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Smoking wit Sylvia Plath (mixtape)

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Smoking wit Sylvia Plath
Mixtape by Plot Holes
Released October 27, 2017
Recorded Massachusetts, February - September 2017
Genre Experimental hip hop, R&B, lo-fi, spoken word, art rap
Length 48:00
Label Independent
Producer

Mubz Beats, Oculus_Official, DJ Saiyaman, Boss Nova, Kid Ocean,

Drippy[1]
Sylvia

The mixtape was inspired by Sylvia Plath (1932 - 1963); Little was initially triggered to focus the tape's aesthetic after the grimness in her work after seeing a humorous post on Tumblr, but he had been an avid fan of hers for years.

Smoking wit Sylvia Plath is the second mixtape from American hip hop artists Plot Holes. It was released October 27, 2017 on YouTube[2] to coincide with Plath's 85th birthday.

Background[]

Just days after releasing their debut mixtape Basement Fire, Matthew Little and Eli Burkley wanted to continue recording new songs. Around the time of Smoking's conception, Little had begun listening "at random" to old school mixtapes from independent artists released in the early 1990's, and really enjoyed the aesthetic of their poorly recorded sounds and interesting vocal settings. That was one reason for Little's choice to go lo-fi; the other was a criticism a friend of his gave regarding Basement Fire, how the high definition beats contrasted the low quality microphone on Little's iPhone 4. Little thought hazy beats would allow both sound files to blend nicely together.

During the night of February 22, 2017, Little had seen a post on Tumblr titled "smoking a blunt with Sylvia Plath",[3][4] which had been a fictional humorous exchange between a person and Sylvia Plath while getting high. Little really liked the title, and when he spoke it aloud to Burkley and his then-roommate Paul, both reacted very positively. Little has stated that Sylvia Plath is his favorite poet, and has influenced his own works in various ways, so the mixtape could seem like something of an ode to her. That night he posted on their Facebook like page the hashtag #SmokingABluntWithSylviaPlath,[5] cementing the theme, and former title, of the project as well as hinting to their fans that they've started something new.

However, the title was changed at Burkley's insistence due to job security to Smoking wit Sylvia Plath, which at first Little wasn't happy about, but later grew to enjoy.

Recording[]

On February 23, 2017, Little posted on their page supposed lyrics to a nameless track,[6] although it didn't end up being used on the tape. A few nights later he wrote that he had been experimenting with a new beat and also had layered it with an audio track of Plath reciting a poem, which fit "perfectly".[7]

Before they had started on Smoking wit Sylvia Plath Little had brainstormed about conveying a melancholy sound in terms of music and theme. Burkley was game for anything, so the two decided to focus on their inner demons and tap into their current mindsets. They each found beats from various producers on YouTube; they sought mostly for grainy, 90's era instrumentals that had record player or boombox quality. Little sometimes would alter the beats to add wavy textures or whatever they both thought fit the track's mold.

Unlike Basement Fire's production, Little and Burkley, at first, recorded separately due to Burkley moving from her apartment across from Little to one further in the city. Burkley shared with Little a track she had recorded in her bathroom titled "Bleed"; she believed her apartment had been haunted, and a number of things occurred while recording. About a minute and forty-five seconds into the song the door to a cabinet by her feet swung open, and around the beginning there are strange, atmospheric sounds that she didn't remember hearing while singing. Little didn't edit anything out, and layered her voice to make it sound slightly stretched and vibrated, and later said knowing what the track had on it already gave him a thrilled, yet uneasy feeling.[8]

Whenever Eli and I see each other we record something, we always manage to lay something down even just for fun and that's how it was with Sylvia. We partied some nights during the summer and crafted something special between her and I. We just have great chemistry and we both appreciate atypical kinds of music.

“
”
Little on recording the tape with Eli Burkley

In May, Little moved into an apartment in the building he grew up in with his boyfriend. This gave Little more artistic freedom and made it so he wouldn't have to work around his roommates' schedules. In his first weeks there he had begun recording his next solo album, Cult Music. Burkley visited Little's new place, and they both shared and discussed their music. During that first visit Little had Burkley rerecorded a song she had on her phone, and hinted at it in a cryptic Facebook post that had some of their fans react disconcertingly.[9] The rest of the mixtape was recorded and mixed in Little's office in his new apartment between May and August.

On September 1, 2017 they announced that the mixtape was done[10], although Little made further alterations to the song "Lady Lazarus" days later, marking the official completion date September 3, 2017. In the end, seven of the tracks used beats produced by various artists found on YouTube; the tracks "Bleed" and "Lady Lazarus Performed by Plot Holes" use either no instrumental or instruments played live respectfully; the track "Do You?" uses an original beat Little made using Audacity, and "Something To Bring You Back" was made by Little using sounds he had collected on his laptop (such as drum loops from YouTube and an old recording off his old Nintendo DSi), "Poems About Death" samples a piano song that had come with his laptop found in a music folder that he had amplified the gain on that later leads into an instrumental he found on YouTube.

Style[]

Describing_Smoking_wit_Sylvia_Plath

Describing Smoking wit Sylvia Plath

The music, sonically, is different from their first release; the instrumentals are mainly lo-fi and downbeat, compared to the more banging beats used in Basement Fire. This was made evident when the duo released their first song from the mixtape, "Honeybee".[11] The song introduces listeners to a different flow only touched upon in their first release, which mixes freestyling with R&B; the R&B transition was Burkley's suggestion. This also gave Little more of an edge to try singing either chorus breaks or whole verses himself, while at the same time both keeping their similar aesthetics in sound coherent.

Lyrically, there are both songs that convey hopelessness and erratic, paranoid ideals, while at the same time other tracks share the same feeling but also try to remain hopeful and resilient. Little's lyrics particularly stick to self-deprecation and emptiness, while Burkley's have equal parts sorrow and promise. Little's vocals come in forms of unusual spoken word "raps", as well as half-singing; Burkley raps less than she did in their previous release, but nonetheless delivers an abundance of freestyles in both R&B and hip hop.

Song descriptions[]

Tracks 1-6[]

The opening track, "Looking 4 Change (I'm A Failure)", has one of the more trap oriented beats on the tape. It's a statement on both the homeless community asking for money, which is a prevalent occurrence in the city both Little and Burkley are from, as well as the change the world desperately needs. The song ends with a part of the chorus where Burkley sings "I'm a failure"; the statement is repeated for two minutes in a disorienting fashion, in an attempt to make the listener both sympathize and identify themselves within the words. The second track, "Bleed", is an acapella Burkley made up while on cough medicine she had been taking while sick with a cold. The track is notable as being "haunted"; when Burkley recorded it in her apartment bathroom strange occurrences took place, such as a cabinet suddenly swinging open, and sounds made themselves heard within the audio that she didn't recall hearing while recording. Lyrically, it's a freestyle about, at first, not hurting yourself for someone that doesn't love you anymore, but it soon turns into a person begging God to help protect them from a spirit, for Him to "keep it in your heart for all times". The track fades into the third song, "Faces", a Little-centric track about feeling depressed about how his life is going currently.

The fourth track, "Honeybee", is an RnB styled song where Burkley sings about wanting to find the right girl that she could build a "kingdom" with. Burkley had been still sick with a cold, and recorded the track while still feeling the effects from her cough syrup. The track ends with Little singing about how all the good people say "no to family", and quickly discusses a past relationship that's "dead like all the precious bees". "There I Go Again" follows; in it Little raps about how his sadness is "poetic", and he blames his mother for his problems, how he can't do anything without someone literally holding his hand. The track samples a scene from the British television sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, where a character performing in a play states she lives "in a sentence unapproved but not overruled by Heaven", and then the sound of a cork exploding out of a wine bottle is heard.

The sixth track, as well as the tape's arguably most known single, "Miles High", is a jumble of freestyling done by Burkley, with Little singing its hook, "And you wonder why, I'm miles high, high". The song sporadically mentions the idea of going back to school to get an education so the singer can get paid, but no matter how much money they make they're still broke. As the song progresses, a record scratch is heard more and more prominently, and in the background both Little and Burkley sing harmonies and other little quick blurbs throughout. It ends with words being played backwards, which if heard correctly is just both of them laughing and saying "Yaasss. Yaasss bitch."

Tracks 7-12[]

Next is the filler track "Do You? (ft. The Crazy Christians That Ruin Religion for Everyone)". It begins with a sample from the documentary film Jesus Camp, from a scene where the head counselor makes a large group of children pray in tongues. A strange beat is then heard, and then Little suddenly comes on asking whoever's listening if they think Jesus saves. He mentions the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting (not by name) and asks if Jesus ever saved anybody that has ever had a mistake in their lives. He goes on to ask the listener if their mother is an alcoholic too, and then repeats "Do you?" over and over until he ends the track with a fake cry. Little at first thought the track was too weird to put on the tape, and his boyfriend even commented that he thought it was terrible, but Burkley enjoyed its weirdness and demanded for it to be included.

"Babe/Diamond in my Sky" is a song that is both relentlessly hopeless while at the same time promising. Little sings about what he would do if he ever lost his "babe", that he would crawl in a sewer and kill himself underwater. Then Burkley comes on saying they have to hold on and give the situation time, and that whoever the song is about is still the diamond in their sky. The song features Anne Sextion reciting her poem "Menstruation at Forty". The part where Little sings about killing himself was intentionally made to sound strange and uneven so the listener can realize the person singing is significantly unbalanced.

The next track is a reading of Sylvia Plath's poem "Lady Lazarus". Little reads the poem while Burkley plays an impromptu guitar rhythm. The track has the sound of rain and cars driving by, and it ends with a loud thunder clap that brings on the next song. "Something To Bring You Back" is an instrumental made up of drum beats and an odd sound Little had made using his Nintendo DSi back in 2011. The track was originally meant for their first mixtape, but never had any vocals recorded for it, so Little placed it towards the end of Smoking as a way to bring the listener back from the sadness the tape conveys with loud, repetitive drum banging.

"I See Klonopin" is a dark track where Little raps about an addict coming off Vicodin and that they need to see their dealer and get high again, which involves some form of sexual transaction. Little styled the song as "a gross track I could see someone fucking to for either drugs or drug money". The song samples the 1954 song "Sincerely" by the McGuire Sisters that plays in multiple pitches at the same time, which makes it seem alien and sinister.

The final track "Poems About Death" features Sylvia Plath reciting her poem "Ariel", which is followed by Little reciting a quick poem about how if someone kills themselves it's okay to grieve but that we shouldn't for so long, as there are others out there that wish to live but can't because they're sick and have no control over it unlike some who "wish not to see the next season". Burkley comes on and incoherently raps that the listener is not alone, and that still doesn't stop them from wondering why they feel so alone. Then out of nowhere both Little and Burkley come on laughing and praising that the tape is finished. They then court Plath as if she's there with them to record one last thing over a beat Little had saved for her. The track ends with a track within a track of Plath reciting her poem "Nick and the Candlestick" over a quiet beat that fades out to her simply reading "We smile and stare/That's you, that's me".

Release[]

Singles from the mixtape were released sporadically during its production. The first single, "Honeybee" was released on Facebook on March 2, 2017.[12] In May, they released "Bleed", the supposed "haunted" track, not as a single but as an example of the tape's mood. The next track released was "Looking 4 Change (I'm A Failure)", which released June 7, to coincide with the "hopelessness and helplessness of the graduation season"[13][14]. Burkley requested to release the guitar track "Lady Lazarus Read and Performed By Plot Holes" barely a day after "Looking 4 Change" as a way to mess with their audience.[15]

On June 20, 2017, Little uploaded to their group's Facebook a teaser trailer for the tape, which briefly mentions Sylvia Plath's influence on Smoking. The clip previews several seconds of the album, which consists of most of its tracks being played at the same time in a barrage of sound. The video gives the date of release as October 27, 2017, to coincide with Plath's 85th birthday "had she not commit suicide".[16] On October 20 they shared a final trailer that labeled it as a "sad, strange mixtape" and listed each producer.[17]

Cover art[]

Lazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz1
Miles high cover1

The art used for two singles released for Smoking wit Sylvia Plath. Like the tape's cover, both photos are of Plath taken between 1950 - 1960.

The mixtape's cover features a photo of Plath taken between 1955 and 1960. It's the same photo used for the book Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness: A Biography by Edward Butscher.[18] Little had been Googling photos of the poet and had never seen that particular snapshot. Burkley approved it and mentioned that Plath looked like a "BAMF". Even within posts and articles about the photo, Little couldn't track down who took it or where it came from, and used it under Creative Commons, much like most of the material on the tape.

Originally the picture was unedited, merely added to a white backdrop with the name and title below it in all lowercase Britannia Bold font. This version was the one originally unveiled as the cover on Facebook[19] but they have since altered the photo, giving it a blue filter as well as a Parental Advisory sticker[20].

Music videos[]

With this release, Little and Burkley have had the opportunity to release music videos for their tracks, as before with their previous release they had some constrictions regarding time and location. In June, Little released an "unofficial" video for the song "There I Go Again"[21] which features just him in his living room lip-syncing from his couch. Their next video, for the track "Miles High", features both Little and Burkley, which was released July 23rd on Little's 26th birthday[22].

Without prior announcement, they recorded a quick video for "Honeybee" and released it September 1, 2017 as a surprise for their fans.[23]

Reception[]

One of the trailers put out before the tape's release gave a few supposed quotes that suggested people found the tape "hopeful yet hopeless", "depressing", and that it "accurately conveys the mutual feeling of the melancholy state of things in 2017". However, in the same post, Little confesses that the quotes were "mostly" from him.

A few weeks before its release, Little sent his cousin, a musician that records under the name Kric Kemp, one song file of the whole tape. He called it "amazing" and that the friends he had shown it to agreed, and even offered to transfer the tape onto cassette. During its production, Little and Burkley would often show Little's boyfriend James the tracks they worked on, and he said a few times that the music made him feel "uncomfortable", to which Little was happy about. A friend of Little's on Tumblr said the music was "[very] chill" and especially enjoyed Burkley's vocals.

The tape was received positively by most of Little's friends and followers. Actor Joe Martone, a friend of Little's, wrote that the mixtape was "powerful, otherworldly, and despite the title sounds more like tripping [on] acid at a kickback with Sylvia Plath", and likened it to the music of Björk and iamamiwhoami.[24]

Track listing[]

Plot_Holes_-_Smoking_wit_Sylvia_Plath_(Full_2017_Mixtape)

Plot Holes - Smoking wit Sylvia Plath (Full 2017 Mixtape)

  1. Looking 4 Change (I'm A Failure)
  2. Bleed
  3. Faces
  4. Honeybee
  5. There I Go Again
  6. Miles High
  7. Do You? (ft. The Crazy Christians That Ruin The Religion for Everybody)
  8. Babe/Diamond in My Sky (ft. Anne Sexton)
  9. Lazy Lazarus Performed by Plot Holes
  10. Something To Bring You Back
  11. I See Klonopin
  12. Poems About Death (ft. Sylvia Plath)

[25]

References[]

  1. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/videos/1478984905519976/
  2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6HanOkR2fo
  3. ↑ http://wristfevers.tumblr.com/post/157576002633/smoking-a-blunt-with-sylvia-plath
  4. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/posts/1601327986619000
  5. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/posts/1254755181276284
  6. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/posts/1255644484520687
  7. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/posts/1259749397443529
  8. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/posts/1340750979343370
  9. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/posts/1338397086245426
  10. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/posts/1438909862860814
  11. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/videos/1261181027300366/
  12. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/videos/1261181027300366/
  13. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/posts/1344410105644124
  14. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/posts/1358392017579266
  15. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/posts/1361041453980989
  16. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/videos/1372670602818074/
  17. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/videos/1478984905519976/
  18. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11629.Sylvia_Plath
  19. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/photos/a.1221636201254849.1073741828.1213188662099603/1271183352966800/?type=3&theater
  20. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMqLN1CEac4
  21. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abmsjpvtYk8
  22. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/photos/a.1221636201254849.1073741828.1213188662099603/1391731830911951/?type=3
  23. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/posts/1438883782863422
  24. ↑ https://weareplotholes.tumblr.com/post/167289990261/notlostonanadventure-if-youve-got-an-hour-to
  25. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/weareplotholes/posts/1452328128185654
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