Oneirology, derived from the greek words oneiron and logia (which roughly translates into “dreams” and “study of”) is the scientific study of dreams. It is also the title of CunninLynguists fifth studio album.
“I had a funny dream, the other night
I was floating on a cloud”
With Oneirology CunninLynguists sets new standards for concept albums. Next to undun (read about it here), this album is the most accomplished concept release I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. Oneirology is a lot more that just hip hop – it is a journey with an accompanying soundtrack – not unlike undun (okay, I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for these kinds of albums). However, the story, or concept we face here are way more abstract than the one told by undun.
CunninLynguists is an American hip hop group from Lexington, Kentucky and Atlanta, Georgia. The group currently consists of Deacon the Villain, Kno, and Natti. These three take us on a journey through one of literatures greatest works; La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy) by Dante Alighieri.
The Divine Comedy, described as an epic poem, follows Dante and his journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Paradise (Paradiso). An allegorical description of the soul’s journey towards God, and the extensive cleansing it must go through along the way. Oneirology is 2011’s hip hop version of the middle part, Purgatory. With that sorted out, we can now move on to the actual tracks.
Predormitum (Prologue) is the first track, and right off the bat we are confronted with the dreams theme. Predormitum is the stage of decreasing consciousness that represents a transition stage between wakefulness and sleep, and the song is one big abstract metaphor for this. The track opens with a potpourri of sound elements; the wind howls and the sound of pouring rain. The rain ceases when the lyrics start; we are heading into dreamland. Natti, who is the main character in the story presents us with a utopian dream-mode where time is irrelevant, money has no value, and everything and everyone is accepted. Deacon takes a more defensive stance to dreams, and expresses fear of what they (dreams) can do to him,. This is all very abstract, which fits the theme as sleep and dreams are a very strange state of mind.
On Darkness (Dream on) we are going on an exploration into the darker parts of the subconscious. Darkness encloses on the sleeping who are now approaching the dream state. Deacon still seems a bit confused by the circumstances, and Natti starts to fear that his dark side will show up in his dreams
“Way under in slumber is my true self shown?
A glass house cracked from a few stones thrown”
In the end Anna Wise (feature on the track) warns them not to succumb to their fears before they finally fall to sleep.
Phantasmata functions as a transition piece where a beautiful vocal sample tells us what it is like to be enveloped by a nightmare. The short track ends with a narrator telling us about how our sexual and violent desires does not appear directly in our dreams, but rather in disguised form. The dark sides Natti was afraid of are ready to step forward in his consciousness. It is here, in the dream state, that the dreamer enters a gate to Purgatory and prepares for the journey through it while he shall face his sins.
Dante depicted this journey as a mountain that needed to be climbed in order to go through purgatory. Each terrace on the mountain represents a sin and this is where the sinners atone for their sins. If you, like me, find this fascinating, then you might enjoy this.
The first three sins; pride, envy and anger – caused by perverted love of those, who through desire or act, are going to do other harm. The fourth sin, sloth, caused by flawed or inadequate love. Spiritual laziness and inability to love anything or anyone. The last three sins, avarice, gluttony and lust, is caused by excessive love towards things that should be secondary to the divine, such as material goods.
Worth noting is it that CunninLynguists has taken the liberty to alter the order of the sins a bit.
However, as mentioned above, the three first sins are driven by perverted love directed towards actual harm of others. With this in mind it is no surprise that Hard As They Come (Act One) represents the first part of the journey up the mountain. Freddie Gibbs (featuring on this track) personifies cocaine, Natti personifies alcohol and finally Kno personifies AIDS – all of which can cause direct harm to others.
“If I could get away with murder,
I’d take my gun and I’d commit it”
The next track, Murder (Act Two), starts off with a vocal singing the above. This track describes the sins of the proud (the first terrace). This sin often is described as “he who, through abusement of other, hopes for supremacy“. With this in mind, we can assume that Big K.R.I.T (feature on this track) draw parallels to a certain country’s president by rapping:
“Drop bombs on innocent people or innocent homes
With automatic weapons or military drones
While me and my friends play croquet
And make bets on which country liable to fold next”
After K.R.I.T, Natti raps as if he is a religious leader, who recounts how the church greatly abuses people for their own benefit.
“I could use worship as a warship, bible and sword
Turn men and women to minions over Heaven’s rewards
Promise Islamic bombers Heavens harem of whores
For taking out a couple of floors”
The way they manage to get around topics as ecclesiastical as political abuse of power and at the same time keep the theme of the seven deadly sins so tight, is simply brilliant.
Next up is My Habit (I Haven’t Changed). This track is about those who suffer from envy, fear of losing their own reputation, honor and favor, and your own misery makes you rejoice in other people’s problems. We get the feeling that Natti and Kno wishes thatwere more recognized as musicians:
“rappin’ makes me happy so why stop why care”.
Next sin depicted is “Sloth” on the track Get Ignorant. You don’t need the enigma so ‘solve’ this one though. Deacon almost hands it to us on a silver platter:
“Through all the pettie drama’s I’m calmer than a sloth”
Even though “sloth” here represents the animal, sloth the sin, is pretty obvious throughout the track. However, it is mental slothfulness that is the theme here. More specifically the inability to take care of ones neighbor, and if one lives with an ignorant view of the world, as Kno, brutally honestly, raps:
“Genocide in East Africa,
but you watching Battlestar Galactica”
Further, the track is also about the need to part with “The American Dream“. You need to pursue your own dreams not the ones of everyone else. Shattered Dreams continues this theme and also incorporates the next sin; Gluttony. Natti raps about all the material things in our society that have become symbols of success:
“Reefer and liquor dance, my chemical romance
My pitiful cold hands / That ache to be warm
Like a tux with gold cuffs that waits to be worn”
Stars Shine Brightest (In the Dark of Night) represents the sin of Greed by mildly exaggerating the need to believe in oneself and to seize the the day. One would think that avarice, or greed as some prefer to call it, binds to the things of economic value, but here greed has far more to do with people’s ego; extravagant ambitions and excessive pursuit of what benefits oneself the most. Even when your life and everything in it is going well, the wrong things can be focused on and life’s true meaning can be skewed. But this desire to have a good life can be turned around and used to create a true meaningful life for oneself:
“When victory’s in vain it’s the same the blood coursin
Of course when selfishness inside provides poison
Apply it to your life and let it sink in like ointment”
After this comes a short interlude called So As Not To Wake You. After the beautifully composed beat the narrator talks about how both emotions and thoughts, but primarily visual images, represent our dreams.
With Enemies With Benefits we reach the last sin covered on Oneirology; Lust. Lust is characterized by misguided sexual desires and so-called “unrestrained behavior”, something that Natti, Kno and Tonedeff (feature on this track) frolicking in the end. Natti who raps: “I’m part Vader, I think with my saber / I live in crazy town and I’m married to the mayor,” Kno make a metaphor out of the Superman universe, and Tonedeff, with his unique speed-flow seems just as sexually attracted to this “devil in a baby blue dress” as he seems confused about the whole situation.
On Looking Back the main characters is waking up and reflects on their dreams as they return from the world of dreams. As Anna Wise sings in the chorus: “If this is not the hardest part, I wanna part before it gets too deep.” After this Deacon comes in and raps:
“It’s easy to cross a line and blame ya flesh for the crime
I’m sorry it’s just the way we designed
My dear we should leave here, I’m talking ’bout one at a time though
‘Cause you got me changin’ my mind slow
Leave here, says that voice in the back of my spine
As I awake and the moment rewinds”
The piano piece on the next track Dreams is nothing less than the sound of waking up – or at least a very good try to imitate it. If the waking could have a soundtrack, it would sound like!
On this track our sleeping protagonists has reflected and thought about their dreams and are ready to process them. Natti have understood that “The American Dream” is not the right one, and sets out to pursue his own dreams. Deacon urges to dream big, and not being afraid to aim as high as possible as long as it really is what you strive for. Tunji (featured on this track) has accepted his inner dark side, but will not let it come out into the real world:
“See, I’ma stay the same, no matter how far that I go
And I’ma stay the same, no matter how far that I go
I think bright, even though inside I’m dark and I’m cold
Feel the pain in my heart and my soul, but I’m livin’ my dream”
Bianca Spriggs summarizes the entire journey on the next track Hypnopomp (Epilogue) in the form of an adventurous poem based on Greek mythology. And I simply love this part! A hypnopompic state (or hypnopomp) is the state of consciousness leading out of sleep. The poem is about the brothers Morpheus and Phobetor who are the sons of Nyx, goddess of the night (her offspring is called the oneroi, and Morpheus is the leader of these). Morpheus is the good of the two, and he has the ability to appear in dreams as any man who can “show us the light”. Phobetor on the other hand is the evil that occurs in dreams as nightmares, in the form of animals, monsters and other creatures. He has the potential to destroy our dreams, and thus represents the ignorance that can thwart our sincere dreams. One must, in other words, fight Phobetor to be able to choose ones own path. Our protagonists, the dreamers, fight Phobetor, and when they wake up and digested their dreams – the track “Dreams” – they are aware of which path is the right for them.
The last track Embers depicts this path. Embers is a symbol for love, because love is the right road. It is a cliché, but as a final morale on a album like this, the message could not be more welcome. Kno paints a picture of a really dark and nasty place where nothing is as it seems. He seems to be trapped in a nightmare, and although the vocals sampled in the end says that dreams might also show him his right path. However, it seems as though Kno tries to tell us that, in reality, this is not always the way things pan out. And that no one knows the future, so how would anyone know which path is the right one? And I will leave you here with a great bar from Natti on this track:
“It wasn’t Heaven that I was seeking but a haven I sought
A canvas of the mind painted with my thoughts”
Simply brilliant!
Wow, this turned out longer than I expected. Hope you managed to get through all of it. This is truly an amazing album with an amazing story. Let me know what you think in the comment-section below.
J
Delirious Obsessions 