It’s been awhile since I have taken a look at a rap song that lives up to the stereotypes of rap music (music about money, sex, and drugs). I feel like this is important to do to truly highlight the stark differences between quality rap music and loads of garbage like the song “D-Rose”. If the name Lil Pump sounds familiar, it’s because he was the same artist I talked about the last time I looked at a song from the bottom feeders of the rap scene. For a quick recap, Lil Pump is a 17 year old high school dropout/rapper from Florida who has a grown a strong fan base over the course of 2017. The last song I looked at – “Gucci Gang” – sat at the top of the Billboard Top 100 for weeks and this song is also one of his top hits. Sadly, the pitiful lyrics we saw in “Gucci Gang” will be back again here today.
Rappers get a bad rap for being very materialistic. Since many rappers have fallen upon a pile of money that they never had before, they don’t know what to do with it and splurge on unnecessary items. Lil Pump fits the status quo perfectly as this song is literally about two expensive watches that Lil Pump owns:
“100 on my wrist, 80 on my wrist
100 on my wrist, 80 on my wrist
100 on my wrist, 80 on my wrist
100 on my wrist, 80 on my wrist
D Rose, D Rose, D Rose, D Rose
D Rose, D Rose, D Rose, D Rose
D Rose, D Rose, D Rose, D Rose
D Rose, D Rose, D Rose, D Rose
80 on my wrist, 100 on my wrist
80 on my wrist, 100 on my wrist
80 on my wrist, 100 on my wrist
80 on my wrist, 100 on my wrist
D Rose, D Rose, D Rose, D Rose
D Rose, D Rose, D Rose, D Rose
D Rose, D Rose, D Rose, D Rose
D Rose, D Rose, D Rose, D Rose”
In this repetitive message, all that is really being said is the price of Lil Pump’s watches. The line “80 on my wrist, 100 on my wrist” is a direct reference to the price of his two watches where one of his watches cost $100,000 and the other cost $80,000. If this chorus wasn’t arbitrary enough, the reason the song is called “D-Rose” is because Lil Pump was watching Derrick Rose play basketball and was inspired to write a song about him. Clearly, Lil Pump was attracted to the fact that Rose was a wealthy basketball player, and wanted to draw parallels between himself and Rose.
Aside from the hook, the usual medley of pointless lyrics fill in the rest of the song.
“Pop 4 Xans, now I’m feelin’ like a hero”
“4 bands (thousand dollars) in the kitchen
9 bands (thousand dollars) in the kitchen”“Lean got me like Rio”
All of these lines can be seen in all of the other songs in Lil Pump’s collection. The only sense of creativity that can be seen here is in the line about lean where he creates a simile with the movie Rio. Essentially, what he is saying is that lean makes him feel like the crazy parrot from the movie Rio. While creative, there is no sense of cohesion with the rest of the song or really any of the other lyrics around it.
Lil Pump is currently touring the country with sold out crowds and is having the time of his life. While I can bash his lack of actual artistry in music, the reality is that he is happy with what he does and people do enjoy his music. However, when it comes to breaking the stereotypes of rap music, Lil Pump is one of the problems that need to be acknowledged.
I think it’s unfortunate that, not only does music with such a low amount of effort exist, but that it can become extremely popular. Perhaps it’s due to the lack of real substance to lyrics such as these that lackluster songs can attain such massive popularity. Music that doesn’t stimulate thought can be readily consumed without challenging the listener at all.
Garbage. What a yucky dude. Literally the worst influence I can think of, given that he dropped out and fortunately for him got rich and famous all while using hard drugs. Not a good example.
I have a soft spot for reviews of bad music, maybe because I hear so much of it whenever I go to the mall or turn on the radio. At the same time, the music is so successful because it appeals to a power fantasy that a lot of people have.