Another question - where is the psychedelic in music now? I did
that thread about Acid rap but maybe that was just wishful thinking? Still, perhaps there's even something comparable in rap music that retains the formulaic concerns of more tradrap while making rappers sound like castratos from venus.
I've not heard many rappers talk about acid/lsd, it's more molly, xannies, sizzurp - but presumably these things, especially taken together (+ binbagfulls of industrial grade skunk) have psychedelic effects.
https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a23733912/asap-rocky-interview/
He was at his usual London abode, the penthouse of a Mayfair hotel, the kind of place that stores his stuff when he’s away and then replaces it exactly where he left it. And Skepta brought a neuroscientist with him, from University College London, who had prepared doses of AL-LAD, an analogue of LSD that only lasts for four hours. They took their drugs in the form of gummy sweets, and tripped and rapped and recorded maybe the best single on the album, all while their scientist friend observed and took notes. It’s another of those Rocky stories, like the Beverly Hills orgies, that just makes the world a slightly more curious place.
"Dude we were blasted! Like tripping balls. I remember we had this strobe light that Dexter [Navy, his Awgie director] brought — he was there, he can tell you — and I had these jelly beans in my hand, but I was so high, they were like Jack and the Beanstalk, glowy and magical. So I was like 'Skep! Skep!' And he comes running like it’s an emergency. And I open up my hand and go, 'Skeppy, they’re changing colour!'" He cracks up laughing.
"And Skep’s like, 'Rock, man, you’re mad, bruv, you’re mad!'" Rocky finds this story absolutely hilarious.
He recently announced, with typical swagger, that his ability to function under the influence of LSD was a sign of genius, because Steve Jobs and Einstein had done the same thing. But then Twitter told him that the Einstein part wasn’t true — or there was no proof anyway. So now he’s gone off the idea.
"But the Steve Jobs part is true!" I tell him.
"Yeah, but it’s not as good if Einstein isn’t in there, you know what I mean?" He laughs. "If Nikola Tesla didn’t do it, then fuck it!"