#once i figure out how music theory works it's over for you hoes. JUST KIDDING...

[re-colligere]

If you were to give each agent and villain their own theme, what kind of genre and/or motifs would you give each one?

oh my GAWD as much as I love music and soundtracks, I'm not knowledgeable enough to like! Describe it in the detail I want, if that makes sense?? I'll try my best to describe what I've got so far though.

The biggest idea I've got is that everyone's themes MUST be jazz-adjacent. There could be different styles but it's REQUIRED. that it must be jazzy. okay?? It would have the same vibes as most bond songs. Could also dip into other similar genres like soul/rnb/bossa nova/swing?/etc depending on the character.

IDEALLY each character would have a unique instrument as the "primary" (Like sadness's trombone in the first movie. which I would also use for her here lol), and the tempo of their songs would fit their personalities as well. Generally the SEGO guys would have smoother jazz and the ID villains would lean more towards energetic, improvised jazz. It would also be cool if each group had like. an underlying base chord that they all use in different ways? The leitmotif moment............

Alright, under the cut are some more ""in-depth"" thoughts about the themes that I'm literally spitballing. like right neow. BTW when I say "character themes" they're kinda like the One Piece character jingles whenever an advertisement comes up (in the older eps at least. haven't reached the recent seasons yet no spoilers /lh), or the UNDERTALE character themes like Death by Glamour, Alphys, sans. and etc. YOU GET WHAT I MEAN?? okay good. onto the brain dumps!!

Verte's theme would be THE definition of smooth jazz. Thinking of giving her the sax for fun. I love the sax. Uncompromisingly smooth and sure of herself. And I'LL SAY IT. it would have that seductive touch to it. It's the sexyphone. Ok? Inspirations would be Nico Robin's theme, License to Kill by Gladys Knight, and Just One Dance by Caro Emerald

Roz I'm not super sure? He could have the piano as his main instrument. I kinda like the idea that it wants to be as suave as Verte's theme, but it's got that frantic vibe of a newbie stumbling into the difficult world of espionage. I don't know how to express that in music. His theme would be the most energetic out of the agents' because he's the most nervous LOL something like Hold On, Please! by Louie Zong? (I was also trying to find songs with tenor voices in them before i realized i just wanted to imagine Roz singing beautifully. sue me /lh)

Bughaw's theme would be just like the sadness theme for the first movie: slow and simple, though it's got that bass fullness to it. I don't know what I'm talking about. If I had to name inspirations, Nina Simone's Feeling Good and I Put a Spell On You would have similar vibes?? Trombone is my pick for her heh. TBH just remembered the Charlie Brown themes would be so fitting for her too

Indigo's would be the slowest out of everyone's themes. It almost sounds like it's droning. Close to how Bughaw's theme would sound but less bass-y. Could be one of those things that'll help you sleep or it's beautifully haunting. Or both. No Time To Die by Billie Eilish is a good inspiration, without the rising notes and all. It's probably because her voice adds to like. that ghostly feel. She could have like a very out-there/modern instrument, probably not always associated with jazz. Like the theremin or something.

Terror's theme. Would sound the most like a stereotypical saturday morning cartoon villain. Kinda like the Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc. Jingles. Maybe EXACTLY like those jingles. Just a little bit goofy, but I do want a melody that can be a solid intimidating villain theme when it needs to be.

Hellforge's theme would have a lot of like, really loud sounds and is probably the most chaotic theme (but also like, really triumphant). He sounds like a drums guy to me - if I recall correctly his introduction in the first movie was accompanied by drums LOL Something like Caravan by Wes Montgomery and I'm Gonna Live Till I Die by Frank Sinatra.

April's theme would have a similar style to 2econd 2ight 2eer by Will Wood . She might be the one to get a swing-adjacent theme... Ngl I thought about how the Bundle of Joy melody would sound as a jazz piece too...She's the main contender for the trumpet as well.

Out of the League villains, Axyon could have the most put-together yet the most intimidating theme out of them all. It's a bit of a contrast from her tendency to get REAL unhinged, but at least it's planned and done with intent. I need her MENACING and COOL. okay. I keep associating her with the Cog in the Machine theme from I Expect You To Die 3. It's a fitting song for her character, it could be how her theme sounds too.

Vivien's theme would be a more upbeat version of Verte's theme; same beats and notes, with a sprinkle of a unique and childlike style that still makes Vivien her own character. I like Trucy Wright's theme for her hehe.

Grandma Meemaw could have an even older-sounding theme with some jazz to it...Probably something close to classical pieces, though I'm blanking out for this one. Also a big candidate for the piano. Or the violin. Any instrument most associated with the blanket term "classical" music i guess

[ripsquadentllc-blog]

Coming Out

First off, this is not a post about me coming out the closet. If anything, I’ll have these hoes coming out of them draws once they find out how good of a writer I am. This is a religious coming out. To be more specific, this is historical documentation of me coming to terms with my lack of religious beliefs.

Let’s go back-back in time. Growing up in a black household, I was pretty much indoctrinated into the Christian church. Church was a fairly big part of my childhood. We weren’t super religious, though. My dad wasn’t a deacon and my mom didn’t go around throwing holy water on people. She was from the south, so her roots in the church were probably a lot deeper than my pops’, who was from the east coast. This probably explains why he eventually stopped going to church with us.

I remember my mom waking me and my sister up early as hell every Sunday like it was a school day. I used to ask my mom why didn’t my pops have to go to church. The best answer she could come up with is “Your father is grown. When you grown, you can do whatever you want to do.” As a kid, that answer made a lot of sense. And I took it to heart.

I don’t remember much about our first church, but I do remember it was Baptist and all black. All that means, is it was filled with a bunch of upitty old black people hooting and hollering and pretending to “catch the holy ghost.” This is when I started hating church. Not only was I missing early morning cartoons, but I was always bored out of my mind. The only good thing that happened to me there was discovering Kirk Franklin. That nigga can make some good ass music. This was around kindergarten/1st grade. 

Even though I hated church, I still believed in God and Jesus and all that other shit. I used to say grace before I ate and bedtime prayers before I slept. I even remember crying when I went to see House on Haunted Hill, because I thought God would be mad at me for watching it. That and it scared the shit out of me for some reason. I could watch any other scary movie just fine. That was the 1st time me and my pops left in the middle of a movie at the theaters. Looking back, I was acting like a little bitch, but I was young and didn’t know any better. I’m sure my pops made fun of me after that. 

In the 3rd grade, I decided to conduct an experiment to see if God was real. To be more specific, I wanted to test whether or not prayer changed anything. At this point, I was going to an all black Christian private school. I had just been put in detention for something. Probably talking in class. I was so afraid of my parents finding out. I probably was receiving an ass whooping every few weeks for something bad I did at school. This one would’ve been the worst one yet, though. I decided to pray as hard as I could. I asked God to protect my little ass from my pops’ belt. I did my time in detention and my pops picked me up afterwards. My teacher never told my parents what happened.

It was a miracle! It was almost too good to be true. That was the 1st time I prayed for something and actually got it. I started thinking, though. Would the outcome have been the same whether I had prayed or not? I decided to test this by not praying any more. I wanted to see if my life would have any major changes if I stopped praying completely. My hypothesis checked out. I realized good things don’t happen because you pray for them; they just randomly happen the same way bad things do. That’s when I discovered that God was no different from Santa Claus. (Yeah, I was that kid telling all his friends Santa wasn’t real.) In the 4th grade, I said fuck God and embraced atheism.

Fast forward to high school. I was really feeling myself back then. I was still apart of the parochial school system and had been attending a white Lutheran church up until freshman year. The Lutheran schools and churches had the best Christian teachings in my opinion. They were so sure that they were right that I was required to study not only Christianity, but every other major religion as if they weren’t all essentially the same. The goal was to give me enough knowledge to defend my faith. All they had done for me was arm me with the knowledge to tear down any Christian theories.

My homeboys on my football team weren’t big on debating religion, so they were no fun when it came to the topic. I wasn’t arrogant enough to impose my lack of belief on my friends, however. They didn’t even realize I was an atheist until around junior year. They were shocked initially, but by then our friendship was strong enough to overshadow what any of us believed. We would rather argue over who the best rapper was any way.

My teachers on the other hand, had a few things to say. They didn’t find out I was athiest until my senior year. Ironically, I joined two gospel choirs that year. I figured it would help me get over my fear of singing in front of people. Plus I wanted to improve my singing technique. On top of that, the best singers are black church singers. On top of that, my girlfriend at the time was a choir director. I admired her pipes. She could really blow. And she had a fat booty.

Any way, back to my teachers. The 1st teacher that confronted me about my amazingly open mind was actually my religion teacher/football coach. Dude was super religious to the point where it seemed kind of creepy. Being a white guy with a thick ass pedofile mustache didn’t help either. He called me into his office and we chatted for a little while. He asked why I didn’t believe and I told him my 3rd grade detention story. He seemed pretty understanding. He told me prayer really does work and sent me on my way. I gained a little respect for him after that, just because he didn’t try to force Jesus down my throat like I was expecting.

The 2nd teacher to confront me was my football/basketball coach. I respected him because he was black, smart, cool and he genuinely wanted to help young black men succeed in life. He confronted me in front of the class one day. I’m sure he heard about my beliefs from the 1st coach or a teammate. He asked me why I didn’t believe. Instead of telling him my full story, I simply said, “The Bible is unbelievable.” He then asked me, “Why don’t you just believe just in case God is real?” Not only could I not believe in a god, but I couldn’t believe this silly ass question he asked me. I then had to explain to him that I highly doubt his “all-knowing” God would fall for something so childish. I went on to tell him that I couldn’t control my beliefs. If something seems wrong to me, I can’t trick my brain into believing it’s true.

(Damn, this is a long post)

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