Starting where we left off, song 9 on Kenny Mason’s album, “Pretty Thoughts,” starts with a dog growling and a heavy metal sounding guitar. In this song he says that his “pretty thoughts” kept him going, and he would’ve fallen into darkness without them. Kenny creates a metaphor surrounding that saying, “Pretty dogs with wings to float with, Pretty thoughts.” This means that his “pretty thoughts” acted as wings to take him away from the darkness. You also start to get the feel in this album that making light out of the dark isn’t necessarily a change of life, but a change of perspective. Kenny’s lyrics continue to build on these topics throughout the song. He cleverly plays on the lyric mentioning dogs, by saying “Don’t keep the ball from me I want it,” meaning both how dogs play fetch with balls, but also, to “have the ball” is a metaphor for being in control, and his pretty thoughts are what kept him from losing control. Kenny then says “Wings apart, These the thoughts that keep me going,” meaning that beneath all those metaphors, he’s genuinely telling us what’s keeping him going. Kenny also finds light in the darkness by mentioning “In the street I’ll never be alone” and “If I bleed out, I won’t bleed alone,” clearly showing positivity in the middle of something terrible.
The 10th song on the album, “Anti-Gravity,” starts with a spacey, floating feeling, which automatically gives meaning to the title. Kenny says the lyric, “Lightning struck, Left me holy.” “Lightning struck,” in this context, is a metaphor for getting shot, and “Left me holy” means both left him with a literal hole from the bullet, and left him holy, like an angel, which can find light in the situation, but also represents death. The amount of meaning stuffed into this small verse is incredible. Kenny continues where he left off with the angels, saying, “Angels keep repeating, Mama told me, don’t be worried – Be worthy” This means that the pattern of people dying around him seems endless, but his mom gives him hope by telling him, if he wants to stay alive, be worthy, and don’t worry.
Kenny Mason’s 11th song on the album, “Angels Calling // My Dad” is one of the greatest story telling songs in my opinion, with a beautiful beat switch. This song opens up with Kenny singing, and a subtle piano in the background. Kenny sings about trying to reach out to someone(most likely his dad) but his calls keep getting denied, and he makes this clear by saying, “Talkin’ high, mumblin’, It’s me tryin’ to tell you how I feel, Call denied, dropped again but I, Keep tryin’ – Please pick up the phone when you see angels calling.” This tells that after Kenny had gotten shot, he was trying to reach out to his dad, but he couldn’t get him to respond. Kenny also says to pick up when you see angels calling, explaining that it’s a miracle he’s even alive, and his dad should pick up the phone for that reason. Kenny then starts rapping about how success distanced him from everyone around him, but also made everyone around him want in on the success. He states, “I know you not gon’ check on me ’til a check on me” meaning that his dad, or anyone not actively in his life, wouldn’t reach out till he was successful. He then goes into further detail about him getting shot, saying, “When I got hit in the chest, in the hospital, I bled slowly, with all of my friends posted, you ain’t even call, you barely involved, you arrogant, non-caring and non-barring” which explains that after being shot, everyone was there but his dad, who wouldn’t even call, and wasn’t involved in his life. Kenny then says, “Everyone knows I’m at my best when alone, I wish they was wrong, I distance myself from everyone helping me, don’t message me, let me evolve.” This goes back to the song “Handles” when Kenny talks about a great weakness of his becoming a strength. That strength of doing well by himself has now consumed him and become a way of coping with the trauma of being shot. Kenny then brings up the distance between him and his father again by saying “I can say it when facing you, but I was thinking you’d understand it better when playin’ it – if it offended you, hitting you, know I ain’t plan to, but if it caused you to leave, you was probably meant to.” This means that Kenny could’ve confronted his father about his actions, but he chose to make a song. He also tells that he didn’t mean for that song to offend his father, although it was likely to, and if it made him leave, he was just going to leave anyways. Kenny then brings light to this darkness by saying, “I know my mama proud, give her my heart until the day that my heart give out” meaning that despite not having an absent father, he had a good mother. Kenny then says his father finally wanted to reach out to him once he was successful leading into part 2 of this song, Kenny makes that clear by saying” I see you callin’, now I’m not the one to dial.” The chorus of the song then repeats, and he goes into part 2.
In part 2 of “Angels Calling // My Dad” Kenny starts off the transition into “My Dad” by having a voicemail from his father trying to reach out to him. In the background of the voicemail, Kenny is singing. The voicemail from his dad ends and the beat picks up, and as this happens Kenny starts his verse. In his verse, Kenny talks about everything he has been through to find success. Kenny realizes, his father is in the same spot that he was in and feels where he’s coming from with reaching out. Kenny talks about how difficult it is to reach his position by saying, “Death between the wealth and me have kept me speedy” which means that between him and wealth, was death, and it’s reasonable for a father to want a part in that, without having to face death. Kenny brings this up by saying “One million, ten million, hundred million, just a billion, don’t be greedy, just to build a home for needy ones since, no one built a home for me and my dad, my dad – did a whole lot of [things] that was bad, just to rent a home to sleep in.” This final line in the song shows that Kenny feels where his dad is coming from, despite being a poor father, as he too had to do bad things to provide for his family, digging deeper into that idea that one cannot be good without being evil.
Song 12 on the album is called, “Once Again” and it talks about how if Kenny wants to be successful, he has to leave Atlanta, which is a tough decision because he made a home in the middle of all the madness. Kenny makes this clear by saying “But if I wanna win I gotta split, but the three beggin’ me to stay, melodies helping me escape, if I leave, if I leap away, promise things will always be the same.” This means that the zone Kenny was raised in, zone 3, was sad to see him leave but also proud of his success. It also shows that Kenny needed to make that decision to be where he’s at. This entire verse demonstrates the theme, dark vs. light, so well. Kenny also ensures his family in this song that he won’t let the fame take him, and he’ll keep in touch. Kenny articulates this with the verse “Ain’t got no time to be involved in [something] that don’t evolve me, so really you can call if you miss me, and the Southside, still my home, but I’m really In the zone, you can still hit my phone if you near me, you can stop by, but not too long ’cause l’m busy writing songs.” This shows Kenny will stay loyal to his home in Atlanta, and represent it as shown, while still leaving to live a successful life.
Song 13 on the album, “U in a Gang // Exxon,” is one of my personal favorites. The first part of this song talks about how Kenny Mason wasn’t made for a life in violence and was called out because of this. The second part of the song demonstrates what someone’s life in Atlanta is like. Kenny tells he wasn’t made for a life of violence by saying, “I peep too many things, too intense for me to engage, telling me how you hit a stain and you ain’t the same nah.” This shows that Kenny was afraid of many things he saw in his life, and was questioned because of that. This gives an opposite perspective on the idea: you can’t be good without being evil. It shows that people treated him poorly for not being evil, ands tells us that the album is coming to an end. He demonstrates that violent life in the second part of the song by saying, “Scraping the demon off of my back, I need him off me these [people] need to stop for a snack, they need a Glock in my lap, I like the feeling, I don’t even offer it back.” This means that whenever they go somewhere, even if it’s just for food, they need to be protected because anything could happen.
The last song on “Angelic Hoodrat” is the very song that made Kenny Mason popular, “Hit.” This song to me is very metaphorical and coincidental. In the song he talks about finally having money from selling illegal substances, and I’m not gonna cite any song lyrics because they aren’t appropriate, but that is metaphorical to the meaning of this album, the balance between good and evil, and Kenny Mason made good from something evil. It’s also coincidental because the song can be interpreted as him finally “hitting big” with his music, and this is the song that made that happen, the song is literally titled “Hit.” Put simply it’s a very good song to end off this 14-song long album, “Angelic Hoodrat.”
Now, the reason this album is the greatest is because Kenny Mason took a concept significant to his life, the balance between good and evil, and was able to articulate it through every song. Every song gives a different example of the mixture between good and evil in his life. Even the production throughout every song brought out these feelings and emotions, and throughout this solid, thought-out theme, Kenny was lyrical, on topic, and truly had something to tell the world, and his own family. This is the reason that Kenny Mason’s album, “Angelic Hoodrat,” is the greatest album ever.
