WikiParks
A rap song plays homage to NYC parks
When it comes to keeping up with contemporary rap, I, a self-identified unc, have fallen off, specifically within the realm of New York Rap. Because of my age, the death of monoculture, etc., New York Rap doesn’t cross my radar the way it did when I was a small child in a small California town witnessing Biggie’s meteoric rise and fall, Jay-Z’s shiny-suit era rebound run, the vertiginous thrill of Dog Man X taking over the TRL charts, Wu Tang’s “Triumph” - all eventually culminating in my vicarious absorption of 50 Cent’s chart-conquering antiheroism; a white, teenage male emphatically believing that many men also wished death upon him. New York Rap ultimately lost its stranglehold on the culture and Atlanta became the standard-bearer.
For the past two decades, New York Rap has been a confusing miasma of borough-based drill with dalliances in Law & Order virality, car speakers stuck in 1999, human memes that occasionally rap, and, more refreshing, minimal lo-fi rappers espousing adoration for the simple things in life.
All of which is to announce: WE NOW HAVE A RAP SONG ABOUT PARKS! As a “washed unc” I am excited about this.
Wiki, who came up with the group RatKing, made his bones within the mellow sample-laden sector of mid-aughts rap that Roc Marciano and Ka (RIP) mastered. Earl Sweatshirt, in his post-Odd Future image, took on the mantle among artists like Mike, Navy Blue, and Wiki. As a solo act, he first popped for me on “AM//Radio” from Sweatshirt’s seminal I Don’t Like Shit. I Don’t Go Outside. I failed to follow his career, but loved whenever he came across my algorithm, like in the tranquil, COVID-era “Roof.”
Amidst a historic eleven game Knicks winning streak, Wiki released “Park” a similarly meditative and tranquil ode to NYC Parks. In the video, Wiki shouts out parks Seward, Tompkins, Riverside, Jackie Robinson, Central, Marcus Garvey, St. Nicholas, Sara D. Roosevelt, Columbus, Sunset, and, most beloved to me, Prospect. His languid flow allows him to drift in and out of the pocket; a delivery in sync with lounging in the park all day.
Shot and edited by co-director Weird Dave, we see Wiki walk through Prospect’s arches, on Sunset overlooking the New York harbor, and playing cards in Seward. Over a sparse sample of looped guitar, shimmering keys, and a buoyant few bass notes, Wiki elaborates on a host of ways to spend time away from a concrete-filled city. “I need to see some trees., even if these trees’ spoors.”
“Park” is not only great, it’s vital. After rebounding from a rare L in which Mayor Mamdani nearly cut the Parks Department funding by $33.7 million, the city still faces major challenges in maintaining the 1,700 parks within its confines. Not every park has stewards like the Prospect Park Alliance, deft at fundraising through both the city and an occasional philanthropic endowment. In dire times like these, voices like Wiki are needed to amplify the simple joys to be found in every park: exercising, picnicking, or as featured in “Park,” throwing back a few Coronas.1
Details of Crown Heights
I’ve started a little Instagram project called “Details of Crown Heights” which you can follow here.
It’s inspired by the beautiful New York Detail : A Treasury of Ornamental Splendor by Yumiko Kobayashi and Ryo Watanabe. Each day I post a new detail of Crown Heights architecture/signage. The plan is to move west to east, beginning on the east side of Washington all the way into Weeksville.
Check it out, won’t you?
Nick’s Picks does not endorse drinking in the park, but I do not shame it. Just don’t do it when there’s cops around