A Very Smurt Retrospective Pt. 2: The Debut Album

A Very Smurt Retrospective Pt. 2: The Debut Album
8/11/20

DISCLAIMER: If you are currently unaware of what this is, it is all explained in the disclaimer of our first entry in this series released on July 28th. Also, please excuse the fact that the first entry is in formatting shambles; it will be fixed as soon as possible.

For most musicians, the debut commercial album is their first big splash into a music career. It also aims to introduce as many people as possible to their music. For Very Smurt, this was announced on October 18th, 2018, with an Instagram post containing the album cover and its title. Smurt went into this project having a large following backing him up incase of failure. Though at that time, the Dreamy Meme Team, soon renamed to the Gang Gang, was more likely to fail than this album. With Lil Creeper kicked out, Smurt's solo efforts betraying the group, a mutual distrust of Stacey's Dad, and the war of the two EPs, things had broken into shambles. As one might suspect, it was hard for Very Smurt and his two friends to pave a musical path for millions to enjoy. Much of the weight Smurt and the Gang Gang were carrying were consistency in releases. When fans were introduced to Very Smurt, they were given the three leading singles from Smurt's EP within a mere three days. Compared to late August, at this time, releases had been sparse and inconsistent. Though, despite all of this, everyone tells the tale of "Meme God" going down in history for its greatness at the time. With everything going on at the time, how did this album manage to even release and be so successful?

Most mainstream artists and bands at the time put out many singles before the release of a huge album to promote it and arouse hype. Very Smurt, on the other hand, did none of this. Many fans speculated that perhaps "Hanukkah Man", but especially "Public Law 94-553", would make it onto this album, but none of them did. Whether this spawned from Smurt's confidence or not, it was still a strange move the internet took interest in quickly. Another one of the albums strange tactics was its release date moving. On December 5th, the album was set for a release on January 4th; about a month later. This was already abnormal because most debut albums from major artists span upwards of six months to a year between reveal and release. It was also confusing, as it had a date so early in the year, and therefore so close to the holidays. If artists or bands wanted to push album sales for the holidays, they would generally release the album earlier so that physical copies would be ready for early December. This meaning more inclusive with Hanukkah sometimes being at the beginning of the month like it was in 2018. Or, even earlier in other cultures, with holidays like Diwali generally in late October or mid-November.

Leading up to its release, we didn't hear much more about the album other than a revised track list and a few unrelated and random Instagram posts. This led fans and theorists to speculate even more. At this point, there were obviously no major singles prepared for this album, so there really wasn't much hype. Between the release date announcement to the actual release, fans had speculated with false proof that there would be a new single at a certain time of almost every day. The final key marketing strategy this album used was, oddly enough, having an overall lack of big marketing strategies. There wasn't even any direct advertising for this album other than general and inconsistent updates on Very Smurt's Instagram. Some might look at the clearer facts and see that this album had hardly any promotion. Though, with the sheer abundance of fan theories, misdirects, and speculation, this album never needed promotion. This album stood on the feet of Smurt's fans to built its own legs made of social media. All that was left was the hope that the music held up to its hype.

For one last curveball, on December 19th, the album's release date was moved up two days after this new date was announced. According to Smurt from interviews, his record label was very relaxed about the whole thing. They said that as long as the album released properly on a Friday, they would be fine with it. The Instagram post announcing this new release date seemed very relaxed as well. The final sentence of its otherwise short caption reads "The mixing and mastering just got finished today so I figured why wait?". Generally, most musicians or bands will find any logical reason to wait or be held back by everything surrounding an albums release. Smurt didn't care who this new release date screwed over, and because this album was priority, all physical releases did make it to stores on launch day. How this happened is still unknown, but this proves that, above all else, Very Smurt had an album he wanted to share. He didn't care about how well it did for his wallet; the only people he had in mind were his fans.

On December 21st, the album was released, and the general consensus was that the album certainly lived up to its hype. Thanks to all of said hype, millions of new fans were reeled into the interesting news stories about this album, and loved what the fuss was all about. The album opens with an intro akin to the EP's, which became a precedent for the first era. The intro also featured Lil Creeper's name. This would mean that he was probably set to be featured at some point, but it was likely their beef that led to his verse being removed. Next, we see the arguably most "hit-like" of the songs "Jesus, God of Thunder": a decent synth-rap track with funny lines and catchy tunes. Next, we have the first of three disses on the album over a free YouTube beat that had been produced for Lil Creeper's breakout single "Yeetusthebeatus". "Endma" was Smurt's favorite from the album, because he later admitted his love for the production Lil Creeper chose. At track four comes the first of two freestyles that remain the most hated of Smurt's songs today. The general opinion stated that Smurt had many good bars, but the lack of a beat makes it somewhat strange and awkward at times. Next comes Carrot Morty, which was the most popular track on the album, while fans consider it now to be somewhat lame. The fifth track set yet another standard for the first and second eras, which was Very Smurt rapping solo over a strange instrument meshed in with a normal beat. After the second beat-less freestyle, we see "8170, A Spring's Prom"; what many people think consists of the best bars on the album. The album closes out with an eight-minute comedic masterpiece, and a notorious and jokingly horribly sung closing track.

While this is certainly not Smurt's best full-length album, (and what many consider to be his worst), it's still good. You may see future essays that focus more on the many hidden themes and the tracks of this album, but not many people discuss its genius marketing. Musically, this album has always been a strange experience now and when it was first released nearly two years ago. As Smurt advanced in his career and talent, it's strange to see how this album held up so differently alongside the other albums releases. The album felt like a look back into the old-school days that laid the foundation as we listened to "Jeanyus" and "Stanferd Dropout". "WOOb" seemed to drown it out as it did with a lot of the first era's material. Then again, when that album released, first-era Smurt fans enjoyed his second and third album more, but still generally ignored "Meme God". "Olimo" always felt like a bit of a return to form, and you could definitely hear some influences from the earlier days. During the posthumous times and now with most of "THE SMURT MIXTAPE", it felt more like something to look back at rather than anything relating to the current events. "divinity", on the other hand, directly parodied quite a few elements of "Meme God" and the earlier days in general, paying tribute to what Smurt finally recognizes as his classics. Overall, whether or not you like this album and think it lives up to today's standards, it was still an interesting experience. And living through the marketing roller coaster is something that nobody could ever forget.