Música para
Flash Fiction, Assassins, & Beats Music
Today the bass beat vibrates through the entirety of my Being. This helps me get into my Flow. Without it, the job cannot be done.
When I began the Deadly Dance, I started with nothing, no Pac, no Crookers, nada. The sounds that came with the violence sickened me. It was a conflict I willingly embraced for something within me craved both the pit in my stomach before and the excellence I felt after. Song became the Dance Partner I leaned on whilst the performance was underway.
Music became a necessity. For many, music can take their breath away. In my case, it helps me to take that breath away forever for many…
Starting out, I chose an extreme: love ballads. Our kind are usually most ruthless but I’m a peculiar sort of assassin. You can appreciate that can’t you? I mean c’mon, we live in a world filled with DVR and Blu-Ray collections of shows like Dexter.
The ballads were truly wonderful at first. Simple, easy, feel good music that provided an epic sense to what I was doing. I’d put on my headphones and cover them with a beanie so that they wouldn’t come off in the heat of the moment. Set the volume to a medium, just low enough that I might still hear anything that was necessary but a bit loud so I could get my Heart into it.
After a many a days of work, the love ballads did little to ease the stress of said days. I’d hit the bottle to fall asleep and the cliche expressions, the catchy hooks began to really irritate me.
“I got you, Babe. Duh, duh, I got you babe.”
Duh, duh, damn right I got you.
On one occasion, when I couldn’t wash the pulpy gore from my hands, that’s when I knew I needed a change and had the courage to branch out from the safety of Love songs.
Courage came in baby steps however, and I tried other feel good music. There was something about the feeling and music for me that I think extends to the entire human condition. Sociopathic. Psychopathic. Empathic? Aren’t we all (of the above)?
It’s a little hard offing another to Bob Marley’s One Love. No amount of “spiritual it is what it is mumbo-jumbo” could counteract that.
Realizing the extreme 0f feel good music wasn’t helping, I fell into an angry depression and went for some metal because that felt right.
For about a minute.
I was never much of a Rock Listener, only entertaining the occasional top 40 hit throughout the time I spent during my B.A. (Before Assassin) period of Life. As the kill count grew, so did I with the exploration of my feelings through music.
I began to realize, this wasn’t a movie soundtrack I was creating, it was just something to get me in the Flow, you know, a feeling presence that allowed me to express myself freely, without judgment, in each moment.
Hip-Hop, now that I truly love but listening to on the daily that made me feel like a poser. A certain degree of detachment is necessary to get paid to take lives, but like any job, you want to feel like it’s you and feel good about it. I’m certainly no gangster and though I’m well compensated for what I do, I don’t have that MTV Cribs lifestyle that my generation grew up with.
EDM?
Nah, this isn’t Spring Break.
Punk?
Too emo, after all, I was killing not getting dumped.
Classical? Ha, I like to leave the drama to the Opera and would rather not attract attention for it is important to be quietly lethal in my profession.
As much as the self-exploration through listening to all the music (and necks) I could get my hands, it became taxing. Wasn’t there one Artist, one genre, one application that defined me and my Life’s work?
But then one day while trolling Twitter, I was introduced to an app that would change my Life, Beats Music. Just effing brilliant. I was slow to getting down with the cloud and subscription services, having been raised by art and music collectors. Having the physical copy was supposed to mean something but that was the problem right there and it really conflicted with my minimalist nature.
I could have something physical but with technology, for it to be sleek at least, it had to be transferred to a digital format. Can you imagine an Assassin creeping in with a record player strapped to her back? I can’t either…
Never good at commitment, it scared me to subscribe to the service but then I applied logic and thought of the savings for no longer would I be required to buy an album, or in many cases, many, to create a mix for a certain job. Like the time I got to off that sad Ambassador and had to wait for literally hours whilst he wined and dined his mistress in Bolivia. That time I needed a combination of music because I was in the field for longer than normal and created three days worth of mixes drawing heavily on Latin and World Music.
Sigh. After that job I haven’t once listened to any of that music, it’s just collecting dust in my library at home.
With Beats Music, not only could I find just what worked, I could cater it based on curated music that fit how I felt, and Beats does the work for me. So I save money, eliminated my consumption pattern, and time is freed up because Beats Music works for me at just $9.99 a month.
Now, each time it’s about to go down, I just dial up a sentence:
“I’m at a BBQ & feel like being productive with the boys to Jazz.” Worked wonders for that job in New Orleans.
“I’m on vacation & feel like punching walls with this Dream Team to Pop.” Is exactly what I’ll use if I’m ever hired for that Canadian singer kid...
And the Beats could go on and on.
And on.
You’ll never see me as their spokesperson but perhaps consider it as a testimonial. I do you thank Dr. Dre. You’ve made Life easier for this Assassin.
