We’re a pretty gimmicky genre - with our masks and our DJs and our beer keg percussionists - so it makes sense we would get treated like a gimmick. A little dignity is nice now and then, though.
Certainly the idea of Drowning Pool joining up with two contemporary rappers for Jimmy Fallon’s rictus grin of a talk show provokes some cringy concepts but not only did this actually happen it was done with a level of respect that suggested Drowning Pool were equals, not accessories. During their performance of Offset’s “Bodies,” which samples the Drowning Pool song of the same name, Drowning Pool’s current lead singer, SOiL’s Ryan McCombs, sits in one of three steel chairs with Offset and, eventually, JID filling the other two. He sings directly into their faces and they rap back while the rest of Drowning Pool provides the instrumentation. And, holy shit, the energy this brings out of the song.
The original was a fine, if flat, Travis Scott-type beat. Add Drowning Pool and the song suddenly has dynamics, it has power, it has muscle. It does what only nu metal can do and demand you discard your adult sense of taste in favor of just rocking the fuck out. That this could still occur in 2025, on national television (let alone on Jimmy Fallon), reinvigorates a desire to live, if only to see what kind of crazy ass nu metal moment might come next (2hollis featuring Deftones, I’m calling it). Shit was so lit that towards the song’s end, J.I.D. started smacking the floor, looking like he was doing everything possible to keep from tearing the whole set down in a fit of nu metal mayhem.
A year ago I was worried that the nu metal revival might be tapped out, now it looks like we've barely begun.
