“Hi, Ren” Examined (Pt. 1: The Overview)
The Many Lessons of a Modern Musical Masterpiece
The Many Lessons of a Modern Musical Masterpiece
Note: The following is the first of a three-post series I plan to publish over the next three weeks digging into the online phenomenon of the song “Hi, Ren” and its creator, Ren Gill. This post is an introduction to Ren, with an overview of the reasons I think this deep dive is necessary. Those reasons include: the cultural impact of Ren, especially in bringing people together through the Reaction Video phenomenon; his authentic, vulnerable storytelling that deals with various health challenges; and his exploration of deep psychological, and spiritual issues that every human faces. Future posts will go into each of these reasons in more detail.
Introducing Ren: A Galaxy-Heart, Empathetic Genius
When I was in high school in the late 1980s and obsessed with horror fiction, especially Stephen King, I remember browsing the horror section of a bookstore and seeing a blurb on a book that read: “I have seen the future of horror and its name is Clive Barker.”
Over-the-top? Indeed. But I did buy that book, Hellraiser, and Barker was, indeed, a supremely talented writer with an extraordinary imagination.
Well, as a music connoisseur, today I’m aping that blurb to say, “I have seen the future of music and its name is Ren.”
Specifically, Ren Gill. He’s the following and so much more: a British singer-songwriter and rapper; a phenomenal guitarist; a writer of ingenious rhymes, perfectly-timed beats, and theatrical lyrics; a musical bard and a storytelling genius; a deep Soul diver and Lyme’s Disease survivor who has been through the wringer; and a singer of emotional range from the highest joys to the most crushing pains.
In some of the online worlds I inhabit, there is the concept of “galaxy-brain thinkers” such as Daniel Schmachtenberger and Jamie Wheal who are doing important work to help us make sense of our world mostly through the intellect.
For Ren, I’d like to coin a phrase: “galaxy-heart performer.” Ren uses his musical talent and skill, and his lyrical, musical, and visual storytelling to engage the listener as he fully inhabits wide-ranging characters from a place of deep empathy and profound psychological understanding. By doing this, he is breaking open the hearts of those who find his art, creating connections between us in a time when making heart-based connections may be the one thing that saves us from ourselves.
It’s been 14 days since this reaction video to Ren’s epic one-man minstrel show masterpiece, “Hi, Ren,” jumped out from my YouTube front page and I’ve been drowning with absolute pleasure in the seas of Ren ever since.
I’m far from alone. Go to just about any of Ren’s videos for his wide range of songs, reactions to his videos, or posts like this one in his community on his YouTube page, and you’ll read comments like this from a YouTube user named HeatherBee:
“It’s nearly impossible to put into words the feelings your songs evoke. You are a true genius, artist, songwriter, lyricist, performer. It’s mind-blowing to know there is so much talent in one person. Thank you for sharing your gifts with the world!! I wish you all the best. BTW, I’m turning 59 years in a couple of weeks and can’t remember feeling this excited about a musical talent.”
About a dozen of the members of the online community I spend most of my online time in have been equally exploring the seas of Ren with me, and I can confidently predict that by writing this blog post, I’m only going to invite more people to jump in and enjoy the water.
However, I don’t want you to simply take my word for it. I want to give you the gift of Ren, and I’m willing to lose your attention for you to accept it now. If you haven’t watched “Hi, Ren” yet, please click on the video below and get totally lost in it. Then, when you are ready, I invite you to return to this post to hear why I believe this is an important song, artist and cultural moment.
Now, go on, immerse yourself … I promise I’ll still be here when you’re ready to return!
Please Share Your Thoughts In the Comments
How was it? If you’d like, before proceeding with reading, I’d be thrilled if you shared your initial thoughts in the Comments of this article.
My Initial Reaction
Let me flashback to two Sundays ago, January 15, 2023, a day that I will forever refer to as BR1 (Before Ren, Day 1). There I was, beginning my before-bed wind down when I decided to give my front page on YouTube one last perusal to see if anything fun, entertaining, and not too energizing would catch my eye.
Ah, how about this one? I thought, looking at the thumbnail for the video below. After all, I knew it was from one of the music channels that I’ve been delighted by in recent months, hosted by a witty, knowledgeable, generous musician named Justin Hawkins, and that it was in the genre of “reaction videos” that have been a go-to for me since discovering them in early 2020.
Maybe I should have looked closer at what the musician was wearing: some sort of institutional garb that suggested some kind of sickness. Maybe that would have clued me in that this wasn’t going to be the rollicking ride down Easy Street to tuck me into bed with a kiss on my cheek that I was seeking. Or maybe I should have actually believed the click-bait title’s language of “mind-blowing” and “sensational.”
Because 10 minutes later, I was completely jazzed. “WTF did I just experience?” I asked myself. Oh, not that much, just 2.4 bazillion emotions, most of them mingling all at once, and a musical performance that both called up a classic minstrel and gave hints of where music could be heading. It felt like some sort of acoustic-rap-troubadour version of “Stairway to Heaven,” but instead of immersion into the mystical mountains of Tolkien, I had been cast back into the Garden of Eden, where two very compelling, archetypal characters — -call them Chaos and Hope — engage in a harrowing dialogue with existential implications, full of musical playfulness, madness, breakdowns, and breakthroughs.
To put it succinctly, I was gobsmacked by “Hi, Ren” and Ren Gill. Where had this been all my life?
The Ecstatic Community Reaction to Ren
There have only been a few times in my life when I became instantly enraptured by a musician, and most of them happened when I was younger such as when I discovered Nirvana in the fall of 1991 as a college freshman. That’s perfectly normal because the older one gets the more music one has heard so it becomes harder to find something new or something deep enough to really stir the soul.
Yet I’ve read dozens of comments from us middle-aged and elderly folks responding to Ren’s work in the same way I have, where we all feel like standing on our own two feet and calling ourselves hope. Here’s one from a 91-year-old woman named Ethel Sky-Hultberg on a friend’s Facebook page:
“I first heard Ren ( Hi Ren)) several years ago while browsing YouTube. A powerful intelligent resourceful musician vibrating before a street audience obviously captivated by a truly heart-rending-eclectic performance. His integrity, authenticity and musicality is a powerful boost to my feelings of hope for this generation’s transformative possibilities. At 91, I’m thrilled to be able to feel this way. His spirit is strong and should go a long way to nourishing his health. Sending him good vibes.” (Bolded emphasis mine)
Here’s another, this one in the “Hi, Ren” comments section from a YouTube user named Bill Hughes that has been liked over 4,000 times, including by Ren:
“I’m just a 73-year-old man who over my years on this earth has learned to appreciate all forms and styles of music. I rarely comment on the majority of artists I have stumbled upon in my search for good music but you sir are one of those very rare artists that I’ve heard who can span the distance of age. Your music, style, and emotion in your performance is refreshing to this old man and my belief in the younger generation of musical artists. I look very much forward to listening to more of your creations, for they are not mere songs that you share, they are life.” (Bolded emphasis mine)
Now perhaps my vision of how much of an impact Ren is making or will make has been distorted by my two-week deep dive. After all, after being signed by a label in 2015 but then dropped because of his worsening illness, Ren remains independent. Ren, where are your interviews with Oprah, bro? (Sorry, bad joke!)
Perhaps, though, that’s more a reflection of Oprah and her team than of Ren. Maybe they need to cast their nets more widely and seek out independent artists. Or perhaps those interviews are coming.
Personally, I hope Ren stays independent so he can have total freedom to experiment with how he makes his art interact with the world of commerce. I came from the West Coast hippie music scene and thus know successful bands like the Grateful Dead and Phish built much of their success by allowing fans to freely tape and trade their live performances. Thus I believe that Ren’s success-through-word-of-mouth model has precedence and even more potential in the age of the Internet. In other words, the old models are dying and new ones are being created every day, so don’t limit how you create your abundance!
All of that said, I’d be surprised if Ren doesn’t get signed in 2023. Regardless of what business model he uses, judging from the various reactions to “Hi, Ren” and how in the two weeks of working on this blog post it had 800,000 views to bring it to 3.7 million total, I’m reasonably sure the hype train is comin’ and I’m happy to apply to be its conductor (or even work in the coal car!).
Having said all of that, I have one concern about what this hype might do. After reflecting on the biographies of 1970s superstars like Freddie Mercury and Elton John because of the movies “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Rocket Man,” it’s clear that fan adulation can go to a musician’s head, often derailing promising careers.
However, the lyrics in “Hi, Ren” where his Dark side speaks about how he wants to “be a big deal, the next Jimi Hendrix” and how he has a “God complex” shows Ren Gill is wrestling with this issue on a very deep level. And this self-awareness gives me hope that Ren will handle fame better than the aforementioned musicians.
Clearly, by writing these “Hi, Ren” posts, I want people to discover and support Ren and his art. However, I want to elevate the fan-artist relationship. For fans, how can we praise artists in a way that gives them respect but doesn’t cause their feet to fly off the ground? For artists, how can you receive praise and remain grounded in your humanity?
I’m sending prayers toward Ren to help him navigate this challenge. Looking at his work, the conclusion of “Hi, Ren” and what he’s been through already, I believe he will.
Ren’s Health Narrative: Inspiring the Weak to Be Strong
As a young man, Ren Gill has been through some extremely challenging health issues, including Lyme’s disease which wasn’t properly diagnosed for years, and these experiences inform the depth and empathy of songs like “Hi, Ren,” his “The Tale of Jenny & Screech” trilogy and his newest, “Sick Boi.”
“There are so many people who are going through chronic illness things that need to hear that there are stories of people moving past it,” Ren says in this brief conversation with one of his musical collaborators, “because when I was in it, all I wanted to do was seek out stories of people who had gotten better.”
Just so you can get a taste of how hard things were for Ren, this video below is of him talking several years ago when he was extremely sick and in chronic pain and yet he says, “I wanna be alive SO MUCH.” If you have time, do yourself a favor and read through some of the comments to see just how much of a positive impact sharing this vulnerable video is having on people.
Of course, as humans, we are more than just our bodies. We are also mind and spirit. While I haven’t faced the physical health challenges Ren has, because I almost lost my life to addiction in my 20s and had some challenges with what I call bipolar condition in my 40s, I can relate to the mental health issues and the spiritual dilemma that are at the core of “Hi, Ren.” In addition, in songs like “Money Game, Part 2” (especially his ingenious 10-part “nursery rhyme” explaining the corruption of business models), Ren shows that, like me, he finds it hard to stay sane in a society that all too often feels structurally crazy.
Fortunately, instead of caving into all of these challenges, Ren is channeling his experiences into art and offering a beautiful, inspiring gift to the world. By doing this, he is tapping into the archetype of the Wounded Healer, sharing his physical and mental health challenges authentically and vulnerably, exposing his wounds and thus telling those suffering that we are not alone, and while we may feel weak, we can remain strong.
One of the main reasons I’m doing this deep dive blog dive into Ren’s work is to remind us not to undersell the impact we can make if we put our mind to it. We all have life lessons that we can tap into and share, our unique medicine that can help heal the world.
Dancing With Our Demons and Our Angels, Loving Our Humanity: Some Psychological and Spiritual Lessons of “Hi, Ren”
In my opinion, the psychological and spiritual lessons of “Hi, Ren,” may be the most important thing about the song, so I will dive deeper into them in a coming post.
Judging by many reaction videos to “Hi, Ren,” most people can relate to having an Inner Critic deflating one’s dreams and many understand the idea of the Devil on one shoulder and the Angel on the other that Ren has turned into a song. Ren smartly does this by sharing the details of how this battle expresses itself in his voice and relates to his experiences while saying in the closing monologue that this struggle is inherent to the human condition. And then, in a very poignant way, he lands on the solution:
Recognize that both Dark and Light exist within us and to learn to dance with these energies and find creative power in doing that dance, lest our setting them at war with each other lead to our self-destruction.
In this way, the message of “Hi, Ren” seems very much to be the message that the Jungian psychologist Paul Levy has taken from doing over a decade worth of work examining the Native American concept of Wetiko. Levy defines it as a “a psycho-spiritual disease of the Soul that afflicts humanity” in this 3-minute video.
Key to understanding it is recognizing that it both exists within all of us but also exists independently of us. In some ways, it’s almost like it comes pre-packaged with the operating system of human consciousness. Thus, it’s not “all just in your head” but it’s also not some Spirit that exists beyond us; in fact, it needs human consciousness to “exist.”
Wetiko is a very challenging concept to hone in on, but cultures all over the world have their form of it.
When Ren does his Dark side voice, that is the voice of Wetiko. Its purpose is to take over our consciousness, to use humanity as a vehicle for destruction and chaos. And it is very, very good at it.
Levy says one thing to understand is that “(Wetiko) has NO creative power at all, but it is a master impersonator.” Now, consider how Wetiko Ren frequently stops his rap to do impersonations! Also, understand these impersonations are always done in the service of mocking and knocking down Ren. Yet the reason they work is that they are the voice of doubt that we all hear, they prey on our insecurities.
The only way the fully human Ren, the one who knows this Wetiko is inside of him but isn’t him, can lose himself to Wetiko is if he believes what Wetiko is saying about Ren.
“As soon as we identify with (Wetiko’s) version of ourselves, then it has us,” Levy says.
In the end, Wetiko is all bluster. Compelling as it can be in “Hi, Ren,” it’s not the truth of who Ren is. That said, it isn’t something one can kill or lock inside. To deny the existence of Wetiko ironically empowers it and we see that in its intense break down of who it is and its long history co-existing inside human consciousness. However, its big lie comes at the end of the breakdown when it yells, “I am YOU, REN!”
Fortunately, Ren Gill doesn’t believe it. As he says at the end of “Hi, Ren,” he is human, we are human, we are not demons (Wetiko), angels or even gods. We must remain humble and recognize that Wetiko exists inside of us and to learn to dance with it. Don’t kill it, disarm it with creativity and humility and yes, gratitude for our humanity.
We are human. And that is a beautiful, multi-faceted thing.
Thank you for reading my attempt to capture the fullness of “Hi, Ren.” Over the next two weeks, I’ll be releasing a post just about the reaction videos, with links to all and comments for many, as well as an overview of why I think reaction videos can be positive fuel for our evolution. I’ll also release a post going deeper into the Wetiko idea as it relates to “Hi, Ren” and maybe some of Ren’s other work. I hope you’ll consider joining me in this further exploration of this fascinating song and musician.
Thanks for reading! You can support me simply by sharing my stuff, by buying me a coffee, by linking to me on Twitter or Facebook by checking out my old blog, by listening to my podcast, The B&P Realm Podcast, or by reading my 2015 novel, “The Teacher and the Tree Man.” You can also find that book in full here, or broken down into four shorter books (book 1, book 2, book 3 and book 4) or you can listen to it for free. Last, join my community on Patreon.