Chaos Magic and Soundcloud, Part 1 of a 3 Part Series

In his first guest contribution, Chaz CMP guided us through the unchartered territory of Palo Mayombe and human sacrifice in Mexico. At least, human sacrifice was somewhere we’d never ventured before around here at Haunt Jaunts. We’re excited to welcome him back for a special three-part series about chaos magic. In this post, he explores its use in music. Specifically, how certain rappers are harnessing it.

Part 1: Chaos Magic and SoundCloud
By Chaz CMP.

On July 8th, 2018, rapper Lil Uzi Vert told a crowd at the 2018 Wireless Festival that they were all going to hell with him. Lil Uzi has been known to embrace satanic imagery, and he’s certainly not the first musician to do so.

From the Swedish black metal bands throwing pigs blood to the Satanic church embracing Marilyn Manson as a reverend, satanic imagery has been with music for quite a long time. But what used to be embraced by almost exclusively metal and a few punk bands has begun to seep into other genres. Especially in the newest wave of rap and hip hop. The question is why?

The answer is chaos magic. That’s right, chaos magic.

What is chaos magic?

This is a postmodern form of Magick that originated in the 1970s.

Essentially, it is a process in which a person adopts rituals, symbols, and traditions from already established occult or philosophical practices. These practices can include almost anything; from religion to shamanistic practices, and even books, movies, and pop culture. (For an example of the latter, one is encouraged to check out Swedish black metal bands Gorgoroth and Burzum, which rely heavily on imagery from J.R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings).

The idea is to achieve a certain desired result. If the result is achieved then the symbols and rituals you adopted have been useful and can be used again. If not, the chaos magician discards them and obtains a new set from a new area.

Whether or not this is actually magic or just a way in which to harness the power of the placebo effect is still up for debate, even amongst practicing magicians themselves.

Lil Uzi Vert and Chaos Magic

There are plenty of examples that show, by whatever mechanism, it works. Let’s use our previous example of Lil Uzi Vert to elaborate.

The answer to why Satanism and music are seemingly so often paired is simple: because it is efficient. If you want to portray yourself or your music as part of the counterculture, then an easy way to do that is to embrace the symbols and practices of Satanism. This instantly vilifies you in the eyes of the world’s most popular religion, while also attracting a certain audience, who are kinda fun and will definitely share an anti-establishment viewpoint.

In the world of chaos magic, all of these things are positive. You are “channeling energy.” (In modern times it’s easier to think of “channeled energy” as likes, views, and comments on social media.) And a good magician “channels energy’ for a purpose. The purpose for most of these musicians is to sell records and show tickets.

To complete our example, Lil Uzi Vert has embraced satanic imagery to channel energy into selling records, and no one can deny its work. Lil Uzi was the number one followed artist on SoundCloud in 2016. His album debuted at number 1 on Billboard’s top 200 in 2017 and had over a billion streams on Spotify in 2018.

Satan is common source material for chaos magicians, but other things, seemingly mundane, can also be used and can be more effective. Let’s look at another rapper as an example of these principles in action.

Daniel Hernandez, 69, and Chaos Magic

Daniel Hernandez, or Tekashi 6ix9ine as he is more commonly known by his stage name, rose to prominence in 2017. One of the main reasons why was his outrageous appearance. The rapper has rainbow-colored hair and tattoos of the number 69 all over his body in different fonts. Up and down his arms, on his forehead, stomach, and chest, the rapper is covered head to toe in the symbol.

Despite the rapper’s claim that his name came from the six letters in Daniel and the nine letters of Hernandez, this is a clear example of a rapper not only embracing a symbol for a result but taking it to the next level.

By adopting a symbol that everyone knows, 69, and taking it to an extreme by tattooing it all over himself, tied his image to a symbol that is already massively popular. (If you don’t know the significance of “69,” Google it.) Now a third thing comes to mind when a person hears the number 69, in addition to math and mutual oral sex (whoops I spoiled it) it also conjures up the images of a 22-year-old rapper from Brooklyn.

The results are a lot of people paying attention to him, which equals a lot of “channeled energy.” This has made him quite a successful artist, with several songs topping the Billboard charts. It also makes him an even more successful chaos magician, whether he knows it or not.

Chaos Magic and Xxxtentacion

Now, this brings us to one artist who absolutely knew he was a chaos magician, late Florida rapper Xxxtentacion, who I’ll also refer to simply as “X.”

Up until his untimely death in 2018, the rapper was surrounded by claims of demon worship and attempted human sacrifices. His breakout hit “Look at Me” encapsulates the entire idea of channeling energy, which is to get people to pay attention to the individual.

But perhaps the best example of his understanding of chaos magic can be seen in his music video for the song “SAD!” The haunting video that was released posthumously not only showed that the rapper possibly knew about his upcoming demise but it was also steeped with occult imagery.

The video shows him attending his own funeral. Throughout the video, a dark, robed figure speaks to the audience through subtitles. The entity claims its name is Gekyume and throughout the video, he actually explains some of the concepts of chaos magic we’ve been going over.

Early on the entity states, “If you are watching this you are subject to a segmented piece of my creative aura and wishes…”

He goes on to say, “Blessing be upon those who have come to this visual presentation with good energy and love rather than malice and those with negative intent, thank you, your energy has been transmuted in the amount of time you have taken to give your energy.”

The last words from the entity as the video ends are, “Your demon seems to honor your efforts, are you satisfied?”

These quotes show that he had a deep understanding of demonology and the channeling of energy. But we can find further examples of him practicing these beliefs in person. That is according to his longtime friend and rap collaborator, Ski Mask the Slump God.

He claimed that X “…told me I was supposed to be sacrificed or some crazy shit…” X also reputedly threatened Ski Mask and the rapper’s family, which was posted on Instagram in response to people wondering why the two hadn’t been working together recently. They were long-time collaborators before this, but Ski Mask remained distant after this incident and up until X’s passing.

What really happened to Xxxtentacion?

If X had been using a form of chaos magic to propel himself, it had clearly been working. Perhaps he found the road to superstardom was paved with darker, more powerful ritual practices, such as the ritual of human sacrifice? Or perhaps he fell victim to a more experienced, more powerful group that had already learned these secrets?

We’ll explore that in part 2 of this series.

Contributor Info

I’ve been investigating the paranormal and its connections with our consciousness for nearly a decade. In October of 2020, I released my first book, Paranormal Expeditions: Hunt for the Friendship, about my research and investigation into a South American UFO case, and received much acclaim from the paranormal community. Through conducting cutting-edge research and controversial psychedelic experiments I continue to push the buck of what it means to investigate the paranormal. Go to Chazofthedead.com for links to all my work!

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Can you think of any musical artists, rapper or otherwise, who might credit their success to chaos magic?