Friday 2/12: Jeris Johnson, Papa Roach—"Last Resort Reloaded"
Today, we chugged some Monster Energy and wrote about Jeris Johnson’s trap-rock remix of Papa Roach’s “Last Resort”, which features the Roach themselves.
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him) and Eric Bennett (they/them). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. Now we’re, also a M-F newsletter about songs. Our format is simple: a link to a song and a short take from each of us about what we think of it. Each day of the week has a corresponding genre: Monday is indie, Tuesday is punk, Wednesday is hip-hop, Thursday is pop, and Friday is misc. Three days of the week are free but you can get access to all five weekly posts by subscribing for $5/month via Substack or $2/month via our Patreon.
Today, we chugged some Monster Energy and wrote about Jeris Johnson’s trap-rock remix of Papa Roach’s “Last Resort”, which features the Roach themselves.
Jeris Johnson, Papa Roach—"Last Resort Reloaded"
Eli Enis:
Jeris Johnson is a guy with 1M TikTok followers who presents himself as the Most Conventionally Attractive Man at the Shinedown concert. I’ll spare the full biography, but last year this dude turned Ricky Desktop’s “Banjo Beat, Pt. 1” into a moody trap banger (think butt-rock crossed with Rico Nasty) and then invited none other than Chad fucking Kroeger of Nickelback on for a remix. Now he’s teamed up with early 2000s nu-metal icons Papa Roach for a reinterpretation of their 2000 hit “Last Resort”, and it really has no business slapping this hard.
Johnson is in league with Post Malone and Machine Gun Kelly: husky-voiced white dudes who could easily be releasing ubiquitous pop-rap (which Post Malone does) but who love entry-level rock bands too much to do anything else. Johnson is different in that he started out doing this shit, while Posty and MGK had to feign rap interest before they were big enough to convince their labels that rock amalgams are what the kids want. And clearly, having racked up a milli TikTok followers while rocking a Slipknot shirt in his avatar, this is what the people want. In short, Hollywood Undead were ahead of their time, ya’ll.
Eric Bennett:
I think it’s fair to assume that by now, if you listen to our show, or read this newsletter, that it’s clear I have never been a Papa Roach listener. I have, however, heard or seen references to “cut my life into pieces, this is my last resort,” because I’ve seen it reflected in memes. This “reloaded” version of it from Jeris Johnson admittedly slaps. I don’t know if I’d throw it under the hyperpop exactly, though Johnson’s stylistic choices certainly echo 100 gecs, particularly when they brush this close to metal. This just feels like another instance of music that may have once been maligned getting a reappraisal and being mined for influence.