news agency
Malik Montana says that his album is better than “Pan Tadeusz”.  Well, we compared

Malik Montana says that his album is better than “Pan Tadeusz”. Well, we compared

This is bragga like never before. Rapper Malik Montana has recently announced that he has done more for Polish culture than Mickiewicz and Słowacki put together, and his album “Devil’s Advocate” is better than “Pan Tadeusz”. How do these texts of culture relate to each other? I say “check” – writes Marta Nowak of Gazeta.pl.

It is known that Mickiewicz and Malik share a lot. For example, recently the famous rapper was supposed to perform at the Lubin Days, but when the organizers got acquainted with his texts, they decided to cancel the invitation. Nothing like this has ever happened to the bard. What’s more, Mickiewicz, unlike Malik, wore himself rather modestly, not paying attention to matters such as a precious chain and diamond teeth (Slowacki would be more suspicious in this matter).

But enough about fashion while literature awaits. In my analysis, I focused on a few motifs appearing in “The Devil’s Advocate” and “Pan Tadeusz”. This includes love and death. I also note Malik’s obvious references to Mickiewicz. On the one hand, a national epic, on the other side also a total epic (Malik has 38 tracks in his album). Come on, it’s time to start the polonaise.

Malik Soplica

One of the key characters in the piece “Pan Tadeusz” is Father Robak, or Jacek Soplica. Once an adventurer who killed a man who stood in the way of his love, he later atone for his sins in the habit of a St. Bernard. Malik certainly refers to this outfit in the lines “I don’t need any logo on my sweatshirt, Mordo / Because today I’m already an icon in myself”. The rapper also mentions that his road was winding and that he knows what it’s like to have nothing. It’s like Father Robak.

Soplica was known as an outstanding shooter. Let us quote the relevant passage.

Gentlemen! I live long: I saw one / The man who could show off such a shot. / That once famous in our country for so many duels, / The one that blew out women’s plugs, / That villain of all villains, famous in immemorial times, / That Jacek, vulgo Wąsal – I will not mention the name …

The lyrical subject of Malik’s works has less skills than Jacek Soplica, who was able to knock down an opponent with one shot. As he admits: “I have nine bullets, three times a charm, enough for at least three heads.” Despite this, he willingly brags about a loaded weapon. “You’re pissing me off, fuck off / I’m not threatening, I’m just banging my head”. “You’d better cover yourself with Kevlar or you’ll get holes / We all bleed because we’re only human.” “Because lead is no joke / You’re ripping yourself, then fucking start”. In “Pan Tadeusz” Kevlar did not protect the stupid bear from Worm. He could have stayed in the lair, but he preferred to get dirty. Here’s what the effect was.

Gradually, the eyes of the crowd became silent / Turned to the great, fresh carcass of the bears. / He lay spattered with blood, pierced with bullets, / With his breasts entangled and impaled in a thicket of grass; / He spread his front paws wide, / He was still panting, pouring a stream of blood through his nostrils.

This mighty beast from the Lithuanian forest was certainly what Malik Montana imagined when he wrote:

I’ll give you a hard time, that’s why you end up with a barrel in your jap / The remains of the skull are glued to the wall / The only thing I’m worried about is that I won’t wash this blood off the nakes / Even though I’m really fucked up too.

The rapper, like Father Robak, is aware of his sins. Here are Malik’s beautiful verses, in which he reveals that he is close to the matters of religion: “I came into this world without guilt / But I will leave a sinner, God forgive me”. “I pray to God, please protect / I want to be support for my loved ones.” The rapper also refers to the psalm: “I’m walking through the dark valley alone / I won’t succumb to evil anyway / If fear paralyzes / A new stroller is a drop-top”. And another similarity! Although Mickiewicz writes little about vehicles, we do know that Tadeusz, son of Jacek Soplica, also used an open cart.

A young gentleman had just entered in a two-horse carriage / And, having run around the courtyard, turned back in front of the porch.

Sachet with bigos

It was certainly Father Robak’s famous snuffbox that gave rise to a certain hobby of Malik. As the rapper wrote in almost eleven syllables:

I’m lying with a model who powders her nose […] / I take out a mirror and sprinkle powder on her.

Similar themes are repeated in many other verses.

There’s a full sachet of MDMA pixels, if you want to get high, go in.

Distribution Rotterdam, caramello hash / White coconut lumps just like Rafaello.

What kind of popcorn? Crack in the microwave / I give a plate full like in the cafeteria.

The last fragment is a clear reference to the feasts in Soplicowo. As Mickiewicz writes, “enormous roasts / Beef, roe deer, saddles of wild and deer” were placed on a spit there. The highlight of the program was the sensually described famous bigos.

Chopped, sauerkraut / Which, according to the proverb, goes into the mouth by itself; / Closed in a cauldron, it covers with a moist womb / The finest pieces of meat; / And it is roasted until the fire squeezes all the juices out of it, until the boiling water evaporates from the edges of the vessel.

Also alcohol has its place in “Pan Tadeusz”. Vodka was drunk under the Lithuanian cold soup, the Judge treated others to “silvery liquor”. Or this quote: “They forgot everything, even St. Bernard / They just sang shouting: Vodka, honey, wine!”. This is how the next three drinks are described:

He took out the nails, and three jets gushed forth with a noise, / One white as silver, the other bloodstone, / The third yellow; They play a triplet rainbow above, / And falling in a hundred cups, in a hundred glasses clink.

You can see that Mickiewicz writes terribly. Malik feels that this is not the way to go, and prefers to keep it brief. “Mordo take, once Moet, today Ace of Spades”.

Beautiful women

To a boy every beauty will seem an peer, / And to the innocent every mistress a virgin

Mickiewicz wrote. Malik Montana is not an innocent boy, which he is happy to point out:

Prada, Dior, Bottega, Kasia, Ania or Cornelia / What suits me best, I have a dilemma again today / Each of them is beautiful, each inaccessible / Each so important, and then a stuffed mouth.

The attitude towards women, which is not very subjective, is the most controversial element of Malik Montana’s work. In his works, the heroines are mainly sexual objects (the rapper has a special fixation on oral intercourse). This is perhaps the most different of Malik’s lyrics from the work to which he compared them. In “Pan Tadeusz” there are no fragments like “Roars like a Lamborghini / Legs up like a crane / I go in like a race / Sideways I take a drift”. Mickiewicz also did not have enough imagination to come up with the sentence “When I grab her by the beep, she goes aa”.

Also, the beauty of women is described by the two authors in a decidedly different way. Here Mickiewicz, wrongly considered a great poet:

By chance he raised his eyes, and right on the fence / A young girl was standing … Her white clothes / She hides her slender figure only up to the breast, / Revealing her shoulders and swan neck.

Before he noticed, she flew through the window, shining, / Sudden, silent and light, like the light of the month.

This is Malik, the modern soothsayer:

I look into the bust / Like the eighth miracle / I say that his eyes are as beautiful as the east.

She only has a nice ass on Insta / Up close she’s not that attractive.

An anthill of feelings

In “Pan Tadeusz” the main love story concerns the title character. Let us recall: young Soplica confuses Zosia with Telimena (just like Malik Kasia with Ania and Kornelia). He makes love to Telimena, then realizes the mistake, but nevertheless there are moments of intimacy between them by the anthill. An act that Malik would sum up with the words “jumps alone on her knees like an Impala Chevrolet”, Mickiewicz prefers to describe as follows:

The ants, enticed by the glow of the white stocking, / They ran in, thickly began to tickle and bite, / Telimena had to run away, shake it off, / Finally, sit down on the grass and catch insects. / Tadeusz could not refuse her his help: / Cleaning her dress, he lowered himself down to her feet, / By chance he brought his lips close to Telimena’s temples – / In such a friendly attitude, although they said nothing / About their morning quarrels, they agreed.

However, despite some differences in language, does not the lyrical subject in Malik Montana behave similarly to Tadeusz? Let’s compare. After the situation with the ants, young Soplica avoids Telimena, but one night they run into each other in the manor. The woman laments that he won her over too easily and then scorned her. In response, Tadeusz admits that yes, he was pleasant with her, but nothing more will come of it.

[…] No never! / Tadeusz will call. — I have no intention to marry now, nor to make love. Trifles! let’s give peace! / Please, my dear, change your mind! calm down! / I am grateful to you, but it is impossible / To marry. Let’s love each other, but yes – separately.

Malik understands the attitude of a nineteenth-century colleague:

Intoxicating nights, unnecessary relationship / I’ll give you a taxi, don’t count on a ring.

He says to me: You’re cool / He says it’s love / I say it’s crystals.

Smell of grass and Coco Chanel / I think she fell in love with me / And we were only connected by fleeting sex.

This was also the case in Soplicowo.

Is Malik right?

Among the many similarities between the two works, however, one should not forget about the differences. And so Malik Montana does not address many issues in his texts that found their place in “Pan Tadeusz” (including the Kościuszko Uprising, Napoleon, mushroom picking). There are threads treated quite differently – for example, the motif of a clock, which in Malik’s works mainly shines on the wrist, and in Mickiewicz’s you can hear “Old Dabrowski’s mazurka”. The metaphors of the songs are quite different. They also differ formally – Malik clearly shuns Polish alexandrine.

How to pass a verdict in such a difficult case? Is “The Devil’s Advocate” really more significant for Polish culture than “Pan Tadeusz”? Ultimately, it will be judged by history and literary scholars.

Because – now finally seriously – we already know vox populi:

Source: Gazeta

You may also like

Hot News

TRENDING NEWS

Subscribe

follow us