Artist to Folow: George Watsky

Have you ever heard of George Watsky? Well, I doubt you know this American writer, rapper and poet by his name, but there is a great likelihood that you have already seen him somewhere on the Internet. If you are subscribed to the YouTube channel Epic Rap Battles of History, then you have probably seen him because has appeared in three of their videos, portraying William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe and Doctor Who's 4th Doctor. If you are not familiar with ERB's videos but were a YouTuber user in 2011, then you are probably familiar with his viral video, Pale Kid Raps Fast, where he rapped at an incredible speed (11,9 syllables per second). Or, I don't know, you might know him because of his collaboration with twenty one pilots' drummer, Josh Dun, on x Infinity's single Midnight Heart, or by any other reason. Or not. This post is for those who haven't been introduced to his music career yet, anyway.

Okay, now more concretely, who is George Watsky? Watsky is an American rapper, writter and poet, who was born on 15th September 1986, in San Francisco, CA, together with his twin brother: Simon.

Watsky always had interest in hip-hop and alternative music, and he even made an amateur song back in 2002, as a teenager, entitled Nosy Clowns, but George only started to earn some popularity with his spoken word, when he won the 2006 Youth Speaks Grand Slam Final with his poem V for Virgin and after being featured on Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry's 6th season (HBO) in 2007.

Even though he was ascending on his spoken word career, he slowed it down in 2007 to start his music career by creating the Jazz Hip-Hop band Invisible Inc. with two friends (Max Miller-Loran and Daniel Riera) and on 1st July 2007, they released their debut album, Invisible Inc., which was not very successful. After that, the band split, only going back together in 2016 to be featured in Watsky's Anti-Trump single Pink Lemonade and in 2017/2018, to record a second studio album which is planned to be released a couple months from now.
Despite his first musical project's failure, Watsky didn't give up and decided to go solo and released his self-titled album, which reached the 7th place on Billboard's hip-hop chart. It was moderately successful, but nothing special (I personally didn't really like this record. Not because it was a bad record, but because it was pretty weak compared to his last three albums).

In 2011, Watsky released his viral YouTube video, Pale Kid Raps Fast, where he raps extremely fast (11,9 syllables per second). He later put this video on non-listed, together with its sequel, G.O.A.T. (as an explanation for that, he replied to a fan's comment on Facebook, saying: "I took it down because every time someone reviews my album they lead with the fast rap angle because they search my name and see that video with 24 million hits. I'm not ashamed of it by any means, but I need to focus on having a music career that stands on its own merits (...)"), but before they were put to non-listed, he was invited to The Ellen Show twice because of those videos (here and here). In that same year, Watsky was considered one of the Big Sounds of 2011, together with Mac Miller, Kreayshawn and Skrillex, but between the four, Watsky is now the less successful one.

In 2012, Watsky released a collab album with his friend Kush Mody, entitled Watsky & Mody and two mixtapes: Nothing Like The First Time and A New Kind of Sexy. These mixtapes became more popular than Watsky's self-titled album because of tracks like Wounded Healer, Ninjas in Paris and IDGAF, but it was with the albums Cardboard Castles and All You Can Do, released in 2013 and 2014, respectively, when he finally earned enough popularity to be one of the best underground hip-hop artists of the 2010's. Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Moral of the Story and Sloppy Seconds became his signature songs (not counting Pale Kid Raps Fast here). After finishing All You Can Do's tour, Watsky announced he was on hiatus, and that hiatus was over sooner that expected. On 27th April 2016, Watsky posted a video saying that his hiatus was over and that he would be releasing a book called How To Ruin Everything and made a mini-film to portray one of his chapters to advertise it. Also, a future album release was confirmed by Watsky himself on 8th July with the release of the single Tiny Glowing Screens Pt.3, and that album was released on 19th August, with the name x Infinity. He then decided to make a music video for every single track, and the complete work was released on YouTube on 2nd March 2018.

This is one of my favourite artists of all time. I was introduced to him via Epic Rap Battles of History, and the first song I listened to was Wounded Healer, and I fell in love with it. I found Watsky VERY talented, and he only gets better, and better, and better and that is the main reason why I have been listening to him for nearly two years and a half without getting sick. I like his diversity. When you get introduced to Watsky, you can choose from: very depressive songs that address philosophical topics (like the four parts of Lovely Thing Suite (if you prefere, have this live studio performance, it is pretty good as well) and the three parts of Tiny Glowing Screens), songs about politics (Pink Lemonade and Stick to Your Guns), motivational songs (Never Let It Die) or nonsense songs/songs that will make you laugh (Ugly Faces, Exquisite Corpse and Pauly Shore Saw My Penis), and all that diversity shows you Watsky's personality. He opens himself on those songs, talking about his problems with epilepsy and with the drugs he has to take because of it (Chemical Angel and Tears To Diamonds), about his point of view about the human race, stating how irrelevant it is considering the whole universe (Tiny Glowing Screens Pt.1, 2 and 3), about his narcissism (Whoa, Whoa, Whoa) and many, many others.Also, his lyrics are pretty poetic, some even say too poetic for hip-hop, but do not forget he is a poet. He is one of the only rappers I have ever seen who are capable of creating a story that he has nothing to do it (most rappers, when telling a story, base on themselves on a situation they have seen from close, like I'm Not Racist, by Joyner Lucas, or When I'm Gone, by Eminem), stories that he just thinks must be told. The best example for that is Sarajevo, a song about a couple who were ethically and religiously different during the time of the Bosnian War, where Sarajevo was divided by two, divided with ethnic lines and so they were not able to see each other. They decided to see each other for the last time on a bridge that was divided between the Serbians and the Bosniaks. They were shot in the middle of the bridge by a sniper. Watsky did a great job telling this story, with great, great lyrics (for example, "People wanna put a wall to divide us/kinda fitting that we died on a bridge"). This is just an example.
Also, his dedication to both spoken work and musical career is outstanding! Since 2006, he performed slam poetry in more than 150 universities, released 52 music videos (and has three in-making for Invisible Inc.'s new album), released seven studio albums and has one upcoming for Invisible Inc. (between those seven, one was for Invisible Inc., five were solo, being one of them a hidden album available on www.kisswatskysgluteusmaximus.com and one with Kush Mody), two mixtapes, one book and he founded the record label Steel Wood Media together with Brad Simpson!

So, today's artist to follow is George Watsky. Wanna give him a try? Then go ahead! If you want to start with his most popular songs, try out Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Moral of the Story and Sloppy Seconds. I will now leave you with my favourite quotes by him:

"And I can't really tell if I'm a good person or if I'm faking it very, very well" - Ten Fingers
"Because you know what's awesome? World peace! And you know what else is awesome? Catapults. And that's the goddamn truth. This world is so confusing! But you're gonna be fine." - Letter to My 16-Year Old Self

"There are 7 billion, 46 million people on the planet and I have the audacity to think I matter! I know that's a lie, but I prefer this alternative." - Tiny Glowing Screens, Part 2

"Although the thought of paradise is very nice, in my heart I know I don't believe in magic, so maybe death is just an eternal TV static" - Lovely Thing Suite: Conversations

"I thought this was a party, but all my friends are leaving and I still wanna play" - Wounded Healer

"I thought I was an atheist until I realized I'm a God" - Whoa, Whoa, Whoa

"I'm not Jesus Christ, but I can turn water into Kool-Aid" - Drunk Text Message to God

"I can't rock your world, but damn can I cuddle!" - V For Virgin

"But if you love what you're doing, you've already succeeded" - Never Let It Die