![]() ![]() Succession S2 Official Soundtrack | L to the OG feat. The embodied aesthetic outweighs the ultimate impact. The fact that his multi-billion enterprise is equally culpable in the exploitation of Black people – going so far as to ultimately facilitate the election of a fascist for profit purposes – is of negligible relevance. Kendall, however, is aspiring to embrace both sides of the record, embodying the moral authority evoked by Chuck D, as well as the imposing ubiquity of a gang authority in the corporate sense. In presenting the Living+ product, Kendall walks out to none other than Public Enemy’s “Harder than You Think.” There’s a pointed irony with him walking out to the music from a group with a pointed political message: “Check the facts, expose those cats / Who pose as heroes and take advantage of Blacks / Your government's gangster, so cut the crap / A war going on so where y'all at?” In the context of the verse, Chuck D is indicting the detrimental impact of gang culture in the Black community. ![]() JAY-Z has effectively made himself the shining precedent of corporate ambition, a perfect parallel to the characters Kendall hopes to represent in his battle for preeminence. Shawn Carter has attached his musical success to not only his lyrical talent, but the concept of navigating the industry with the sensibility of a hustler, the core ethos of any exploitative billionaire endeavor. En route to the office, Kendall finds himself listening to rap yet again - this time finding comfort in the commanding lyrics of JAY-Z’s “Takeover.” It’s a fitting pairing perhaps more than any other rapper in the contemporary era. In the final season of the series, Kendall is tested over his ability to adequately step in his fathers footsteps postmortem in the episodes “Kill List” and “Living +,” tasked with managing the merger with GoJo and delivering the launch of the unwieldy product Living+. JAY-Z and Public Enemy soundtrack Kendall’s Living+ moment. Photo by Photograph by David Russell/HBO. “To understand where hip-hop is going, then, we must understand this white audience.” For Kendall, rap exists as a metaphorical parallel to corporate dominance and power, a theme that is reinforced throughout the season. They know who's listening and the music gets tailored to the audience,” writer and activist William Upski Wimsatt wrote in his 1994 essay, Bomb the Suburbs. “The white audience doesn't just consume rap, it shapes rap also. ![]() The scene is a brief interaction, but in a satire series that details the minutiae of interpersonal experiences couched in a tale of capitalist avarice, it’s indicative of the evolving position of rap and hip-hop in the ever-devouring demographic of aspirational whiteness. To ready himself for his nascent triumph, he turns the backseat into a faux heavy bag, aggressively drumming on his thighs while rapping the lyrics to the Beastie Boys’ “An Open Letter to NYC”: “Brownstones, water towers, trees, skyscrapers / Writers, prize fighters and Wall Street traders.” Just before he steps out into the street his driver affirms, “You’re the man, Mr. He’s anticipating closing an acquisition deal for flashy media company Vaulter, and taking his position at the mantle of a megacorp. In the first few moments of the pilot, Kendall Roy (played by Jeremy Strong) is in the back of a black town car on the way to the Waystar Royco headquarters. The position of hip-hop and its relationship with the wealthy white class serves as a recurring soundboard in the HBO series, particularly in shaping the nuances of Kendall Roy’s character in revealing and astonishing ways. However, classical music and dissonant chords are not the singular benchmark for musical storyboarding. The lush baroque-style compositions of composer Nicholas Brittell are a perfect soundtrack of the powerful self-image of the main Succession characters - the herculean Roy family. One of the most potent expository tools in Succession is its surgical deployment of musical cues in narrative exposition and character development. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |