im exhausted with these lyric breakdowns.

from the morning show on twitch
/ open_mike_eagle

[@jasonnn247]

“He gives the middle finger, he’s basically saying ‘eff you’.” Such insight

[@Pasicho]

The thing thats crazy is that his mom is doing a voiceover as he does it. He is so clever on disrespecting his own mother.

[@radicard5193]

I really doubt the man who got the message of "Mother I Sober" wrong would have said the N-word 37 times with a purpose.

[@nononoleavemebe]

@@radicard5193 nah he was trying to do the nosetalgia verse at a 4th grade level

[@dysonspheretxi]

😂😂😂😂​@@nononoleavemebe

[@thevinyltruffle]

And if he did? Yeesh.

[@BlackNella]

And if he did, it would still be extra wack 😂

[@Brendanrobinson171]

“That’s for every year I’ve been black” everyone who’s in the culture knows they don’t have to prove their blackness. These Canadian dudes don’t know that color ≠ culture

[@professorskye]

As somebody who spends a lot of time analyzing Hip-Hop on KZbin, I really appreciate this video. I see myself but I also see the things I’m trying not to be.

[@dysonspheretxi]

You are everywhere, man. You've done a pretty good job, though. At least you don't unknowingly show the world an obvious underlying racism in your breakdowns. You actually admit when there are things you shouldn't/can't really speak on.

[@dreadboy5314]

Prof I've only ever felt respected by how you handle your subject matter. Your empathy always shines through man, love the content.

[@landin1181]

The prof watches good KZbin as well as making it. Amazing

[@dkdyw-pf5wb]

Please do a whats the dirt review. We need this🙏🏾

[@professorskye]

@@dkdyw-pf5wb i have a lot to say, but I'm going to hang back for now and not try to talk over creators like OME and Justin Hunte. But, you know, WTD may catch quite a few strays! And if you see the video I'm dropping today, i addresss it, but it is not the subject of the video. Instead of focusing on what WTD did wrong, I'd rather focus on what I (hopefully) do correctly in terms of respecting my status as a tourist. Or share my thoughts on the topic.

[@christianlesniak]

My entire hermeneutical method for, really, any text, is by counting n-words and numerological analysis. My AP Lit teacher didn't care for my exegesis on why Hamlet never said it even once.

[@bribro23]

& they’re a teacher, push poshposh posh. They should know better😂

[@nononoleavemebe]

People need to relearn the art of quiet contemplation and appreciation

[@samsonnicholas576]

Underrated comment

[@googoogagaboogieboogiewoogie]

That never existed, stop yapping about times that never were

[@GRAGGLE]

@@googoogagaboogieboogiewoogieand you know how😂

[@googoogagaboogieboogiewoogie]

@@GRAGGLE Because theres these things called books, journals, and history where we can read what people from 6000 years ago thought. Funny how that works, huh?

[@GoldenPickaxe]

Nope, because when What’s the Dirt takes the time to contemplate lyrics and report his findings later everyone gets upset

[@SonOfaChipwich]

This shit is like rap QAnon. A bunch of randos building up this shared false reality by doing pareidolia to their chosen subject and claiming its fact.

[@thevinyltruffle]

WTD is single handedly turning ppl off of the breakdown game.

[@Quandryification]

💯

[@Adri_Unsung]

He was one of the very few (like one or two) white people I watched do breakdown videos and the lack of social and self awareness on this last video was staggering to the point of upsetting. Put a pit in my stomach

[@codenamedesertviper1825]

I think this calls attention to a greater issue where people confidently speak on topics they have little to no experience about, present it as facts, and argue with you as if you’ve never heard of that topic before. Everybody wants to present themselves as an expert because nobody wants to admit they don’t know something.

[@TKMotoRolA_RazR]

major issue with the world today! very estute comment.

[@jakemorrow6742]

Very astute codenamedesertviper

[@differentbutsimilar7893]

I think that a lot of it is confirmation bias. The internet we are in right now is engineered to exploit it. And you cannot REALLY escape it completely. The reason we experience confirmation bias has deep roots in how we process information at bedrock level. There are so many little lines and platitudes uttered by folks, that are meant appeal to this sense of inner rationality that we all have - arguably we might be born to champion it as one of those unifying values like not hurting other humans (something we might actually have IN us as a survival trait that makes supports our eusocial modality by facilitating more expression and therefor more communication,) but the majority of our decisions are "brain off" by default - conscious info processing is for the exceptions where your brain didn't already have a big enough data matrix to take shortcuts by making predictions across it, and really needs to make a determination to move forward anyway. Now it's gotta drop gears and apply torque and that has real physical costs to your hardware and resources. It doesn't want to do that when it already has the stuff to make that new info workable as is. It doesn't feel to us like there are gaps because your whole conscious and perceptual experience is a narrative that your brain extrapolates by contextually linking the info that it gets, with the info that it already has. It's arranging what's there to make the most possible sense it can make when linked together. You percieve it as a continuous narrative of thoughts and experiences in a reality that is static and consistent because that's how your brain writes it to deeper memory. It tells itself little stories about how it thinks everything through. Yet, you make thousands of decisions every day and couldn't explain half of them to yourself, if you even remember them at all. You didn't think, you reacted. D'you understand how many observations and decisions you have to make to drive just a few blocks? No, you remember daydreaming and vibing to music, or thinking about your destination. But somewhere in your mind, questions are asked, answers are formed, and actions are taken. And a lot of info came and went untouched. We literally can't do it. The volume of information our brains are sifting second by second would make it take a lifetime just to accurately process a single day. We are less knowing where exactly the ball is, and more swinging the bat and working out the timing to make it connect. Your mind doesn't actually care where the ball is. It just wants to know when to swing. Again, actively sifting through new info, like... intently peeling through the epistemological considerations and putting information into accurate context (all of that critical thinking work,) is a very expensive and high-order function for our brains, that it actually doesn't need to exert for 90% of mental tasks you'll encounter across your life. It's kind of an abstract measure, but your working memory holds a relatively tiny amount of information at any given moment. And our minds are basically just combing-over input and highlighting the key context for linking up a coherent picture with the with the fewest bits it needs to do so. Over time, it will shed more of those pieces, as it gets a better data pool and makes better predictions. And this frees you up to process more decisions and adapt to circumstances quicker. It's doing "zelda dialog red words." Find the red words and skip the rest. Or like that neat illusion where the inner letters of every word is scrambled but the first and last letters let you understand it anyway. Reality is chaotic and dynamic, we make it consistent and simple for ourselves. So our favorite kind of information, is the kind that most easily facilitates that reducing process. And that reducing process, is just a series of guessing algos. Meaning sometimes the reality we experience is completely inaccurate in the times when it is most coherent. And it will seem most coherent when the next piece of information supports the last without extra thinking on your part, not when it has the most truth about the information. You could say the human mind is actually a rather lazy sort. It basically does everything it can to be able to guess what goes where, or what comes next in your perceptual experience, without taking in and processing all of the information. It looks for those little indexing bits, makes predictions about the rest of the information, and tracks how coherently that later info slots into its prior models. And by doing that, it's learning how to make better predictions sooner. Just looking for the most abstract pieces of information that can best show the outline of the actual details. If you flip a coin 10 times, that won't show the odds. At 50/50, they could easily be all heads. But the more flips you do, the more the counts for heads and tails equalize to the true odds. And still, you will never know for a fact what any one coin flip's outcome will be. And it's the same with the picture your mind makes of reality. Everything you know and understand to be true about the reality that you experience and think about, is the highest-order manifestation of your brain counting the cosmic cards and trying to play the best hands that it gets from the dealer and stay at the table - no more or less. That's where everything any of us personally knows comes from. You just experience it all as apriori reality, and your beliefs as true because it's ordered by your own brain for you to experience it that way and basically just keep it pushin', keep resolving stuff down and makin' moves. "Hey, that sudden blip on the edge of your vision is a rock, just like the ones you see on the ground here. Duck." If our minds could be said to have a goal, it wouldn't be exacting rational accuracy. There are no truth-finding mechanisms up there, only pattern-seeking. What's important for our brains to do is hold a cohesive picture of input together. And it will even fudge info to make it fit with the rest. For instance, your nose takes up a ton of your visual range, and your clear field of vision is much narrower, with relatively garbo periphery. But you don't see your own nose, and generally everything in your vision will appear at least clear enough to be identifiable. And your brain is just guessing at what it's all supposed to look like, based off of information it's already taken in, and things it understands about the probability of different elements of it. This is why the confirmation bias is basically unavoidable. All layers of your thinking and processing are working to get you the clearest and most consistent picture of things with as little energy consumption as possible, not resolve the finest points of reality that it can. So we like information that slots easily into what we have, and have very irrational reactions to information that challenges that framework. It's making you have to think, and think about yourself thinking to make sure you're doing it right. And secretly all of our brains try to do as little of that as humanly possible without walking off of a cliff. Straight up, your brain doesn't respect you as a manager, and it fluffs up the amount of work it's actually doing. We are creatures of intuition and bias, and the media landscape we're looking at now is very well arranged to hook into that by appealing to what these algorithms see us engaging and having the most experience with. And the quality of the information/logical frameworks stop mattering. Your brain takes in a little bit that has a lot of strong links to a bunch of stuff it already has, says "I know that. Yeah, that's good, turn on the DVR while I take a nap." The less comparing to memory it has to do before the input makes sense, the less it will do to resolve the actual information, and the more it will blend memory in. Social media optimizes what it shows you, using what you most engage with. This basically ensures that over time, you'll be in your own epistemic bubble with a neat and tidy picture of reality that you brain makes with all of the information that only ever becomes a closer reflection of what it already thinks. It "likes" that about that information because it's convinced it's getting a clear picture of reality for less work. You feel like you are understanding more, all the while drifting into a relationship with context that is pretty much a world only you know and has little to do with what is most TRUE and EVERYTHING to do with what MOST MAKES SENSE. Word to the wise... that's you, me, and the smartest people who will ever exist. We do not understand reality, we just try to hold meaningful snapshots of the impressions it leaves on us. It is necessary because information happens fast and we couldn't survive without this ever-adapting autopilot. But also means that quite often we are making observations and decisions that aren't based on real information, and none of it will ever seem out of place to us at all, so our frogs get boiled and we start thinking clouds have faces and stuff like that. That happens on all levels of your mind. The moment it makes enough connections to have A picture where all of the things in it contextually go together, it shunts the rest and stays with that picture until something REALLY jars it. Basically, your mind will wear any glove that fits as long as it doesn't get a rash.

[@beemixsy]

you're describing like 98% of neurotypicals, unfortunately

[@TKMotoRolA_RazR]

@@beemixsy oh yeah, it's called "dunning kruger effect" i forgot about this phenomena

[@budgee2628]

the famous creator we once knew is looking paranoid and now is spiraling.

[@tyguy2936]

"Here he is talking about the intricacies of being a young black male in an impoverished area seeking a way out" Random dude from Connecticut

[@jesstiss222]

💯 except he’s from CANADA. The British Columbia side, which is geographically and culturally NOWHERE near Toronto or anywhere with a majorly “rooted” rap culture smh

[@freedomm]

@@jesstiss222 So he legit may not even know any black people at all.

[@jesstiss222]

@@freedomm well as a colonizer like Aubrey, he definitely seems to have made himself comfortable in Black spaces but that doesn’t mean that he ever had true relationships and understanding of our people and culture in a way that led him to respect or understanding the nuances, complexities, and challenges we experience. That is the biggest revelation to me from him showing his whole ahh in the way he talked about us in that video. Ya know, i grew up as a b-girl with an all-girl crew that was kind of like the sister squad to our “brothers” who were a separate crew. We and our broader squad were like mostly Black, with a random Latino/Latina, Filipino etc mixed in there and race was never an issue - we all just loved hip hop, house parties and each other. One of those was a White guy who was definitely like a true brother to me and he was a Real One! He looked out for me like a little sister, we hung out with him and his super White, Jewish mom, he often dated Black girls, was a hip hop style trendsetter, and he ended up marrying a Black woman and having three Black babies! Decades since high school, he and the fellas still get together and hang out! He was ALWAYS a Real One and one of us, because he loved us and the culture and was never two-faced, predatory, or a colonizer. And never ONCE has he ever code-switched or even tried to use the n-word or denigrate Black people bc it just wasn’t in his heart, and he’s been tried and true to this day! I say all that just to be fair and say that everything is NOT always about the color of one’s skin - you can be Black and weakness your skin color and act as a colonizer amongst Black culture and you can be White and be an admirer and even contributor and “colleague” to Black cultures. But Dirt is failing on all levels and using his Whiteness for access while exploiting Black people and hip hop culture. My pale-skinned brother would catch a case dealing with him if they ever met 😂

[@sadesg8855]

He has overstayed his welcome. Tone deaf and not self-aware and happy about it. Yea.... He can go, too.

[@BusinessZeus]

Who?

[@afrikankodo]

watching mike and justin being rendered speechless in the same way

[@freshskittles92]

Yeah i cant believe he put that out with a straight face. WTD out of control lmao "Kendrick is actually jealous" oookay Not to mention like the whole angle of "its pretty clever, drake openly disrespecting his mother on a song."

[@thevinyltruffle]

What? How can you be tired of takes like Whats The Dirt saying Drake is “clever” by saying the N word 37 times in Family Matters cause he is 37 years old? That’s one N word for every year that Drake has been an N word? With comments like that showing how deeply he is connected with the black community, how could you be ever tire of them?

[@Quandryification]

😂😂😂

[@leeswift7883]

No replies that missed the sarcasm? Are people on social media getting smarter? 😂

[@antman0719]

🤣🤣🤣

[@lisalasers]

If this 37 thing is true, aubrey is way deeper than anyone understood

[@maurice7950]

This lyric over analysis definitely started with genius lyrics. You get points for breaking down lyrics so people dig as deep as possible to find all the possible meanings of shit because they want points. Shit I do it to some times, like I was listening to My Adidas and DMC says "roam all over coliseum floors" and so I went onto genius and wrote "D.M.C says roam because the Colosseum is in Rome." on the breakdown of it. And it's definitely more prevalent on popular rappers who are hailed as lyrical geniuses. Like MF DOOM has great depth to his lyrics but some of the shit people say he's saying is wild.

[@Ben-xj2rf]

That roam coliseum one is obviously true tho

[@Phished123]

the problem isnt the site or the concept of lyric breakdowns themselves, its presenting it as you having some key thing that makes your breakdown "the correct one" its just analysis and interpretation. but it should be presented as such, interpretation. Some are easily agreed on because well duh. When DOOM says "I used to keep a full stock of work, half rock and half shake" its pretty obvious what he means, but at the end of the day its interpretation, and when you do media analysis you bring your own shit to the table. Everyone is free to do this, but they have to acknowledge that at the end of the day, their own biases and knowledge effect what they think something means.

[@princejellyfish3945]

@@Phished123my two cents is that a lot of times people are over-personalizing the lyrics and intentions of artists. So they think finding an obscure social media post from said artist and interpreting it correctly, or something to that affect, will unlock the hidden meaning of a song or album. When really just listening and reading the lyrics does the job pretty well.

[@IllusionistBeatsOfficial]

The Rome/roam thing is so obvious it doesn't need mentioning. That's the opposite of 'deep as possible.'

[@maurice7950]

@@IllusionistBeatsOfficial im aware and decided to include it anyway and someone already said this

[@SpareNichols]

Day in the life of a rap lyric expert "analyst": - turns off The Number 23 - hits ctrl+F on lyrics and tries various words to see number of occurrences - winds yarn connecting pushpin to other pushpin on bulletin board - smoke break - checks Genius for new annotations - publishes authoritative dissertation on Drake song on YT - sets thumbnail to AI generated art trained on Mr Beast thumbnails

[@amandamarinovich6164]

The Number 23 😂

[@unluckychloe13]

the dark souls lore comparison is actually pretty apt when you compare the kendrick/drake stuff to elden ring dropping. theres always been people dissecting lyrics online just like theres always been dark souls youtubers, but with both there was this huge cashgrab moment where they popped off in the mainstream algorithm and you got an influx of people who don't actually have any interesting insights or ideas or passion making clickbait ACTUALLY EXPLAINED content because its free views. 10000x worse with kendrick/drake tho because so many of them are random dudes who barely listened to rap music beforehand and just want to join the big cultural discourse, and end up spreading a bunch of ignorant stuff, or making crazy reaches because they dont have context for extremely straightforward references. i remember watching this dudes early videos about the beef in the background while i was avoiding doing my job and he openly talked about his channel blowing up because of his first breakdown video, so i think he's just milking it at this point and trying to force as much content as possible to make a 2 hour video also the person who said "people who don't make anything have the strongest opinions about how things are made" is 100%, im a game developer and its a 10th layer of hell out here

[@giovannizerbini3119]

The first time I saw people counting words and looking for clues like this was when the Dissect podcast guy counted some numbers kendrick rapped in his Nosetalgia verse and it came out to actually somewhat make sense. I think after the success of that video people were emboldened to do this shit all over the place. Just a couple days ago I saw that same dude counting how many footballs kendrick shot in the superbowl video lmao. I'm sure people have been doing it longer but from my perspective that guy gave this way more steam

[@open_mike_eagle]

ok damn. I haven't been tracking the numerology thread. seemed very out of nowhere to me

[@MartyMcFly__25]

Goes back further than that imo. Genuis being partly created to figure out Lupe bars is where it starts for me. But even further back people thinking PAC left hidden meanings about his death in later released tracks. It’s always been there but the social internet like with most things over saturated the market.

[@GoldenPickaxe]

@@MartyMcFly__25BLEW UP LIKE THE WORLD TRADE being interpreted as a nine eleven bar for years

[@collinbeal]

Kendrick's probably the only rapper I know of who uses numerology in his songs. I'm not saying that makes him a better lyricist than other MC's; he's just into it, as it falls in line with Christian esoterica, which he is fond of (I mean, he named his son Enoch after the controversial messianic figure in Biblical Apocrypha; dude's a theology nerd (or a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which views the Books of Enoch as canon, but I somehow doubt that lol)). He's also into astrology. Everyone has things they're interested in that come through in their art. Do I think Drake is out here counting words? Hell no. Drake has things he's interested in as well, and that comes through in his lyrics. I'm not an expert on what Kendrick is talking about in his songs; I just pick up on our shared interests.

[@BacchusAurelius-yj4mb]

​​@@GoldenPickaxeI think people forget that the WTC had already been bombed once at that point in time, in 1993.

[@io739]

Sample snitching is the equivalent of telling everyone where your dealer lives and then wondering why he disappeared

[@Sirfredrickvlogs]

"idk how you get to that level of looking for bread crumbs." It's because the song is super surface level with every lyric. There's nothing deeper to it. But Kendricks disses DO have a ton of hidden shit in it. So in order to look "unbiased" he is doing too much. I also think he was intentionally digging for more, and trying to get as much as possible because of the reaction to him calling Kendrick a liar on Twitter. Atleast we can laugh at them

[@crescentfresh8001]

It always cracks me up when a reactor is like "Oh, damn, this is a quadruple! You see, 'neener neener boo boo, your face looks like a poopoo' is brilliant, because the way he says 'your face' sounds kinda like 'orifice', which is where poo poo comes from! That's eight meanings right there, plus 'boo boo' could be a shot at Gangsta Boo, who Wikipedia tells me was in the Three 6 Mafia, and if you add up three sixes you get 18, which is the age of consent, so that's obviously a shot at Drake... but then again, he said 'boo' twice, so you actually need to add it up 18 plus 18, which is, like... umm... BRO, THAT'S A QUINTUPLE! NINETY-EIGHT MEANINGS! RUN THAT BACK!". There are some really good bar breakdowns out there, but when people start busting out the numerology and runes and whatnot, it's just absurd and a disservice to actual great bars that get overlooked because "Oh my god Kendrick used a word with six letters way back on GKMC and Drake's the 6 God HOLY FUUUUCK".

[@crescentfresh8001]

Wanted to add: I'm into lyrics in general, and I'm as much a rock fan as a rap fan. Know what these breakdowns remind me of? Marilyn Manson. Back in the day, there was a huge, meticulously crafted website that would go on for pages and pages reading way, WAY into Manson's lyrics. And yes, his lyrics were layered with references and meaning at times, but to hear some fans tell it, the guy was writing in the fifth damn dimension.

[@Trixiethegoldenwitch]

I want them to start editing in like video game combo graphics and sound effects, like when you stack a big tetris attack combo

[@castrosuave7059]

​@crescentfresh8001 dawg thank you for reminding me of that typa shit. Ima make my own unnavigatable, schizo kendrick fan site with laggy baby keem dancing gif pop ups.

[@kkonaklap6067]

​@@castrosuave7059lmk when it's up so i can support your lack of meds

[@NOISECOREMafiaTV]

RIP Gangsta Boo ❤

[@jacobplanter1786]

It definitely gives off “im white and i say so” but at the same time it can be interesting and fun to imagine the intricacies of bars

[@DawryMike]

Makes me appreciate Mach Hommys' move of taking all his lyrics off genius more.

[@Trixiethegoldenwitch]

Maybe you saw it already, but Justin Hunte jumped ship on that video too for the exact same reasons. I keep thinking about that Limp Bizkit lyric where Durst goes "if I say fuck two more times, that's forty-eight fucks in this fucked up rhyme" or something. Rap genius definitely is what did this. I got into analysis because of SongMeanings back in the early 2000s trying to understand The Mars Volta; Genius took this to a way deeper level and also proved to audiences that rappers ARE actually that deep, so now they're looking for everything they can. I think you can go and change that Genius notation as a verified artist if you care to (lots of people have really funny updates to their genius lyrics). I never heard those rumors about the Ugly Mane beef; it's funny because when you explained it, I got how that happened right away--it's just like when Dead End Hip Hop wasn't sure if Jpeg was dissing Mike C Town at first because of the bars that come right after mentioning him. Always good to squash the rumors (Ugly Mane is awesome btw, check out Third Side of Tape). And yeah, it for sure happens in all genres. Metal is a big one. I also feel you REALLY hard on the "forgetting what my own songs are about" bit. I also sometimes realize what they're about way later.

[@MartyMcFly__25]

The Justin Hunte shit on twitter WTD went on today was insane. Kept digging himself a deeper hole

[@osrspac420]

the beginning of the downfall was when hip hop let Akademiks blow up about 10 years ago, that never should've happened, now we live in brain-rot world where if you don't sell 400k first week your music is "trash"... it's fucking sad.

[@always_serpico]

I honestly thought after how big of a fool he was made to look on Everyday Struggle, he would finally fade into obscurity. But, unfortunately, he didn’t. We really dropped the ball with Akademiks.

[@APKSRMKS]

do you think he used the ctrl+f feature or nah

[@open_mike_eagle]

bro 😂

[@SlickEvan]

Definitely 😅

[@BacchusAurelius-yj4mb]

Watched the video and Idk I feel like he's crazy enough to listen to the whole song and count each one individually

[@michaeldwhelchel]

In the video he took down from Twitter, he said he did Ctrl+F and saw 37 hits. So yeah, he control effed it up 😅

[@thabang187]

Thanks for the much needed conversation. As a visual artist I'm dumbfounded by these perceptions of Lyricists as embodying the literal certainty and precision of mathematicians with no room accounted for coincidence in the creative process

[@ordinaryhand]

i know this is a stupid example but recently i glanced at ghostface lyrics on spotify (for "harbor masters") and noticed someone clearly didn't know what "jennifer convertibles" is. maybe you have to have grown up in a certain era to catch half of his references. seriously though on a personal level, i was in a long-term relationship with a somewhat known musician and seeing other people break down the references to our relationship in his songs was excruciating... embarrassing for people really to theorize with such certainty and so incorrectly about stuff that was truly between me and this person and no one else. i find it a very strange parasocial compulsion.

[@open_mike_eagle]

I appreciate you sharing that. I think about that with my ex partner as well

[@ordinaryhand]

@@open_mike_eagle there came a point i had to stop listening to his music. it was a great loss because he was my favourite musician, he inspired me. maybe i will listen to his songs again someday. but i had to move on without them and all the vulnerability i felt from hearing, but being unable to respond. i appreciate your thoughtfulness on things that matter. much love.

[@revmagicdon7733]

I think the difference between the film breakdown community and rap breakdown community is the maturity of the communities. Film breakdown has been a thing long before youtube. Anyone who takes film classes will breakdown film hundreds of times over the course of their education. As a youtube community its been a thing forever. Rap breakdowns are very much new thijgs as far as youtube goes. You usually will get first reactions but actual breakdowns really just started getting very popular so the "rules" arent really written yet

[@generaldom]

37... I COUNTED!

[@Trashious12345]

Mike said the N word 5 times in this video. This means he is 5 years old. I'm 100% confident I am right about this, and will die on this hill. Hahaha

[@XD-ot1fy]

Overanalyzing media and seeing patterns in the tea leaves is as old as media itself. Rap genius def plays a role in these takes being formed and propagating. I think the lack of need for credibility from the presenter comes from the kind of audience on KZbin where your "ethos" isn't about who you are and your CV or whatever, it's how good your thumbnails & branding are, how entertaining/engaging your videos are, does the way you're communicating give the impression you know what you're talking about (even if you don't)

[@sketchtc]

My group of people that I talked hip hop with would break down shit to each other like “you hear what he said right there?!” The thing different about now to me is people are seeking to make things super deep that can often be pretty simple. They pick and choose what needs to be dissected often missing things that are deserving of it. But there isn’t a dialogue or a person to say “you’re out of your fucking mind!” It’s so wild to me that there is no level of connoisseurship required to take a persons take seriously at this point. Credibility is whatever got a lot of people to view it and has nothing to do with anything else; experience, taste, knowledge, etc.

[@adamlagerqvist8111]

I feel like the endless strive for "content" is the determining role in this. Whoever has the most shocking and "interesting" take will get the views, thats just how social media works. So, make a 2 hour long video claiming to have the definitive family matters take and rake in the cash without ever thinking about the culture or even truth of your statements.

[@JonathanCabot]

I needed the breakdown breakdown by OME

[@punkwonder]

Oooh. Definitely feel the remarks on Dark Souls etc lore breakdown videos - my jam is Bloodborne, and I rewatch analysis videos all the time. The ones that specify when they're speculating, or that "My interpretation of this is _____" are usually head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to both presentation and analysis. I would love to watch whichever Twin Peaks videos you rewatch!

[@jesstiss222]

Imagine me taking all four years of high school Portuguese, joining the language club, doing some summer immersions and becoming fluent, and then deciding to present myself as an insider and make a channel breaking down and “explaining” videos of various Brazilian cultural art forms. It’s not just the confidence, but the audacity and hubris which Dirt exposed is WAY out of line! I’m so glad people are speaking up about it

[@tjkrueger2655]

You crystalized my thoughts on these vultures, who are part of the new industry of self-professed authorities, ahem, 'content creators' who put the cart before the horse. It's kind of a generational thing, they feel they have to confidently proclaim or side with something, like it's impossible to just say "It seems like this is x, but I don't know for sure". They should listen to Kendrick, be humble

[@sullivankaska7494]

I think we need to assume at this point that any video with multiple Happy Dad logos present is just a brain-rot shit fest.

[@DrWatson28]

Closed Michelle Pidgeon

[@karaminalee]

Yesssss to your point of how we don't require sources to have credibility, I don't want to hear things from just anyone. shit's definitely changed from when I was growing up--if you didn't know the music lyrics, and they weren't printed in the album notes you were just screwed and doomed to sing the wrong lyrics for decades. Now internet/social media has definitely created some crazy content, we can all compare notes and spin and obsess over this stuff and everyone can appear to be an "authority" on every subject.

[@BuddhaGhost]

It's super frustrating when they have false positives, but also frustrating when they have false negatives.

[@Dazen101]

Only 2 min in and I'm already on board. It's crazier when they do it on a first listen and live streaming. Like, homie is breaking down the meaning of lyrics before the song is even over. They don't even let their brains breathe and process.

[@FTWKGaming]

Idk exactly why, but seeing somebody wear that Happy Dad hat immediately makes me think they’re not very bright.

[@ununseptium7961]

This is the type of nerd who is trying to find the Zodiac Killer.

[@ricopena2053]

I’m not against analyzing music in general, I believe Kendrick’s Pulitzer Prize invited such analysis to the rap genre. It reminds me of literary or film essays. But I think a KZbinr as big as What’s the Dirt should have ran that idea by one of his black colleagues before recording that. Dirt should stick to the musicality or rhyme schemes. Leave the cultural analysis of the rap beef to black video essayists. Us non black folks are outsiders and should abide by the norms black artists and creators set for hip hop.

[@germ187]

I’m just blessed that I grew up in Compton and was able to be part of the culture some an early age, I learned that even as a brown minority I am a GUEST in the culture and would NEVER speak out of my ass like this white Canadian did. Thank you Lord for giving me this life! 🙏

[@aleisterj.r8848]

I don't know, when he says something insane I just go "naaaahhhh" and let it go, the all caps in the title is just how click bait works in youtube, I think everyone is blowing it up out of what it is: just one more fan saying what he believes

[@starseer73]

agree, it’s jsut one interpretation, we all watch a bunch of different channels to figure out what we think

[@bobbytropo2314]

TWIN PEAKS MENTIONED!

[@kylechipman5850]

Mike’s been dropping a lot of knowledge on his streams / KZbin videos lately. A lot for reflection - been watching them in small chunks. I also a bust a gut when he asked what Thriller is about.

[@ChrisVickeryinajar]

omg thank you. I love lyrical breakdowns and its legit hard to find good ones anymore because people just throw together garbage poorly thought out analysis the day a song is released and even I, as basically a walking loaf of white bread, can still find deeper meaning in and references everyone is missing. WHY IS THE CHAIR EMPTY WHY CAN'T ANYONE TELL ME 😭

[@dannybuchanan3661]

Its never interpretation videos on angles where that would actually be interesting is what I dont get. Like the amount of times I've sat poring over Billy Woods lyrics that I know I dont have a half of a shot to fully deeply understand everything hes talking about, I'd love it if someone was entertaining and telling me about the history behind some of those lines, or the amount of times where I've thought about gettinf a pen and paper and just plotting out what the whole story of Kenny Dennis is bc I'm dumb with them I didnt figure out Jueles was dead til KDIV. Its always wherever they can throw out a drama

[@samirasoto96]

Super insightful perspective to hear from an artist's side of things. I never even had the thought that of course an artist, especially those with decades long careers spanning hundreds of works, must inevitably forget what all that shit meant and where it came from! It's like someone looking back at your old high school notebook and assuming you can explain trigonometry to them or why you were so pissed at Jessica for what she did in 7th period. We're getting snapshots in time. And a fan of Lynch no less. Subscribed 🖤

[@lisalasers]

Great video. The Dunning Kruger effect: bias that causes people to overestimate their own knowledge or abilities.

[@eyanandaahmed308]

i’m grateful for the videos that point out the ridiculousness of WTD. the hip hop media space is treacherous right now

[@griseldaxfr7809]

great vid, loving the segments posted from the morning show, as someone who usually isn't available to catch it live

[@Jonathan-a-az]

This style of following a thread to the abyss analysis infested film appreciation many years ago. It follows from things like the tv show Lost, in which ambiguity and open ended narratives were desgined to string the audience along to keep them watching. It proliferated through message board culture and later amatuer video essays. It's great for producers who can churn out low grade content and attatch cheap "mystery" elements to them to create easy online engagement through fan theorising. It's had a really negative impact on film culture and the types of films that get made now. Expertise, or even basic paying attention, no longer matters when it comes to aesthetics and art appreciation. KZbin et al. has democratised the whole thing. This is a good thing and a devistating thing at the same time.

[@keyvonsilva3297]

This convo hit the spot!

[@3d1k3]

I believe we are in the longest era of rap where the lyrics have not mattered for most of the music that bubbles to the top of the genre. So I can understand why people in this content centric age are hungry for lyric break downs of lyrics that are worthy of lyric breakdowns.

[@saleenf5]

This video brings up some great points I have been feeling for awhile with rap and hip hop culture these days as it has grown so big. I followed the drake and kendrick beef but found that it was near impossible to talk about with anyone I knew due to how many people were hyper focused on the beef and so authoritative on their takes, opinions, and analyzations while having never listened to a hip hop album front to back in their life before. The culture is in a spot where many do not take it or it's music seriously as a genre within its type of media which leads to many people feeling as if they can speak on these topics with authority. 17:14 is exactly right, there is a lack of respect from many who really don't see hop hop music as "real music" at all so they just drop dismissive takes or judgements in a way they never would with a different genre of music, film, books, ect.

[@gaulpict]

Other genre interpretation maniacs - Dylan must be at the top? Bob had guys sifting through his rubbish bins for clues abt his lyrics

[@BlackNella]

It’s okay for people to give their subjective interpretations. It’s coming from a place of definitive meaning as you say, that it becomes problematic and tiresome

[@rockhills]

A few days ago I saw an outtake from an interview where Caron Wheeler, the singer behind Soul II Soul’s “Back to Life” explained that song was about a her being mad after coming back from a near death experience. I would have never guessed that was the meaning behind that song! I think with social media there’s going to be people beating the artist to the punch offering their interpretations. And if they can make money offering up these interpretations it’s gonna remain an open field.

[@marcoliver484]

I feel like they all been reaching lol you know how many madlib interviews ive look for him talking bout beats and what he was tryna do and him just like " I just like it that" in all of em lol sometimes it aint deep at all

[@BpgaMusic]

WTD fucked it all up with his last one his ego got too big lmao

[@starseer73]

yeah i agree. as someone who doesn’t know much about hip hop i first started watching WTD (and other channels) to understand the songs more, helped me appreciate hip hop more. but the recent 2 hour video was slightly sloppy

[@hypo-critic]

"I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means." taken from "Introduction to Poetry", by Billy Collins.

[@jessedub]

The lyric breakdown videos are very similar to the movie trailer breakdown industrial complex, where there are hour long videos analyzing a 2 minute trailer.

[@crasyman101]

In regards to the reaction of Like that. I think it was justified because in the years since the control verse everything between Kendrick and Drake has been subliminal. Like that was as direct to Drake as it could possibly be without Kendrick saying Drake's name and most of the hype wasn't about what he said it was about the fact that it was finally put out in the open and everyone knew Drake needed to respond.

[@BuddhaGhost]

The backlash rappers get is very "shut up and dribble"

[@I.Love.Kishka]

the rapgenius effect has been a huge detriment to music imo. Growing up in white suburbs, when I learned about rap music for the first time in middle school I found it super valuable, and I have to admit that when I was young it definitely opened the door for me to take in more of the music bc I was either too young or too white or both to even know what people were talking about lots of the time. But when it starts getting into interpretation, people start telling talking about the purpose of the reference and not just literally what the reference is…. that’s not how art works. If you break it down into a science, there’s no space left for art.

[@PufferTube]

Your whosampled tweet is right on the money. Those responses are wild.

[@CurtissKingTV]

💯 you asked the same questions I have with these breakdowns

[@Tyreniom]

Can’t believe one of my favourite rappers is a normal KZbinr / streamer

[@lqayyim]

The weight off my shoulders finding this ive been losing my mind saying this to myself since I saw the breakdown just wondering how we got to this point I need to start a channel instead of waiting for people to talk about things

[@Bowblaxian_Tricknology]

Agreed

[@cdizzle]

This is an important video...I cant believe it took YT so long to put OME in my algorithm. I hate so many of those 'breakdowns' lol

[@rogerr472]

Dirt made a breakdown then had a breakdown

[@NicoRaimont]

U spittin

[@rellyrelishes]

I don't think what's the dirt even understands how weird he is for that take. 37 n words for the 37 years he's been alive. It's not even clever if that was Drake's intention. And it's even stranger he deemed it necessary to count those occurrences of that word. Now he's on Twitter crashing out about the criticism he's receiving for his odd takes analysis of family matters

[@2paco]

I knew what this was going to be about before I clicked. He jumped the shark on that one 🦈 ⛷

[@tristanchuey]

This was a good little rant and it open my eyes to a lot of things. Since I’m venturing into the music industry now and was wondering how much a sample cost, I’m now looking at it differently. Probably just keep just making original music as much as possible but I do have some samples that’s I’m sitting and but to clear it would break the bank

[@nikp3516]

I think half the entertainment value of watching these breakdowns is getting upset with the shit they say.

[@mamatoldem5331]

I feel like open mike and Danny Brown are the Dr Jekyll Mr Hyde if the same dude

[@kongeethegod]

To be fair that sounds like a Drake thing to do that sounds like a way Drake would try to put Easter eggs in his song

[@BiPhBiPhBiPhBiPh]

twigs mention i am winning 😭😭😭

[@I.Love.Kishka]

I wasn’t ready

[@ferdis7]

Welcome to the world where clicks > facts. Same shit that happens with "news".

[@nicodinisi]

10:07 this is like gaylor level conspiratorial thinking

[@SH-df9ti]

I like breakdowns and if people’s theories make sense to me I’ll adopt them but I never take their opinion as undeniable fact.

[@swervenights]

thats what i felt mr morale and the big steppers was tryna say besides the self growth, that these artists are not your savior and the pedestal thing is kind of weird. pedestals and idols is wild how old this concept is amongst humans. sometimes i wonder how people look at abstract art when sometimes its just a feeling and not an essay attached to it, just something i thought about

[@Supersized45]

I'm glad no one can find my music to armchair expert it like that. What's wrong with saying you don't know?

[@No.0.o.0]

Nick Mullen “clues” joke comes to mind.

[@BuddhaGhost]

WTD and like 3 other breakdown people said "Off-white Sunseeker" was Kendrick saying Drake was a lightskin person who seeks the sun to get darker lmfaooo

[@dustyaudio]

I appreciate this talk, I cleaned up my algorithm so I’m not getting the breakdown stuff anymore. (Please breakdown this comment: be sure to run the numbers on word count & the amount of letters I used, divide it by how many 👍 it has, then add the date of the post in somehow and it will all be ACCTUALLY revealed) lol thanks

[@longlivehw]

you somehow always get a war of words going on twitter. Personally love reading every insane reply to you.

[@WarrenF19]

I've been saying for a minute now that I come from an era where rap beef and disses didn't leave any room for interpretation; you knew what that shit was about!! I like some of this new stuff, but the subliminals and sneak dissing is causing too many people to speculate and causing the "sheeple" who follow them to take these views as gosple.

[@QueerPolitics]

i'm very grateful for this video and i agree with almost everything you said, including learning things i didn't know as a non-music maker. the part i would call into question would be about, what the meaning of a song is, and the claim that the meaning is what the artist intended it to be. that is 'a' meaning of it but the meaning/s anyone else takes from it have their own validity too. that's not at all to say that making claims about the 'definitive true meaning' of a song is okay or that speaking with authority in the way your example here illustrated is okay. that's shit's fucked. but we should definitely be aware that songs, like any text, can have meanings the creators did not intend, and even contradict their intentions in some cases. also meanings change over time due to how culture changes and the perspective we view it from. a good example would be a song a man makes about a woman might at the time feel to him like a caring love song but later he can realise how sexist that song was. the intended meaning and the meaning others take from it can be different and artists can be wrong about this. anyway, all in all i agree with you and i really appreciate this video. i think there's so much to be unpacked about how unfairly, how arrogantly, how white-ly, how misguide-ly, and how money-acrueing-ly so many self-professed hip-hop anaylsts do what they do... and how we might tackle it. much love

[@QueensNative]

Exhausted is right... WTD literally quit his day job to become a full time vulture. His page is legit littered with black peoples faces and he feels the need to "clap back" on twitter with such vitriol when WE chime in on him falling short in his attempted breakdown.

[@griseldaxfr7809]

I agree with you that it's likely a matter of rap being taken less seriously as an artform, but in regards to this beef in particular, I wonder if the pure immense popularity of these Kendrick-Drake events has poisoned the discourse a bit. The beef has extended to people who otherwise are never caught dead listening to rap music, and has been turned into a more profitable thing. I think your typical Twin Peaks analysis or Dark Souls lore video comes from a place of true love and admiration as a fan. On the other hand, the beef was arguably one of the biggest cultural events of the year and for many low quality commentary channels, a potential source of income by hopping on the latest hot topic. I've even myself seen people who while they aren't making videos like these, are interested in the beef and the beef alone, they have absolutely no care for hip hop or either of the artists involved. I'm not trying to gatekeep or anything like that, I'm glad it was enjoyed and that the songs were popular, but as far as these sort of clickbaity "definitive answers" lyric breakdowns, I think the popularity and profitability is such a huge factor. Again though, there's definitely more to it because I have noticed this issue with hip hop analysis outside of this beef for sure.

[@melvinwilliams5590]

I'm guessing this guy made a word cloud or something

[@ulricthedumb1719]

I think this sort of thing might just come from the unique position music occupies amongst other artistic mediums in the cultural consciousness. Film analysis and especially literary analysis have a long history of every small detail being read into often times likely to an unrealistic degree relative to plausible artistic intention. I think for some reason people are more willing to view films and literature as entering some abstract space after creation where the work stands apart on some level from the artist and is open to abstract interpretation without definitive objective answer. For some reason it feels music is more directly tied to the creator and to authorial intent, especially when the music involves real personal drama between different people. I think people are driven to thinking there is and has to be some true objective interpretation, and I imagine it could make people apprehensive to frame their analysis as speculative or embrace that they're reading into a piece of art beyond the intentions behind it. I think the necessity of credibility gets muddled too, because in literary and media analysis generally, someone's credibility is more just a product of the strength of their analysis, given there are no objective answers in the first place. I think perhaps some of the content creators making content on music analysis see it that way too, but I agree if they're presenting themselves as authoritative sources with objective answers that there's a far bigger downside to weak interpretation, especially when their analysis is oriented towards making direct claims about authorial intent.

[@Bowblaxian_Tricknology]

No

[@brvalentine1]

12:17 that’s why artists like Billy Woods diss Genius in songs and Mach -Hommy is anti genius. He don’t even let them post lyrics of his.