Evan Bowser
Spatial Rhymin’
Brick Body Kids Still Daydream: The Geographic Side of Open Mike Eagle's New Album
African American Rapper Open Mike Eagle released a concept album in September of this year titled Brick Body Kids Still Daydream. Inspired by Eagle’s upbringing in the Robert Taylor Homes project of Chicago, the album comments heavily on the unjust treatment of displaced African Americans who have lost their homes as a result of oppressive HUD policies, territorial stigmatization, and gentrification. Eagle’s rhyme schemes primarily surround three subjects that I feel closely pertain to our curriculum in class – geographies of home, embodiment, and gentrification. Throughout the tracklist, Eagle encapsulates themes of individuality and afro-centric creativity through deliberate sonic and lyrical decisions, offering an alternative, positive narrative against stereotypical conceptions of African Americans living in the projects.
In an interview with Minnesota Public Radio, Eagle explains how the idea for the album came about. While on a flight, he asked himself, “I know the Robert Taylor Homes are gone, but what is there now?” (McPherson). After researching, Eagle discovered that the buildings had not been replaced by anything at all. Distraught, Eagle drew connections between the gratuitous attacks on unarmed African American individuals and the demolition of a revered landmark from his childhood. While he submits that eminent domain issues plague caucasian communities too, Eagle could not think of an instance where a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood was rendered a vacant lot in the same way that the Robert Taylor Homes were. While talking about the album during an interview, Eagle stated, “This [album] is about trauma. It’s about how 30,000 residents were displaced and only one-third of them are accounted for — and there are no AMBER alerts for the other two-thirds” (Genius). This epiphanic realization fueled Eagle’s creative process and allowed him to combine the nostalgia of his childhood home with the bitter reality of living in a stigmatized space.
The following tracks best exemplify Eagle’s thoughtful soundtrack for the projects: (How Could Anybody) Feel At Home, Daydreaming in the Projects, Brick Body Complex, and My Auntie’s Building. On (How Could Anybody) Feel At Home, Eagle introduces the listener to the idea of a changing place that no longer makes natives feel welcome. He makes reference to a once popular bar called O’Doyle’s, a place that seemed to never close until it fell victim to the ruthless grip of gentrification. Daydreaming in the Projects provides an uplifting representation of youth in the projects. The verses of the song feature Eagle reminiscing about his adolescence, while the chorus repeats, “Ghetto children, making codewords, in the projects, around the world. Ghetto children, fighting dragons, in the projects around the world.” Capitalizing on their playfulness, Eagle beautifully contrasts the stigma of the projects with the innocence of the children who inhabit the space. On Brick Body Complex, Eagle expands on his identity and the space that created it. He compares himself to a project building, injecting clever lines that can be interpreted both in reference to himself and to the building he was raised in. Some examples of these witty bars include:
- “My other name is 3-9-2-5 [Eagle’s childhood address], make sure that my story's told”
- “City say they gonna knock me down, still wearing my iron hood, told y'all you won't stop me now.”
- “I'm overgrown, but these model homes, still here if it's hot or cold, still here, if my body move, still standing on Cottage Grove [Eagle’s childhood street].”
*and of course, the most blatant allegory:
- “My body is a building, a building, a building, a building.”
On the final track of the album, titled My Auntie’s Building, Eagle unloads the anger brought forth by the demolition of his Aunt’s building in the name of gentrification. He expresses that he lost a part of himself with the destruction of the building, and illustrates the magnitude of the tragedy by exposing how many lives were drastically changed by the demolition.
Brick Body Kids Still Daydream is Eagle’s effort to counter the countless episodes of spatial injustice carried out against targeted groups across the globe. Keep in mind, his fondness for the Robert Taylor Homes is not exactly linked to the quality of life there. Rather, the space served as the nucleus of the local African American community. There, African Americans were not in the minority. They could relate through shared experience and develop agency due to their spatial concentration. Having existed in that space, it makes sense why Eagle felt compelled to create such a captivating and informative album.
Watch the video for "Brick Body Complex" (explicit language):
Watch the video for "95 Radios" (explicit language):
Works Cited:
Fantano, Anthony. Open Mike Eagle - Brick Body Kids Still Daydream ALBUM REVIEW.Youtube, The Needle Drop, 22 Sept. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdiGlNbz_Qc&t=340s.
“Genius - Brick Body Kids Still Daydream: Open Mike Eagle.” Genius, Genius Media Group Inc, 17 Sept. 2017, https://genius.com/albums/Open-mike-eagle/Brick-body-kids-still-daydream
Ruiz, Matthew Ismael. “Open Mike Eagle: Brick Body Kids Still Daydream.” Pitchfork.com, 19 Sept. 2017, pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/open-mike-eagle-brick-body-kids-still-daydream/.
McPherson, Sean. “Open Mike Eagle Discusses Making 'Brick Body Kids Still Daydream'.”The Current, Minnesota Public Radio, 30 Sept. 2017. https://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2017/09/30/interview-open-mike-eagle-discusses-making-brick-body-kids-still-daydream
Open Mike Eagle. Brick Body Kids Still Daydream.
Evan, I think that this is an interesting and fascinating post. It not only touches on the effects that housing demolition, displacement, and gentrification have on people, but also on how these people use various mediums of art to express their feelings and portray their experiences to a wider audience. Especially with a lot of these experiences being “buried” by the general public, it then becomes important to allow these minorities to have a voice (in whatever creative method that they choose). Usually, I see these sentiments expressed through mural art in gentrified neighborhoods in my home city, Pittsburgh, but have never been introduced to music that has been inspired by gentrification. Also, I find it stimulating how Open Mike Eagle writes and raps about his experiences with gentrification as a child, which I feel is a definitively overlooked portion of the population when it comes to discussing those who are displaced by renewal and development processes (I sense that most of the time, we usually discuss elders who have been displaced). So, his music definitely portrays a fresh viewpoint that, although disheartening, displays a different vantage point of a displaced resident. I don’t listen to much rap, and I’m not entirely familiar with Eagle, but I must imagine that his music speaks well to others who have been in his position, which forms steady solidarity.
ReplyDeleteEvan,
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautifully written way you connected Mike Eagle's music with the themes and readings we discussed in class. Music is and always has been a very popular way to confront these social justice issues of displacement, gentrification, and different social identities with the general audience of the public. I believe that using music to portray these issues touches upon the person identities and rule us as humans face intimately with the overarching public themes of the government and so on. I also appreciate how this album was published this year, so it brings light to the issues that are happening NOW, in spaces we are familiar with rather than historical pieces of music that have done the same thing. Well done, on picking out Mike Eagles album to describe the issues of the displaced resident. I am also interested and would like to broaden on the idea of using children to discuss these inequalities. It has come to my attention that children are not considered as a serious demographic, however should be because they are more vulnerable than adults are in situations of social as well as environmental injustice. It would be interesting to hear Dr. Whitson, elaborate on the injustices and social repercussions of considering children as their own demographic. Just as we do men and women in our readings, and variations in race.