Finatticz – Don’t Drop That Thun Thun

I am guilty of dismissing this song outright on first listen.  It sounded like any other fly by night rap single that hinges on some dance or phrase that was theretofore unknown to mainstream America.  Yet as the song continued, I was hypnotized by the repetition of its title as well as the baffling lyrics.  There were so many questions.  What is a thun thun?  Why must I not drop this thun thun?  Have I lost touch with youth culture, its terminology and its spirit?  Is this my musical event horizon, the point after which all new bands can get off my lawn?  Who said “nostalgia is the death of hope”, and what is his or her opinion on Weezer’s career trajectory?  When exactly does irony get replaced with sadness?  What sort of wordplay is being accomplished with the name Finatticz?

I came out on the other end of “Don’t Drop That Thun Thun” as if I’d had a bad trip, recalling nothing of my inner thought process but retaining this inescapable feeling that I had just confronted something.  I had to explore this song further and, though I didn’t know it at the time, regain something that I had lost but whose absence had not yet been felt.  Google was a good starting point.  I quickly discovered that thun thun is another word for the drug ecstasy.  Easy enough, and most people would leave it at that.  Intuition told me, though, that there had to be more to this song which posed so many unanswered questions.  I needed to reenter the mind state of that first listen, so I meditated steadfastly using “thun thun thun” as my mantra.  Mantras mean nothing to the outside observer, but echoing through the caverns of the mind they bring out profound truths.

Through repetition and focus, I began to find form in those seemingly meaningless words.  The mantra crystallized, and in a moment of utter clarity, I realized that the song was not about thun thun or ecstacy or whatever the kids call it these days.  It was about tarte tatin, a traditional apple pastry that originated in France’s Loire Valley.  The proper French pronunciation was so similar as to be obvious, fitting like a glove over the “thun thun thun”.  This mystery took a turn.  “Don’t drop that tarte tatin”.  What could it mean?

It was by a happy accident that the tarte tatin was created at all.  In the early 20th century, many visitors to Paris would take a train about 100 miles south to the small, charming town of Lamotte-Beuvron.  The tourism supported a healthy hotel industry; one small hotel in town called Hotel Tatin was run by two sisters named Caroline and Stéphanie Tatin.  One of their dessert offerings was a tart apple pie baked with crust on top in keeping with common culinary practice.  Legend has it that one fateful day Stéphanie dropped an apple pie after having already baked it.  Maybe it was a busy day or perhaps a particular diner was being impatient, but rather than bake another pie she quickly decided to turn the dropped one over and have the apple tart exposed rather than under the crust.  It was served in this manner; the result was a hit with the hotel’s guests, and the rest is history.

One hundred years later, Finatticz have released a song that, after careful consideration, I believe is a musical recreation of that day’s scene in the restaurant of Hotel Tatin.  The incoherent lyrics evoke the din of a bustling dining room full of tourists speaking myriad languages.  There are some telling allusions throughout the song, none more so than the closing verse -

If you drop it (What?)
Just pick it up (What?)
And grab a bad bitch and head to the cut (What?)

Stéphanie (who Finatticz have apparently for artistic reasons determined is hard of hearing), as the story has been told for nigh on a century, did indeed drop her apple tart and in response proceeded to pick it up and serve it to the hotel clientele.  Like so much of history before and since, her fame was borne from a random confluence of accident, serendipity, and ingenuity.  She has headed to the cut that is the annals of traditional French pastry-making.

There was so much more to “Don’t Drop That Thun Thun” than I’d thought after that first listen.  What I really learned, though, was that I must teach myself to explore music (and also life?) more deeply and thoughtfully.  I dismissed this song, which so richly evokes a pivotal moment in Loire Valley dessert history all those years ago, as a mindless rap anthem cynically foisted into the cultural consciousness.  I’ve been so judgmental and unfair and truthfully lazy in my critical thinking.  There is meaning and merit in all art.  They may not be immediately apparent, like the piping hot apples topping the tarte tatin, but they are there, just under the crust.

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