Why "Hi Ren"

The video: Hi Ren

Ren is a very good guitar player. He's a very good singer, and an excellent rapper. He did this video live (not lip-synced), and that's impressive. He kept the video simple but effective. Most important, he's a spectacularly good writer/poet. And all of this was necessary - but not sufficient - to make the video a success.

What's doing that is his willingness to put his mental battles out for everyone to see - this takes a lot of courage, and that courage shakes people, opens them up to truly listen. Many people have praised him for his openness about his health battles, and that's part of it. But the real connection, the real success, is that every single one of us has heard these voices in our own heads. Many of us have seen a therapist or at least read or heard about this kind of stuff. A therapist can tell you "everyone hears these inner voices," and you say "yes, I understand," but even if you believe it, you don't really process it. But when you hear a brutally honest song that presents it to you with such intensity ... it gets to the heart and suddenly you no longer just have it in your head because you read it somewhere - you know it through and through, and realize this is universal. And for that, we should all thank him.

We human beings appreciate messages of hope. Not the false ones from advertisers ("You look beautiful - buy our product to stay that way"), but real ones of hardship and triumph. Like one delivered by a man who lost a decade of his life to struggles with physical and mental problems. One that says "I've been through hell and I survived. I have the strength to fight every day - and you do too." We know (or perhaps only hope) that this message of human endurance will stay with us - and may even be the thing that saves us when we're tested. It may be "the voice that you hear when you loosen the noose on the rope" (damn that man can write). It's a reminder of our shared humanity.

Another thing that intrigues people is how hard this video is to classify. It starts out with some very good acoustic guitar playing, switches to impressive vocalizing, and then suddenly he's rapping. But don't worry: he's not done confusing you. He raps as two different people at odds, bringing in elements of theatre. Some of it might be a ballad, and it borrows elements from gospel. After which he ends it with a moving (unaccompanied) monologue. This is one guy with a guitar. I pray that popularity doesn't punish him for doing something great.