The PHILOSOPHY of X | DMX-Intro | Philosopher REACTS

[00:00:01]Guys, I don't know if DMX was a student of Arthur Schopenhauer, but he should have been.

[00:00:07]>> [music] [singing] [music] >> I got to say something here.

[00:00:16]Schopenhauer identified the sexual impulse as the strongest, most direct manifestation of the will to live, right? You know, it's it's the trick that nature plays on us to perpetuate the cycle of existence.

[00:00:28]So, DMX notes right here that access to sex is granted instantly based on his rising power.

[00:00:36]Family, I find it phenomenal how many people I ask got introduced to DMX via dark times.

[00:00:44]You know, so some people say, "Oh, that was in a dark time in my life and I you know, so I was I was listening to DMX and I you know." Or people figured out who he was through some dark avenue, you know, and the same is the case for me.

[00:00:55]You know, my mother and father split up when I was 6 years old and a couple of years after that, you know, I was a mama's boy, but my big brother wasn't.

[00:01:03]You know, he really he would kind of lock himself in his room and listen to hip-hop, right? And I wasn't even into hip-hop at the time. I became fascinated by rap and hip-hop because of my brother's isolation and the music that would come out of his room.

[00:01:19]One of those rappers was DMX.

[00:01:22]You know, my brother left the house, I would go in there and I would steal his CDs and I would like listen to his CDs in the Walkman, you know, and DMX was one of those. It was always kind of frightening to listen It was as a kid, you know what I mean?

[00:01:35]And uh you know, as a philosopher, it reminds me of the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. I have a theory that uh Schopenhauer's philosophy and DMX's philosophy, specifically on It's Dark and Hell Is Hot, go together like peas and carrots.

[00:01:54]Uh family, hear me out. Without any further ado, we're going to get right into it. Like, comment, share, subscribe. Um and we are going to break this down in terms of Schopenhauer's thoughts and DMX's lyrics. Hear me out.

[00:02:08]You might just learn something, family.

[00:02:11]>> You know what I'm saying? These Ruff Ryder [ __ ] >> Dog.

[00:02:14]>> I heard these [ __ ] is for real.

[00:02:15]>> Dog.

[00:02:16]>> Uh-huh.

[00:02:17]>> That's my mans and them.

[00:02:18]>> But I heard these [ __ ] supposed to be like locking down the industry on some [ __ ] on some power [ __ ] >> Dog.

[00:02:24]>> That's my mans and them.

[00:02:25]>> See, a a lot of people didn't understand this intro. I was one of the ones. I was like, "What are you talking about?" You got this guy who seems to be like talking to himself. Like, "Hey, I heard this about the Ruff Ryders and I heard that they on some power, you know?" And then DMX is like, "Dog, that's my mans and them." Like, why do why does this kind of keep repeating? I'mma try to let you guess. You know, leave it in the comments below if you have some estimation as to what's going on between these two characters, but I'm going to reveal what I think in just a second.

[00:02:51]>> Mhm.

[00:02:52]>> So, what I'm doing >> Right, right.

[00:02:54]>> my mans and them is doing. Because >> Right.

[00:02:59]>> that's my mans and them.

[00:03:02]>> Hear me out.

[00:03:03]This back-and-forth, right, is about what you heard, right, and somebody living it. Like, a lot of rappers talk about saying, "Hey, you're rapping something that I'm actually living."

[00:03:13]You know, so this character is saying, "You know, I heard the Ruff Ryders. I heard this and I heard that." DMX is like, "Yo, whatever you heard is what is actually happening over here, right?

[00:03:23]There's a difference between the hypothetical and the actual.

[00:03:27]Let's talk about it.

[00:03:29]>> You know.

[00:03:30]>> I feel you.

[00:03:30]>> Now you feel me.

[00:03:31]>> I feel you.

[00:03:35]>> Why must you be hard-headed?

[00:03:38]>> Why must you be hard-headed?

[00:03:44]That line, "Why must you be hard-headed?" is definitely a flex. You know, he's almost talking to the entire industry uh as if they're children and he's like a disappointed parent, right?

[00:03:56]Listen to this.

[00:04:04]Why must you be hard-headed?

[00:04:06]>> [laughter] [music] [music] [music] >> Okay, hear me out. Hear me out, right?

[00:04:34]How does this relate to Arthur Schopenhauer, right? Schopenhauer argued that the majority of human existence is governed by the will rather than the intellect. Remember the beginning of this track, somebody said, "Oh, you know, I he's he's intellectualized this.

[00:04:47]Oh, you know, I heard this and I heard that." And X is like, "This is what I do." You're looking you're standing in front of it, right? The will, according to Schopenhauer, doesn't speak, it acts violently and instantly. So, DMX notes, "Those that know are real quiet."

[00:05:04]This is kind of the chilling silence of pure lethal intent. In Schopenhauer's framework, words are a function of the intellect, but violence and survival oh, those are functions of the raw will.

[00:05:17]When the intellect fails to perceive the danger, right? You don't know what the gun do. The underlying chaos of existence breaks through immediately.

[00:05:25]Guys, I'm going to go back a couple bars. I'm going to let him cook, right?

[00:05:28]We're going DMX, Arthur Schopenhauer, showing how kind of the philosophies, at least on this track, is the same.

[00:05:36]>> [music] >> [ __ ] up for real. Get up and feel. My words, I make curves, spit up and swerve.

[00:05:50]>> Listen.

[00:05:51]It's what you hearing. Listen. It's what you hearing. Listen.

[00:05:55]X demands that the listener get up and feel my words, right? Schopenhauer believed that conventional logic and language are superficial. But art, specifically music, bypasses that intellect and speaks directly to the core of human suffering.

[00:06:11]So DMX is not asking you to analyze his lyrics intellectually. He's forcing you to feel the heavy, painful reality.

[00:06:19]>> [snorts] [sighs and gasps] >> And and and that's what Arthur Schopenhauer calls will. The absolute predictability of human consumption, right? It was like he says, you know, you just going to buy it regardless, right? And that kind of mirrors Arthur Schopenhauer's view that humans are hopelessly enslaved to their baseline desires and impulses, right?

[00:06:41]It's the same, bro.

[00:06:45]>> [music] [music and singing] [laughter] >> The battle turns into a hunt, right? For Schopenhauer, most of human society is like a grand farce. It's a fragile kind of front constructed to hide our terrifying vulnerability and our inner malice. So DMX exposes the bluff of that societal toughness, right? When he strips away the social conditioning with a direct confrontation, right? What you want?

[00:07:24]Uh the battle turns into a hunt, right?

[00:07:26]X represents the apex predator because his will is entirely uninhibited, easily breaking through any artificial constraints of society, right? He says, "Get out of them cuffs. I'm the one who can get out of them cuffs." He's like, "Look, all of that stuff is artificial."

[00:07:40]The power of the will is the only thing that's absolute. Him and Schopenhauer completely agree. Let's continue.

[00:07:46]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Nobody knows who did it.

[00:08:07]>> [snorts] >> See, listen, Schopenhauer's pessimism concludes that life is essentially valueless, full of sound and fury signifying nothing. So, DMX's execution is cold. It's mechanical and and and it's it's like devoid of sentimentality, right? He says, "Ain't no love. I do them all like that." The absolute finality of death. "Close your eyes, baby. It's over. Forget it." He's hearing all He's saying all these things and the complete indifference of the surrounding world. He says, "Nobody knows who did it."

[00:08:38]That captures the Schopenhauerian view of cosmic apathy, right? An individual life is snuffed out in a broad in broad daylight and the universe doesn't even blink.

[00:08:49]>> [sighs and gasps] >> Guys, if I would say that anything computes really well, like philosophically, to It's Dark and Hell Is Hot, it's it's Schopenhauer's philosophy. We're going to go track for track.

[00:09:04]We going to go track for track. Damn, dog, why you have to do them like that?

[00:09:08]See, I know a lot of X verses. Let's continue.

[00:09:12]>> [music] [music] >> [ __ ] is puss. Keep it running from the werewolf.

[00:09:31]>> [music] >> Howling at the moon on the roof.

[00:09:34]No! Get him. 10 [ __ ] on him. Hope God's with him.

[00:09:39]>> [laughter] >> THIS IS KIND OF WHAT X is known for, right? Those kind of those elements where you just kind of get street sounds in the background and a lot of chaos. X fully embraces the archetype of the monster, the werewolf, howling at the moon, right? By framing himself as a creature driven entirely by the lunar cycle and and and and the primal instinct, right? He kind of he shirks off human morality, let's say.

[00:10:06]When he commands his collective to swarm an individual, he says, "10 [ __ ] on him. Hope God's with him." He's illustrating Schopenhauer's concept of the sheer vulnerability of the individual against the mob, against the collective force of nature. We remember this from Stop, Drop. He's like, "Oh oh Oh, you ain't met the I said you I think you're holding weight, then you haven't met the apes, right?" Same thing. The individual against the collective. God is absent. Only the physical forces of destruction remain. And I know that saying God is absent is not necessarily, you know, you know, in line with DMX's, but he DMX is a religious man, respectfully.

[00:10:44]Let's continue.

[00:10:47]>> [music] [music] [singing] [music] >> Split him to the white meat, but the street stay red. Did he say the street?

[00:11:11]Guys, even the grave provides no sanctuary from the cycle of violence in the X's world, right? Snatch you up out the grave. And this aligns heavily with Schopenhauer's concept of of of palingenesis, right? The idea that while individual entities die, the core underlying will to live cannot be destroyed. It simply returns in new violent forms to suffer all over again.

[00:11:39]Family, the imagery of the street staying red emphasizes that while individuals decay into bones and ashes, the collective field of human suffering remains permanently active.

[00:11:52]Guys, I don't know if DMX was a student of Arthur Schopenhauer, but he should have been.

[00:11:59]>> [music] [singing] >> I got to say something here.

[00:12:08]Schopenhauer identified the sexual impulse as the strongest, most direct manifestation of the will to live, right? You know, it's it's the trick that nature plays on us to perpetuate the cycle of existence. So, DMX notes right here that access to sex is granted instantly based on his rising power.

[00:12:27]>> [sighs and gasps] >> Guys, am I am I talking am I am I am I am I getting I think I'm right. Tell me if I'm wrong in the comments. Is this correlation accurate?

[00:12:40]>> [music] [music] [music] [cough] >> I don't know if X has a single song that's not iconic at this point.

[00:13:26]>> [clears throat] >> I mean, listen family, the final bars of that drop all pretense of artistic nuance.

[00:13:32]You know, he reduces existence to its absolute mechanical foundation. Kill, [ __ ] kill. This repetitive involuntary chant, you know, it kind of represents the will when it's completely detached, let's say, from reason.

[00:13:51]Right? DMX concludes by identifying himself not as a person, but as a [ __ ] problem. An active living destruction of anybody trying to survive.

[00:14:03]>> [snorts] >> Bro, this one was wild.

[00:14:06]>> [sighs] >> Guys, uh this was fun. Like, let me know if we should keep going down the Schopenhauer rabbit hole. I think Schopenhauer speaks to this entire album. If Schopenhauer was cruising around like today, he would be blasting DMX.

[00:14:25]Right?

[00:14:27]He's the ultimate realization of of Schopenhauer's philosophy, DMX is. A man who has looked into the dark abyss of existence, recognized its inherent cruelty, and then chosen to become the most dangerous force within it. Respectfully.