George Watsky is a "rapper, writer, and performer" according to his website. His lyrics are complex sometimes, silly other times, and overall fun and interesting to listen to and repeat yourself. His first album debuted in 2007 as a jazz-hip-hop and was barely noticed, but his self-titled album 'Watsky' released in 2010 and he became an internet sensation in 2011.
1. His lyrics are complex and easy to get lost in.
Watsky got into slam poetry before hip-hop, so his music shows off his poetic roots and re-listening to that one song you love will always bring out new things. In one song, "Sloppy Seconds," he tells a story about how old, used items often have more of a story than brand new items. It has character and stories brand new things just don't have. People are that way too: if you have stories and damages from past events, in "Sloppy Seconds," he will gladly take it.
"Woah, Woah, Woah" is another complex song. It's like a verbal form of flexing. Watsky proves to those who doubt him that he can rap, write, produce some music under the lyrics, and add his own twist to the lines as they pop up. Lyrics like " PETA would never approve of the way I've been treating this music, I bleed it, I bruise it, I kick it to the curb and then I'm sipping on my bourbon " show the cleverness of his lyrics. I've, personally, never heard someone refer to PETA as disliking them for the way they treat music.
2. He's explicit sometimes, but you'll quickly forget about the explicit lyrics.
The song "Hey, Asshole" has an explicit word in the title and throughout the song, but that's shouldn't stop you from listening to it. The song is a statement about how there are so many good things about everyone's life, but we still focus on all of the bad things more. It's about how hard it is to do things with depression.
In "Woah, Woah, Woah" Watsky is quite explicit, but the song is so cool and just fun to listen to that it makes you forget that they're so explicit. The music itself is easy to get lost in and the cleverness of the lyrics, no matter how explicit, are amazing to listen to.
3. He's incredibly personal.
In "Seizure Boy" Watsky reveals to us his epilepsy. In the song, he talks about the first seizure he had: a grand mal in gym class in front of a crush. He then goes and discusses how he dealt with it throughout his childhood and at one point raps the lyric "This is to my sick kids, it's time to flip this shit." As someone who grew up with a chronic illness, this spoke to me on a personal level. The song goes into how people with illnesses should flip it and instead of letting it get you down every day of your life, you should take it and use it to fight back against the world that did this to you.
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