Dead Internet, a rap/hip hop album by Cam Ezra, also incorporates many features of dance and electronic music.

By Stanley West

The use of drum machines, synths and keyboard is frequent, and the album makes use of contemporary music technology.

When this is used well, the songs are usually super catchy. Songs like Complx seem especially well worked out. Throughout the album, the simpler songs (in terms of instrumentation) like Trash Day, Jawscercize and Terrariums are arguably the best. Jawscercize has an especially interesting spoken word section with a synth drone over it and occasional riffs to accompany it.

The electronic features of the music are often used well but are sometimes overused. This is especially the case with the use of vocal effects, like on Devil Wears Resale where the vocals are changed almost beyond recognition. Usually, the effects add to the music but in some songs, like Devil Wears Resale, they seem to take away from the “realness.”

In other songs, the music could benefit from less layering and more simplicity since it sometimes distracts from the main melody of the song. Despite this, in most songs the melody is clear and well executed and accompanies the vocals well.

Lyrically, the album varies from purely introspective to very pessimistic. The voices in Ezra’s head are mentioned across a few different songs, rarely in a way that suggests complete happiness.

Even when other people are mentioned, it’s often in the context of Ezra’s own mind, like in the line “who needs mental real estate, I’ve heard it’s busier when you’re around.” He also talks about “the block that killed the writer,” and numerous other seemingly anxious thoughts.

The lyrics also convey a generally hopeless view of society. Ezra says, “society is fine” but he knows they’re “lying.” The song Dead Internet also references the increasingly dismal nature of online spaces. The lyrics rarely offer any solution or consolation to the problems they mention and never come across as a protest, more like a sad acceptance.

In general, the lyrics are melancholy and pretty consistently pessimistic, regardless of their topic, one of the only breaks from this being a brilliant spoken word discussion of a holiday to Brazil in Jawscercize. Thematically, though, the lyrics compliment the music well and come across as authentic. It certainly isn’t hard to be pessimistic.

Dead Internet is definitely a forlorn album, but one worth listening to if you’re a fan of rap and hip-hop. Although it doesn’t paint a particularly nice picture of the world, it paints an honest one.