A Very Smurt Retrospective Theory #1 - The Depersonalization of Very Smurt and the Hidden Meaning Behind It All

A Very Smurt Retrospective Theory #1 - The Depersonalization of Very Smurt and the Hidden Meaning Behind It All

1/24/20 - 8/15/20

DISCLAIMER: This is a completely reworked essay from January 24th, 2020. It is a deeper dive into the tracks of "Meme God" rather than the marketing like the last essay was. This is the first part in something of a spin-off series to the Very Smurt Retrospective. It will be entitled "A Very Smurt Retrospective Theory". Please bare with us as we fight through COVID-related struggles to get out completely new and original content, thank you. These will count as full essays, but be posted much less frequently as they are sort of a backup of normal blog posts. This essay's paragraphs are also a little more sparse than normal. In essays in this future spin-off series that I write from scratch, they will be longer. If you are unfarmiliar with what the original series is, the first "A Very Smurt Retrospective" post on July 28th explains it all.

"Meme God" was the chart-topping debut album of well-known musician Very Smurt. Despite its immense amount of fame, this is the one album you will find Smurt himself somewhat embarrassed of. He claims much of his songwriting and performance were lacking. He also claims the album itself had pretty minimal and underwhelming features, and the production was that of an eight-year-old’s first works. Though, throughout all of the heavy speculation about the marketing must have caused further speculation about the album itself. Especially now, people are looking back at it and realizing how truly strange this album was. Admittedly, the album did feel somewhat lacking in a few departments, but we as fans have come to accept its flaws for the bigger picture. This album felt like such a glorious thing at the time, but perhaps it was more glorious than it looked on the outside. Perhaps there was a far deeper meaning; one we glanced over at first in favor of a basic yet good album.

This theory starts at the beginning of the album, with the overlooked introduction: “Welcome To Meme God”. This track is Very Smurt simply saying he is back for a brand new album. At first, it obviously sounds like he is stating that he is Very Smurt. Though, as we move on to track two, the smash hit “Jesus God Of Thunder”, we hear the first three words: “Ayo, Very Smurt”. At first glance, this seems to portray literally nothing, and it's just the way we've grown to know Very Smurt introducing himself. Though, if you look hard enough, you’ll realize that the intro track stated “ayo, it's Very Smurt”, versus the intro for the next song, in which he says “Ayo, Very Smurt”, with no “it’s”. This is where the theory begins. Naturally, at first, you would assume that they are both simply different depictions of a line so similar it could hardly matter. The difference here is in theway the other intros are stylized with a comma after “ayo” and no “it’s”. It seems as though the person who is speaking during the intro is addressing the real Very Smurt.

At my first gander into this theory, I figured it had to be some sort of deep and interesting imposter situation, which is kind of right. It’s a case of Very Smurt himself not being himself. It seems there is a man talking to Very Smurt and singing him these songs. Of course, the intro to every song here is somewhat different, and while it appears, "yo, Very Smurt” appears in only a few tracks. These songs include "Jesus God Of Thunder", "Goteem", "Freestyle Pt. 2", and "Fight Me": tracks two, eight, nine, and eleven. One thing very noticeable about this list is that most of the tracks in which Smurt addresses himself appear towards the end of the album. This could represent Smurt losing himself in how fake and uninspired he may have felt the album was. While he does claim his negative thoughts towards the album were in hindsight, he may have had doubts during the albums production. Perhaps that was the cause for the minimalistic marketing strategy. He didn't want to hype the album up too much because he felt it would bomb if hopes expectations were too high

As the end of the album slowly advances, we see more and more tracks that heavily relate to this supposed "personal disassociation" concept. We see three tracks that are technically in a row with “ayo, Very Smurt”. This is not including "8170, A Spring's Prom", seeing as it was a diss track thrown into the album that didn't need to relate to the concept. This trilogy of tracks ends with the notoriously long and jokingly bad “Fight Me”. A song where, in the intro, we hear this fake Very Smurt say it’s the new "single", telling the real Very Smurt that this is the next ballad or ode to him. In all of this, Smurt appears to almost display Depersonalization disorder; a condition that makes you fell as if you were watching a movie of yourself. This is exactly what this fake Very Smurt fan seems to be doing.

Alas, we come to track twelve: the finale. This track is almost like a duet between Very Smurt and himself. In this song, it's said in the first handful of lines that they are both “sad now that it’s done”. Maybe this was symbolizing their undiscovered need to dig deeper into Smurt's problem to conquer it once and for all. Afterwards, they both state “but soon there’ll be more songs” happily, because they want to further express these feelings. The last line of the first verse, or the last line that has any meaning to our topic, is “I’m so thankful for you, so thank you in every way”. This line is clearly them both thanking each other for getting themselves to this point, rather than the obvious fan-thanking as it may seem Smurt is doing.

Finally the album comes to a complete end, and a terribly melancholic one in this theory. After the process of deconstruction that Meme God has taken Smurt through, its unfulfilling nature halts any further progress in repairing these broken pieces of himself. Really, at its rawest, Smurt's "Meme God" feels like part of a novel. It’s merely the introduction and beginning conflict of a story. This narrative that could span throughout tens of albums to even scratch the surface, or perhaps just one or two. If Smurt’s discography is the full novel, then the conclusion to Meme God is only the end of a chapter, though not even a full-feeling one. It was an elegant chapter masked by the strive to put out a commercial album that fans would like rather than a true emotional expression. This could be why Smurt today is so ashamed of this album; perhaps of how it ended, or how it reminds him of being broken down. Or, he might have even wanted his fans to figure this out, and since they never did, they never demanded him to finish the story. This clearly made him go almost full commercial throughout his first era instead of completing an otherwise complex and unique narrative. In conclusion, this album tells a story. Not at all a grand story, but rather a happy story that fades into sheer melancholy, only to stop mid-sentence with no resolution or even climax to make it complete.