"WILSHIRE": The Newest Addition to the Dirty Mack Hall of Fame
Tyler, the Creator's sprawling confessional is just the latest installment to this unique genre of music.
Dirty macking, however frowned upon it may be by wider society, is an art form. It necessitates a balance, one so delicate to not offend everyone around you, toeing the line between polite yearning and desperation for the subject of your desires. When dirty macking occurs in the wild, it almost always comes off as the latter, reeking of sabotage and overt disrespect of another person’s relationship. But, when dirty macking occurs in music, it is masked under the umbrella of artistry, accepted by the public as an expression of love and affection instead of a pointed attack. We’re tricked by sprawling melodies and delicate production compositions into allowing unadulterated hating to run wild.
You know it when you hear it. It’s often blatant, with a disregard for who might come across it. The most prominent examples are stamped in your mind from the first listen. Billy Paul’s “Me and Mrs. Jones” is the quintessential dirty mack track. Paul’s crooning is smooth and comforting, with his voice masking the pure villainous nature in which describes his affair with the titular figure. How he recounts their ritualistic encounters is without shame. This brazenness is the marker of the genre. From the likes of Ne-Yo’s “Do You” to LL Cool J’s rampant lusting on “Hey Lover,” this vein of music pulls no punches when it comes to desire. So, when one reaches “WILSHIRE,” penultimate track of Tyler, the Creator’s album CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, they’re faced with the familiar shamelessness of Mary J Blige’s “I Can Love You.” We bear witness to a flawless display of dirty macking, resulting in a worthy addition to this hallowed hall of music.
Much of the allure of Tyler’s rapping is his willingness to say literally anything that comes to his mind. At the beginning of his career on the likes of Goblin and Bastard, this willingness manifested in violent shock rap that gripped the minds of edgy teenagers attempting to rebel against anything and everything. The line between reality and his imagination was blurred as outlandish bars mixed in real, personal moments in his raps. As he moved forward through life, constantly maturing his understanding of the world and himself, this lack of filter translated to increased emotional openness replacing the shock bars. What this culminated in was a completely honest piece of work, which Tyler describes as his most personal album yet.
This is what makes “WILSHIRE” such a special addition to the dirty macking genre. In the past, when Tyler would go on long, winding rants in his songs, you were never sure if they were real or just stories he made up. This is different. “WILSHIRE” is a confessional, a clear-cut account of how he intruded on his friend’s relationship and built his own with the woman of his desires. It’s recorded in one take and is a completely raw look at Tyler’s feelings for his partner. It almost feels wrong to listen to. Maybe it’s the fact that he spares no detail about the intimacy of their relationship. He excludes whatever sexual history that may have occurred, instead methodically describing how they became enamored with each other through quality time and inside jokes. When he raps, “I would rather hold your hand than have a cool handshake,” it feels innocent and sweet. In a vacuum, the lyrics ring off like any other love song. But between the lines recounting a budding schoolyard love, Tyler reminds everyone that he’s the other man in this situation. The tragedy is that when he raps that she is, “The only thing I'm missin' in life,” he fully understands that the timing of their relationship means that it wasn’t meant to be.
The pure length of the song helps to add to the track’s power as a dirty mack anthem. For eight and a half minutes, the beat is nothing more than a simple drum loop with some layered melodies. It ensures that Tyler’s lyrics and voice are the focus of the track. It goes on forever, feeling as though you’re trapped as Tyler forces you to listen to his confession of his adulterous sins. You can’t tear yourself away. He sits you down and lays it all on the table. The raspiness and regret in his voice as he reaches the outro and says, “I'm in the wrong, I'm a bad person/ I had no ill intentions, though/ Shit, everybody got hurt” is painful to hear. This internal conflict that he shares is paramount to the track’s effectiveness. He, like everyone else, knows that this type of behavior is seen as not socially acceptable in monogamous relationships. But at the moment, in the whirlwind of love and emotion, none of the societal standards mattered. He is blinded by her presence, she fills the void for him. Whatever moral code is out there can’t stop his feelings, and that is the crux of the dirty mack.