Sometimes

Abstract

CONTEXTUAL STATEMENT
This piece is a song commissioned in 2016 by Britcore Rawmance, Berlin, and is one of two songs which form number 006 of the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ series of 7” releases.
The research question this song interrogates relates to ideas of the court jester, the vernacular and colloquialism in hip-hop. These are interrelated, and the notion of self-humiliation is common among regional-rural artists who may feel inferiority compared to urban artists. First, the idea of the court jester is celebrated in the song. Sonically, the music bounces at a 114bpm, flitting between jazzy chords, off-beats and taunting scratching, reacting against the conventional 94bpm of contemporary UK hip-hop. This provides a lyrical context, intentionally cluttered with intricate metaphors and tongue-twisting tropes of regional-rural colloquialisms and vernacular language, yet often carrying self-depreciative observations: “From the glens high up down deep to the fells”, “don’t pick pernickety sticks / I carry weight like two tons of bricks”, “I live with a sunny view so you can’t see me”, and finally, “Never been jail released on bail twice / Rewind this slice for another stretch of nice”.
A complex personality is assumed which provides a non-threatening space for performance, yet exudes the skills of hip-hop practice, as explored in the author’s article ‘Urban Myths and Rural Legends’, which draws upon Verbal Wurzels mode of operation, which: “…emerges through their hyperbolic accent and exaggerated stage presence”, and is protecting “through a kind of damage limitation” (2020). The song also expounds the author’s conclusions in the book ‘Provincial Headz’, that: “The hip hop habitus in the provinces is constructed from the assemblages of regionalism, de-regionalism, globalization and post-globalization. The regional assemblages are those that contain local vernacular language: colloquialisms, quips, phrases and terminologies which only make sense in the space of that region.” (2020: 274).
[299 words]