Yo, yo, yo!
Join MC Boba Tea aka Shindy, DJ Ice Milk aka Jeff, and Static Masta Mat on a dope two-season trip through the life (and pants) of would-be nebbish rapper, Dave now playing on Hulu.
First Impressions: Curb your enthusiasm with a beat? (02:44)
Mat: I just thought Atlanta had already done the "quirky rapper" thing so well. The “white rapper” thing seemed like a gimmick. I watched the first couple of eps. Confirmed that it was just gimmicky, but I'm glad I persevered because, as everybody realized, there was that point where it takes that leap from puerile to sophisticated and ambitious while still being puerile. Little Dicky talks the talk and the show definitely walks the walk.
Shindy: It reminded me of like a Curb Your Enthusiasm kind of thing, but like, the bad parts. Where Larry David is whingy and whiny and moaning all the time. Except it's a younger version. But then, by the second and third episode, things got better.
Jeff: Yeah, like Woody Allen projects this sort of suave lover, and he's always getting the girl that he wants his movies. But then his life apart from that is kind of a shambles. Dave Byrd said when he was creating the show, he wanted a mashup of Atlanta. Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage and Girls.
Defector article: "Dave Is Too Sad To Redeem Lil Dicky" See comment section.
Spoiler Alert (14:48)
Nice guy or narcissist? And our favorite characters. (15:30)
Mat: He definitely can be lovable, but ultimately, I don't think he's likable. It's that level of arrogance or self-involvement that it takes to succeed in the industry. The whole shtick and humor gets a little old. So this extra layer of neurosis, of hubris, of arrogance gives a character some interesting depth. This mixture of arrogance and confidence-issue that kind of makes him stand out. I think as a character, we usually follow the likable guy trying to make it. Dave is like our cipher in the story, he's anti-hero, which makes him more enigmatic and interesting for us.
Shindy: That’s kind of a thing with artists, right? It's like very “Ye”-like. You have to have a certain level of ego or arrogance and just not back down to your haters or whatever people are going to say about you. You have to believe in yourself and your music. That's part of ambition.
Jeff: Thematically, there's a lot of things happening, the show itself is bringing the issues up. And Dave is sort of playing around with those issues, and he doesn't mind being the fall guy. I think that's a very brave move. I think there would have had to have been a lot of explanation to other famous participants in the show like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Doja Cat, and The Breakfast Club crew. They would not have participated in this project if he was actually a racist and a misogynist, actually.
Favorite episode? (24:50)
Jeff: Season 2, Episode 7 was called “Ad Man” where Emma and Dave are reminiscing about their ad agency days. And the thing that stands out to me about that one is Dave's like complete lack of parity during their ad presentation, and the conclusion of the pitch, which they win. I felt hurt for Emma not being even acknowledged and it was painful. And so I like that the show does not let you off the hook. That's the best thing about the show to me.
Shindy: Season 1, Episode 10 when they go to Allie’s sister's wedding. There are a lot of laugh out loud, like seriously burst out laughing moments. When they're hiking and he starts shitting his pants. Oh, my God. Brilliant. Like all the lines and just like the comedic elements of that show. But then emotionally, anybody who's been in a serious, adult relationship, you know exactly what they're going through. Like the time when they are arguing, you feel like the tension, you know exactly what's happening the way she loves him, but he's such a dick because this whole time his mind is somewhere else.
Why doesn’t Dave stick up for Emma and his other friends? Racism and allyship. (30:46)
Shindy: Dave has a very diverse group of friends. His producers are both black at one of his best friends is Korean. The Ad Man episode was actually written by an Asian American. And I feel like there was no better person to write that episode. I've dealt with that stuff. And this is the stuff that Asians deal with all the time. But you know, we're supposed to be like the quiet head down focused, be diligent, be hardworking, don't speak up kind of thing. And at the freestyle battle, Emma helped him again, she secured getting that beat, which was really cheating. But she helped him and he didn't even thank her.
Jeff: It's totally explicit throughout the show. I think allyship is really what these kinds of shows and the way that they're delivered can do to open consciousness up for people so that they are better allies. Because we don't experience, and have never experienced that level of abuse or racism. We have been, of course bullied, molested, physically abused, some of us have bipolar or other problems. Even though we haven't experienced them directly, we can provide better allyship. I think that's one of the great things that the show manages to.
Our favorite things: track suits, shaved heads, and pooping (35:24)
Mat: Apparently this came out before White Lotus, so it's credited as the first pooping scene shown on television. Both scenes were done with CGI, by the way, but I was personally more impressed by the White Lotus pooping.
Shindy: What's impressive is the shock value of it because, clearly, the way that it fell out, you're like, What the hell! Am I actually seeing this in a show? It was just one of those moments where you can't believe they did it.
Stream It or Leave It? (39:03)
Jeff: Stream it.
Mat: Stream it.
Shindy: Stream it. Surprisingly so!
Bonus: What else we’re watching (39:37)
Mat: The Many Saints of Newark (Sopranos prequel) on HBO Max; The Sparks Brothers (music documentary) on Netflix
Jeff: Zodiac with Jake Gyllenhaal (he finally pronounced it right! Chole Sevigny? not so much.) and Robert Downey, Jr. on Netflix
Shindy: What Happened, Brittany Murphy? on HBO Max