David Chesky’s Rap Symphony is about a transitional society, a society that is shifting from the word to the image. Our civilization once used to believe in depth and reading and art; now abstract thought is changing into a simplistic, superficial society where one is consumed with the quick Starbucks or Twitter fix. It’s all lightness of being today. We don’t celebrate anticipation anymore, people don’t want to put the time in. This symphony is about the collapse of that whole ethos.

The phrase in the lyrics that says ‘kill the philharmonic’ doesn’t mean that literally. It’s a metaphor for a society that has no use for the philharmonic. We’re losing these things. Pretty soon John Coltrane and Miles Davis, along with all jazz and classic music, will become museum pieces. We used to have a culture that cherished these, but in a super simplistic society, there’s just no room for them.