"RIP Dad" - REVIEW

"R.I.P Dad," the newest work of subversive trackmaker hotman7777, brings his deconstruction of the idea of the track to a new level. Score: 8.5/10, Best New Track

	Hotman7777 has never been a popular trackmaker. His debut effort, "Pray 4 Pssst", was subject to a critical panning upon release. On a surface level, it's easy to see why -- it is stark in its portrayal of the titular "pssst", presenting him as a stick figure; it forgoes the ideas of flow and ride that we have become accustomed to; its art (where even present) seems emptily nationalistic; it is linear and repetitious in its gameplay. But, over the months, the track has come to find a cult audience, prompting a critical re-evaluation of the piece as a metacritical deconstructivist masterpiece. Seemingly empowered by finding his audience, hotman7777 has taken the release of his second track as a challenge to present the most challenging work the FreeriderHD community has yet seen.
	R.I.P Dad retains many of the elements of Pray 4 Pssst, though each of them are taken to a new extreme. The subject (in this case, hotman7777's father) is rendered as a stick figure, though in this case lacking hair and having two simple Xs for eyes. The track is, for fans, familiarly linear, though this time not even with the characteristic hills and valleys of Pray 4 Pssst. Is any of this rider-friendly? Certainly not. But does that make it a bad track? Allow me to make the case that it doesn't.
	R.I.P Dad recontextualizes the track, normally intended to entertain or distract, as an expression of grief. With just a few simple lines, hotman7777 says more about what it means to be human than stig, Gongo, Cataclysm, or any other track maker have said with millions. The track's central motif, "R.I.P DAD", looms above the rider and dominates the player's view of the track, drawing an clear parallel to the effects of death on the deceased's loved ones. The rider is left with two options: he may regress, fall back, and avoid the sentiment, thereby falling off the track and plunging to his doom, or he may trudge forward, knowing that progress can only be made by confronting the feelings at hand. The track in front of the player is harsh and minimalistic, a veritable tundra of the soul, reflecting an emptiness of feeling, a total lack of desire to go on. From the perspective of the rider, there is no reason to continue -- it will all be more of the same. On this track, there is no distracting yourself from the fact of death.
	Hotman offers further deconstruction in the social context of the track. The title itself and the description, "My dad recently died of cancer and he loved this game so please leave a like it would mean the world to me and my family to know that this community cares about him", will immediately bring to the mind of any involved member of the FreeriderHD community the perceived epidemic of "like-whoring", in which users exploit some tragedy, which the author either cares little for or in many cases has made up entirely, for likes. Hotman7777 challenges users to explore how this phenomenon has muddied the waters of emotional expression on FreeriderHD. The user is forced to become skeptical of any such display: Is the author just making this up for likes? Can I feel comfortable in showing my support, or am I being duped? As such, the FreeriderHD user is forced into a position of cynicism and antipathy on a regular basis. While a track may be a genuine expression of grief from some child who doesn't know how to externalize it in a healthy way, a FreeriderHD user has no way of distinguishing it from the flood of similar tracks that are entirely disingenuous, and thus must downvote it and not waste time consoling its author at risk of supporting scam artists. By making these red-flag motifs such a prominent aspect of his track, hotman7777 aims to create a visceral reaction from the user of anger and disappointment which is fundamentally at-odds with the reaction one would have to the same sentiment if expressed, say, by a friend on a social network. He forces us to wrestle with this dissonance: should we sympathize with the heartfelt themes of loss and pain, or should we react with cynicism purely due to the context of these themes? This small track raises deep questions.
	This track isn't all negative, however -- in fact, it is my belief that hotman is an optimist at heart. At the end of the track, there is a star. What happens when you reach it? A happy little ditty plays and a menu pops up, obscuring the epitaph for hotman's father. It's quite clear what this is supposed to represent: acceptance, coming to terms with death. In hotman's track, the path to acceptance isn't hard to reach; you aren't limited by your skill or strength. Anyone can reach it. In this track, as in life, the hardest part of moving on is getting up and doing it.

[author bio: octo is music lover and graduate of journalism from western connecticut state university. he began reviewing music for buzzfeed in 2014, and lives in brooklyn with his 8 cats. he is happily celibate.]