This is where I find most rap dialogue is at now of days. On one side: Some young fucks that think rap launched off and lands on the tip of Drake’s mumbling cock. To those hapless few, nothing else exists. They even come with a stupid fucking dance like a toy from the dollar menu. Then there are these old fucks that complain about not understanding the words. They’re kind and civil about it. But truthfully? They don’t give a nugget of nun’s shit about the lyrics. If I gave you a book titled “Bill Cosby’s guide to the perfect date” would you read it? Fuck no! It’s the same kind of deal. The rep goes before the message. You’re already dead in the water. The other side of this fence knows that rap is the high art of the day and is figuring out logistics of things. The same divide probably existed when jazz first came out. 

Meet Regan Farquhar, better known as, Busdriver. His dad wrote THE film on Hip-Hop. Literally, this shit is called “Krush Groove” and was released back in ’85. At 13 fucking years old, this motherfucker started rapping cause he was inspired by the LA riots of ’92. Motherfucker was more woke than an insomniac discovering speed while disarming a bomb on a bus full of fighting baboons. If this album is a class, your teacher shows up prepped with bulging binders, PowerPoints, videos, dancers, waterboarding equipment, Neil deGrasse Tyson, rewards, air horns, Russian roulette, confetti, cakes, and bribes. As a listener, it’s time to wake the fuck up. This dude works hella fast and doesn’t give a shit if his dense knowledge stings or cuts. It may be one of the reasons huge commercial success hasn’t really met Regan. And to that I say, well the fuck done Regan. Popularists come and go. History remembers the ones that gave a fuck. 

This comes off Regan’s soundcloud page, “BUSDRIVER plays out like an ode to modern folk art via the act’s characteristically warped take on the world’s leading pop music: hip-hop. Homespun and bursting with intention, “electricity is on our side” argues that the quintessential underground hip-hop album is in fact the high art of the day.” I bet you anything your first reaction to this shit will be, “what the fuck?” Which makes sense when you’re looking the wrong way and the message is flying right over your head. The idea of this album takes time to chew and process (here [https://genius.com/albums/Busdriver/Electricity-is-on-our-side] this website should help a bit with lyrics). To those that love this shit already, nothing else needs to be said. So to the young and old fucks: beautiful and memorable art doesn’t require your attention. This album, and those like it will still go down as high, influential, applicable, zeitgeist art, even if you didn’t listen. It’s you that will suffer if you don’t. You’re the ones that are going to have to explain to the next generation why you were doing stupid dances, or trying to figure out what the fuck Bono meant instead of listening to what actually fucking mattered.