Your personal Tumblr library awaits
Chi Cheng - Blog Posts
I FUCKING LOVE CHI IN LIVE PERFORMANCES
credit to @bm2brad on tiktok
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHI
Nobody knows how much I love this dude. It’s probably visible in my other posts but I genuinely believe that Chi Cheng is incredibly underrated in terms of his impact on Deftones’ music, especially in white pony and the self titled album. Somehow I get the impression that people usually perceive him as more of a nu metal-y, unsophisticated bassist when in reality his baselines are just gorgeous. He also brought something to Deftones that I can’t quite figure out; sometimes it literally feels like he was the soul of this band but hey I wasn’t there yk. AND HIS BACKING VOCALS LORDDD!!!! In a way it’s bittersweet to write this post, mainly because while death is always a touching subject, it’s especially tragic to be writing a happy birthday post about someone who will never celebrate a birthday again and hasn’t in 12 years (in reality it is more, of course).
Chi Cheng was such a bright presence in Deftones and in this world in general. Rest in peace Chi.
cuties
I think people underestimate the significance of Chi Cheng to Deftones. While I believe Chino’s lyrics are the perfect fit for their music and he’s an incredibly talented lyricist, let’s not forget that it was Chi that studied English, it was Chi that was a poet (if you haven’t looked into The Bamboo Parachute yet PLEASE DO it is so worth it). In other words, Deftones always had someone to fall back on if Chino couldn’t deliver (I’m not saying he ever couldn’t, but just the added security Im sure meant volumes), and the only reason Chino was the primary lyricist was because Chi believed he was amazing (lost the interview he said this in but you know what I mean). I really do believe the world lost an incredibly bright soul when Chi died.
ALMOST FORGOT it was the 24th anniversary of White Pony yesterday as well. My second favourite album of all time and definitely the most well-produced Deftones album. A masterpiece that I’m sure I’ll continue to love deep into my adulthood. Also one of the sickest album covers to date, but that’s secondary.
