Song #62: Plies - "Shit Bag"

Song #62: Plies - "Shit Bag" (2008)

Definition of Real

"Try me, I bet I leave yo ass in a Pamper. First bitch get outta line, I'mma make an example. Thinkin' 'bout tryin' me, you better go and cancel. Kill one of you bitch niggas, that's my final answer."

Opinions on the rapper Plies are incredibly schismatic, with some praising his vulgar, bawdy, often graphic lyrics, and some condemning his music for the very same reasons. Regardless, Plies is one of the most prolific men in the rap game today, releasing three albums in under two years when he first began rapping and continuing to drop singles and mixtapes of songs that are usually of average quality. While his biggest hits remain "Shawty," with T-Pain and "Bust it Baby Part 2," with Ne-Yo, I still look to "Shit Bag" as my very favorite Plies song.

"Shit Bag's" effect on me is a wily one that I use to great effect when I'm angry or frustrated. Just from the opening of the song, which is characterized by instrumentation reliant on synths to provide for booming production and ominous sounds of impending danger or destruction - almost like when a late-June storm rolls into the Midwest region, you can tell you're in for something bombastic and daunting. The song concerns Plies, nine-miles past livid, talking about how he manages to handle people that tempt him or taunt him, coldly stating, "there ain't no fakin' over here, I'm shootin' yo ass up." He goes on, breathlessly, for three and a half minutes, providing a listener with incredibly graphic lyrical content, which is equal parts stimulating as it is incredibly haunting.

Plies is a visceral artist, able to transcend from a loud, bombastic lyrical presence, to a more relaxed and romantic one between songs (on the same album, Definition of Real, right after "Shit Bag" on the album is "Please Excuse My Hands," with The Dream and Jamie Foxx, a soulful, almost loving ballad, and before that is "Feel Like Fuckin'," an interesting blend of vulgar lyricism and romance). "Shit Bag" constitutes as one of the meanest rap songs I've ever heard, but also one of the most well made, with some great, memorable lyricism, heavily erected on emotion and cut-throat anger, providing the song with a nice sense of naturalism all around. This is my theme song when I'm angry and never fails to give me some sort of extra energy or life when I rap it to get anger out of my system.

Give "Shit Bag" a listen, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CW24hZe2Yk