RAVEN MACK is a mystic poet-philosopher-artist of the Greater Appalachian unorthodox tradition. He does have an amazing PATREON, but also *normal* ARTIST WEBSITE too.

Sunday, June 26

J.J. Krupert Top 13 Countdown - May '11 #2: "All By Myself" by Haystak


Haystak gets not much love so far as I know about, probably because he is a fat and ugly white dude who has always rapped about same base sensory shit, unapologetically, and has never pushed the whiteboy guilt angle too hard. Hell, he even made three records that comprised a White Boy Trilogy. I've got no problem with this because fuck it man, white people are white people, and we are not necessarily the polar opposite of the wretched of the earth. In fact, many of us ARE the wretched of the earth, waiting like all the rest of the oppressed for our turn to inherit the earth, not realizing the overlords are strip mining of all great value on their way out this atmosphere into space via German engineering deals made with aliens the same time we were busy splitting atoms.
This song is my all-time favorite by Haystak, because usually he's on some party party party wind up the night either with a honeydip or at the Waffle House tip, so when he busts into mellow man introspective mode, this is close to outlaw country music as hip hop gets - fiercely independent, and not giving a fuck. It actually surprises me Haystak doesn't have a ton more music like this, growing up in the shadow of Music Row in Nashville and all. And while Yelawolf is getting the Shady Records hype every now and then in magazine pictures and prominent music blog postings, Haystak has quietly been that country ass white rapper for over a decade. He can't twist a tongue like Yelawolf, and he never had a hit as big as Bubba Sparxxx did with Timbaland providing musical MSG for the masses behind him; but ain't no other southern white rapper ever made a song like this - chill enough for funerals, but hype enough to keep the Budweisers flowing around the pool table in the dirtbag club on a Friday night.
Perhaps part of the problem with me loving this song so much is me missing the dirtbag in my life. Since I quit drinking and have a fucking responsible ass job, my inner-caveman ain't getting fed. I feel a rebellion coming up inside of me, and I'd like to keep it off the self-destructive end of the spectrum, but hey... sometimes you've got to have forest fires to clear out all the brush.
STEAL "All By Myself"
NEXT:
Another song about Tennessee, and one I thought should've been in Winter's Bone!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I didn't get where I'm at by makin excuses...Cryin cause you didn't deal me no aces and deuces.."

Awesome ass lyrics!

Raven Mack said...

it's a great song. I imagine there's probably other Haystak classics like this but I just haven't been able to sift through the silt for the gold nugget yet.