The Concept of Taboo Explained (a thread):

When Denzel says “This is the darker side of taboo” it’s because the album is meant as a loop. the listener comes straight from Black metal Terrorist. At the end of Black metal Terrorist, there is a static that fades out.

This static is very faint in the first track of the album “TABOO”. This just shows that light, grey, dark will cycle over and over throughout life. The listener is still in the dark part of life when starting the album, henceforth, “The darker side of taboo”

The album is supposed to represent 3 phases of a life Or a career in rap. It starts off talking more about money because that is what young people getting into rap care about, and transitions from there.

Light is supposed to be materialistic, as that’s how he was when he entered, and grey is the aftermath of being like that, and the effects of not giving a shit about things that don’t have monetary value. In black balloons, his depression subtlety grows throughout the song.

Cash maniac is pure flexing, and brings back the theme of numbing inner pain with money and things of that nature. Sumo is about having PORUS amounts of cash, and bars revolving around this. It further implements the theme of having money to defeat depression shown in act 1.

Act 2, grey, is the longest of the acts in the album, because it represents reality, reality is more of a part of life than superficial things. Super saiyan pretty much is a reflection of Denzel in the rap game, he portrays himself as being as powerful as a super saiyan.

Switch it up gives the first true taste of the theme of act 2 because it discusses bipolar disorder, and tells a true story about a friend that turned on Denzel. It represents the harsh realities of life.

In the hamlet play he references, suicide is a common theme, and this is a harsh reality that Denzel faces, he feels like he needs to kill his true personality in order to be successful in rap. He also makes reference to people trying to become his friend as he gains popularity.

Popularity being another thing that comes with gaining fame. Mad I got it is loaded with theme, it is moody, and talks about how he has been driven moderately crazy by the rap game. A huge part in this is the Jack Frost line, it states that he has turned cold due to his life.

Sirenz adds to this theme of reality because it shows Denzels view on politics and the world. I could go all day with the loaded politics in here but basically he calls out the mainstream media for misconstruing the messages from rap music and the justice system for being corrupt

That is another part of life (reality) that Denzel explores in the middle section. Clout cobain is a perfect way to end the grey section because it talks about the results of trying to obtain clout, Denzel feels like people want him to do hard drugs, or crazy things for it.

In reality he just wants to live his life. It also conjoins with the earlier theme of being materialistic because when people get too focused on things like money or clout, suicide can be a result.

He also references that when people chase things like money there can be a loss of life involved, and people die over things like that. The grey area also represents the part of his life he was able to find the most logic in, he has accepted how rap has changed, how people have 1

changed, and how life has changed. Grey also shows his emotions here. He isn’t necessarily sad in these tracks, but he isn’t exactly happy with his life, and he’s okay with that. It is truly the grey are of emotions. (2)

He spends a lot of time rationalizing the shitty things that have happened, example being his friend robbing him in switch it up, and rationalizing these things is truly grey, it is pure objectivity, when you put yourself in someone else’s shoes about something that happens.

he is being logical here, instead of swinging more towards happy or sad, he is purely noting that it happened. Then act 3 starts, the dark part of the album. It opens with the blackest balloon, already implying that he is in significant pain during this portion.

black balloons represent pain during taboo. Percz works with the theme as it is talking about the problems in the current rap game. It talks about people who are industry plants and even how he has been racially profiled.

The Chorus of vengeance is a reference to him killing himself in the clout cobain music video, and also coincides with the theme of darkness because revenge is a dark topic. It could be interpreted that he has significant anger towards people who push him to be what he isn’t.

He later reinforces this theme when he threatens to kill critics on twitter. He again references clout cobain when he states “keep laughing til I do something serious” this means that he will go as far as to die to get attention, and this level of extremeness adds to the theme.

During this track he embodies the persona of a black metal terrorist, which by name is very clearly dark. The three acts represent three thought processes, the first one is about ignoring pain with money, the second one is being grey, and thinking logically.

the third one is anger. That said, the whole album is still dark, his idea of happiness is using drugs to pop his black balloons, and get rid of the pain. The production also matches each part, as the light part is happier jazzier production and it just goes down.

Thank you so much for reading if you read this far. This was inspired by @Meapo__ and his album deconstructions. This took ages to develop this theory about the concept of the album. @denzelcurry thank you for the masterpiece