Bab 3152: Chapter 2300: Gotham Music Festival (Part 2)_1
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"King of Gotham" tells a relatively complete story, but it's actually quite simple. It's nothing more than the tale of an aging Mob boss who can't stand the indignity of retirement and insists on engaging in a real fight with guns and blades with another gang, only to be shot with a Black Gun and die on the street corner.
Logically, this kind of storyline shouldn't have a market in gangsta rap, as most civilized people don't listen to rap music to find empathy; they like the violent elements in it.
It's like some people read martial arts novels because they appreciate the chivalry and satisfaction of repaying good and evil, almost as if after reading they could be like those heroes who rob the rich to aid the poor, partially dissolving their resentment from being oppressed by their bosses in reality.
The same goes for rap. Listening to it is as if one has already shot the brains out of those who have wronged them, so even the more lyrical rap must have aggressive parts; of course, the point of view of the rapper must always be of the winner, with everyone else being trash.
However, the story written by Gotham Kid is quite unsatisfying. The protagonist himself is an old man, he gets defeated, and it's all self-inflicted. The entire song is just the delusions of a dying man, the violent elements are very subtle, the segments depicting mental confusion are too many, and there is not really any thrill to it.
But the melody of this song is quite catchy, with a strong Gothic feel, as if it's forever shrouded in a wet fog, blurring the line between dreams and reality.
The drum beats in the second half are incredibly strong, and combined with the lyrics' continuous Blinking depictions of imagery, plus Gotham Kid's angry tone and exquisite rhymes, even if one doesn't understand the content, the song is such that once you hear it, you almost won't skip it.
The first step is to keep the listeners, and as they listen, they'll start to feel that something's off about the content of the story.
Everyone knew Gotham was bad, but they didn't know how bad or exactly what made it so rotten. But in this song, the first half realistically depicts the state of life in the lower echelons, letting everyone see just how ridiculously rotten the city is.
The second half goes deeper. Once past those delusional scenes reminiscent of a lunatic having an episode, what's more realistic is the criticism of the Gang System's flaws, each point being legitimate.
This also makes people realize how those old folks who lived through the Mob's golden years view this system. They are not fervent or screaming about shooting someone; they are filled with pessimism and despair.
This strong sense of tragicism almost suffocates people, but before they can react, everything changes, and a new era arrives.
Although it doesn't specify where improvements have been made, through those seemingly complaining words, it's evident that the Mob system is being gradually replaced, and the people at the bottom now have more legitimate things to do.
The descriptions of hopeful scenes create a stark contrast with the previous oppression and darkness. But just as the listeners are feeling secretly pleased, the old man dies. He doesn't live to see a single benefit of the new era; he dies a minute before dawn.
And the most explosive thing is, after his death, Gotham sees light once again.
All this pushing and pulling, the ups and downs, the despair followed by hope, and then hope followed by despair, have listeners feeling like they're on a rollercoaster.
And when the song ends, almost everyone who has heard it falls silent, feeling as if their brains have been thoroughly rolled over.
And when you listen a second time, especially if you look closely at the lyrics, you can catch a lot of details—there are plenty of societal metaphors laden with intense anger underneath the tragedy.
When a city becomes an utter tragedy, the magma hidden beneath the volcanic facade of order that has never been extinguished, it can erupt with as much devastating anger as it once was suppressed.
The city is like a pitiful joke, filled with darkness and oppression, absurd and bizarre, like a living tragedy.
Yet, after witnessing countless tragedies in his life, the protagonist in Gotham Kid's story still chooses to write his anger in blood. He didn't have to go, but he must go because this is the last obstacle cleared with their lives by countless others like him, leaving him with their last shot.
It tells everyone if you want to resist the cold rains of this Dark World night after night, you must never become part of the madness, for there are still Warriors who endure until dawn with a single breath of warm air in their hearts.
And this album is like the darkest night of this mad city. After the rain stops, the conqueror of fate lets out his first roar in the morning light shining upon him.
The easiest passion to ignite in this world is that of revolution, and the hardest blood to extinguish is revolutionary blood. Everything about Gotham is astonishingly revolutionary.
The good news is, they succeeded. They are still alive.
For the survivors, when they pour all the anger accumulated over countless nights and the indescribable emotion and joy of seeing the light again into their songs, they naturally create art that no one can surpass.
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This art deeply shocked the world.
After listening to the entire album "King of Gotham" for the first time, East Coast rappers all expressed their desire to meet this genius youth. Unfortunately, no matter how rebellious they were, they still valued their lives, and they dared not venture into his realm as long as he chose to remain unseen.
However, when news broke out that Gotham was going to host a music festival, they could no longer sit still. They figured that if the Gotham government had the confidence to hold such a big event, then safety must be relatively assured.
And even if there were so many tourists around, getting shot wouldn't necessarily be their fate. Who knows, maybe a stroll around this city might even inspire more creativity.
In this way, many famous East Coast rappers arrived in Gotham days before the music festival, including Biggie and Puff Daddy.
Puff Daddy, also known as "Blowhard Daddy" in Chinese, is a renowned American rap producer, one of the godfathers of rap, with the other, of course, being West Coast's Dr. Dre. Most wanted to meet this mysterious Gotham Kid out of a need to rejuvenate East Coast rap.
Biggie, on the other hand, was more interested in the mysterious artist's creative methods.
Fans who have listened to Biggie's last album before his passing would know that chaos and evil are ever-present in "Ready To Die." In this cosmos, Metropolis may have replaced New York's standing, but that doesn't mean the City of Light is free from drunkenness, drug trafficking, and robbery.
In any American city where slums and chaotic neighborhoods exist, it is hard to avoid gangs—Biggie even claimed in his album that he saw Superman flying in the sky, yet on the ground, it was business as usual.
If one must evaluate the theme of this album, it would probably be about survival, enduring at all costs to stay alive.
It is therefore conceivable that this is a rap album leaning towards a darker and more desperate tone, also marking a departure from the previously more sinister and cold aggression typical of the East Coast style.
Biggie was still exploring, and lately, he'd been so entangled in trivial matters that he couldn't extricate himself, and his creativity had hit a blockade. He felt that he definitely had something in common with this Gotham Kid and speculated that a conversation between them could spark new inspiration for his upcoming album.
So he even arrived earlier than Puff Daddy, all to find the enigmatic Gotham Kid before the festival began.
Unfortunately, Gotham's bigwigs were really something else—even though the place had improved a lot, it still wasn't a match for the slums of other cities. On his very first day in Gotham, Biggie was robbed, and over $6,000 was fraudulently charged to his credit card.
Ordinary people would go to the police, but unfortunately, Biggie was also affiliated with gangs. More importantly, his background made him aware that a big black guy like him walking into a police station would likely get shot by an aggressive cop without doing or saying anything, while a conservative cop would think the aggressive cop was too restrained.
In this era, racial tensions in America were still very acute, with strict segregation between black and white neighborhoods. Most people of color could only hang around their territories—blacks would turn to other blacks for issues, whites to other whites. Anyone daring to mix would be courting serious trouble.
But things were different in Gotham. Whether you were black, white, or a chocolate person, anyone could commit a robbery because pernicious stereotypes only guard against those of darker skin complexion.
Biggie learned this the hard way because the guy who had just robbed him was white. However, based on his extensive experience of being robbed, the majority of muggers don't run far after snatching a wallet and will toss anything other than the cash.
Given that he was comparatively wealthy, he wasn't too concerned about the money. He simply followed the path the mugger had taken, hoping to find his identification documents that were in his bag, including the concert tickets.
But after tracking the route, he didn't find his bag. He ended up losing his driver's license and the tickets, had no cash to rent a vehicle, and it was visibly obvious that if he resorted to his old ways here, death would come too easily—so he had to reluctantly head back to the hotel.
At this point, it's worth mentioning that Gotham's muggers differ from those in most other cities. While muggers in other cities are motivated by greed, those in Gotham are just a tick away from madness. Sometimes they aren't even interested in the money; they just want to ensure you're penniless.
Although Gotham's situation is getting better, the generation tainted by darkness hasn't yet vanished, and even now, they comprise a major part of the city's workforce. Thus, the overall spirit of the city remains concerning—it's a place where even gangs curse their misfortune upon arrival.
Like Biggie, there were many in search of Gotham's hottest current act, the Gotham Kid. Logically, with Gotham's tourism booming and Batman himself patrolling the streets, why wouldn't the Gotham Kid sing a few lines on the radio?
Yet by the day of the opening ceremony, no one had heard of his whereabouts. Ordinary people weren't too worried—they had tickets after all, and even if the Gotham Kid didn't appear at the concert, he was bound to show up at the rap battle being held on the third day.
But the rappers were not so relaxed. As mentioned before, the East and West Coast rap battle was fierce, with almost every artist threatened by their counterparts, putting the entire American rap music scene on the brink of explosion.
And that's precisely why, for this Gotham music festival, more East and West Coast rappers showed up than at the Grammys. Naturally, the West Coast supergroup also arrived on the scene.
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