by Scot Eritemu (@Scothinks)

Lauryn Hill's new single; Consumerism, is a brilliant work of art. It's easy for the "deep" thinking members of the general audience (and even her core fans), to get lost in the motions of her lyricism and eventually conclude that "it's a great song but she needs to slow down a bit so we can hear what she's trying to communicate" easy because they're listening to the song with a preinformed concept of musical genres, song structure and delivery format. Truth is, Lauryn Hill just flipped the game with Consumerism. The depth of the song is not in the content alone, it's also in the structure! 


To quote an insightful comment on her YouTube channel by Jo Rap, "...her delivery is supposed to represent how Americans today consume knowledge– abnormally fast, without reflection, and without comprehension. Lauryn Hill knows what she's doing." you are damn right she does; she defied the dictates of traditional musical genres and formats in the making of #Consumerism. She created a song with a form that mirrors the message, it's right in your ears but you still can't hear it because your mind has been trained to listen for the organization of her melody, making meaning from the philosophy of her diction by searching for cryptic messages that only the mind of the "deeply enlightened" and "the mentally emancipated"  can reveal through patience in the exploration of context, and all you seem to hear is a confusing mumbling of words and tones, that sounds disjointed, unorganized and chaotic, because no matter how deep you are, it is impossible to process this song, line for line by simply listening to it like conventional music. Any claim to otherwise is egotistic and self-deceitful. 

Lauryn Hill
Photo: David Wolff-Patrick/ Redferns/ Getty Images
The chaos you sense when you listen to #Consumerism,  is exactly what Lauryn Hill wants you to hear; 'a system overloaded with "skisms and isms" at the point of self-destruction through a pretentious claim to knowledge that is in reality; total ignorance. In her wisdom, she knew that so many persons will miss the concept of her art, so she throws a hint at her listeners with a catchy hook;

He is, he is
Set to, set to
Self-destruct, self-destruct
He is, he is
Too cool, too cool
To be true 

All I can say about Lauryn Hill's new single is 'Wow!!!' shit blew me out of my mind! This is pure genius, and yes it will take a while for the majority to understand this woman's art and how much she has matured as an artist.

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