Alchemist - A Day in the Life


I first saw this video at HipHopSite and one of the readers pretty much summed it all up with his comment, "Nice life… that’s all I can say about that."

5 comments:

Eric Nord said...

ALC is damn near untouchable on the boards. But gettin high all day is far from glamorous imo. A lot of hip hop heads seem to think its part of the official hip hop "lifestyle". That's bullshit. It's a crutch. And let's face it... most stoners are boring an uninspiring in real life. I'm not saying weed doesn't have it's place. I was a stoner once too. But it's healthy to grow out of it.

pipomixes said...

What I don't get is how all these cats are so damn productive smoking all the weed they claim to smoke. I smoke weed the way most adults drink beer or wine, as a tool for relaxation once I've achieved all the things I want to achieve in a day/week. I've never understood all those who say weed makes them more creative, artistic, etc.. The only thing weed makes me good at is eating and sleeping. That being said, we do need to consider that artist are just wired differently than the rest of us. As much as I appreciate and enjoy pursuing artistic endeavors, I don't consider myself a natural born artist (so I can't really relate to these guys 100%).

Eric Nord said...

Thanks Pipo, I appreciate the response.

The effects of weed vary dramatically by person and strain. Some people relax, others liven up. Some people use it to medicate psych issues (when a pharmaceutical would probably be more appropriate).

With regard to productivity, I would say that 99% of people are way less productive and creative when they smoke weed daily. Al is just one person. Who knows... Maybe he's better off smoking. But if the two most interesting, non-musical things about him are that he stays high and goes to the barber... Kinda says it all no? Obviously I respect the guy, but I don't envy his lifestyle because, as you point out, that lifestyle doesn't work for me (or most people).

I have always maintained that one of the primary reasons why hip hop has fallen off creatively is that so many producers and MCs stay high (and/or drunk). It's just not a recipe for long-term creativity.

Sorry for the rant. :-)

pipomixes said...

No need to apologize for any rant because that's what blogs are for. If you abstract the weed from the issue, I find a day of creating music (or whatever your passionate about) shootin' it at the barber shop, and riding my bike around the beach to be pretty close to my ideal day (if you add to the equation that pays your bills then it makes it all the better for me). Unlike most people, I really enjoy my job (which has been well documented on the site) because I do something I love and it allows me to make some sort of social contribution while paying my bills. Unfortunately, I don't think most people enjoy their jobs as much as I enjoy mine. As a result, spending their time like Alchemist seems all the more appealing.

In terms of your theory of weed being a major contributor to the demise of hip hop music: It would be interesting to see that quantified along with other suspects such as sampling laws, hip hop artists/audience not allowing the artform to mature, etc...

Eric Nord said...

Bambu... now that's an interesting guy. He's part of the Soul Assassins fam. They did an episode on him too.