Illustration by Mia Turner
When somebody thinks of memes and the culture surrounding them, one of the big names that comes up is Filthy Frank. The man behind the Filthy Frank YouTube channel, George Miller, is known for his intentionally offensive content, which spanned into his rap career under the persona Pink Guy.
Under that persona he made music that made fun of everybody in the most vulgar way possible. In the background though, Miller has been releasing more serious music about romance and breakups under the name Joji. For years Miller was releasing songs on SoundCloud, but recently he released his first EP to a larger audience.
The EP, In Tongues, is overall very disappointing. Joji has always released music that sounds pretty much the same, and that’s his main fault with this new album. He has lots of potential as an artist but always fails to leave his comfort zone, a problem that heavily weighs down the EP, which is only six songs.
The third song, “Demons,” is interesting in the sense that it switches up the roles seen in most of his other songs. It has an uninteresting beat, but the best vocal delivery on the album mixed with interesting and impactful lyrics. They mention his insecurities and how he thinks they’re trapping both him and his partner in a relationship. He feels like his inner demons are amplifying his insecurities and that something bad will happen in the future. The feelings he describes relate heavily to modern relationships and the inner pains and fears that often occur during them.
The worst song of the album is “Window,” which is a play off of Travis Scott’s “Antidote.” The result is a song that seems like a cheap knockoff, using the same way of singing and even some of the same words, just put into a different context. He tries to talk about his mental health, but it’s overshadowed by his strange decision to try to use “Antidote” as a heavy influence. The song just isn’t good.
Out of the six songs on the album, only two were decent, but that’s not what matters. It’s a pretty bad album, but what’s really interesting is the differing persona that Miller is trying to put out into the world. Most of his fans know him from the ultra-offensive content he’s pushed out into the world, but with the mainstream release of this album, he seems to be putting out a different message.
The use of a different name is used to distance himself from his older content. He can’t be serious when using the Filthy Frank or Pink Guy brands because they don’t feel genuine. Those personas are entirely built around satire and offensive content. If Miller started to talk about his own mental health using those personas, fans wouldn’t listen or would think it was disingenuous.
It must be tough for Miller to have to hide his emotions all the time, to not be real with his fans, especially with someone as big name as Filthy Frank. This mainstream release of In Tongues is a way to put his personal feelings front and center, so that he can finally be real. Miller is taking an interesting step, and has a lot of potential to make great music that can help people who struggle with similar issues. It would help his music greatly if he spent more time making the songs genuinely good.