Money, Power, Beauty, Fame; Choose your weapon to beat the game.

November 12, 2021 1:00 PM

Lyric vid: DJ Chris Lake and producer-musician Grimes have put together a collective 'banger' in 'A Drug From God.'

Grimes you may have heard of previously.

posted by kfholy (43 comments total)

That is far catchier than it has any right to be.
posted by rogerroger at 1:25 PM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

More like a 'not many lyrics' vid.
posted by Catblack at 1:44 PM on November 12, 2021 [9 favorites]

Could we have a spoiler tag? All of the lyrics were in the title/blurb of the original post.
posted by Balna Watya at 1:55 PM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

It's quite catchy, but WOW do the lyrics carry an ugly ethos.
posted by grokus at 2:19 PM on November 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

Is this supposed to be ironic?
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:23 PM on November 12, 2021

Catchy as heck, fun to listen to. Deep as a puddle. It's a skillfully made pop track, and not really anything more.
posted by tclark at 2:28 PM on November 12, 2021 [3 favorites]

Is this supposed to be ironic?

Yeah, given who Grimes is married to, I can't help but feel like she's singing them unironically. The whole thing sounds more like a parody of a great dance tune than an actual great dance tune to me but maybe I've just hit the Old Fart stage of adulthood.
posted by KingEdRa at 2:30 PM on November 12, 2021 [9 favorites]

Is this supposed to be ironic?

No, I think it's a set of values some people actually have about how to live their lives: Money, Power, Beauty, Fame as values, art and love as meaningless.
posted by grokus at 2:33 PM on November 12, 2021

i dub this genre "billionaire bop"
posted by glonous keming at 2:43 PM on November 12, 2021 [8 favorites]

I need to freak out on a dance floor at a gay bar to this.
posted by Uncle at 2:46 PM on November 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

NB Claire Boucher (aka Grimes) and Elon Musk are "semi-separated but" there's still love.
posted by kfholy at 2:48 PM on November 12, 2021

I wonder if she got another grant from some Canadian arts council for this one.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 2:49 PM on November 12, 2021 [6 favorites]

No of course it's not ironic.
Grimes obviously literally believes love is a literal drug given to us literally by a literal God.
All pop, and art in general, is always supposed to be interpreted literally.
posted by signal at 2:52 PM on November 12, 2021 [10 favorites]

Yeah, given who Grimes is married to

Grimes was never actually married to Elon Musk, and they broke up back at the end of September (Though Musk says they are still on good terms.) Sorry to turn this into the gossip news, but just want to get the timeline straight.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:54 PM on November 12, 2021 [4 favorites]

aaah, beaten by khfoly.

No of course it's not ironic.
Grimes obviously literally believes love is a literal drug given to us literally by a literal God.
All pop, and art in general, is always supposed to be interpreted literally.

I wouldn’t interpret it literally, obviously, but given her prior/ongoing relationship with Musk any political aspects of her art smack a bit of Louise Linton telling you that movie studios are evil.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:56 PM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

Actually, I am surprised how little drama emerged from the quasi-separation with Elon. More grace to Claire, who I'm a fan of (duh).
posted by kfholy at 3:03 PM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

Yeah, given who Grimes is married to

um, lol

she needs to go out with Hasan, plzkthx
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:38 PM on November 12, 2021

I'm so happy that when one of the most important musicians of her generation releases a new track, the conversation is mostly about the man she used to be romantically linked to.
posted by signal at 3:46 PM on November 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

the conversation is mostly about the man she used to be romantically linked to.

So is her celebrity, at present, and her own politics along the way, by her own posts.

And still, kinda.

I'm interested to see who she becomes now.

(The Hasan thing is just bc everyone knows it will irritate Elon, and Hasan knows it too.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 3:50 PM on November 12, 2021

>one of the most important musicians of her generation
They're all so young, someone else will be along in a minute with different but vital pop art.
posted by k3ninho at 4:05 PM on November 12, 2021

I'm so happy that when one of the most important musicians of her generation releases a new track, the conversation is mostly about the man she used to be romantically linked to.

was this meant ironically or sarcastically
posted by elkevelvet at 4:08 PM on November 12, 2021 [12 favorites]

Is this supposed to be ironic?
and
i dub this genre "billionaire bop"

I'm reminded of a song that I ran across the last time I was in Russia: Нефть (← maybe NSFW due to lots of bikinis). You've got to watch the video: new and old Russia (literally at times) bathing in oil.

It's a love song to oil and I couldn't believe it when I first saw it around 2012 or 2013. This must be satire, I initially thought. I don't think so.

Here's a decent translation of the lyrics. One of the refrains is: "When Russia has oil, I'm in Milan. If I'm in Milan, then Russia has oil." At the time, Milan was seen as the playground for Russia's moneyed class...likely still is, but haven't been back in a little while.
posted by msbrauer at 4:08 PM on November 12, 2021 [4 favorites]

i dub this genre "billionaire bop"

RIP $M-Bop.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:09 PM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

This is my first time hearing the statement: "Art is fraud." How are we meant to interpret it?
posted by grokus at 4:17 PM on November 12, 2021

Milan was seen as the playground for Russia's moneyed class

It's the fashion capital of Italy. There's also Bologna, but the fashion there is more refined and the stubborn leftist subculture around the University might involve too much cognitive dissonance for wannabe Russian oligarchs (or oilagarchs) on holiday.

("The red, the fat, and the learned")
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:27 PM on November 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

What does NPC mean in the video title? Is it the name of their collaboration?
"Chris Lake & Grimes (NPC) - A Drug From God"
posted by bitslayer at 4:52 PM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

NPC = Non-Playable Character
“Choose your weapon to beat the game”
posted by Stu-Pendous at 5:17 PM on November 12, 2021

NPC is what Grimes is calling her A.I ‘band’. Which raises the q of which parts are computer generated, how it was seeded and how the track was created.

NPC is often short hand for Non Player Character. It’s common in the edgelord end of the internet to dehumanize others. Originally it referred to all the characters in a video game that aren’t players- ie not the hero.
posted by zenon at 5:19 PM on November 12, 2021 [3 favorites]

There’s also been a thing recently of referring to disingenuous talking heads or the victims of their received ideas as “exhausting their dialogue tree.”

Which is a perhaps less toxic and more insightful deployment of jargon along similar but more specific lines.

(Or maybe it just tickles me more.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:25 PM on November 12, 2021 [4 favorites]

"Art is fraud." How are we meant to interpret it?
Art itself, or the statement?

I'm sorry. The fruit, it's hanging so low
posted by Acari at 5:32 PM on November 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

I didn't realize Ikea was making club music now.
posted by mhoye at 6:13 PM on November 12, 2021 [9 favorites]

I feel like it's selling me an NFT.
posted by brachiopod at 6:54 PM on November 12, 2021 [13 favorites]

one of those songs that you* can't deny has a certain pop something and yet you're already tired of it before you hit the halfway point. So yeah, I don't see how this really benefits the greater good of all mankind.



* you being me, of course, who every time I come across Elon Musk's name, I initially see "Elton John", then have to pause for half a moment and translate. Is there a name for this syndrome?
posted by philip-random at 6:55 PM on November 12, 2021

I feel like it's selling me an NFT.

This art specifically might in fact be fraud.
posted by mhoye at 7:11 PM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

I can't believe how much Grimes has fallen off in the last half decade. This sounds like the royalty free music you hear in the background of youtube videos.
posted by zymil at 7:40 PM on November 12, 2021 [3 favorites]

How dare you all shit on Beecher's Fault like this
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:55 PM on November 12, 2021

What a bunch of vapid solipsistic trash. If she's talking about her own art, she's dead on, she's a fraud.
posted by deadaluspark at 8:30 PM on November 12, 2021 [5 favorites]

What this music doesn’t sound like is Grimes’ earlier vaporwave-infused weird pop music. Where her first few collections were fresh and interesting, this just sounds like a slick beat you could buy from a talented producer. Which is to say, it’s not bad, it’s just not different in the way that her earlier work is.
posted by The River Ivel at 11:45 PM on November 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

I feel like it's selling me an NFT.

Only if you want to buy one.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:31 AM on November 13, 2021

>This is my first time hearing the statement: "Art is fraud." How are we meant to interpret it?
I don't know. Usually my tin of is-or-isn't-it shit in a can provides clarity and speaks to me on the subject. Instead we have to imagine we've escaped the platonic cave and it's all about what you can convey of and I can buy into of the shadows you saw cast on the cave wall. In terms of my worldly-visible performance logged in here under this sockpuppet*, you'll decide something and I can't speak for you.

*: ceci n'est pas un sockpuppet ...was already registered
posted by k3ninho at 1:59 AM on November 13, 2021

“ this just sounds like a slick beat you could buy from a talented producer.”

Given that Chris Lake is an incredibly prolific and successful producer / ghost producer who has probably (indirectly) sold as many records as Grimes… this tracks
posted by thedaniel at 3:16 AM on November 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

Am I the only person that finds the video unwatchable? Those cuts multiple times a second, bright flashes, ugly color scheme...the song is catchy enough, but only as background music.
posted by zardoz at 6:49 PM on November 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

came for the album full of Dune memes, enjoyed the squeaky toys for a while, but it's hard not to get the feeling that the substance has evaporated
posted by ephemerae at 4:56 AM on November 14, 2021