Life Told Through Rap - In Colour

Dancing by daylight

Photo Credit: Young

Author’s note: This is a work of fiction. The only thing real about this story is the music.

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Navy Blue

Drums kicks in, my palms are pressed firmly to the ground. I push my body up from the floor and bring it back down again, trying to match the frantic rhythm of the beat, gradually getting out of breath with each motion as the routine of a new day begins.

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Powder Blue

My heart rate regulates and I go outside for a run, taking in the radiance of the morning sky, the final setlist for today’s event still forming in my mind.

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Green

My legs pick up the pace and start to move in sync with the next track. The lush greenery of the park helping me focus as my regimen of physical preparation soon comes to an end.

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Yellow

The sun is out in full glory now. The beauty of a day like this is the possibility that comes with it. The illusion that this moment could potentially last forever. A temporary taste of the divine.

The same thing could be said about festivals. The fleeting formation of a third space, a loud place, where a person can lose themselves and become one with the music, a secular congregation ready to worship under sound’s ministry.

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Orange

The first rule of being a DJ is to know your audience. Sometimes you have to cater for a mainstream event, other times you have to keep it strictly underground.

Whatever the case may be, I like to take my listeners on a journey. I like to play with their expectations and show them the history, juxtapose something familiar with something that will make them want to dig deeper.

From this vantage point, I can see everything. I can see an orange hue of nostalgia descend upon the crowd, a yearning for a past both distant and present. I can see the music flow through their arms and feet, caught up in the whirlwind of a moment that is equally as satisfying as it is incomplete.

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Red

The climax of the show. I loop the 2:10 to 2:20 mark of The Persuasions’ “Good Times” and hold the audience by its ear. I repeat it so often that it becomes a mantra, a message for people to go home with, a sonic affirmation that, no matter what situation you’re in, there will always be the promise of good times ahead. I cue up the song they’ve all been waiting for, crossfade and press play.

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Pink

Time for the encore. I dig up Freeez’s “I.O.U.” and let the record play for two minutes straight. I then loop the 2:18 to 2:24 mark and strip out the instrumental. A high-pitched voice reverberates loudly through the speakers, like a spectral Cupid openly declaring what was previously left unsaid: “I need your love, I want your love, give me your love”.

I slow down the tempo and mix the record in with the last track of the album we’re all here celebrating. A spectrum of emotions take over the senses, live and in living colour.

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Further Reading

[1] Emilie Friedlander, Jamie xx’s In Colour Is An Album For The FOMO Generation, The FADER

[2] Emily Witt, The Last Rave, The New Yorker

[3] Ruth Saxelby, Jamie xx: Why Dance Music Is So Important, The FADER

[4] Son Raw, No Country For Old Men 002: On Underground Raves, Safe Spaces, And Watching The Party Die, Passion Of The Weiss

Further Watching

[1] Lovers Rock (2020)

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