Knox Hill - Eminem "Killshot" Remix (Initial Thoughs)

 Ok, so it wasn't the playful "diss" about Ren that I pictured in my head 8min before the premiere (which I wrote about in the previous post I made).

But it was dope. It was a diss track - obviously, what else can you do on a Killshot remix, huh? - but against record labels. Because Knox is an independent artist and doesn't want to sign a deal with a record label, and also, because record labels (well, distributors, but that's semantics) are what make his videos get demonitized. And bigger artists (read: ones that are on big labels) get more attention on certain apps/sites, like Spotify. The app prefers to show people bigger artists rather than smaller ones.

He had a bar saying "you need captions" or something and mine were automatically on when the video started :'D I swear I didn't put them on, they're just sometimes automatically there... And sometimes they're in English, sometimes in Finnish, sometimes in a random language... I very rarely use captions. Only when I'm eating something crunchy and can't hear what is being said, or if the person speaking has an accent I don't understand (Northern parts of Britain seem to be tricky for me). I didn't take the captions off, though, I wanted to look at the video and catch the bars, instead of looking at the YouTube buttons...

The video was a one shot, which is an homage to Ren. I noticed another one as well - there was a therapist lady there, and she wasn't revealed until the second time the camera spun around Knox (or, she wasn't there originally, and moved there mid-shoot). Just like Chinchilla wasn't revealed until the second time the camera spun around Ren in Chalk Outlines. (I'm watching this a second time because there was something I noticed and wanted to write about and forgot about it and so I went back, but instead this time I noticed the therapist lady isn't there anymore when Knox comes back from the door. Cool. It's very close to doing theatre, except here the audience doesn't see everything that's going on. Now I'm wondering if the lady symbolizes something...)

I like how simple they kept the video. Smart, for a first one take video. There's only a dimly lit black room, Knox, about two other people (plus camera man) very minimal amount of props - but there are props, so props for that... ;)

This was dope! 10/10, loved it. I hope he gets a permission to put it on Spotify, because I need to hear this several times again, and I listen to music for the most part when I'm on the go (on my way to work and back). I even catched some bars, and doubles, and internal rhymes, on a first listen! I'm so proud of myself and how much better I am at that than just a few months ago. Ever since Knox taught what they were (doubles and internal rhymes), it's been relatively easy to notice them in Finnish rap songs. But English has been harder, my brain still wants to translate a word based on the context aka it would only have one meaning aka it would not be a double... I've been listening to a lot of Knox this week anyway (I made Rap & Hiphop playlist of all the rap and hiphop I've listened to recently, like 17h of it, and there's about 70 songs by Knox in there :D), so I think I'm getting a hang of what kind of doubles he uses. I want to do a lyrical breakdown of this, but I think I need the lyrics for that... We'll see if he drops them. If not, I'm gonna try and write them down from the song itself. Like I did back as a preteen, when internet wasn't what it is now.

Oh! That reminds me of the thing I noticed but forgot! He had a bar about himself selling his CD's on the street corner. That's apparently what he used to do for real, and has also done in one of his music videos. I like it when artists reference their own previous work. Makes me feel smart and like a true fan for noticing.