The Buttress is a hip-hop musician from New Jersey who can be considered along the lines of an alternative, horror-inspired artist. Brutus was officially released on 15 March 2016, which, by the way, was The Buttress’s 24th birthday. By the looks of things she is not associated with any major label and rather made a name for herself via the social media circuit. And according to Genius pageviews, Brutus is The Buttress’s most-popular song to date.
');var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; })(); You can view the lyrics, alternate interprations and sheet music for The Buttress's Brutus at Lyrics.org.Writing Credit
The Buttress composed this track herself. In doing so, she sampled a 1969 song titled Ricreazione Divertita (Finale) by the late Ennio Morricone (1928-2020).
Lyrics
As you may already know, (Marcus Junius) Brutus is a historical figure from 1st century BC. As a notable Roman politician during that time, he lived a very action-packed life but has gone down in history primarily being recognized as a traitor. And that’s because, despite having been a trusted homey of Julius Caesar, he proved to be the key figure in his infamous assassination, in cold blood, during a political meeting in Rome.
So what we are met with lyric-wise is The Buttress taking on the role of Brutus, i.e. delineating what she understands as his motivations to turn on Caesar. It has been put forth that she is more specifically portraying “a female Brutus”. But the lyrics themselves, besides for perhaps one particular line, don’t really support that theory.
');var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; })();What they do, basically, is present Brutus’s murderous intentions as being largely fueled by a belief in his own destined greatness. That is to say that he feels that he would be a better leader of the Roman people than Julius. And as implied, the only way for him to achieve that status is by doing away with the current Caesar.
Or put more simply, Brutus is envious of Julius. He understands that this emotion is encouraging him to do “something wicked”, i.e. commit murder. But at the same time, he has developed a genuine hatred for his former “teacher and friend” and has also convinced himself that assassinating Caesar is in the best interest of the people.
And to some degree, despite being based on an actual historical event, this track does have a sense of general applicability. In other words, it illustrates the type of thought processes which can be used to rationalize a murder on the part of the murderer, i.e. envy, jealousy and the highfalutin quest for power and notoriety.
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