On So Solid Crew & Raymond Queneau
Subverting the rules of engagement.
Sonnets, Haikus, and Palindromes are all forms of literary constraints. It is by constraining the structure of what is linguistically possible through the application of rules, that words gain an outsized meaning. There is a sense of purpose and specificity in each word that results in richer parts, and an even greater whole.
In 1960/2001, a French/British group of largely men met in Normandy/Battersea to discuss the implications of literary constraints, and the potential for new literary structures to create meaning. The Oulipo movement/So Solid Crew pioneered constrained works such as Exercices de Style/21 Seconds where 99/10 versions of the same scene are recounted each in a different style/by a different MC.
The Oulipo movement has always maintained strong ties to mathematics. Simple rules such as replacing or omitting letters can be extended to entire algorithms. Similarly, So Solid Crew themselves turned to maths, calculating the 21 allocated seconds for each MC by dividing their three and a half minute song by 10 MCs and rounding to the nearest integer. History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
A popular critique of 21 Seconds is that “none of the crew use their time to say anything remotely insightful”. Quite obviously, the purpose of So Solid Crew’s lyrics are not to provide insight to the listener. Otherwise they would have featured someone like Martin Lewis. But alas they did not. They gave themselves 21 seconds each, and they simply spent their time discussing this decision.
I got 21 seconds to pass the mic
I got 21 seconds to say what I gotta say
You won't like me anyway
But I won't hesitate
This introspective discussion is what separates So Solid Crew from other proponents of potential literature and Oulipo. The Crew spend almost their entire time discussing the very structure that they themselves have imposed. In doing so, they have meticulously weaved an ouroboros of structure and meaning, both existing in unison, neither without the other.
In the style of Claude Lévi-Strauss, given this self-referential meta-structure that the Crew have imposed on themselves, we should in theory be able to invert the formula. In direct contrast there should exist music blissfully un-self-aware, unconstrained but meaningless.
Jacob Collier (b. 1994) is a virtuoso. He was born with the ability to play seemingly any instrument. As a result, he is entirely unconstrained in what he can sonically produce. He can command audiences to sing complex harmonics with just his hands and converse with Jazz artists through the medium of diminished chords, resolving just before the next unskippable ad kicks in.
And yet, I have never met anyone that actually enjoys his music. It is directionless. The lack of any semblance of constraint or difficulty is Collier’s blessing and ultimate curse. He is at least aware of this, claiming asylum under the band of artists with ‘creative infinity syndrome’. I’m sure at one point So Solid Crew were in the same category. But in the face of this, Megaman, Lisa et. al, were unwavering in their commitment that less-is-more. Not only did they implement this philosophy to great effect, but they told their audience exactly what they were doing. The wizard’s curtain of creativity was being thrown away all together. Short-form video like TikTok is a close candidate for a new cultural structure that will forever seem normal. Maybe Jacob Collier could do us all a favour and restrict the length of his songs to 21 seconds.
The Oulipo movement was partially founded to discover new literary structures, to progress the search towards potential literature. However, the majority of these structures have not flown the cultural nest. But to Raymond Queneau and others that doesn’t seem to matter, and neither does it seem to matter to Megaman or Lisa. It was, and still is, the very act of subverting the rules of engagement that reminds people of the meaning in the words we read and the music we hear. So Solid Crew made this point in a more direct way than most, and for that alone, they are here to stay. Romeo Done.