As we all probably know, CD Projekt Red challenged musicians to contribute music to their new DLC.
Since I love writing lyrics and playing with words, I made a song that had vocals and lyrics that hopefully made sense in the world of Cyberpunk 2077.
Now I want to know what all the Lore-Lovers of Cyberpunk 2077 think of the lyrics, and where I could have done better/where I don't make any sense.
I created a fictional character, one that isnt originally from Haiti but grew up in the pacifica district. I've always been a fan of people like Lupe Fiasco that experienced hardship in rundown areas, but instead of blindly participating, forming some critical thought through art instead.
Naturally, growing up in a disasterous area like Pacifica, dealing with conflict and issues through violence would be a natural trait/ability that developes over there. Yet not being part of Haiti/Voodooboy heritage, there's a sense of "me vs the world", or at least the freedom to promote your own ideas rather than representing a culture or a gang affiliation.
With that character in mind, I wrote those lyrics:
verse 1
Nighcity, befitting of dogtown
Life's a bitch here,
but as a stray you show teeth
or go down
biz based on survival's the best you can build here
or bonds of blood as bullets get guts spilled
everyone's disposable
no time for closure when scavs go through the corpse of your loved ones,
thats lesson one son, don't get close to anyone, they wont be here for long
The NCPD
Is Answrin ziggy
too busy on tv,
to care for this district
corporate greed is
roaming round freely
their technology feels
like a disease
you expect me to get my perspective on track
best way to pay bills is run the net or the edge
yes, please doc rip away my conscience
i kill all those ghosts, but i still feel haunted
Chorus:
but at night i sleep
like a little kid
thanks to life beating me
into a coma
like on lsd
everything seems unreal
disconnect how I feel
just like a robot
Dear Doctor Please
Rip away the deeds
I commit on the street
And put more chrome on me
I dont want to deal
with the people I kill
its easier to live
if you feel nothing"
verse2
purpose is
an urban legend
that turns some wretched
to burn the fashists
a worthy deathbed
will birth a legend
not serve the better
we wont learn a lesson
shits depressing like watson whore
degenerate like junkies that fuck to gore
yet bloodlust is necessary where im from
morons try to start shit cause my accent's wrong
microphone only lasts a moment
gotta holster guns to make it back home
Doc please give me something stronger
I cannot pretend much longer
There are parts that are a bit more obvious than others.
In verse one, I lay a certain 'groundrule' of the district, a little play on word with dogtown, bitch (female dog), a stray and showing teeth, since you wont survive without having the ability to show your fangs.
Friendship doesnt exist; either you make business, or you kill people together.
If you ever find someone you enjoy, they might be gone in the next moment and become tools for scavangers.
The part with Ziggy was a reference to a loading sequence in game, where an NCPD officer was invited to Ziggys talkshow to talk about the safety of nightcity. Also its commonly known that the NCPD doesnt participate in upholding any sort of safety in pacifica, leading me to criticise their ressourcemanagement.
To "have perspective" and do "something proper" like trying to get a good job is useless, the best paying jobs are being a netrunner or edgerunner.
The chorus describes a weird mindset how to still find any joy in a world like this. I was asking myself how you'd manage to sleep in those conditions, and then remembered fainting once and how it was the most freeing, disconnecting sensation from reality. Therefore, you naturally sleep if someone beats you into a coma. Same with experiencing the world on substances, making the world more an insane theater you can disconnect from.
And ultimately, the more you replace your body with chrome, the less human you are, the more you can 'feel' like a robot.
Verse 2 describes the idea that you create purpose by believing in the "legend". Yet ultimately, the legend rarely influences anything, is an inspiration for the unfortunate to cause minor damage and repeat the cycle.
Watson Whore is a reality show in nightcity, and after the Snuff Braindance Quest, you can phantom what sort of kinks and desires are more common in Nightcity.
Still, who am I to judge, as bloodlust/extremities are needed to survive in this city, pointing at my accent (not being Haitian) possibly enough to find myself in conflict.
The microphone (creation of music/art) gives me a brief moment of freedom before it's back to the reality of keeping your gun ready for self-defense.
And ultimately, deminishing returns causes you to need something stronger the longer you cope.
Musically I wanted to create something that could be found in the Cyberpunk universe, and not something inspired by our modern age.
The genres we find in our world most of the time have cultural backgrounds, or a history how they came to be. So if I wanted to make "oldschool hiphop", Id look for music to sample, possibly funk, or soundtracks of old TV series.
So how would that happen in a world full of lifechanging technology and the different folks in Nightcity?
I was thinking of making the song dirty, but then thought in a world where you can phonecall directly into someones brain, soundquality will be high even in the poor places of Nightcity. The only thing I considered is to change the pitch slightly over time, glitches etc. but the sound itself is justified to sound polished.
Even though my character isnt Haitian, the tribal culture still influences me growing up there, which I wanted to represent in the music. It is a "sample" method, but with modern technology.
The lowpitched rapparts slightly lean towards encrypting your messages as a hacker.
I have to admit, the chorus sounds very 'poppy' and traditional, yet after watching Edgerunners and paying attention to the music on the Cyberpunk Radiostations, there is a certain degree of pop (regardless if its original Cyberpunk 2077 pop or not) that separates me from the rest of pacifica district and cultural/musical expectations.
Overall, I kept the chorus mainly as a nice contrast to the darker verses to also underline the two contradicting sentiments.
What do you guys think? Please criticise the sh*t out of the song. Regardless of me managing to get into the DLC or not, I'm still going to make more music and always hope to learn something new!
The3rdFace
Since I love writing lyrics and playing with words, I made a song that had vocals and lyrics that hopefully made sense in the world of Cyberpunk 2077.
Now I want to know what all the Lore-Lovers of Cyberpunk 2077 think of the lyrics, and where I could have done better/where I don't make any sense.
I created a fictional character, one that isnt originally from Haiti but grew up in the pacifica district. I've always been a fan of people like Lupe Fiasco that experienced hardship in rundown areas, but instead of blindly participating, forming some critical thought through art instead.
Naturally, growing up in a disasterous area like Pacifica, dealing with conflict and issues through violence would be a natural trait/ability that developes over there. Yet not being part of Haiti/Voodooboy heritage, there's a sense of "me vs the world", or at least the freedom to promote your own ideas rather than representing a culture or a gang affiliation.
With that character in mind, I wrote those lyrics:
verse 1
Nighcity, befitting of dogtown
Life's a bitch here,
but as a stray you show teeth
or go down
biz based on survival's the best you can build here
or bonds of blood as bullets get guts spilled
everyone's disposable
no time for closure when scavs go through the corpse of your loved ones,
thats lesson one son, don't get close to anyone, they wont be here for long
The NCPD
Is Answrin ziggy
too busy on tv,
to care for this district
corporate greed is
roaming round freely
their technology feels
like a disease
you expect me to get my perspective on track
best way to pay bills is run the net or the edge
yes, please doc rip away my conscience
i kill all those ghosts, but i still feel haunted
Chorus:
but at night i sleep
like a little kid
thanks to life beating me
into a coma
like on lsd
everything seems unreal
disconnect how I feel
just like a robot
Dear Doctor Please
Rip away the deeds
I commit on the street
And put more chrome on me
I dont want to deal
with the people I kill
its easier to live
if you feel nothing"
verse2
purpose is
an urban legend
that turns some wretched
to burn the fashists
a worthy deathbed
will birth a legend
not serve the better
we wont learn a lesson
shits depressing like watson whore
degenerate like junkies that fuck to gore
yet bloodlust is necessary where im from
morons try to start shit cause my accent's wrong
microphone only lasts a moment
gotta holster guns to make it back home
Doc please give me something stronger
I cannot pretend much longer
There are parts that are a bit more obvious than others.
In verse one, I lay a certain 'groundrule' of the district, a little play on word with dogtown, bitch (female dog), a stray and showing teeth, since you wont survive without having the ability to show your fangs.
Friendship doesnt exist; either you make business, or you kill people together.
If you ever find someone you enjoy, they might be gone in the next moment and become tools for scavangers.
The part with Ziggy was a reference to a loading sequence in game, where an NCPD officer was invited to Ziggys talkshow to talk about the safety of nightcity. Also its commonly known that the NCPD doesnt participate in upholding any sort of safety in pacifica, leading me to criticise their ressourcemanagement.
To "have perspective" and do "something proper" like trying to get a good job is useless, the best paying jobs are being a netrunner or edgerunner.
The chorus describes a weird mindset how to still find any joy in a world like this. I was asking myself how you'd manage to sleep in those conditions, and then remembered fainting once and how it was the most freeing, disconnecting sensation from reality. Therefore, you naturally sleep if someone beats you into a coma. Same with experiencing the world on substances, making the world more an insane theater you can disconnect from.
And ultimately, the more you replace your body with chrome, the less human you are, the more you can 'feel' like a robot.
Verse 2 describes the idea that you create purpose by believing in the "legend". Yet ultimately, the legend rarely influences anything, is an inspiration for the unfortunate to cause minor damage and repeat the cycle.
Watson Whore is a reality show in nightcity, and after the Snuff Braindance Quest, you can phantom what sort of kinks and desires are more common in Nightcity.
Still, who am I to judge, as bloodlust/extremities are needed to survive in this city, pointing at my accent (not being Haitian) possibly enough to find myself in conflict.
The microphone (creation of music/art) gives me a brief moment of freedom before it's back to the reality of keeping your gun ready for self-defense.
And ultimately, deminishing returns causes you to need something stronger the longer you cope.
Musically I wanted to create something that could be found in the Cyberpunk universe, and not something inspired by our modern age.
The genres we find in our world most of the time have cultural backgrounds, or a history how they came to be. So if I wanted to make "oldschool hiphop", Id look for music to sample, possibly funk, or soundtracks of old TV series.
So how would that happen in a world full of lifechanging technology and the different folks in Nightcity?
I was thinking of making the song dirty, but then thought in a world where you can phonecall directly into someones brain, soundquality will be high even in the poor places of Nightcity. The only thing I considered is to change the pitch slightly over time, glitches etc. but the sound itself is justified to sound polished.
Even though my character isnt Haitian, the tribal culture still influences me growing up there, which I wanted to represent in the music. It is a "sample" method, but with modern technology.
The lowpitched rapparts slightly lean towards encrypting your messages as a hacker.
I have to admit, the chorus sounds very 'poppy' and traditional, yet after watching Edgerunners and paying attention to the music on the Cyberpunk Radiostations, there is a certain degree of pop (regardless if its original Cyberpunk 2077 pop or not) that separates me from the rest of pacifica district and cultural/musical expectations.
Overall, I kept the chorus mainly as a nice contrast to the darker verses to also underline the two contradicting sentiments.
What do you guys think? Please criticise the sh*t out of the song. Regardless of me managing to get into the DLC or not, I'm still going to make more music and always hope to learn something new!
The3rdFace
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even for musical people, the description is quite useless without actual sound examples Id say