Hello there, fellow Osgoode students. I look forward to maybe meeting some of you this upcoming week. I am now about to finish my second semester of 2L, and I am yet to touch the actual physical grounds of Osgoode Hall Law School. Has online school had its downfalls? Well, certainly—but there have been positive aspects as well (not many)! As a result of school being online, I had much more time to listen to music, watch movies, and watch television shows. And now I am the editor for the Arts & Culture section of Obiter Dicta. I would probably consider that more along the lines of a coincidence as opposed to an established causal connection, but who really cares anyways. Certainly not me. Anyways…
I am back with this month’s edition of “My Music,” which is essentially just a space-filler article that gives me an excuse to write about songs that I like. I truly do invite any or all of the readers of this article to reach out to me and chat about it, or any other music they have been listening to. I really just like talking about music, if I am being honest.
I guess it will be cool in a couple of years to look back at the Obiter articles I wrote and see precisely what music I was listening to at the time. Kind of like a musical time capsule. Enough of my nonsensical rambling though. Let’s get to it.
“Spaceship” – 48 Lanez & Wintrs
Walking, driving, running—whatever you may be doing—this song will likely fit the activity, and a lot of the credit for that versatility should go to the beat. Produced by none other than Pierre Bourne—notable as an artist on his own, but also for bringing Playboi Carti and Young Nudy to the mainstream—the beat is nothing special when you break it down. There is no elegant instrumental weaved into it, and there are no 808’s to make your head explode. But it is this simplicity that makes the song uber-listenable. Moreover, the lyrics are nothing much. “Shotty wanna live, shotty wanna give”—forgettable, somewhat lame, relatively meaningless. Nothing to connect to.
You might ask now, “Sam, you said this song was good, but you have said nothing but seemingly bad things about it.” It is about time for you to listen to it for yourself, because the lame lyrics and the simple beat combine to create an extremely pleasant track. The value of the lyrics is in the way they are sung, or rapped—not in the meaning. Each word touches on a piece of the beat so it sounds like the melody is almost an instrument in itself. The beat sits under the melody, intertwined, but not overpowering. It is prevalent but not in-your-face. And this, in combination with the melody, provides for a fun, bouncy little song for any activity.
“Arya” – Nigo and A$AP Rocky
This is just one of those songs that was destined to be great. Nigo—best known as the creator of the “A Bathing Ape” clothing line, as well as “Billionaire Boys Club” clothing line—is the producer of the song. The influence from his good friend and partner Pharrell Williams is abundantly evident as well. When you have star power like that producing a song, it becomes incredibly difficult for an artist to ruin it.
If you thought A$AP Rocky might be the one to ruin it, you are horribly mistaken. I am convinced that there is no beat that this man cannot rap over. His flow remains one of the best in modern hip-hop, and I truly feel like his New York swagger oozes from each and every bar he delivers. When A$AP talks, the people listen. He comes with some punch lines as well: “They need jobs like Steve, I’m already on the iPhone 23.”
My guess is that anyone who chooses to give this song a listen will be sold in the first fifteen seconds. Within that time, you can instantly get a feel for the type of song Nigo produced here. Additionally, you can hear a trademark A$AP “Yeah…. Uh huh.” By this point, the beat is established, and A$AP’s swagger is present. In the next two minutes, two pop culture icons work together to make a really unique and cool hip-hop song.
“Love Me Again” – John Newman
Every now and then, I hear a song that I have surely heard before, but just cannot put my finger on what it is called. This past weekend, my roommate played this song on the speakers, and I felt like I struck gold! This song is almost ten years old, but it certainly holds up. Look, I am not going to pretend to be an expert on John Newman and his musical history—to be honest, this is the only song of his I know. But damn… this song is awesome!
Put this in the “Love Tonight” category of songs I want to hear at a crowded European nightclub at 5:00 a.m. in the morning. I want to be out with my friends, dancing the night away, five vodka sodas deep, loving life, listening to “Love Me Again” by John Newman. Songs like this make me wish it was summer. Songs like this make me want to spend my summer salary on Tomorrowland tickets. Songs like this make me wish we were not half locked down. But for the time being, I will be using this song to lift me up when things are feeling down. Good things are on the way everyone—let this song remind you and give you hope.