G-funk’s stoned bliss was an escape from capitalism’s demand to never stop self-selling

Evidence

What footwork takes is some vocal styling (the rap that is so often subject to its stuttering repetitions), but also a certain mood. G-funk differentiated itself from standard gangsta posturing by the way it dissolved the hard ego of the rapper into clouds of Chronic. Beneath the busyness of capitalist realism — and its demands that we never stop selling ourselves — was another mode of being, where time diffused slowly as exhaled smoke. Beyond the phallic machismo, there was a different libidinal economy, defined by a superficially paradoxical combination of deep yearning and a desire to remain absolutely in the sunlight-saturated moment, liberated from the urgencies of business. This is all the more poignant because a gangster’s work is never done, his enemies don’t sleep, and chilled-out bliss could be terminated at any moment by gunfire. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1333

Categorization

• XREF: Directly extends Fisher’s capitalist realism thesis from ch 28: dope-smoke diffusion as an affective counter-mode to performative self-marketing. — connects to: G-funk’s haze aesthetic embodied a libidinal counter-mode to capitalist busyness — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1333; Stoner stupefaction only removes tension and serves consumer capitalism — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2375