Photo Credit: WondaGurl’s Facebook

From The Ashes: 7 Examples of Musicians Turning Personal Difficulty and Tragedy Into Art

Gino Sorcinelli
Micro-Chop

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We’re living in some very dark times. To help me deal with the daily stress of the world we live in, I’ve been looking to artists I admire for inspiration. Maybe this isn’t the best way to fix our broken planet, but it’s helping me keep my sanity.

Here are seven incredible examples I’ve found of musicians channeling failure, loss, and pain into something beautiful. If you’d like to learn more about each story, links to the articles are included in each numbered point. Enjoy.

  1. Dave Grohl made the Foo Fighters debut album by himself to help him move on from the loss of Kurt Cobain.
  2. Eminem’s “Stan” was the first beat Mark The 45 King made after he was released from prison for a minor drug offense.
  3. Posdnuos of De La Soul wrote the lyrics for “Millie Pulled A Pistol on Santa” when he learned that one his friends was being sexually abused by her father.
  4. Scarface wrote “Mind Playing Tricks on Me” to help him work through his mental illness and suicidal tendencies.
  5. Speech of Arrested Development made “Tennessee” after the loss of his brother and grandmother.
  6. Washed Out made “Feel It All Around” when he was unemployed and living with his parents.
  7. WondaGurl started making beats to deal with being “a bored kid” with “no friends.”

If you enjoyed this piece, please consider following my Bookshelf Beats and Micro-Chop publications. You can also read my work at Cuepoint and HipHopDX.

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Gino Sorcinelli
Micro-Chop

Freelance journalist @Ableton, ‏@HipHopDX, @okayplayer, @Passionweiss, @RBMA, @ughhdotcom + @wearestillcrew. Creator of www.Micro-Chop.com and @bookshelfbeats.