[Final] Revised: Chance the Signifyin'

Barthes speaks of the signifying and signified in relation to Musorgsky's Death of Boris versus the Death of Melisande. He claims Boris represents "the triumph of the pheno-text, the smothering of signifying under the signified; soul." (275) In the pheno-song we understand the singer from the totality of the piece: rhythm, tone, melody, voice, silence. In this case the grain of the voice is overpowered by the drama of the other elements. Barthes notes the "perfect intelligibility of the denotation." Every word sung holds literal meaning, and the way the grain acts upon the voice does not confuse the meaning. On the other hand, Barthes describes the "prosidic contour of the enunciation" for Melisande; representing signifying and the geno-text. Here, the precise way a single word might sound or the way it is pronounced interacts with the (rather than embodying) denotation to form a more original meaning. Signifying's part of speech implies its nature: signifying acts on language while signified has been planted by language.

My song is "22 Offs" by Chance the Rapper. I think Chance is signifying in the way he repeats "Off" 22 times (in homage of Jay-Z's 22 Twos). As a pheno-text, Chance raps about being in high school and getting caught and arrested by the school’s police officer for smoking pot off campus. But the story is hidden behind so much slang and wordplay, and extra information (“Buying hella bugspray/making sure I get off” hahaha) that you need to listen multiple times and maybe even know about Chance to understand.

What we do understand on the first listen is how Chance signifies with his attitude. The repetition of “off” and the fact that the “off” sound sneaks up in other words, signifies how Chance thinks the criminal justice system and life on the south side of Chicago is off from the ideal of justice and the American life he would like to envision for himself. As a result he feels “off” and resorts to drinking and smoking to feel good, but this gets him in trouble with the cops. As a result is tone is both giddy and angry. The rap is delivered from some place where chance is off his nog, recalling the events.