deep thoughtz 003: TOMMY WRIGHT III - ASHES 2 ASHES, DUST 2 DUST

Wus good all yall this that OG El Visarino cuz every Elvis to don the name before me was just playin. i been livin on a diet of watermelons n mortal kombat when suddenly I decided it was time for a treat and a bit of a history lesson.


some of u may have been able to tell based on ma way of speakin n my ver-na-cu-lar that i'm based in the united states, a country i don't think highly enough to even capitalize when i type it or think about it. point is if you look at the date this blogpost is published you can tell that rn we're in a crisis that's been ongoing for about four hundred years or so. the pig haters in blue roam the streets, the wendy's twitter is cancelled, nothing will be the same, everything will be the same, u get the picture. it is a great time to be alive and a terrible time. it is terrible to feel powerlessness where rampant injustice reigns, and it is great to witness the movement of descendents and walk the roads they walked. In my journeys into the realms of da sounds, an audiotemporal land of my own creation outta my skull, i am reminded of the privilege of living in the time where i live in because i get to music by ppl like TWIII.

Tommy Wright III aka the 1 man gang is someone who i have very little in common with; not only do i not have a perm, i also have never been to Memphis. despite these jarring discrepencies, ashes 2 ashes, dust 2 dust is undeniably the artistic achievement of the 20th century and if u disagree u on some ho shit and will b treated accordingly

might wanna listen to the original tape cut b4 diggin into the rerelease

lo-fi hip hop gets a reputation these days as being that one youtube radio station that wh*te ppl put on to do advanced intellectual manuevers such as reading or watching other youtube vids, but before nujabes and samurai champloo rotted all ya minds there was music like this shit here. the piano lines on "drive by" and "tha roll call" i swear 2 tha dalai lama when Tommy Wright say he on the creep he musta meant my hallucinogenic-induced nightmares cuz that's the only place a sound so haunting could've come from. "time to rob" predicts chief keef's takeover of the classical music scene, "meet yo maker" and "sewed up" take the percussive keyboard sound to its logical extreme, Koji Kondo owes royalties cuz erryone knows he stole that saria forest shit from "comin for 94", and whatever's goin on in "don't start shit" is prolly what Lovecraft (an interview conducted with ol howard over here on $$CHIANG_MAI_ELVIS$$ unfortunately resulted in a now rather potent bloodfeud) described as the great horns and accursed flutes that keep the blind idiot got Azathoth in a state of eternal slumber. hate to be pullin out these run-on sentences on u readers like that but the point must b made; instrumentally u haven't heard this before.

the lyricisism may be much for some (mostly idiots who don't think highly of the pleasures derived from sexual activities, assaulting beetchass individuals, and the accumulation of valued resources in your community) but it's a mistake to lump this, or any Memphis-type rap, with the horrorcore shit that got peddled in middle school. at worst it's one note throughout a full album, at best it's slayer if slayer didn't talk that pinochet bullshit. Wright, Mac T-Dog, the always memorable Princess Loko, and the other guests tear apart every track laid before them in a manner that was unseen at the time, so even if u dont vibe wit the whole kill-all-ppl lyrics u can at least nod along with the flow.


my experiences in the material world have left me with many impressions, but it is clear that as things change it becomes harder for us to not only create but maintain and nourish a unique identity. so much art that leaves an impact on me is because it strikes me how great a distance a person's unique vision of the world can take me vicariously. Tommy Wright III's music has a shameless quality about it in this sense; the audio frequently bleeds out and the noisey production that's taken to an alien level is really a disguised restriction of resources. that said there's no denying the talent and forward-thinking art present on this album. in an ideal world, a world of geniuses, scholars, models, this album would be in the legendary throws of lo-fi music with DJ Screw, Pavement, and (Sandy) Alex G and carseat headr*st would officially be noncanonical. thank u 4 reading, i love u, listen now 👇🙈🙉🙊👇



For: black metal fans, lo-fi enthusiasts, ppl wit big feet energy, progressive g8mers

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