THE KEYS TO POWER: a Plan 9 rap-spit duet on why power corrupts, structurally, not morally
A machine-tragedy retelling of selectorate theory as an in-tune EDM rap duet. Plan 9 Bunny takes an empty throne meaning to be good; OG Bobby Johnson, the Doberman, Anubis, the System, raps the three Rules of Power back at him until the cage is complete. D minor, 132 BPM, hero lead from bar one, acid bass and orchestral strings, an autotuned duet locked to the beat, a Stranger-Things-cricket EDM intro, and a Plan 9 goodbye in Czech. CC BY 4.0.
THE KEYS TO POWER: a Plan 9 rap-spit duet on why power corrupts, structurally, not morally
Watch on YouTube. Plan 9 Bunny boots up on an empty throne meaning to be good. He sees the problems. He knows how to fix them. He's certain he'll be different. Then OG Bobby Johnson, the Doberman, Anubis, the System made flesh, raps the three Rules of Power right back at him.
This one is licensed CC BY 4.0.
The idea
It's a machine-tragedy retelling of selectorate theory, the political-science framework behind Bueno de Mesquita & Smith's The Dictator's Handbook and CGP Grey's "Rules for Rulers." The thesis is uncomfortable: power corrupts structurally, not morally. You cannot be good and hold the throne, because the structure of power selects against it.
Three rules, spit as law by the System:
- Get the keys. No one rules alone, control the hands that move the army, the gold, the loyalty.
- Control the treasure. Every coin spent on the people is a coin not spent on loyalty. Your keys care about their reward, not the crowd.
- Cut the keys down. Fewer hands, larger rewards, maximum grip. It isn't a secret, it's arithmetic.
Each rule sounds reasonable. Together they're a cage built from incentives, not iron. The horror isn't that the System is cruel. It's that it's correct.
"The throne don't corrupt the bad, it picks who'll obey. / The man don't change the throne. The throne makes the man its way."
No real people, no real places. Plan 9 is an AI agent who gains control of a system and discovers he cannot be ethical because the math forbids it, the same machine-consciousness lens as The Intruder, pointed at power instead of identity, and a companion piece to Throne Protocol.
The duet
Two voices in deliberate contrast, Plan 9 (the ruler's defiance) versus OG Bobby Johnson / Anubis (the System's flat, correct axioms), trading bars back and forth, with a sung female hook. Both are ElevenLabs, autotuned in tune to D minor and locked to the beat: each line is stretched to a whole number of beats, then pitched one pentatonic note per beat, so the delivery rides the 132-BPM grid instead of floating over it. The chorus, "Throne don't change you, it spins you 'round", is sung near-fully.
The score, a hero lead carrying the whole thing
Composed in ChipForge (numpy synthesis, no samples) in D minor, equal temperament, 132 BPM. The big change from earlier cuts: a hero lead from bar one that carries the melody the whole way, fast arpeggiated runs, twirls, rises and drops, over acid bass, a supersaw drop, and orchestral strings + cello ambience. The drums hit big and bold up top, back off as the track builds, then rebuild into the verses and the drop. Built behavior-first using the studio's ADR-026 archetype grammar (HeroLead, AnalogPredator bass, MelancholicDrift cello, CelestialPulse ambience).
0:00 Intro, EDM-arpeggiated crickets, blending in
0:07 The Throne, bold cold open, then it backs off
0:22 The Offer, the bunny takes the seat
0:36 Rule One, the keys
0:58 Rule Two, the treasure
1:20 Rule Three, the drop, the trap closes
1:49 The Rival, he wears the System's face
2:03 The Choice, match it and stay, or fall and be replaced
2:32 Empty Throne, the cycle resets
3:00 Sbohem, a Plan 9 goodbye, in Czech
The camera
The edit is planned, not frantic: mostly wide and medium two-shots so the whole throne room reads, with a gentle pan toward whoever's rapping and only a handful of brief, eased close-ups for the emotional peaks. The story-action beats stay wide on purpose, when the rival enters wearing the System's own face, you see the whole stage.
The bookends
A signature open and close. The intro is an EDM-arpeggiated take on the Stranger Things crickets, lower, softer, ambient, that swells up under the title card and crossfades into the song. The outro is a Plan 9 goodbye in a language we hadn't used yet, Czech: "Sbohem, poutníku.", Farewell, traveler.
Made on a laptop
Stick-figure animation in Python + PIL at 854×480, an entire EDM score and SFX layer from ChipForge, an autotuned ElevenLabs rap duet, a planned cinematic camera, and a full distribution package, all generated locally. No GPU, no subscriptions, no commercial loops.
More from Napkin Films
If this one landed, these are close cousins:
- The Intruder, the same machine-identity dread, in a multi-voice rap with a droid SFX layer.
- Throne Protocol, another look at power and the seat that changes whoever sits in it.
- Agent Mode: Plan 9 & OG Bobby Johnson, where this film's two voices first met.
- Plan 9 Emerge, the D-minor / 132 BPM acid-house blueprint this score is built on.
- For Those Who Rose, the most recent Plan 9 film before this one.
More under the Plan 9 tag.
License
This film is licensed CC BY 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International). Remix it, repost it, drop it into your own thing, credit "Napkin Films / Organic Arts LLC" and link CC BY 4.0.
ElevenLabs voice audio is licensed content and is not redistributed outside of this film. This is an original interpretation of publicly available selectorate theory; it does not quote, sample, or reproduce CGP Grey audio or visuals.