Hitman. All I do is body like a hitman. Body-ody-ody like a hitman. Ooh-wee. Chup chap click bang no chit chat. Big like large like big bang. All I do is body like a hitman. Ooh-wee

The current heartthrob of the electronic dance music and electro-pop scene in Pakistan, Rozeo, a very successful producer from Lahore, opens his latest track, Hitman, with these eloquently written verses. We’ve reached peak laziness in music writing. Fully formed, structured sentences, nay just the use of proper words, is so old school and out of style.

Henceforth, lyric-writing will be like pulling out five odd words and repeating variations of them to make rhyming noises so at least they sound coherent, even if they are not. To add a little bit of diversity, let’s replicate the same in another language. And there you have it: most modern songs coming out nowadays.

Rozeo’s latest single, Hitman, featuring Aashir and Maanu, murders art to make ‘modern’ music

But this — if you can call it — ‘art’ is hitting a chord with young people nowadays. It’s hard to go anywhere without listening to a song that Rozeo has produced. Listening to Hitman, one can understand why.

The song flows effortlessly between Rozeo and the two other rap artists of the moment — Aashir and Maanu. The cool distorted sounds that constitute the music provide the perfect layered backdrop for these three artists to deliver their ‘lyrics’ in a style that focuses entirely on them, sans any musical distractions.

Predator apex/ Double the bounty/ Triple the paycheck/ Six hits aur [and] counting/ Duss aur [Ten more] by day end/ You’re all surrounded/ You should just say less

Ashir delivers these lines in a refreshingly desi accent before Maanu comes along and casually drops brand names and the title of the production company in his lyrics. They both give an intense performance that, despite the lack of proper grammar, you find yourself connecting with, in spite of your own reservations about the song.

To put it simply, Hitman is a diss track against all of the ‘haters’. It’s a concept as old as rap, but it’s also old, tedious and done-to-death. Somehow it feels like the prime motivation needed nowadays is to talk smack about or to an enemy — even if an imagined one. Or digging deeper, perhaps what they’re dissing are their own self-saboteurs, their own inner demons.

Modern music will always be ever-evolving, letting go of some of the old and incorporating the new. One just hopes that it further evolves to give importance and some dignity to proper language and poetry. That, instead of dumbing itself down, it elevates itself — music and language — for future generations to discover newer interpretations hidden in its many complex, beautiful layers. As enjoyable as it is, that song isn’t Hitman.

Published in Dawn, ICON, September 4th, 2022