Wednesday 7/29: Boldy James—“Mommy Dearest (a eulogy)”
Today, we share our thoughts on a new song by the Detroit rapper Boldy James.
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.
Today, we share our thoughts on a new song from the Detroit rapper Boldy James. We’re joined by official Endless Scroll hip-hop contributor Michael Brooks.
Boldy James—“Mommy Dearest (a eulogy)”
Michael Brooks:
After starting off the previous decade as a rap blog favorite, Boldy James eventually drifted back into the shadows until earlier this year with the release of The Price of Tea In China, his second full-length project with producer Alchemist (which, for what it’s worth, is still my favorite record of the year.) It makes sense why Boldy is the perfect sparring partner for a producer eager to color outside the lines. His monotone delivery and clear-cut flows are malleable, and in the right hands can be used as a catalyst for experimenting with new kinds of sounds.
On “Mommy Dearest (a eulogy),” the emotional centerpiece to Manger on McNichols, the Detroit MC meditates on his childhood and his strained relationship with his mother atop a backdrop of fractured jazz, courtesy of producer Sterling Toles. It took over a decade for Manger on McNichols to finally see the light of day—Toles may have tweaked the instrumentals over the years but the majority of Boldy’s verses remain the same from all the way back in 2007 when they first started working on the project. “Mommy Dearest (a eulogy),” like the best songs on Manger on McNichols, paints an unflinching picture of the city that both artists call home, a document of overcoming the odds. As Boldy puts it, “You tried to kill me / I died and I came back.”
Eli Enis:
I wasn’t in the trenches when Boldy James emerged in 2013 with My First Chemistry Set (his first Alchemist-produced project), but I’ve spent 2020 playing catch-up and have quickly come to the conclusion that Boldy James is one of the greatest rappers of our generation. Between his solemn yet stern delivery, his elastic flow, his deep voice, his punctuated drawl, and his elite ability to tell visceral, often quite harrowing personal stories with acute detail, he’s one helluva rapper. Both of his Alchemist-produced works are downright masterpieces, but it’s easy to make a masterpiece with a producer as skillful as the Alchemist. However, after one listen—hell, half a listen—through his new (well old, but newly released) project with the even more outlandish producer Sterling Toles, I learned that Boldy just doesn’t miss.
Manger On McNichols is one part skronky jazz record and one part gritty gangster rap album, fused together in a way that heightens the chaotic tensions of each side. It’s mostly an album about drug dealing, about how Boldy’s life became consumed by selling drugs at a young age, and the ways in which that informed his transformation from boy to man. “Mommy Dearest (a eulogy)” is just a piece of what feels like a whole lifetime’s worth of tales, but it’s undoubtedly the most gutting track on the record. On it, Boldy raps about his strained relationship with his mother and the way his drug dealing exacerbated that, but it also explores the childhood trauma that led to that lifestyle.
He raps about feeling unloved compared to his younger sister, about being separated from her for a portion of his youth, and offers a depressing anecdote about getting his Christmas gifts robbed from his house the night before he even had a chance to receive them. His childhood was literally stolen from him and selling drugs was his way of reclaiming the agency to hope for a bright future. The first couple times around, the hook cuts off before Boldy has a chance to finish his thought about what his mom really wanted, but eventually it’s revealed in an extremely clever way: through a spliced-in interview where he’s talking about this unreleased song of his called “Mommy Dearest” that used to make his mom cry because it interpolated the Biggie lyric, “I know my mother wished she got a fuckin’ abortion.” It’s devastating, and the morose saxophones and racing drum pattern beneath the clip reinforce the head-spinning lyrical climax. I don’t cry, but I almost did.