Black Snow - Aesop Rock

Black is the color of the snow Snacks in the cupboard by the stove 3-wicks clutter up his home Deep-six whatever you know Keep fit shoveling the coal Keep silly putty on the funnies Nail down the sum of what you own Phone every someone that you owe Cut your own hair in the sink Change into something that you’d wear If you were summoned to the throne Do advanced math on the walls Talk to your plants, tell ’em something bad from the vaults Try to split a lentil into threes Visualize a future with your tabby in a broth Make your own arrows, learn to throw an axe into a log Get it casual as a cashew in the maw Write a phone number with a magnum on your arm One that when you call it someone answer but they aren’t there to talk

Black is the color of the snow Cash in the cupboard by the stove Free kicks clutter up his home The dream is a ferry in the fog Sheepskin buffering the cold Sweet wind to carry you to god Free brunch buffet on the boat Real maple syrup is involved Real shame peace is a theory not a law Precipitation should be clear or not at all, but

Black is the color of the snow Stash in the cupboard by the stove Keepsakes clutter up his home Cell death coming up the coast Freedom ain’t a function it’s a mode Throw a couple punches in the mirror Punch up your approach, on some “Are you talking to me” or a thumper out the coat? Draw something savage on the back or the front or the both A taunt for the fungus and the mold Stomp around the room like a child Throw your fucking baba on the floor Trauma down to ruin you inside Body like a buoy in the tide Vomit come shooting through his eyes Brain in the pan, black is the color of the paint in the can Remove all the tubes and the wires Polish every tooth in your smile Document the true and livin’, not the irrefutably beguiled

Black is the color of the snow Rats in the cupboard by the stove Cheap tricks clutter up his home The dream is a ferry in the fog Queen-pin stuffing up his cones Sweet wind to carry you to god Least fit chumming up the moat TV on clearance at the mall Refreshing water disappear into mirage Precipitation should be clear or not as all, but

Stick out your tongue and taste it Chase it with a dirty smile Find beauty in the wasted We gon’ be here for awhile Fall back, fall down Wave your arms and legs around We make them all the same but Angels, they look different now

O’ death, O’ death Could ya please hold a moment, I am so in effect In the red corner, black snow a notable threat I’m in the blue corner, satin over solar event Golden oval on the belt, granny floral on the trunks Orange tiger on the robe, iron horseshoe in the glove I ain’t foreign to the dance, I been up against the ropes And refs, granted never while I’m humming “Let it Snow” Let it snow, I thread a whole cyclone eye In no time, zebra coat never not bone dry Get it, I don’t wanna set the wrong tone But I hear a bell ding, there another pawn go Footwork dirty, a blur to the eye witness Encourage a crowded theatre to curse at a fried Christmas What plague add blood to the flakes Something from another world, son, the water ain’t safe And I step in the arena with a hundred one apes Looking dead at the upheaval like it’s summer at the cape I’m saying, nothing shake the mother of all hate Like a plea to “Hurry up I got another ball of snakes On the schedule”, the principal of other pressing matters Press the button get the present company Abracadabra’d This ring is a beach house, for critical beat downs And free snow cones between rounds It go, cash only, ashes ashes Bet the farm, Aes get the dark cloud active Pay-per-view event live, prehistoric man fights Visual analogy of profound baggage For the folks in the back row Stomping on the floor when the black snow Glass Joe Thank you, y’all have a safe night See you in the morn, the forecast ain’t right

notes

ASAP Rock is probably one of the biggest influences aside from MFD Doom when it comes to rhythmic poetry. I was a little kid when Eminem was really big and I actually really wasn’t into wrap at that point I mean I had listened to some of the CD’s and you know. I saw him on MTV and VH at one but I never saw him out In fact I didn’t like hip hop at all when I was a kid I didn’t like it at all. I Didn’t like any of the gangster rap. I didn’t dislike rap. I was entertained by the attempts of popular media at the time to write their own wraps and put them in their IPS I’m going to just didn’t really speak to me until probably the prunes really and like Jesset ready a future and and Like especially when I made the connection that all sample stuff like dnb,Hip hop big b you know any any mixing genres right like they’re they’re all the same thing you know they’ll come from the same group right so once I learned that I had much more respect for all I was like oh this this all comes from the same thing well I like this a lot

Even before reading the Reddit comments where they talk about him using Poly rhythms in the last verse, I thought the very last verse on black snow is Magnum Opus level writing. I would think it’s strange if Mr Ase Was not pleased with it.

https://old.reddit.com/r/aesoprock/comments/1apgp4l/i_thought_black_snow_was_a_weak_finishing_track/

Polyrhythmic structure

Apparently this track is polyrhythmic structure all moving throughout the lyrics. I’m too much of an idiot to be able to recognize all of it. I knew something was going on with the first part aside from just thematic repetition and then the last part I’ve just been trying to study and practice it myself I feel like I can understand it better if I do it that way there’s no way I could break that down.

https://old.reddit.com/r/aesoprock/comments/1apgp4l/i_thought_black_snow_was_a_weak_finishing_track/

" I don’t know anywhere, and I don’t have the motivation to sketch it out.

Basically if you count along with the beat, it’ll be in 4/4. 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4, and so on. Each verse is 32 bars of 4 beats, further broken down into 4 bar phrases.

Once you recognize the beat is 4/4 and start to count along with the lyrical phrasing, you’ll notice that he’s rapping phrases of 3 mostly, mixing in 4s and 5s where appropriate.

BLACK is the COLor of the SNOW (1,2,3) SNACKS in the CUPboard by the STOVE (1,2,3) THREE wicks CLUTter up his HOME (1,2,3) DEEP six WHATever you KNOW (1,2,3)

Now becuase he doesn’t pause after the three beat phrase, he begins the next phrase one beat earlier in the bar of 4/4. So his 4 phrases all start on different parts of the bar. They contrast but play nicely with the beat in the background.

Then, at times he’ll throw in a 2 or a 5.

Talk to your plants, tell ’em something bad from the vaults (1,2,3,4,5)

Try to split a lentil into threes (1,2,3)

Visualize a future with your tabby in a broth (1,2,3,4)

Make your own arrows, learn to throw an axe into a log (1,2,3,4,5)

Get it casual as a cashew in the maw (1,2,3)

Write a phone number with a magnum on your arm (1,2,3,4)

One that when you call it someone answer but they aren’t there to talk (1,2,3,4,5)

And its seamless. Rappers tend to butcher 3/4 timing, but this is an interesting way to use some 3/4 phrasing. All while leaving himself the lyrical freedom to include lines longer than 3.

And setting up for the rigid and strong 4/4 flow of his final verse starting with an obvious 4 beat phrase right on the beat.

I think it’s hype. "

Hype indeed.

[deleted] 2 points 4 months ago

Can someone smarter than me please explain the Black Snow reference specifically.

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[–][deleted] 2 points 4 months ago

Bertrand Russell, British analytic philosopher, logician and mathematician (1872-1970) once argued that mankind “is a curious accident in a backwater (1961).” He contributed to the dethroning of man, or the marginalization of man in the materialist point of view (Russell 1961 cited by Barr 2003:68). But Russell changed his opinion as he advanced in years. He went from embracing atheism to embracing Faith in the possibility of the existence of God.

“I think, the subject which will be of most importance politically is mass psychology….Its importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda. Of these the most influential is what is called ‘education.’ Religion plays a part, though a diminishing one; the press, the cinema, and the radio play an increasing part…. It may be hoped that in time anybody will be able to persuade anybody of anything if he can catch the patient young and is provided by the State with money and equipment. The subject will make great strides when it is taken up by scientists under a scientific dictatorship…. The social psychologists of the future will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will try different methods of producing an unshakable conviction that snow is black. Various results will soon be arrived at. First, that the influence of home is obstructive. Second, that not much can be done unless indoctrination begins before the age of ten. Third, that verses set to music and repeatedly intoned are very effective. Fourth, that the opinion that snow is white must be held to show a morbid taste for eccentricity. But I anticipate. It is for future scientists to make these maxims precise and discover exactly how much it costs per head to make children believe that snow is black, and how much less it would cost to make them believe it is dark gray. Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for a generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen.

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