Ransom - Inception

"No more of this coonery, no more of your simple minded buffoonery"

Album: Director's Cut Scene 2 EP
Genre: Hip Hop, East Coast Hip Hop, Gangster Rap
Album Release: April 24th 2020
Length: 2:41
Producer: Nicholas Craven
Vocalist: Ransom [age 40]
Label: Momentum Entertainment

Official Audio

Charts, Streams & Sales

Spotify = 319,000 +
YouTube Music = 22,000 +

Credits

Details

• 'Inception' is a track of two parts, which encapsulates later stage Ransom while also reflecting his journey through life. First comes the street verse until the beat changes and the rapping becomes conscious. The street section ends with the brutal line "ran up in your spot hesitant, I know that you got daughters, but I don't play little league games, I hope that I pop on them."
  
  Basically, Ransom says, even if you have kids in your house I'll still run in there shooting. Meaning, I don't care if little kids die, if you wrong me, I will get you. It's evil. Then the beat is replaced with something softer, the words "no more" are sung and the lyrical content changes markedly "no more of this coonery, no more of your simple minded buffoonery."
  
  Ransom is describing his earlier life as buffoonery. He knows his mindset was wrong, as he has become tempered by age. These few lines sum up the difference between Ransom's earlier work and his latter. He doesn't wash his hands of his previous efforts but, by providing context, reinterprets it as a stepping stone towards something better, personal growth.
  
  
• In 2008, Ransom released his first album 'Street Cinema', when he was around 27 or 28 years old. It was gangster rap full of drug dealing bars like "a brick is 5 bars a, bundle is 10 bags" and on the track 'Grind & Hustle' he proclaimed "I'm a young hustler, I won't stop till I'm a mean old man." In 2020, continuing the theme, releasing 'American Hustle', only something had changed.
  
  There are a lot of rappers who play up the street life to get sales but Ransom has arrests for dealing and spent time in foster care so his street "credentials" seem to be legitimate, but it would take more than that for him to make it in music. His first three albums didn't sell and his 2017 release did better but failed to have a major impact. Ransom's breakthrough came at the grand old age of 40 with his three part 'Directors Cut' series providing underground fans a feast of raw, authentic gangster rap that was decades in the making.
  
  The mix of street and cinema was still there, Ransom dresses as Freddy Krueger and Candyman for the album art, but the music wasn't about glorifying thug life, it was about the pain and the scars that come from it. The rapper dressed himself as the monster because he knows the life outside is full of bad shit, saying "I did this shit cos I had to, not cos I wanted to" on the introduction to 'American Hustle'.
  
  The 'Directors Cut' series has the bravado of a younger man but it's tempered with a wisdom that comes from experience. It's looking back instead of looking forwards and this change in perspective makes all the difference. It's a story told by someone who's been there, done that and has the bruises to prove it. Ransom did what he had to do to get paid but the hustle came at a cost that can never truly be paid back. It's tragic, and hopefully, through Ransom recouting his tales, young lads can learn to not make the same mistakes he did.
  
  
• Ransom has a flow which rhymes multi-syllables at the end and the beginning of the line
  
  
  "broken loner, hustler with the coke aroma
  no diploma, robbed a corner store, almost smoked the owner"
  
  
  When you think the line's done it hits you again. "Coke aroma" should end the line but he carries on with "no diploma" in a way that at first catches you by surprise but then creates a staccato rhythm that instead of weaving through the beat, like some rappers do, abrasively hits against it which compliments the hard, street-life lyrical content.
  
  
• Ransom retired from rapping in 2018 at the age of 38. Never really able to break through and pushing 40 he hung up his mic to think about what might have been. Until then, his music had served a steady diet of street life, drugs and guns. A persona that seemed to match the reality as he had already spent two years in prison for possession of an illegal firearm. But wisdom comes from experience and Ransom only found his niche after he stopped trying to make it.
  
  Ransom started rapping again, but the gangster from yesteryear had been replaced by a veteran who had seen it all and survived to tell the tale. His 'Director's Cut' series with Nicholas Craven, complete with song-titles to match, was told as if he was in a horror movie, chased by the ghosts of his past. Suddenly, people could relate. Everyone has made mistakes in life and the ghosts they create chase after us all.
  
  For me, 'Sublime Intervention' is an early example of the dichotomy that made later Ransom so interesting. "I did a lot of wrong so I don't need for nothing but I look over my shoulder for the reaper coming." He unapologetically recounts a tale of thug life, drug dealing and worse "nightmares of bodies, dead faces in a bag" in a way that's unflinching. He isn't asking for forgiveness or sympathy, he's just recounting how he got here and imparting the street knowledge learned along the way. Ultimately, he got what he wanted but can't savour it "I'm trying to live well but well enough will never last." His prize is cursed.
  
  It seems to me a lot of the "hard lessons learned on the streets" wisdom of hip hop is the same knowledge a father passes down to his son. But many in the streets don't have a father. The material things only have so much value but when people grow up poor it's easy to mistake the material as more than it is. It's a father that truly provides a sense of security and his presence is never more felt than in his absence.
  
  Ransom's music is, for me, a cautionary tale of a hard life. As a child he spent time in foster care. When you need money now long term strategies aren't viable. Many young people, in their desperate search for a way out of poverty make the mistake of joining a gang and dealing drugs. Hopefully, Ransom's words can help people in a similar position avoid prison or death by the gun.
  
  It takes courage to tell your truth. While many of us would have sugar coated things, or hid them entirely, the real artistic value of Ransom's work comes from allowing people to see things as they truly were, warts and all, because it's only then we can really learn from it.

Artwork