Lil Dicky: Philosophical Satire

"Why are you still talking?"


Lil Dicky's work often feels like a post-modern attempt to "reinvent" conventional rap and utilize its markers to portray life for an upper middle class, raised-in-suburbia, white Jewish man while also parodying and mocking the more generic gunk that comes from the genre. His work is firmly, squarely rap but breaks out and explores topics that otherwise wouldn't be explored within the larger culture of rap. Much as it is with Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, Lil Dicky's rap music communicates externalities of experience without sacrificing the conventions which denote modern rap as rap, allowing him to ironically (or unironically) explore philosophical antecedents through a unique lens.

Take his newest single Pillow Talking. The main crux of the song is the awkward situation one often gets put in once the fleeting magic of a one night stand wears off. The uncomfortable assumptions that get made, as well as the ever-growing realization that the "connection" that one feels during sex is either not felt by the other or does not translate to even basic socialization (in the song's case, it is both). Most of this communicated through the various existential and humanistic arguments that the protagonists end up embroiled in, talking about everything from extraterrestrial invasions to whether God exists to the proper treatment of livestock.

The first existentialist debate occurs when the Girl dismisses Dicky's fear of an alien invasion by claiming that she doesn't believe in aliens. This spurs Dicky because he is confused as to how she can believe that alien's don't exist, saying that it's nearly impossible for there to be no aliens just by pure virtue of statistics. The Girl then transitions into saying that she believes there's a plan and that she calls it "God," to which Dicky drolly replies, "Oh, you're religious, bitch." This transforms into a larger conversation regarding whether or not God exists, with Dicky citing dinosaurs as proof that, at the very least, the God that people generally believe in does not exist - even needing to bring in Brain to help him out. The Girl then proceeds to change the subject after Dicky mentions Pangaea while Brain says, "This bitch don't know about Pangaea."

The philosophy that Dicky chooses to tackle is interesting, but it's likely that he is pulling from his life experiences. Brain's quip about the Girl's lack of knowledge about Pangaea implies that she chickens out of conversations or seeks to divert Dicky's attention because she doesn't know anything about what he's talking about instead of admitting her lack of knowledge and learning from what Dicky is telling her. In fact, through the whole process, the Girl's argument gradually falls apart as Dicky pokes holes through it using critical examination. "Yeah, but like, logically, you don't believe in your side," says Dicky, exasperated and sighing.

The argument continues: after a brief interlude where they attempt to order pizza, the Girl retches as she petulantly proclaims her vegetarianism. Dicky and the Girl erupt into an argument about whether or not it's right to process animals like they're nothing, with the Girl arguing that she doesn't mind people hunting animals but that what people are doing now is unnecessary. Dicky argues that what's happening now in slaughterhouses throughout the industrialized world is just the natural evolution of what people have been doing for thousands of years. Dicky notes that the world is a lot less dangerous because of it, too. Finally, Dicky can't take it anymore when the Girl uses the phrase, "Apples to oranges," because - as he eloquently says - "Why can't fruit be compared?!"

The most interesting thing here is the continued degradation of the Girl's argument. While she doesn't make an unreasonable point regarding the inhumane treatment of animals, what she says seems to contradict her previous statements, especially when she claims that God implicitly placed humans as the sovereign species. In that case, it should be okay to kill animals as we are doing it now. The song also further destroys the Girl's credibility and exposes her hypocrisy when she is revealed to have a leather handbag, which is made from cow.

Lil Dicky's Pillow Talking is about as philosophical as rap songs get, functioning as an effective satire of upper middle class white culture that fails to exhume from their lives anything that requires critical reasoning. And, anyway, it's a pretty good song with a nice beat.