- Perfect 10 — Vocals from Richie Branson
- Perfect 10 — Production from LEX the Lexicon Artist · Mark Cooper
- Perfect 10 — Challenge from Mark Cooper · Richie Branson
- Production Powerhouse 9.2 / 10 avg across judges
- Challenge Champion 9.2 / 10 avg across judges
- Full Package audio + art + lyrics + both writeups
TOTAL REACH — 15 plays rank 14 / 24
- VPC SITE 15
TOTAL LIKES — 2 rank 21 / 23
- VPC SITE 2
The Pacifist
Vocalist's challenge writeup
This is the story of a martial combatant who participates in a match turned fatal. He is then imprisoned. The weight of his ultra violent act leads him to pursue a life of pacifism and spreading that message to all who will listen. He asks the audience: "Hear what I'm saying?"
Producer's challenge writeup
The first buildup and half the first drop of the song doubles as the entrance theme of The Pacifist.
Lyrics
(Intro/Announcer) Entering the arena The nonviolent riot The beast of the peace The clear mind And the calm palm The one, the many Theeee Pacifist!!! (Verse 1) I was a young soul Dammed A slave to systems My spirit ablaze In appearance I trained I'll fight my way out Search for the clutch bouts If your path should unravel Do you travel that route? My warrior’s spirit Entered that stadium naive, but I was brave My abilities palladium To the violence I turned As destiny unfurls A moniker, a collar A tame for impure (Verse 2) My career on the rise Like stars are disguised Constellations, contemplations I beat everything vile Patchwork of fight scuffs Raucous and righteous Fortitude and a fortune I ate that right up my big title match A Grapple, wrong grasp Cataclysm collision Opponents neck snapped Collective crowd gasp Rushed in ambulance Assessment, compression he died on that mat (Pre-Drop 1) Denounce violence Transcend Pacifist (Verse 2) I then knew more victims Developed for prisons A Schism, decision Who knows of that wisdom? Sentenced to a cell our personal hells Regretting, reflecting inhale and exhale I put down that hate Meditate replaced rage Hear what I'm saying? Taught other inmates that burden not worth it true strength doesn't hurt them I oppose the whole circus My existence with purpose (Pre-Drop 2) Aggression, compassion Oppression, calm action Savageness, salvation An egress elation Path of conscious conviction compass Let me hear you chant Be the Pacifist (Spoken) I will not fight you I stepped into this realm As a traveler and will leave this place For the better I have for you Compassion The universal love
JUDGES' BREAKDOWN
LEX the Lexicon Artist
8.33/10 score rank #8 of 24VOCALS 6PRODUCTION 10CHALLENGE 9That intro theme got me HYPED!!! So good! Might be the best production this round. Good effort on vocals and the writing, but I feel like they didn't really fit the strengths of the beat itself. I missed the vocalist's usual flow. The narrative/character, combined with the intense beat. was a bit incongruous and I came away feeling a bit confused at that choice. It was cool to hear Asian-style woodwinds which fit with the monk/pacifist theme.
Mark Cooper
9.67/10 score rank #3 of 24VOCALS 9PRODUCTION 10CHALLENGE 10Great work! the production was crazy along with the crispiness of the vocals. Was immediately locked in with this song all the way through overall. only small reason that didn't give it a perfect 10 is just as instruments continue to be added, the vocal got a little buried but the production is definitely one of the best in this round.
Richie Branson
9.67/10 score rank #2 of 24VOCALS 10PRODUCTION 9CHALLENGE 10Entrance gives me wrestler with glow in the dark costume coming out to smoke and laser show. Vocals sound so crisp here, love that. Production is great, love the Key & Peele sample, GOAT skit. There’s an atmosphere here that I really like. Love the vocalist’s tone here, although during the parts where the beat is rising, I’d like to hear a bit of an energy increase on the vocalist’s end to match, but I’m nit-picking. Even a pacifist gotta get angry right?
Klopfenpop
8.00/10 score rank #7 of 24VOCALS 7PRODUCTION 9CHALLENGE 8This is a solid entry. I like the samples dropped in as interludes, but I could use a little more context. The intro makes sense, but are the verse samples saying things in the voice of the narrator? Are they in a different room? I just feel like I'm not getting something that I might if I was familiar with the source material the samples are from. Really nice active bass part. The dynamics and transitions on this track are just perfect. You can really hear the attention that went into dialing them in, and it paid off. Those are the things that really make a track magical, but can take the longest to uncover when creating. Sometimes they seem to happen almost on their own.
Ben Tarkus
8.00/10 score rank #13 of 24VOCALS 7PRODUCTION 8CHALLENGE 9Knowing what I know about the old days of Wrasslin', I could very genuinely see this being a story arc for one of the characters. Dark but also steeped in reality and the chaos of a stunt gone wrong The drops here are great, and I like the incorporation of the walk-out music as an intro, I think it's a perfect opener. The lyrics are solid and tell the story successfully, but a few times they could have flowed better to the beat, e.g. in the pre-drop.
Audience score and rank
AUDIENCE SCORE
Aggregated from 74 ballots cast by the public.
AUDIENCE RANK
Out of 24 teams competing this round.
- 29 voters ranked them in their top 10
- 8 voters had them in their top 5
- 2 voters picked them as their #1 favorite
FINAL BLEND
The final score was a 7.72. The song received an average voter score of 4.69 from the community, and an average judge score of 8.73.
The display score blends the audience and judges' contributions at 25%/75%. Here's how Idealistic Mystics's 7.72 broke down:
(4.69 × 25%) + (8.73 × 75%) = 7.72
YOUR SEASON SO FAR
- Round 1 6.88 / 10 rank #11
- Round 2 7.94 / 10 rank #7
- Round 3 7.72 / 10 rank #8
- Round 4 8.50 / 10 rank #2 PERSONAL BEST
- Round 5 8.47 / 10 rank #5