house design themes

what it do baby? this week we bringin down da house with thefall of the house of usher by edgar allen poe. my man. it’s a dull, dark, and soundless day upat da house of usher- where our nameless narrator just dropped in to see his back-when homeboyroderick usher. apparently ol’ roddy been sick so he sentda narrator a letter basically sayin: “dear bruh, i’m feelin like shit. get yo ass over here and help a brutha out. don’t be a dick.” now you’d think anybody would wanna chillwit’ his boy up in his mansion- but this

crib is busted as hell- even got a small crackrunnin from da roof to the flo’. just lookin’ at this fugly shit make danarrator feel like he got an opium hangover. word is dat roderick and his sistah madelineare the last survivin’ ushers. and he don’t count. anyway, the narrator rolls in to the spot,peep game at roderick and be like “damn, son. you lookin way whiter than usual.” roderick say ”man i’m straight buggin,yo. my sister madeline’s got some bodyillnessand da doctors can’t do shit bout it.

not only dat, but this house is messin witmy mind, makin’ me all superstitious and too scurred to leave da crib.” so da narrator go in to full on bromode, andstarts paintin’ and readin’ wit him to get him to stop mopin’ around like a lil’bitch. but nuthin’ can break roddy from dat funk. boy start flowin’ bout a king livin’ largein a phat palace. but when some evil spirits start runnin upon his crib hauntin the damn place, it go from swanky to straight janky. soon madeleine stops moving’ and rodericklike “awww shit, she dead man!”

then fool start gettin’ all paranoid data buncha doctors gonna drop in outta nowhere and study her body fo’ science. yeah they will! roderick trippin so hard dat he decide hegonna stash her body in a vault fo’ two weeks befo he move her outta da house. so da narrator, bein da realest homie thereis, helps his boy carry his sister’s dead body and nail her ass in a coffin, and secureit behind an iron door. right befo’ he do, he peep madeline’sface and be like “oh shit, this girl smilin! and she got rosy cheeks!”

aw fuck it, just don’t look at her and keepon keepin’ on.“ over the next couple days roderick mind slippin’mo’ and mo’- he always lookin’ like he hearin’ noises and da narrator startwonderin’ if he hiding something. a week after they stuffed her in da coffin,roddy come bustin’ through da narrator’s door losin’ his shit over some creepy glowin’gas round da house. da narrator like “boy calm yo ass down. dat’s just somethin’ dat happens.” knowin he gotta get this crazy ass dude tosleep, da narrator cracks open a book and starts reading bout a hard-ass dragonslayermakin a dragon his bitch.

crazy thing is, tho, errytime a sound is describedin da book, rod and da narrator hear it echoed in da house. like when da knight busts in to da dragon’lair, they hear “cracking and ripping” sounds somewhere in da house. da hell?? eventually roderick completely break downand start smilin’ and mutterin’ to himself like a real creep. dude say he been hearin’ these noises fo’days and it’s madeline who makin’ em... “we musta buried her alive man.”

then all da sudden roddy like “break yo’selffool. she at the do!” and sho’ nuff there madeleine is, all bloodiedup from bustin out. girl collapses on roderick and they both dropdead roderick from fear, and her from ya know... gettinburied alive. da narrator like “uhhhh... time for me to get my ass outta here” andstraight books it. as he haulin ass away from da house, he lookback and watch da whole place crumble to da ground. errybody in da hood know my boy poe like tokeep it dark.

but mo’ than any other famous eap jams,usher perhaps best representin’ da “gothic” style of lit dat define poe’s flow. i mean dis story got nasty weather, a creepyhaunted mansion, some mystery sickness, hidden vaults, medieval decor, and da unnerving sensedat some whackass thriller shit bout to go down. and you know what else makes my nuts shrivelup? twins. creepy man! and apparently poe feel me on dat one, cuzthere be doubling all up in this text.

not only are roderick and his sistah madelinetwins, but they both pale, skinny as hell, and sufferin’ from some shady illnessesroderick sick in da mind, while madeline got da funk in her body. as da story go on, their roles start reversin. at first madeleine wastin’ away all bedriddenwit’ no control over life. roderick gotta be da man of da house. but after they put her ass in da vault, roderickstart tweakin so hard dat he da one who gotta give up control. shit, he even need one his bruthas to readhim a damn story just so he won’t shit himself.

madeline, tho- dat girl ain’t playin. she sacks up and busts outta dat coffin eventhough it was nailed down and sealed with an iron door. this dead girl got a superhuman will to live-ain’t dat some shit? and as if dat wasn’t real enough, she evenassociated with dat hard-ass dragonslayer in dat story “mad trist.” while madeline flexin’ her strength by fightin’her way out of a stuffy ass coffin afta’ bein left in there for a week, her brotharoddy- da man of da house- turns in to whiny lil’ bitch.

now dat title got some twin shit goin on too-cuz it got two meanings. on one hand it talkin bout da house dat literallycrumble to shit by da end. but on da other hand, it’s referring toda usher family bloodline. cuz afta’ roddy and madeline’s bodiesget stacked, there ain’t no mo’ ushers on da family tree to carry on da name. when it feelin’ like its only a matter oftime befo’ yo life and yo legacy gonna get fucked, it’s hard not to feel like you trappedin a bunk ass situation. matta’ fact, da house’s cramped, claustrophobicrooms further dem themes of confinement, isolation, and loneliness.

and to make matters worse, da house causeerrybody in there go cray in the dome and gear up for a 5150- with da whole world closin in round him, roderickfeelin’ mad alone. so he reach out to da narrator to help a bruthaout. cuz when da shit gonna hit da fan, it’sway easier to cope when you got one of yo homeboys at yo back. the epigraph reppin dat same idea: yo thanks for watching, man! peace!

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