After some resistance, I finally came around on the Drainer movement. Assuming that all of Drain Gang’s music was like the misogynistic side of Yung Lean, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were a multiracial group that delved into emotional issues in some amusingly cryptic ways. That obscurity is on full display here with Ecco2K’s “Peroxide.” The ambient pop song deals with the experience of being black in Sweden, but even after multiple listens I did not pick up on that theme. With the most memorable lyric being “Chop off your body parts / Chop! Chop! Chop!” you might forgive me for missing the deeper meaning here. But once I realized that this song deals with being black under the white gaze, it becomes apparent that this image of dismemberment comes from the white Swede who sees Ecco2K as a violent butcher from the very first glance. The violence of the lyrics seems extremely at odds with the uplifting music until it becomes clear that this is an empowerment song about freeing yourself from other people’s judgments.
“They all stare at me, I don’t care at all / Everywhere I go they look at me wrong.”
More meaning hiding in plain sight can be discerned with the lyric “No peroxide, I stay dark,” showing how the title of the song deals with his unwillingness to bleach his hair with hydrogen peroxide and assimilate. The music video shows Ecco alone in a foreboding ocean and yet he is just dancing and enjoying himself. It is a beautiful image that illustrates a self-confidence to persevere, even within in a place where you can’t find your community. The cloudy R&B along with the muted visuals paints a gray vision of paradise that requires you to color it in yourself.
Freeing Music 