A Brief Analysis Of Existential Ennui In Notorious B.I.G.’s “Party and Bullsh*t”
By Maggie McGee
“Party and Bullshit” by Notorious B.I.G. contains a question of subtext. Primarily, the track is touted as being an appropriate song to play at parties because it’s catchy and features a highly aggressive, nervous energy throughout. However, it seems as though this is a song less about the enjoyment of partying, but rather, the empty monotony of it. Even the chorus sounds monotone and dead. This is a track seems more about the emptiness of a party lifestyle in which nothing is ever truly accomplished; this can be observed as an absurdist paradigm. The consistent repetition of the lifestyle leaves the narrator feeling empty and seeking an alternative, which cannot be found within the world that he’s caught. So this empty cycle is repeated ad infinitum, culminating in aggression amongst the participants (“Chill man! Chill!”) due in all likelihood to the entrapment within a tiny microcosm of empty indulgence. The party is the bullshit. The “bullshit” is a flippant regard for any sort of substance, because substance isn’t something experienced within the realm that the narrator resides; it’s one empty plateau to the next with little solace between each. The party and bullshit never stops; at the end it even fades out – we can hear its continuation until it fades into oblivion.