A Very Smurt Retrospective Theory #2 - The Eras of Very Smurt and What They Truly Mean

A Very Smurt Retrospective Theory #2 - The Eras of Very Smurt and What They Truly Mean

2/9/20 - 11/13/20

Throughout the lifespan of commercialized music, we've seen it go through many phases. However, there's only one thing that had stayed consistent for decades, and likely will for decades to come. It seems to many people that, ironically enough, money is a priceless thing, and should be squeezed from artists' work. One of the more well-known ways to do this is radio streams, which has forced genres like modern country to be about as formulaic and boring as it gets. Nearly every popular and mainstream country song starts with a 10-second intro, a 20-second verse, maybe a pre-chorus, and a chorus pushing it just over one minute. It's ridiculous how easily this formula can be noticed while looking at timestamps in so many songs that simply come from one genre. One of the most diverse genres to exist, however, has been rap music. Sure this genre was pioneered by artists like those from the Sugarhill Gang, and it did take a good bit for rap to break out of its boom-bap phase in mainstream. Though, while mainstream rap has mostly stuck to one key style, there have been a lot of branching styles and sub-genres created in between. Right now, we're in a phase of trap music, which feels like an overused and over-played genre to many; including Very Smurt. Smurt began his style with the intent of parody and comedic relief in mind, and in a way, made fun of the recent wave of quantity-over-quality music. Eventually, he even got tired of making music himself, and decided to break off into "WOOb"; easily his most innovative and curious album ever. Some of his diehard fans thought that there was no way that the original Very Smurt they knew and loved had completely shifted within the span of two-and-a-half months, which is why Smurt himself decided to rebrand. He did this by announcing the "second era" of Very Smurt, and later a third. All of this begs the question of what an era truly means, and that begs a very interesting topic worth discussing before we go too deep into "WOOb" during the next "Very Smurt Retrospective".

Smurt debuted with his hit single “Supreme” back in August of 2018. This song was a very clear way to show off this new rapper’s style at the time, and most would say this style was where he was headed in his forthcoming albums. Since then, though, Smurt has blossomed. In between the albums Meme God and Jeanyus, Smurt really learned the ways of music production and what he could do with the materials he had given himself; likewise in the gap between Jeanyus and Stanferd Dropout. Though, throughout these three albums, there is an overall distinct style that used to define Very Smurt: jokingly generic trap music. He would occasionally go on to experiment with different songs in stlyles of boom bap or generic lo-fi, even setting the general standard of a fully acoustic song at the end of each album. Though, he mostly stuck to trap music, and stayed true to the parody format. This is what Smurt was known for in his early days, and this is what got him to where he is now. Throughout this, though, he could never seem to escape the shackles of this generic and sometimes bland style. Whether in an ironic sense or not, he still felt held back. In an April 2019 interview to advertise the forthcoming release of Stanferd Dropout, Smurt goes on to say that he “made an album; not a bad album by any means, but simply an album". He later went on to say that it was "more along the lines of extra ordinary rather than extraordinary” in an interview late enough that he felt comfortable dissing the album. In the April 2019 interview, Smurt continued to talk about how closely related the albums came off, and how, for example, if you just skimmed the track list, you could clearly tell that it was a Very Smurt album. He then gave an example: "each album would open with “Welcome To [album title]”, and end with “Peace Out [_]innas”, and he was clearly fed up with it. Smurt also says that he’s been wanting to “shake things up” since around halfway through the completion of Jeanyus, but had never done so. He claims those were for reasons that had more to do with giving the fans what they expect when they hear the words “a new Smurt album”. He also said it was due to his current lack of creativity and production skill.

After the release of the first era’s final track, the Kuricha Clan diss track, Smurt went on a solo hiatus. He was known for releasing a single or project at least once a month, but excluding a handful of old feature appearances, he hadn’t released anything from late May through mid-July. The theory surrounding these eras discusses Smurt fixing the two main issues that he claims prevented him from releasing a truly "unique" album thus far. He used time to grow his skill in writing, music theory, and production, while releasing nothing in the span of two-and-a-half months, getting the fans tired of the same old boring trap music just like Smurt himself was. When the fans had more than enough of his style, finally where Smurt wanted them to be, he released what he considered to be his magnum opus at the time: “WOOb”. The album was simply beautiful; a representation of everything during Smurt’s recent development as a musician and writer. Another one of the reasons he didn’t want to release something this grand and different was its inevitable commercial failure. With the choices Smurt has made with his rich and wild lifestyle relying solely on the consistent success of new albums, a flop was the last thing he needed. So, for commercial potential, Smurt made the album span 18 tracks; making it well over forty minutes long and his longest full-length project by then. This came along with teasing the project in the form of “a new era”, something Smurt himself called “a load of total bullshit” after the album’s release. Despite all this, the album didn’t do amazing commercially, but it didn’t flop as bad as Smurt expected. Luckily, the fans genuinely enjoyed it as well, and gave it great reviews and praise everywhere.

Though, the “new era” Smurt had been teasing wasn’t really “total bullshit” after all. Smurt clearly thought it was and clearly stated so on various occasions, but subconsciously, it was clear that something had changed for Smurt. "WOOb" wasn’t a project intended to be a little more different for fun, but rather something that expressed Smurt’s emotions, thoughts, and beliefs in totally different ways, and not just in terms of genre. "WOOb" was a dynamic and emotional rollercoaster; ranging in genres from multiple acoustic tracks to experiments with boom bap and rock to depressing ballads more expressed through lo-fi beats. It also discussed many different emotions and subjects via far more intelligent lyrics. Similar to "WOOb" was Smurt’s next album Olimo; a project that took this new style and simply improved on it majorly with not much changed. Similar to the transition from Jeanyus to Stanferd Dropout. Though, people knew what to expect from Olimo; an ingenious masterpiece taking on different genres and topics for discussion throughout almost fifty minutes. So as you could expect, it wasn’t a commercial failure in the slightest. Today, this is even something Smurt admits he realizes when he informally announced the third era after his return to life. In conclusion, the commercial benefit of making a less experimental album is far better, but that's not the point of the eras. The eras of Smurt represent new ideas. They represent Smurt branching off and doing something totally different with his music, and he has held this up into the third era as well. Today, every era stands a testament to Very Smurt's talent in branching off and doing more interesting things. Sure it's sad to see Smurt go, but these "eras" provided such a wonderfully diverse catalogue which makes a very fond memory in the hearts of so many of his fans. One could love Smurt's original style to death, but if anyone saw Smurt stick to this same formula throughout his seven major projects, it would get very boring and uninteresting very fast. The eras of Very Smurt stand a beautiful reminder that change is necessary, whether you like it or not, and in many cases can lead to sheer greatness. So, my readers, keep an open mind in life, and you might have a catalogue of memories as diverse and unique as Very Smurt's.