Chapter 2253: Cat Getan Music Festival (1)

Accompanied by the rumbling sound of salute cannons, ribbons drifted down. The crowd around the square was like the ripples of a fountain, and the colorful banners and hand banners surged wave after wave, constantly rolling.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of the Cat Getan Music Festival was held in the Central Square. Before the official opening ceremony in the afternoon, the float procession drove out of the Central Square, traveling along Central Avenue through the East and South Districts where there were the most foreign tourists. More than 70 floats were connected end to end, performing continuously for 4 hours between 8:00 and 12:00 in the morning.

The floats were divided into five themes: Music and Art, Architecture and City, Humanities and History, Sports and Dance, Life and Nature.

The theme of music didn't need to be mentioned; it naturally fit the Cat Getan Music Festival, with East Coast rap as the main focus.

East Coast rap in the 90s was in a period of weakness, in a struggle between artistic exploration and commercialization. Although there was no lack of godfather-level figures like Puff Daddy who never gave up and kept discovering new talent, to this day, the headphones of most rap lovers were filled with those few albums from the West Coast that were in the limelight.

Fortunately, in 1994, a miracle album saved the East Coast. The well-known "Ready to Die" quickly became popular all over the United States, pulling people's attention for rap back to the East Coast.

The Notorious B. I. G., also known as Biggie, who is still pursued and remembered by countless rap lovers, descended like a god, and one album slaughtered the charts that year.

Although the results were quite dazzling, in fact, Biggie was currently trapped in some dilemmas. Some rap lovers active in that era might know the grievances between him and the famous West Coast rapper Tupac.

Simply put, the two of them were once good friends and could be called heroes cherishing heroes. But unfortunately, one day in 1994, Tupac was attacked while recording an album in New York.

He believed that the scene depicted in the lyrics of the album Biggie was recording at the time was very similar to the scene where he was attacked, and guessed that this might be the other party's dishonorable competition method.

Based on this, a grand war between the East and West coasts began. In addition to the singers' mutual battles, the fans' verbal wars never stopped, and many even turned into offline threats, looking like a situation of life and death.

But just after this incident had been fermenting for a whole year, an album from Cat Getan suddenly emerged—"King of Cat Getan," from a singer who called himself the Cat Getan Kid. Within three days of its release, it caused a shock in the rap world of the East and West coasts.

Some people might feel that Cat Getan's gang culture is so developed, why hasn't there been any achievement in the rap world before?

You have to know that Cat Getan's gangs are still traditional Italian gangs, which are completely different from the modern gangs in Chicago and Miami. They still pay attention to family honor and decency. This kind of soil is almost impossible to breed any rebellious spirit.

Then besides the high-level gangs, there are naturally bottom-level gang members, but unfortunately, it's hard to live in Cat Getan's environment, let alone engage in music and art.

But facts have proven that after the gang order gradually collapsed and the social environment gradually improved, the genius fantasies of Cat Getan people are no less than any city.

And because of the extremely unique atmosphere of this city, the art it can nurture is also unique and shocking.

The problem of personal style prominence and commercialization that East Coast singers and record companies have been struggling with has been perfectly unified in the album "King of Cat Getan."

East Coast rap has heavy narrative, which actually means that the polishing of the fluency of the melody is not rigorous enough, and a good commercial album should not only focus on the aggressiveness in the lyrics; rhythm and musicality are also very important.

But the music category of rap itself is limited by the musician's cultural and artistic level. In short, the vast majority of rap singers do not have the ability to create a piece of music that can be accepted by the public.

Composing music is actually very difficult. First, you must have solid music theory knowledge, know the public's aesthetic tendency toward music at the moment, and even understand some knowledge of hearing and sensory studies.

But rhythm is harder than composing. Composing music at least has a basis, while rhythm basically depends on talent. Throughout history, there has never been an excellent pop composer who doesn't have his own unique rhythmic style.

The lyrics of East Coast rap singers are indeed good, but the melody is not catchy, and the rhythm is not conducive to popularity. No one buys it either. The reason why "Ready to Die" could become a hit is actually because Biggie and Puff Daddy made compromises in commercialization, using lively, bright, and catchy samples like "Juicy" and "Big Poppa" to complete the last piece of the puzzle for Biggie's rap style full of visual sense.

Although it is considered a classic now, no one knew at that time whether such an attempt would succeed. Perhaps the public would feel tired after the second time, or perhaps if they went on like this, they would lose their unique style.

Biggie, who only had one album at the time, couldn't help but be confused, and coupled with being involved in the war of words with his former friend, everyone was looking forward to what kind of excellent album he would use to fight back. This fallen superstar was also under great pressure.

The album "King of Cat Getan" perfectly solved the dilemma of East Coast rap. In the title song of this album, "King of Cat Getan," the Cat Getan Kid used a very unique melody with a strong tragic color, which fans called Cat Getan Punk.

This indeed borrowed some elements of punk music, but more of it was the musicality condensed by the dark history full of contradictions in Cat Getan city—dark, but definitely not just dark.

The name of the album "King of Cat Getan" makes people think that maybe it's another arrogant teenager who thinks he is the king of a city, writing stories about driving luxury cars, living in luxury houses, fighting for the city with his good brothers, and shooting all his enemies.

But in fact, it is completely the opposite. The lyrics of this song use a way of alternating reality and fiction, telling the story of an old bottom-level gang thug selling his life for his boss for the last time, being shot by an enemy, falling in a pool of blood waiting to die, and fantasizing about a series of pictures before dying.

The so-called King of Cat Getan only exists in this old man's fantasy. Standing from the perspective of this old man, the Cat Getan Kid uses an extremely angry tone, like a machine gun, to reveal the bloodiest darkness at the bottom of Cat Getan.

When you are a gang thug, your son will definitely be one, and your grandson will definitely be one. But this is not even because the gang threatens you; you even have to be grateful that your relatives can get a bite to eat at the gang, because there are things on the street outside that are thousands of times worse than gangs.

It seems to be just the Cat Getan Kid using a fictional character to passionately insult Cat Getan's terrible situation, but this can bring the greatest shock to East and West Coast rap singers, because they mostly come from gangs. How could they not know what gangs are like?

If gangs are considered to have order in Cat Getan, then besides gangs, what exactly are they fighting against?

Immediately after is the fantasy of this unlucky old man. This part can even be called magical realism, because the most interesting part is that the old man's fantasy about his life starting over is not about being born in a wealthy family, reading a famous school, entering a company to become an executive, and reaching the peak of life, which is the dream most people would have.

It's not even what most rap singers think: mixing in gangs, ruling an area, driving luxury cars, living in luxury houses, and being able to concentrate on music with their friends.

He actually thought that he became a magician, used his magic, killed everyone in this city step by step, exterminated the entire Cat Getan, then broke into the empty Wayne Tower, looked down at the city full of corpses on the top floor, was crowned, and became the real King of Cat Getan.

Of course, he didn't forget to step on Batman here. In the fantasy, the biggest enemy the old man encountered was Batman. The Cat Getan Kid borrowed the old man's mouth to call Batman a "dreamer with a fetish," saying that Batman must have entered this fantasy world before he died, because he would never succeed and would definitely die in the end.

Narrating to here, the picture still reveals deep despair. The reality part reveals various details of living at the bottom, making it hard not to empathize. The fantasy part is too bizarre and violent, with a kind of beauty of mental disorder, making people's brains buzz.

The second half of the song breaks the convention and starts to tell the story in reverse, telling how this old man fell here—he sold his life for his boss for the last time, and it was not until the penultimate paragraph of the song that people heard the old man call his boss "my dear Little Shark."

The first half of the song mentioned that the old man's nickname when he was young was Big Shark, which means that the boss of the gang he is in now is very likely his own son.

This unexpected reversal made the listeners start to wonder, having a gang boss as a son, why not enjoy his old age? Judging from the lyrics, the relationship between them should be good, so how did it end up like this?

Immediately after, the lyrics began to switch rapidly, telling the old man's glory when he was young, from attending the godfather's banquet, to witnessing the lights of Gray Street, to being framed and wandering the streets, starting a family with a wife who was also a bottom-level person, the wife's death, and the son growing up.

There was no lack of sentences complaining about his son's incompetence, and more importantly, sharply pointing out the most fatal drawbacks of the gangs in this era, full of a tragic perspective of order about to collapse.

But suddenly the style changed, and the Cat Getan Kid began to borrow the perspective of the elderly from the previous generation, expressing curiosity about the new things appearing in Cat Getan, quite black humor. He said that the last time he experienced the ice age was dinosaurs, the gang bosses suddenly became moles digging holes and building cold storage everywhere, the Cat Getan Police Department's equipment looked like they were going to take down Australia, and if he had a daughter, he would never let them scream at Batman standing on the roof.

Until the very end, he finally said who he was fighting—a gang occupied his grandson's new school and kidnapped and killed his grandson's classmate, and they were now planning to take back the land.

The last sentence of the song said with black humor that he actually had a grandson, the grandson actually had a school, and a person who had lived on this land for more than 60 years actually had a chance to take back his land.

The last picture narrated by the song stopped at more and more blood gushing out, becoming like a small puddle, the mirror-like surface of the blood reflecting the first ray of sunlight falling after the dark clouds broke and the shocked gaze of the old man before he died. ===== CHAPTER 2254 =====