Death Of A Fool(io)

A chap called Charles Jones, but known to many (not to me) with his non-art name as Julio Foolio, was killed in Tampa on Sunday morning.

You can click the link and see whether this guy looks like an intelligent member of society. To me, he looks merely like another idiot who just happened to get the inevitable on his birthday celebration.

You will notice the smartness here. Guy was open about being a gang member, but also was ready to give the address of his birthday celebration to every idiot who asked. Most likely, so many people turned in that he was kicked out of the AirBnB place, or venue, by the police. Then the quest for a place to keep the party going went on until, at 4 in the morning, the guy was gunned down. Whilst I don’t have the details, it seems that Einstein here absolutely wanted his killers to know about his whereabouts in real time.

But this post is not about this idiot. This was just another cretin who bargained a short phase of some luxury and excess for his life. This is about the whole world that is around this, and feeds this rubbish.

One million Spotify monthly listeners. Don’t tell me this is for artistic or musical reasons, because in rap there is neither. This is about gangster fantasies, and the glorification of a criminal lifestyle, and the fact that apparently there are people who love to idolise these cretins. Heavens, look at that picture! How can such a tool be idolised by anyone other than his (likely single) mother and his 65 IQ friends!?

Go back to 1960, or 1910, or 1860. Can you imagine an age in which a “singer” could be a criminal, admit it, and make money not in spite of it, but *exactly because of it*? Of course, criminality has always fascinated a certain, often low-intelligence segment of the population. Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, the Mafia always had a sort of selling power, and the domestic servants loved to heart about their antics. But you did not have a guy saying: “I rob banks, hear me sing!”, and make a lot of money because of it. When singers were famous, it’s because they still had talent, and the alleged more or less direct, more or less true, link to criminality (think of Frank Sinatra, or Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons) were not the reason why they were famous. The reason why they were famous was the sheer talent.

Not in 2024. In 2024 you can look and sing like a troglodyte, and get 1 million Spotify hits a month.

Until you get gunned down, of course.

But then the next genius is already waiting.