting touchy-feely like they reading some Braille

I bust quick like gun-holders with short tempers, and well

I tried to tell the kids, like fuck it, start being yourself

These fucking rappers got stylists 'cause they can't think for themselves

See, they don't have an identity, so they needed some help, but

Really, boy? Posers looking silly, boy

I'm in that past season 'Preme shit, older than Tity Boi

Not a diss, but same with ice cream, my shit is Diddy Riese

Na'kel Smith, Transworld page 64

Poppin' like oil ollie in fire flames

I'm harder than DJ Khaled playing the fucking quiet game

The fuck am I saying? Tyler's not even a violent name

About as threatening as stained windbreakers in hurricanes

But he rapes women, and spit wrong, like he hates dentists

God-damn menace, 666 and he's not finished

And my shit's missing, he hates women, but love kittens?

See y'all niggas tripping, man

Look at that article that says my subject matter is wrong

Saying I hate gays even though Frank is on ten of my songs

Look at that Mom who thinks I'm evil, hold that grudge against me

Though I'm the reason that her motherfucking son got to eat

Look at the kid who had the .9 and tried to blow out his mind

But talk is money, I said, "Hi, " I guess I bought him some time

Look at the ones in the crowd, that shit is barnacles, huh?

They thought I wasn't fair until I threw a carnival, huh?

But then again, I'm an atheist that just worships Satan

And it's probably why I'm not getting no fucking album placements

And MTV could suck my dick, and I ain't fuckin' playing

Bruh, they never played it, I just won shit for they fucking ratings

"Analog" fans are getting sick of the rape

All the "Tron Cat" fans are getting sick of the lakes

But what about me, bitch? I'm getting sick of complaints

But I don't hate it when I'm taking daily trips to the bank

Oh, but no but, shit, who really gives a fuck what I think?

My fans don't, they turning on me, shit, they're almost extinct

Fuck buying studio time, I'ma go purchase a shrink

Record the session and send all you motherfuckers a link, bitch