Get Down - Tim Gent
Artwork - “Get Down”
In the past couple of years, my life has been a whirlwind of change, and thank God it has been. I’m not saying I wasn’t living right, but I definitely wasn’t working hard and I was letting life cruise. Seasons flew by, friends changed, and life moved on, but what about me? Change is one of the world’s constants, but inner change is one of those things that’s entirely dependent on you and how hard you’re willing to deconstruct those parts of yourself. It’s almost like starting over. You’ve done things a certain way for so long, it becomes normal, and breaking out of that is hard. A wise person told me, “if you wanna change something, you gotta change something.”
“I wanted to use this video as a satire. Kind of like, my new rap self taking over my old rap self,” and this is a lot more than just a rap song; it’s a message, to anybody that thinks things are the same as it once was. Gent understands, and for two and a half minutes, he is a man on a mission. When the beat punches in, it sets the tone with a jolt of Southern bounce that’s a refreshing sound compared to a lot of the music I hear nowadays that falls underneath the “Hip-Hop/Rap” category. I got to talk a little bit with one of the two producers, Hvstle, once the event was over, and I gave him and Trakmatik their flowers. As a pure Hip-Hop fan, their production scratches that itch.
“I seen everyone doubted, and he did it, God did it, I did it, odds stacked,”
Like most people, Tim Gent isn’t just a singular thing. Of course, he’s a rapper, songwriter, creative director, but more than anything, Tim Gent is a movement. In this song, and just in general if you’re around him, you see and hear the word “Chief,” which I learned is an acronym for Catch Height In Every Fall, a nice, helpful reminder to find those silver linings when life gets you down.
Now, Gent is telling “Everybody get down in this place,” to stay out of his lane, and his foot’s on the gas. Gent’s wordplay is what caught my attention, and just like how I mentioned with the production, Gent’s rap prowess really showed me that you can get that sort of energy from Tennessee. We’ve always had great music, but to have a Rap force in Nashville, it hits different. This whole video is a movie too, which looks like it takes inspiration from some of those Mob Crime movies and being able to watch it live and in person really establishes new ideas that help enforce or create new ideas for the listener. I just really like how everything was done, and I’m happy I was able to be a part of these three videos and their release parties.
This track came into my life at the right time. I always need new music, and I always like finding new rappers, but it’s very seldom nowadays that I find songs/artists/movements that empower me. I don’t know if it’s cause the music is so good, or if that in tandem with the video swooned me, but this left an impression on me. I also look at Tim and see somebody who could be one of the torch bearings for Nashville on a national level. He spoke about how there’s a lot more content coming down the pipeline, and honestly, y’all better get down.
