One of the nice things about social media platforms is the ability to find people who are like you. Weirdly for me anyways it makes me feel a little less alone when I come across people like Hasan Piker. I originally found him through the H3H3 production, The Leftist. He was somewhat of a replacement for Trisha Paytas in Frienemies, and by somewhat I mean Ethan Kline went a different direction, he went from talking about some of the Internets gossips to becoming a political commentator and replaced one of Internet's biggest trolling piece of trash. Don’t get me wrong I loved Frienemies, I appreciated that they were covering the David Dobrick stuff, but to see that more people of our millennial generation are coming out as being more of the socialist left was much more of a win.
For the last few months, since like October I think, I have been tuning into Pikers twitch stream pretty regularly. I enjoy a crass human who tells people that he is going to drag his balls across their faces in the midst of an online debate. As an academic, there have been many moments in my life where I wanted to do the same thing. Since I am a fucking freak in about every aspect of my life and my not fitting into the academic world is just a part of it. Sometimes some of these people need to have a person stand up to them and put them in their place. I find it very funny but also needed.
Aside from the occasional stream disturbance of a douche being put into place, Piker covers all of the main topics of the political world. There are two very important things that Piker is adding to the topic that no one is talking about in regards to topics like Roe v Wade, the Johnny Depp trial and school shootings. First, it is wonderful to see a man of his ranking on Twitch discuss, and yell at the fuck wad incels, about Roe V Wade. As someone who has been sexually harassed since I was 11, raped at 15, which was my virginity, and forced up against a wall for my first kiss, I have only made a few choices as to what I wanted to do with my body. Men have decided for me since the age of 11 how sex was going to be. That is pretty horrifying, yet men seem to try to skate away from this topic, or they say some of the absolute most garbage takes. Piker does not allow for any of that to slide by. He takes the time to discuss what is going on, and why these comments are ignorant and discuss the history and consequences of what will happen. Some of the things that we have seen are Vice documentaries that discuss what women are going through in Texas. As a female, I truly appreciate a man standing doing this. I do not think he understands the true magnitude that he is doing by talking about this subject. Additionally, Adin Ross joined Kick it with Twitch's streaming platform rival, starting this week.
The Johnny Depp Amber Heard case is probably one of the most random and interesting things to have seen Piker cover. More so than that reality show, gay or not gay (definitely the wrong name). This case for the last couple of years has been a large topic of discussion for many people. Personally, my friend and I were pissed that they recast his role in Fantastic Beast because we being the nerds we are loved, Johnny Depp. Both of us have believed from the beginning that Heard was trash and it was an equally abusive situation. I have felt this way. After all, I grew up knowing that men could be abused just as badly as women because my dad would tell us stories about his first wife being so coked out she shot him with a gun and he jumped out the window. He has the scars to prove it. My dad told me that there were many ways in which Heard reminded him of his first wife from some of the mannerisms and the audio that has been out for years. Unfortunately for Piker, he too has gone through some similar things as my dad and Depp. As uncomfortable as it is for him to discuss (I can only assume), it allows for there to be more discussion and honesty about what men can also go through in a relationship. The man is massive; he is 6’4 so if he were to do anything he would cause damage. I stand at 5’4 and I couldn’t imagine someone that large coming after me and the power dynamic is not the same, if I were to have a scratch on me and pointed at someone that large, it would be assumed that he started it. It makes a person think and it is nice that he is saying something on these topics.
My one criticism is a personal one. WHY THE FUCK DO YOU NOT LISTEN TO MUSIC! That is a huge blind spot in your knowledge of politics. My English Professor Music Journalist ass just wants to lecture him on the importance of the art he is not listening to or reading for that matter. So I have put together a political playlist of some of my favorite songs. Much like my article, If I was a playlist, I will be talking about each song individually and at they mean in the realm of music. Piker, this is kind of horrifying and I want to lecture you about Jazz, as that’s where it all starts, in Congo Square where the slaves met on Sunday to play music. And to through one of my favorite theory quotes that perfectly explains why he should listen and read books I am going to quote Ann B. Dobie’s Theory into Practice,
“Other Marxist, who assume that the superstructure is capable of
shaping the base, recognize that literature (as well as art,
entertainment, and such) can be a means for the working class
to change the system. By promoting their own culture, they can
create a new superstructure and eventually a different base.
Even Marx and Engles admitted that some aspect of the super-
structure, such as philosophy and art, are ‘relatively autonomous,’
making it possible to use them to alter ideologies”
(Dobie 91). Overall I enjoy is content and have convinced many of my friends to listen to him because I play it for them when we are hanging out smoking weed. I think it is important that some of these things not only be discussed, but the knowledge that Piker provides in the political realm is needed. I certainly do not know all of it and I appreciate someone taking the time out of their life to try and make things a little better. You can catch him pretty much daily on his twitch stream HasabAbi.
These are some of my favorite songs when it comes to music; however, others are songs that I feel still have some relevance even though they have been released over 15 years ago. Music and people don’t change, just the style.
“Hooker with a Penis”, Tool Aenima
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=QOR0RilgO2w&feature=share
One of the things that always comes up in the chat is people talking shit about the stupidest of things to Piker, like for instance that he bought a Hawaiian shirt or the infamous Gucci shirt. It is quite funny to watch a Leo go the fuck off on people. When I looked up who he was at first, I automatically knew it was going to be a firey time because as it says online his birthday is at the end of July, Leo season. Some of the best lyrics from the song easily apply to Piker,
“And in between
Sips of coke
He told me that
He thought/
We were sellin' out/
Layin' down,
Suckin' up
To the man
Well now I've got some
A-dvice for you, little buddy
Before you point the finger
You should know that
I'm the man
And if I'm the man
Then you're the man, and
He's the man as well so you can
Point that fuckin' finger up your ass.
All you know about me is what I've sold you
Dumb fuck
I sold out long before you ever heard my name
I sold my soul to make a record
Dip shit
And you bought one”
“Counting Bodies like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums”, A Perfect Circle, eMotive
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=hBy0dzUzHUk
Appearing originally as “Pet” on Thirteenth Step, APC renamed and reimagined this song on their album of anti-war songs. This one is much more of a Tool style as it is much heavier than their typical sound. One of the important changes is how much heavier the drums are throughout the song. It is also much more chaotic sounding. As war has never been known to be quiet, this makes sense. War once upon a time also used to have drummer boys that were not allowed to kill in battle, although they were often the casualties of such atrocities. Our fashions of war have changed, some of it is done in computer rooms, as we can see from Ukraine though, many things don’t change and the sound of horror and chaos amongst the dying is one of those sounds that do not change. Maynard Keenan making this song more aggressive and chaotic perfectly fits the theme of eMotive as well as what the sound of panic and horror is.
“B.Y.O.B” and “Hypnotize”, System of a Down, Mesmerizeand Hypnotize
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=OMtq6JzREcA&list=RDAMVMOMtq6JzREcA
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=pvP_YJTpt44&list=RDAMVMpvP_YJTpt44
These songs are being written together because of how the two albums were released in 2005 and 2006. Originally written to be a concept album, they were split up because the band had decided that it would be easier for the “iPod generation” to digest the album in its full meaning. Typically when a song is picked to be a hit, the band is picking the song they feel best represents the album. Both of these songs, like most System of a Down music, are highly political. Serj Tankian has even stated to Blabbermouth “To tell an artist that he should only play music and not talk about politics is like telling a journalist that they should only do interviews and not fix the — I don't know — toilet, or whatever," he explained. "It makes no sense. We're dynamic, sentient beings on this planet. We can be good at more than one thing. And if they're not, that's their problem." Much of both of these songs have specific moments of war or bombings that are being referred to that are subjects that have either never gained enough attention, or at the time, the current circumstances of war. However, both of these songs are still relevant to today’s political climate. “B.Y.O.B” also stands for bring your own bomb; a very telling thing about what the album stands itself.
“For Whom the Bells Toll”, Metallica, Ride The Lightening
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=eeqGuaAl6Ic&list=RDAMVMeeqGuaAl6Ic
I won’t go too far into this because this was a part of my master’s project so wrote pages on this song alone. “For Whom the Bells Toll,” describes the moments of the war as men are working their way into the battlefield. Based off the war novelFor Whom the Bells Tollby Ernest Hemmingway and the novel is based off the Holy Sonnet, “For Whom the Bells Toll” by John Donne, both describe how man is not alone, and how we need one another to survive. The bell tolls for all who did not die in the war that they are fighting. Each of these pieces of work not only describes the men that have lived to hear the bell toll but the men that have died while the bell is going off and the horrors of war play out in front of them, some of the Metallica lyrics describe such things,
“Make his fight on the hill in the early day
Constant chill deep inside
Shouting gun, on they run through the endless grey
On they fight, are they right, yes, by who's to say?
For a hill men would kill, why? They do not know
Stiffened wounds test there their pride
Men of five, still alive through the raging glow
Gone insane from the pain that they surely know
For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on (what is it?)
(For whom the bell tolls)
Take a look to the sky just before you die
It is the last time you will
Blackened roar massive roar fills the crumbling sky
Shattered goal fills his soul with a ruthless cry
Stranger now, are his eyes, to this mystery
He hears the silence so loud
Crack of dawn, all is gone except the will to be
Now they see what will be, blinded eyes to see”
“BBB”, How to Destroy Angels, How to Destroy Angels EP
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=y27mjl7iI1I
“BBB”, or Big Black Boots, comes from the EP of the side project of Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor. Although the band has never gained the same level of mainstream success, for some of us we prefer them over Nine Inch Nails. With Reznor’s wife, Mariqeen Maandig on vocals, the band itself has a different type of industrial sound than the one used to from these creators. One of the fun things that come from this song is the clicking sound that war boots make when they are walking on concrete. This song is not a lyrically heavy song, however, Reznor has always been good at making his feelings known even with minimum lyrics. The way that the music flows through each stanza gives the right emotion of what he is trying to accomplish.
“Assimilate”, Skinny Puppy, Bites
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=O1XGmYFPv_s&list=RDAMVMPjIjDlsdYOA
Coming off of their first full-length album, “Assimilate” sets the tone for what not only became industrial but much of what the context of the band's music would be about. With the heavy sounds along with the political lyrics that so many industrial bands are known for, the band sings
“Oil remove shred and tear radiation vapor
It's the fear so unclear man in motion going nowhere
In our homes stuck in the face spread the word to the populace
Yellow journal yellow journal set the pace feel the rage
Manifestations of a sort so insidious off the point
Simple solution never confusion sport a gun kill a cop
Crazy world of weary thought so receive me had enough
Lock me up lock me up
Rot and assimilate so hot to annihilate
Deviation tonic mess prolonged existence innocence
Is he who speaks isn't weak wheelchair virtue so to speak
Bubonic plague the truth of aids immunity avoid decay”
The topics, which are addressed in the song, are still heavily relevant today. This album was released in the early 80s yet we are still fighting over all of these things. If there was a time when they wanted us to assimilate it is certainly now.
“Holiday in Cambodia”, Dead Kennedys, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=nrm2B0lhvYc&list=RDAMVMnrm2B0lhvYc
One of the assume things about punk music and particularly this band is the blatant unhappiness with the world and being saying it out loud. “Holiday in Cambodia” is arguably one of the most famous Dead Kennedys songs and for good reason. The song details the story of a boy who has been in college for a few years and has decided that he knows what is best for the world. This song describes the ignorance that some fall into when they think that because they went to school they are more educated, and how some of these people think that the rest of the world should act as he does. This is a hot topic now, in fact, this song still has a great reflection of the pretentious attitude many “elite” people feel. Thank you Jello Biafra for being written on the money.
“White America”, Eminem, The Eminem Show
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=vxpeKhbeLm0&list=RDAMVMvxpeKhbeLm0
I’ll be honest, this song doesn’t fit into the mix of this playlist, however, the lyrics themselves are super relevant and do fit the theme of this playlist. Eminem has never been one to mince his words and anyone who listens to his music is aware of his stance on many things going on in the world. This song is no different, one of the things that he discusses is how his music only started to matter when the white kids in the suburbs started to listen to him, however, his skin color had allowed him to get away with much of his antics,
“See, the problem is I speak to suburban kids
Who otherwise would've never knew these words exist
Whose moms prob'ly would've never gave two squirts of piss
'Til I created so much motherfuckin' turbulence
Straight out the tube, right into your livin' rooms I came
And kids flipped when they knew I was produced by Dre
That's all it took, and they were instantly hooked right in
And they connected with me too, because I looked like them
That's why they put my lyrics up under this microscope
Searchin' with a fine tooth comb, it's like this rope
Waitin' to choke, tightenin' around my throat
Watchin' me while I write this, like, "I don't like this note!"
All I hear is: lyrics, lyrics, constant controversy
Sponsors workin' 'round the clock to try to stop my concerts early
Surely hip-hop was never a problem in Harlem, only in Boston
After it bothered the fathers of daughters startin' to blossom
So now I'm catchin' the flak from these activists when they raggin'
Actin' like I'm the first rapper to smack a bitch or say "faggot", shit
Just look at me like I'm your closest pal
The poster child, the motherfuckin' spokesman now, for—“
“Five to One”, The Doors, Waiting for the Sun
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=oOzpncIHCLs
“Five to One”, was created in the studio as a way to have more content for their album Waiting for the Sun. With the commercial success of their first two albums, The Doors were in the studio quickly because in those days the music industry ran the artist down to the ground to get the music they needed. However because the band did not have any stored-up material as they did with their first two albums, they were able to create songs that spoke about the matters at hand. The idea of “Five to One” is about the fact that only one in five soldiers came back from Vietnam. The Doors were openly against the war; the song “The Unknown Soldier” playing after this song only emphasizes their anti-war stance. Some of my favorite lyrics come from this song,
“Five to one, baby
One in five
No one here gets out alive, now
You get yours, baby
I’ll get mine
Gonne make it, baby
If we try
The old get old
And the young get stronger
May take a week
And it may take longer
They got the guns
Well, but we got the numbers
Gonne win, yeah
We're taken' over
Come on!”
“Won’t Get Fooled Again”, The Who, Whose Next
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=-iC9S-FwDSA
Right before covid hit my dad took me to see The Who and I was super stoked because I lobe them. One of the things Pete Townsend said was that he was reclaiming this song because of the importance that it held to current day politics. This was right before the election, and Townsend stated that we needed to remember whom we were voting for because much of what they went through when they wrote this song in the 60s is going on today. The man is 100% correct. What did change once we had a new leader? Nothing. Some things got a little worse. And in no way am I saying that Trump would have been better, I am a huge Bernie Sanders fan. What I am saying is that abortion rights are about to be taken away and we do not have formula for our children. So with that in mind this is what the lyrics say,
“There's nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are effaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight
I'll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again, no, no
Yeah
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss”
“Strange Fruit”, Billie Holiday, Various
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx_mOECjT_8
This song is going last because it is not only the darkest, but Billie Holiday would always play it as the last song of her set. Originally written as a poem by Abel Meeropol, this teacher after publishing it composed it as a song, which was later passed to Holiday at her nightclub. This song reminded her of her dad and the lack of health care that black men have always gotten from hospitals. Holiday hated singing this song, but she knew it was important that someone was speaking the truth. However this song would become her downfall, the club owner did not like that she sang it, he had asked her to stop and she had refused so the club owner made she was caught using heroin which landed her in prison. Holiday did not last long off of drugs after prison because she had a traumatic childhood, having to work in a brothel with her mother, she returned to her drugs, which ultimately killed her. However her legacy has lived on and this song is a major part of it, it was declared the song of the century, and for good reason. The song in its entirety will be posted below.
“Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolia, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop”
Work Cited
https://www.revolvermag.com/music/6-things-you-didnt-know-about-system-downs-mezmerize-and-hypnotize
https://blabbermouth.net/news/serj-tankian-refuses-to-shut-up-about-politics
https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-doors/five-to-one
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/robby-krieger-doors-waiting-for-the-sun/
https://www.biography.com/.amp/news/billie-holiday-strange-fruit