The Matt Walsh Show - Matt Walsh tries to understand Tekashi 6ix9ine

Episode Date: December 30, 2020

Time to dive into the rainbow world of Tekashi 6ix9ine... Matt Walsh Reacts to "We Paid" by Lil Baby https://youtu.be/hnH8XAGX5ms Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey guys, this is Matt. What you're about to listen to is from my rap review series where I try to find the deeper meaning in the genre. You can subscribe to my YouTube page at YouTube.com slash the Matt Wall Show so you can watch the entire series. Okay, I'm very excited today for the chance to listen to and experience a joint from my man, Takashi 6-9. He is, for my money, one of the most transcendent artists in the history of Western civilization. As a poet, I put him on the level of Ralph Waldo Emerson. as a singer, he's Pavarotti, as a humanitarian, he's Mother Teresa. And to think he achieved all of that despite suffering that horrific accident where he fell into a giant tie-dye machine.

He actually, well, he actually looks a little bit like a bowl of fruity pebbles come to life. Or maybe he looks like something out of a Skittles commercial in hell. But I say all of that in a positive way. It's all part of his genius, really. Now, the song we're going to be experiencing today is a classic. It's an oldie, one of the Takashi 6-9 songs that my dad was listening to back in the day. It's not from Takashi's newest album, which, by the way, is available now for purchase. It's called Tattletale. Tattletale being a little reference to the fact that he's a gang member who sold out his crew to avoid 40 years in prison.

Lots of people think that, you know, he lost street cred for that because he's a snitch and all that. But personally, I think it makes him more relatable. Because I can tell you, I would totally flip on my crew to avoid 40 years in prison. Wouldn't anyone? If I'm going down, I'd take a whole lot of people with me. If I had a crew, I mean, at all, I would flip on them. This is probably why I don't have one. And I'm never going to get one if I keep talking like this.

But if I had a crew, I would dime them out in a second. I would sit down for the interrogation. The detective would come in, and 12 seconds later, I will have told them everything. I got your back. She did it. What? You b***! It would be that easy.

I don't think I've ever had a friendship that I wouldn't ruin to avoid a lifetime in prison. But in any case, that's just the background on the artist. Now, let's get to the song. This one is from way back in 2017. Like I said, it's an oldie, but certainly a goodie. It's called Kuda. All right, let's give it a listen. So can I just say here, you know, I appreciate this dichotomy.

And already we're seeing the nuances of Takashi 6-9. He's got the puppy. He's being affectionate. In the next moment, though, he's pointing a gun at your face. It's as if to say, yes, I can be sensitive. I can appreciate these more pleasant moments. I can stop to smell the roses, but I can also shoot you in the head for no reason. Now, a therapist might say that that's a symptom of a psychopathic personality disorder,

but I say, no, this is just what it means to be human, really. We can all relate to it on some level. Let's keep listening. Okay, now let's take a second to reflect on these lyrics. I roll up, I'm going to be booted, stupid, and shoot it stupid, brought a knife, I brought a Ruger, stupid, I really do this. If I towed it, then you know I shoot it, and I'm a prove it. Back, back, don't be moving stupid, or I'm going to use it. This is the kind of moment in a Takashi song where I know that he gets me.

You know, he understands where I'm coming from. And I feel a little bit less alone in the universe because so often I walk through life feeling, frankly, booted. And often my wife will say to me, honey, you're not booted, are you? And then I say, yeah, I am booted. And she'll say, we've talked about this. And I'll say, okay, well, if you don't want me to be booted, then get this sucker up out of my face in that case. So just a normal marital spat that couples have while walking through bedbath and beyond on a Tuesday. Let's get back to the song.

Okay, I do have to say just one note here. Probably you don't want to take a job as a cameraman on a Takashi 6-9 music video because you're going to have a lot of people pointing probably loaded guns right at you. I mean, there are a lot of basic gun safety protocols that are being disregarded here. If you don't know how to handle one of these things, I've got no business carrying one. So that is a concern. You know, I just wonder how many cameramen perished during the making of this video. Everybody is dancing, jumping up and down, drinking God knows what, probably high. And they're literally singing about killing people.

And meanwhile, they all have loaded guns and they're pointing it at the camera that you're holding. I just, it seems like a hazardous combination of factors. I hope they have workmen's comp is all I'm, it's really all I'm saying. But you know what? However many cameramen died, they didn't die in vain. They died for the sake of true art. Let's continue. Okay, N-words running out their mouth, but they never pop out.

I got the drop on your spot. Everybody watch out. All my N-words on 50. So you know he hopped out. Mobbed out, ops out. We're going to show what we about. I think what Takashi is saying here is, what he's saying is, is that, is that man is a creature, which reaches beyond himself, which cries out for something greater than himself, running out

they mouth, right? Meaning the words, as you are deep in prayer, spring forth from your mouth, running, streaming. But words are just abstractions, just symbols. Takashi is saying, you as a person, on the other hand, you are bound by physical laws. You are attached to your mortal coil, and you cannot pop out. You cannot hop out. You cannot overcome that limitation. I got that drop on your spot, Takashi observes.

And it's so true because we are all, as it were, dropped onto our spots. We are all plucked out of eternity, dropped into this physical frame, and we can but obey its limitations. But Takashi 6'9 is really asking us to reflect on this fundamental tension between man's desire and man's limitation. Honestly, when I listen to a Takashi 69 song, and when I look at him, I'm reminded, you know, a lot of C.S. Louis, the mid-20th century Christian apologist, very similar in many ways. And something C.S. Lewis once said was, if I find in myself a desire which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world. And I imagine Takashi 69 had that passage in mind when he wrote those lyrics because very similar themes are at work here. Let's keep listening. That's that goofy shit.

Okay, listen to this again. You can talk hot on the internet, boy. That's that goofy shit. We ain't into that boy. Black van, pull up to your mama crib boy, tire up, drive that shit off a bridge little boy. That's, um... Oh, okay, that's just him threatening to kidnap your mother and drive her off a bridge. I think that's all that is there.

So that's... That was the point of that line, I guess. Let's just keep going. Oh, my, my. Okay, let's collect ourselves here and focus in on that final line of the song. He says, we post up, we don't do the race. You go and die today. Stunning.

It takes my breath away. Just this line alone is poetic and biting and rebellious and satirical. What he's saying here is that we post up like fence posts. You know, we erect fence posts, walling our sands. walling ourselves in, hiding from the reality of our own mortality. We don't want to enter into the race of human existence because we know where that race ends. And indeed, that it ends. To enter the race is to approach every moment near the finish line. But Takashi says, you go and die today. He says, today, maybe not today, literally, but one day, on a day, someday, you will die. So he says,

embrace the finitude. Confront your life in its brevity and live it with fervor and honesty. paint your hair in rainbow colors and your teeth and get together with your homies and dance. Dance. Takashi 6-9, a scriptural scholar in his own right, he's pulling, you can tell directly from the book of Isaiah, which says, and behold joy and gladness, slaying ox and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die. That's exactly the truth. So live now, for tomorrow you shall die.

Or in fact, today you might die, especially if you're high on crack and dancing with a loaded gun. And I think that's the lesson we really take away from this. Something for us all to think about as we go about the rest of our day, which may be our final day. Thanks for watching, everybody.