Prompt: "A song whose title is officially all uppercase"
Selected by Joe
"JUST SAY THAT"
Duke Deuce ft. Glorilla
CRUNKSTAR, 2022
I think what Duke Deuce is trying to say here is that honesty is important. Well, no, maybe the key takeaway is that you should be honest but also get right to the point. Duke Deuce makes the argument that hemming and hawing and beating around the bush is just as bad as lying, and twice as frustrating. What I like best is that this is a judgment-free zone. Duke Deuce is not saying that it's bad to smoke crack, or that it's good to smoke crack. He's just saying that, if you don't want to smoke weed because you'd rather smoke crack, then just fucking say it now, so you're not wasting anyone's time. He is, in fact, creating a safe space. "I am your friend," he says. "You can tell me anything," he says. The all-caps title implies emphasis and importance—if you have flaws, don't try to cover 'em up, because you're around friends, and so if you think your flaws are going to be a detriment to the environment we're trying to cultivate then you should JUST SAY THAT so we can address the concerns now and work on them together.
Hmmmm... this might be a case of audience imposing meaning onto the art. While I want to believe that Duke Deuce is writing a treatise on the value of integrity and brevity in human interactions, I also have a tough time taking seriously a dude in a powdered wig pretending to play the baby grand piano and yelling WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Then again, not taking Duke Deuce seriously was what burned me the first time around. Late-stage rap-ambivalent Joe took Duke Deuce's playfulness as a cue to dismiss it outright. That was stupid.
It's all about balance. I think you can take fun things seriously, and I think you can find fun in something that's meant to be super serious. Duke Deuce is having a great time with up-and-comer Glorilla (if this PoYB blog post is the first time you're hearing about Glorilla, I can guarantee you that it won't be your last). They are having fun, drinking, goofing off, Glorilla is saying she'd send some nudes to you if you're just upfront about it, Duke Deuce is flashing his grills, Duke Deuce is yelling his signature catchphrase. It's all fun, and it also, in some respects, cuts to an essential sociological truism. It's both. I like it a lot.
Something I've been thinking about recently is how, in scenes like this, where there are a ton of people hanging out and drinking and dancing and having lots of fun in some secluded locale, there always seem to be a lot of cars in the area as well. Think about this video, or maybe the keg party in Dazed and Confused for an example well-known on this blog. The partygoers' cars are part of the proceedings. I can think back on two decades worth of partying, and I can't really think of a single time in which I'm hanging out with even close to that many people and also in/around cars. We weren't really "responsible" in any particular way during any parties I had in my youth, but the one thing I'll hang on my friend groups while using that word "responsible" is the lack of drinking and driving. Not that it never happened, but it was definitely passé. Maybe it's a rural thing. Duke Deuce reps the Memphis rap scene, which, while not necessarily rural, is definitely more indicative of rural settings than a city like Philly might be. Or maybe I just don't give a shit about cars, I don't know. This is just a stray thought. Maybe I can tie it into today's prompt by subtitling this paragraph "FUCK CARS" or something.
Hmmmm... this might be a case of audience imposing meaning onto the art. While I want to believe that Duke Deuce is writing a treatise on the value of integrity and brevity in human interactions, I also have a tough time taking seriously a dude in a powdered wig pretending to play the baby grand piano and yelling WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Then again, not taking Duke Deuce seriously was what burned me the first time around. Late-stage rap-ambivalent Joe took Duke Deuce's playfulness as a cue to dismiss it outright. That was stupid.
It's all about balance. I think you can take fun things seriously, and I think you can find fun in something that's meant to be super serious. Duke Deuce is having a great time with up-and-comer Glorilla (if this PoYB blog post is the first time you're hearing about Glorilla, I can guarantee you that it won't be your last). They are having fun, drinking, goofing off, Glorilla is saying she'd send some nudes to you if you're just upfront about it, Duke Deuce is flashing his grills, Duke Deuce is yelling his signature catchphrase. It's all fun, and it also, in some respects, cuts to an essential sociological truism. It's both. I like it a lot.
Something I've been thinking about recently is how, in scenes like this, where there are a ton of people hanging out and drinking and dancing and having lots of fun in some secluded locale, there always seem to be a lot of cars in the area as well. Think about this video, or maybe the keg party in Dazed and Confused for an example well-known on this blog. The partygoers' cars are part of the proceedings. I can think back on two decades worth of partying, and I can't really think of a single time in which I'm hanging out with even close to that many people and also in/around cars. We weren't really "responsible" in any particular way during any parties I had in my youth, but the one thing I'll hang on my friend groups while using that word "responsible" is the lack of drinking and driving. Not that it never happened, but it was definitely passé. Maybe it's a rural thing. Duke Deuce reps the Memphis rap scene, which, while not necessarily rural, is definitely more indicative of rural settings than a city like Philly might be. Or maybe I just don't give a shit about cars, I don't know. This is just a stray thought. Maybe I can tie it into today's prompt by subtitling this paragraph "FUCK CARS" or something.
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