Archive for the ‘music’ Category
Why Black music will never change
Posted on: January 8, 2009
- In: 80s | African-American | Black | Micheal Jackson | music | Nas | opinion | R & B | R&B | rap | rhythm and blues
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Popular African-American music is not going to change, and the sooner we all get used to that the better off we’ll all be. Much of the talk is about the lack of accountability in what used to be known as hip-hop, but the dilution of African-American music is a phenomenon that has been occurring across the board at least since the eighties. Much of what has occurred bears similarities to what has occurred in Hollywood as the result of the first Blockbuster movies like Jaws that broke all types of sales and ticket barriers.
With us this meant Micheal Jackson, and too much of a good thing. In the beginning Micheal was “hungry” as an artist, as we like to say, to the uninitiated that meant that he was willing to do whatever it took to sell a record. But by the time his fourth record came out Micheal was on more of an artistic bent and began to talk about his own politics, such as racial politics and sociopolitical issues in general. It was in truth his seventh record, as his first three were largely under the radar, but sort of highlighted where music was going to go in general. On the one hand he shouldn’t have to digress to talking about what pop artists usually talk about because quite honestly he didn’t need the money or the fame at this point, had albums which continued to sell less than the last one though arguably he continued to set and break new records, and was weird from the outset and was perhaps just now comfortable expressing those eccentricities to the rest of the world.
A lot of good and bad came out of this; had it not been for that hunger to differentiate himself from his family Thriller may have never broke any records, MTV still may not have been showing videos from Black artists (though arguably Lionel Richie had some videos in rotation) and Black artists may have never been taken seriously, because up until then there were no real crossover artists. Blacks listened to their artists and Whites listened to theirs, but there were few artists that everyone just liked across the board, Micheal changed all of that. But there is a lot to say for the status quo. Micheal Jackson and Prince were able to bring a unique take on popular music because they were in a decade that was very accepting and open to different sounds. It was a very experimental time in general, and you could get away with stuff that you couldn’t in other decades.
In spite of the popularity of those artists though Black music underwent some interesting changes. Hip-hop became popular and was the sound of the inner city. Yet as different as hip-hop was at that time a lot remained the same and that was the idea of the way that music should sound like, as opposed to the way in which it could sound. Artists that tried to be different and often found mainstream success were universally panned in the African-American community. No one really wanted to admit to having listened to anything the likes of MC Hammer or P.M. Dawn. There were plenty of artists that were different that found mainstream appeal, such as De La Soul, Digable Planets and Arrested Development.
The honest truth is that hip-hop did not have a formula and was still experimental for the most part, which made it easier for audiences to tolerate artists talking in riddles or about concepts that weren’t as accessible as those of artists today. It was okay to listen to a group like K.M.D., but by the late nineties much of that had changed. Artists saw how immensely popular Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls was, and never quite graduated beyond that point. We had the whole Ja Rule thing, who may have found his roots in artists Mic Geronimo and groups like The Lost Boyz, and that was okay to a point.
By the time 50 Cent had sold his story to whoever was willing to listen to why he had such an issue with Ja Rule the tide had already changed. Music journalists everywhere were proclaiming that hip-hop was dead, not saying it in quite those words but if you were to read inbetween the lines that was more or less the point that was being put across. That attitude had been in place ever since the late nineties, so when Nas said it in 2006 it came as a surprise to no one, or did it? Perhaps for those who didn’t really follow the magazines, op-ed columns, or editorials it was.
Artists came out of the woodwork explaining why hip-hop was not dead and that in fact the idea of what hip-hop was had changed with their generation. Was Nas talking about mainstream hip-hop, what was being played on top 40 radio? Was he saying that real hip-hop was in essence on par with his own talent, of which we haven’t heard any mainstream artists come anywhere close to him since Tupac and Biggie Smalls? Remember that Nas came about in a time where it wasn’t about beats, where storytelling and true wordplay was what people listened to hip-hop for.
Where one door closes another one opens. Lil’ Wayne used the opportunity to bring himself into the spotlight and gain more mainstream exposure, yet Wayne isn’t necessarily interested in old antiquated ideas of what hip-hop should be. Wayne is prone to pick up a guitar and start playing it for no apparent reason, or to put out a record like “Lollipop” that isn’t really hip-hop nor isn’t really club music either. In fact that record isn’t really anything we traditionally associate with music. Much of Wayne’s wordplay sounds like ideas that come to him in a stream of consciousness as opposed to anything that was written down on paper. Much of it seems to come from a place where he may not necessarily be in the right frame of mind, perhaps some of that Purple Drank or some other mind altering experience.
Whenever something different does come along, such as Common’s various albums, the new Kanye West album, Jennifer Hudson recording a song that is more Country than R & B, Beyonce with a song that sounds like a strange cross between grunge and alternative rock, or even Outkast, who was different ever since Atliens, the work is either universally panned or admired, yet curiously never fully understood. It isn’t always the point of music to be about beats and readily accessible, and when artists with a few successful pop records try to be different they have to hear about it. Sometimes from journalists, but often from other artists that aren’t trying to be different themselves, and hate the fact of another artist being different experiencing any success. We’re too ignorant to really sit down and experience music the way those that used to listen to soul and jazz music do; music is a reflection of our gettin’ money fast paced life where we continue to live hand to mouth and don’t take care of ourselves properly and end up in the hospital at a young age with high blood pressure. It has to satisfy us like yesterday, truth is there are only so many beats, so many unique sounds, so many time signatures, so many samples, before you start to repeat yourself. The music will inevitably grow beyond those few bars and turn into more of a composition than a repetitive knee jerk experience. Every time someone begins to understand this someone else trying to get ahead finds some sort of gimmick to take us back 20 years and we’re back to the mindlessness of it all over again.
The projects (of artists trying to be different) only get mainstream radio airplay when a “beat” can be found in them and there is something catchy about them. But other artists, groups like say Little Brother for instance simply do not get the support that they need, and tend to fade into the night. BET did not want to give Little Brother a chance, basically stating that it wasn’t dumb enough for their 106 and Park crowd. This is the same media that can easily get behind Nas, conveniently rejecting the fact that intelligent hip-hop has always been with us and never left. What about The Roots, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, M.O.P., Wu Tang Clan, Killarmy, 9th Wonder, Sunz of Man, every single one of the The Nation of Gods and Earths artists, the whole New School movement, the list goes on and on. These days we’re told that Hipster rap is different and about imitation and the novelty of the eighties, but few talk about the fact that it is in part, a good thing, not to have rap built off of gangster bravado, machismo, and other empty ideas about masculinity or femininity.
The industries and establishment that are supposed to be in charge of keeping that real hip-hop alive are the ones that are truly destroying it by not doing what they can to promote artists that try to get Black people to think for a change which is all that hip-hop was ever really about in the first place. The irony of which is that your White friends probably listen to these artists when you’re not; the same ones that rode around hanging onto everyone of Eminem’s verses listen to these artists. In fact a lot of these groups that have continued to represent true and real hip-hop aren’t Black, and will never get that promotion and recognition because of the delicacies of the politics of doing so when the industry does. Even more Elvis theories, more drama. Quite honestly at this point if we were to let a third genre of music be stolen from us we have no one else to blame but ourselves given what happened to Jazz and Rock and Roll, the latter of which I don’t even think we had a whole lot of control over.
You’ll probably say that those groups aren’t necessarily any better or worse so why should you listen to them, and I really can’t argue with you there. But any true fan of hip-hop has to listen to, or I would at least would think want to take into serious consideration, Immortal Technique, if you want to consider a rapper who isn’t African-American, who has held it down at least since 2000. He’s one of those artists that can write a verse that brags about having issues with Aryans while Blacks have issues with Niggers, and can get away with it because people respect his intelligence; in fact I’m still not sure if I should take issue with him or not having said that. He brings into question what it means to be an American, not someone who is Black or White, but an American, trying to live in a country in which the layman’s definition of an American and the definition of those who are truly in power of being an American is at odds with each other, and that says a lot.
Why do I have to hit the mix tape circuit to hear the real hip-hop that I used to hear on the radio before the top 40 days in the 1980s? Why do I have to go to YouTube of all places and find it conveniently tucked inbetween the most inane videos in HD? Why am I finding it in Smack videos hearing about mainstream artists beef? Mainstream rap music will never change because this industry is going to do everything it can to silence the true artists and force them into obscurity. Until listeners stand up and refuse to continue to be programmed by that top 40 radio, they’ll never change as well …
- In: music | opinion | rap | Soulja Boy
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Okay given my criticisms of Soulja Boy I am subscribed to his channel on YouTube. Frequently in posts I try to take what I’ve learned through those videos to offer some depths to my arguments for and against his music. For example a while back I may have been the first, or the only individual, to talk about his desire to want to go to college. That was around a year ago. Well today there is another blog where he talks about putting forth a positive image, first off apologizing to the parents of his fans but being careful not to use the word role model and suggesting that parents still have the responsibility to be one to their kids.
Apparently he wasn’t aware of how many fans he had or the impact that he had on their life. This is interesting and all, especially after such disparaging ignorance about slavery in which he expressed gratitude for his forefathers bring brought over as his generation would not have ice and tattoos. Interesting considering what type of circumstances Africans mine under so the world’s wealthy could have diamonds and jewelry. The tattoo thing I’m still trying to figure out, I’ll let you know when I have an answer.
This is also considering what he told Ice-T to do after the former rap star tried to call him out. All of that aside, Soulja Boy may have been frustrated with trying to defend what the uninitiated consider to be his overnight success. He already had hundreds of tracks he was working online through the social networks before he got signed. Like most, he had perfected his hustle, regardless of what you think of it. Would rap stars, particular fallen idols from the nineties who struggled to offer the most complex rhyme schemes in the history of the genre who hadn’t come anywhere close to making the money he has off of one record, be happy for him? Of course not, was he naive to think that they should be? Unfortunately so.
In his own defense, many of those artists came about in era when rap had finally achieved mainstream success and being unapologetically confrontational was chic. No apologies or explanations for your schtick was in order and no were ever forthcoming. Soulja Boy has been compared to Will Smith, for example, or acts like Kid N’ Play; neither of which were all that positive or negative, in fact they comfortably sat on the fence and hid behind the fact of having created fun party music. Soulja Boy is more directly a descendant of snap; post “crunk” rap advancing from an era where getting “hype” in the club, even if it meant drunk lewd behavior and fighting, was the order of the day. Songs talking about never being scared to confront someone, or beating someone down, were the metaphors for what appeared on the surface to be meaningless rap lyrics.
Soulja Boy came about at a time where snap music was supposed to take over the party rap scene. Some of these artists were better artists than the crunk rappers some were worse. The metaphors were the same, but somehow with Soulja Boy’s lack of lyrical complexity serious issues began to arise in the rap community among the older set, who were already tired of the simplicity of the beats behind D4L and other snap groups. Soulja Boy’s metaphors, if there were any, appealed to Generation Y, and seemed to convey the “me” attitude. Lyrical dexterity was not an issue in Soulja Boy’s music; the beats were simple and appealed to the most basic primal urges of it’s listeners. The music itself was good, and began to grow in complexity later on after Soulja Boy had been signed and you can see the differences in some of the singles off of his new record.
Yet lyrically, Soulja Boy is still challenged, and then there is his amazingly brilliant ignorance that make the beauty pageant contestants seem like Einstein. Sure there was profanity, many of which were empty attempts to create a medium for the few metaphors that can be found in his music. Having listened to his songs I can’t honestly think why anyone who actually hears him out would actually think that he is promoting any negativity other than materialism, which seems to be his primary vice. You don’t even get a sense of hedonistic sexuality in his music, which seems to be one of the tenements that hip-hop is built off of.
Which brings us to all of this about being positive and whether it is rhetoric or not. Regardless of what happens, a precedent has been set. If Soulja Boy fails his fans in that way, or whether or not other artists take up this cause remains to be seen. Given the current climate of the industry this may make headlines for those intellectuals that follow every little thing artists that appear to be cut from the fabric coming off of the machine of the industry, mainly bloggers and music journalists, but it may not show through on the music or may be downplayed. You know the usual tripe up front, followed by more thoughtful cuts that are never released, sort of how Lil’ Mama was pigeonholed. Here’s to hoping that is not the case …
Kanye West 808s and Heartbreak
Posted on: November 27, 2008
- In: hip-hop | music | opinion
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How do you want it?
Because essentially, on 808s and Heartbreak this is the question that Kanye asks his pundits as he can give it to you two ways. Quintessential, classic synth/electropop from the late seventies or early eighties or his own interpretations as to how to push those sounds forward.
Definitively, as only a producer like Kanye would, he gives you both seperately and interchangeably in the same song.
It is up to you as a listener to know the difference and make that distinction.
Forget about the way that Kanye uses heartbreak and tells the story of how his relationships fall apart and he finds closure, has existential experiences and is celebrated and demonized all at once. He merely does this in the same way that Marvin Gaye had on his later records, as any true artist would. It is the technical brilliance in which Kanye has done so that is the true story here.
The best that 50 Cent could offer is that this was a record that T-Pain would make, according to the New York Times review of this record. T-Pain only wishes that he were one fifth of the producer that Kanye is. Forget about the fact that T-Pain can actually sing or hold a tune; he has his own flavor of pop music and can do best whatever it is that he does just as Roger Troutman had back in the early eighties when he was doing his thing.
This is record not of accuracy, with respect to Auto Tune or any technical authenticity with respects to production. No this isn’t the production of The Neptunes from five years ago, nor it isn’t anyones vain attempts to push the production ethos of Prince forward as so many of The Neptunes tracks were though it’s arguable if West is not trying to do so with the pioneering work of early electropop artists.
Kanye West gave Jeezy and Lil’ Wayne a platform in which to not just sound better, but to cause them to rise to the occasion as artists, not just rappers. They took and seized that opportunity, and recorded some of their best work ever. Kanye, only technically raps on one song. Brilliantly, the last song is a recording of a live performance which would mean nothing except to consider how such a choice fits in with the overall context of this record as it defies the tradition of hip-hop production to do so considering there is no intro, exit, or instintitials in the form of skits on the record. Does this record sound like a demo tape? Not at all; but, the record is more than synthpop or even elctropop, as he weaves in other variants of rock in as well, such as the mechanical and industrial variants which were revolutionary in the late eighties and early nineties. At times it is the fusion of what happens when people try to rap over New Wave; it is so many things.
In all of this Kanye West has created somewhat of an anomaly that is difficult to understand that may be everything to some reviewers, and nothing to others. An album that is if you understand and “get” him, you love him for. An album that, as with what happens to fashion designers who truly do what they want to do, in total defiance to the industry, people walk down the runway and the editors and critics truly do not forgive producers for. I never even checked the credits to see if the samples exist or which Kanye may have cleared, if any; personally, given the brilliance of what he has done lyrically, in spite of Auto Tune, I truly do not want to know. But I will say this; this album is more of an experience, than it is individual tracks, perhaps Kanye’s best to date.
Thank Kanye for breaking traditional Black music out of it’s mold, but for doing so in which he does not sound like an African-American producer that does not understand the music that he is paying homage to and creating a caricature of a sound. This is, at best, an anti-pop record that purists will love to hate and a defiant work that is both experimental and polished all at once that people will appreciate Kanye West for at least attempting, if it is not celebrated as being the best of his career, if not the best album of this year.
- In: 80s | Micheal Jackson | music | opinion
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I just left a forum with the typical arguments about Micheal Jackson vs. Prince, which got to thinking about my own speaking points about both over the years and reflections on why people tend to like one over the other.
- When Micheal came to pop music and left the Jacksons r&b music was very, well, complicated. You had disco, soul, stuff like Earth Wind and Fire, you needed something a bit simpler. So Micheal, someone with really odd, bizzare, ideas about life came into the scene. His songs were pop songs with layers of simple melodies to create the illusion of depth backed up by tracks that seemed mindless but always caused you to think. Billie Jean, for example, is anything but a typical song from that era.
- Micheal’s eccentricities and strange personality only served to reflect itself in his work and he lost a lot of people in the nineties as it was increasingly difficult to discern what he was truly talking about. Though he continued to have pop hits like “Liberian Girl” that talked about interpersonal attraction he also had songs like “Earth Song” and “Stranger in Moscow” that seemed to talk about obvious issues on the surface but could easily be interpreted as talking about something else.
- I love Prince, but he has like 5 or 10 records to each one Micheal has out. You only hear from Micheal when he has something to say, sort of like Eminem, Nas, or Jay Z, you don’t hear from him all the time. He always has something worth hearing and listening to, regardless of what you think of him. Unfortunatley today’s artists do not prescribe to that theory; artists that used to be great, like R Kelly, are on singles all the time.
- Micheal changed the scene of pop music forever. Artists like Timbaland, Missy Elliot, and a number of other producers owe their sound to Micheal. Micheal was just doing what Stevie Wonder did in the sixties and the seventies with pop music in the eighties and nineties, lyrically. Not to say that Micheal is as thorough of a writer as Stevie is, but his music does have more of a universal appeal. Other artists like Pharrell owe their sound to Prince, but that is a sound that is harder to get right. Prince seems to have this copyright over his trademark 80s sound, some code or cipher you can’t figure out.
- Micheal’s performances and dance styles still have not been eclipsed. Though musically it’s arguable that what some of the producers of the nineties and today have long eclipsed some of what Micheal’s done there is no arguing that artists like Chris Brown still haven’t truly taken dance to that next level. It’s also notable that today’s producers do not have artists with the dexterity of Micheal to work with, and for that reason alone their work may be easily forgotten. About the closest I’ve seen anyone come to it, is what Timbaland was doing with Aliyah, you may not listen to her, but the work does stand the test of time.
- Too many of today’s producers get the musical part of it right but fail to really push the artist to transcend the music part of it to create a true classic. Everytime I think I get close to hearing that, like I thought I did with Alicia Keys last album, or Jennifer Hudson’s record, it’s far from the mark. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment with music today. Prince did have that effect with artists that he wrote for though. Quincy Jones did so much more with MIcheal than just create music, and producers just do not seem to be able to do that these days. Chris Brown has some really great records from a musical standpoint, as does Usher, but they don’t seem to have that longevity though.
- Akon is a very good fit for Micheal Jackson. A lot of what he does, with it’s simplicity yet ingeniousness, and musical tastes, are more of a continuation of what Micheal was doing when he was on top.
- In: hip-hop | music | opinion
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Umm, yummy. Get some of that good funk music courtesy of The New Mastersounds – Plug and Play. I actually found my copy on the Amazon Unbox service for free. I’m also intrigued by Lo Fidelity Allstars, they have excellent hip-hop instrumentals.
I’ve also found some cool Jazz on the site. Now admittedly I’ve like, never, paid for or considered listening to Jazz to be totally honest but the album covers were intriguing and I figured I’d check it out. For example Pharoah Sanders – Moniebah (Edit) is an actually track.
I have to be honest with you. There was a time when it wasn’t really chic to pay anything at all for music. Well okay that time was like late nineties, 2000, 2001. But if I’m having trouble finding a good MP3, it’s easier to go onto Amazon and pay 89 cents for a great single I love. 89 cents is nothing, hey I used to pay like $3.50 for them at the record store to get like a single with 12 versions of the song, if it’s someone who isn’t that big. Perhaps 5 versions of the song if it’s someone hot. That was around the time of the CDs demise, and we could all see that coming.
Regardless of how you do it, downloading is the future of music forget about actually going out and paying for stuff. But a lot of us like that price of free, and it will take you down some interesting roads …
New Jennifer Hudson
Posted on: May 20, 2008
- In: music | opinion
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As you know by now the new Jennifer Hudson single, Spotlight, has been making the rounds on YouTube.
It’s very low key. I was over at EW and some of the respondents said it had that 80s flavor. Honestly it reminds me of some of Whitney’s earlier work. No synthesizers or drum machines, nothing but that authentic acoustic flavor. Some say it is reminiscent of Alicia Key’s ‘No One’, well, it shares the same piano but that’s about it. ‘No One’ is definitely an anthem, more of a calculated, deliberate song this one seems more accidental and organic. Alicia’s classical training is still ever present in her music, and fans can’t seem to get quite enough of it.
But back to Jennifer Hudson, I don’t know if we’ll get an entire album like this, but I wouldn’t mind it as an artistic statement. It may be time for a different, albeit, retro era in r&b music and Jennifer Hudson may be the one to usher it in. Everything else seems to played out and overdone these days …
Where are your veterans at
Posted on: April 27, 2008
- In: music | opinion
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I read a cool review of Madonna’s new album, Hard Candy, at the New York Times website. But it got me to thinking, while Madonna has steadily released new material (indeed, Hard Candy is like her 11th studio album) her peers like Prince, Michael Jackson and others that were big during her hey day we haven’t heard from for years. Prince doesn’t necessarily release heavily promoted, mainstream albums because of his feelings about the business side of the music industry that we’ve known for a while. But others seem to have a hard time getting that album out.
What was telling about the New York Times review is that Madonna made a point of using established producers just to let you know that she is still capable of putting out a hot record for pop culture consumption. He also felt that it was best that Madonna wasn’t trying to make political or artistic statements, particularly the brand she put forth on American Life or Ray Of Light. What bothers me though, is that since Bedtime Stories Madonna has always been known for putting out a distinctive alternative brand of pop that couldn’t be ignored, whether you found in the trenches of electronica, disco, alternative or any other genre of music. Whatever producers she had brought about a perverse and delightful take on what the layman likes to refer to as “beats” and has been the driving point of her music whenever you’re too lazy to listen to Madonna’s lyrics.
I could even respect Confessions on a Dance Floor, as derivative that was, and a conspicous attempt at bringing about some evolution to disco. Here I am to understand that she almost digresses to sampling her own work and reminisces a lot about her earliest records. Perhaps it is just me, but I understood why she went in a different direction on Ray of Light and thought that if anything she could have stuck to that formula and people would have gotten it; she had won over enough new fans with the material it shouldn’t have mattered all that much about the old ones she had alienated.
In fact if anything, had she not tried to rap on American Life she would have been okay. Listening to the advice of Missy Elliot, who simply tries to duplicate techno’s best efforts through the medium of hip-hop, no, not a good idea. If I want a pop record with beats I’ll listen to Soulja Boy, Ashley Simpson or even Gwen Stefani, who is actually quite good at it. I don’t care if they stole their technique from Madonna; they’re the ones holding the mantle right now and carrying that torch, and it’s their time to shine. That’s like saying we shouldn’t listen to Beyonce because she got it from Janet Jackson, or Mariah because she stole it from Whitney Houston or worse yet let’s say that no other performer has been able to hit those notes and express the range that Mariah did. At the end of the day if those artists want to release new material they will, and they often do to mixed results.
But those results are typically due to either them or their producers being out of touch with what is hot; like trying to impress kids that are 18 with that hot new single Darkchild produced when he was hot like 10 years ago. Yeah I’ll listen to it, but I’m 35. You’ve heard Janet Jacksons last 3 records; the beats were hot, but they didn’t fit her so the records flopped, had someone else had those beats the argument may have been a lot more convincing.
When everyone has hot beats and music listeners feel that it is an artists duty to deliver them you can’t make that much more of a statement by implementing them yourself. For example Alicia Keys first two records brought that heat, the fire, then she got with like 20 producers and tried producing what at best can be referred to as post soul. The results are mixed; older audiences, like her parents age, love that album but the younger crowd may have moved onto something else. In fact the work echoes the aurual aesthetic of albums by British singers like Amy Winehouse who became popular while she wasn’t on the scene and could be considered derivative except that Alicia is not evoking the same psychological and emotional problems that seem apparent when you listen to Winehouse’s records.
On the other hand Madonna has tried pretty much everything with respect to being artistic and trying to make a statement, with mixed results. She probably wants to leave Warner Brothers on a good note and isn’t trying to take any chances and most definitely feels that pressure from the younger artists to get this one right. But at 50 years of age you still have to question how many fans that listen to the younger artists that are indebted to her would still buy her records anyway. If anything, older listeners do not want an empty shell of an ablum.
Veteran artists have tried to compete with the younger set by putting out even harder beats, emptier albums, trivializing both their own legacy and sending a poor message out to younger artists who may want to take music in a more organic, and less digitally structured, direction. I had to endure seeing Madonna skimply dressed on her last record, and that took a lot out of me to do so. What veterans often miss is that true fans aren’t looking for them to sell even more records and outdo themselves or even have the best selling album of that particular year.
What Madonna hasn’t done is hide behind perfection and put out albums on a timely schedule. We haven’t had to wait 5 years for a new release, and the efforts have paid off as the media is right there with her letting us know how either the records or the concerts go, for better or worse. But Madonna is bordering on becoming a caricature of herself, regardless of what ecstatic fans that grew up with her think. “4 Minutes …” is about as empty of a song as it comes, and makes even Timberland seem desperate. If and when I hear an album from any of my other heroes that parented me and shaped and molded my musical tastes like any good teacher would, I’m looking for that next level of something other than sugary pop beats raining from the sky on the whim of the pop gods that micromanage the universe known as the mainstream culture. I need something with some actual substance. In fact, it is somewhat understandable coming from Paula Abdul with the first single off of Randy Jackson’s record because Paula hasn’t been out in over a decade. Better yet, the beat is both simple and complex, leaving you wanting more yet refusing to give anything more than what can easily be heard on the first take. If anything it transports you back to the eighties when life was simpler and a nice track from Tears for Fears or anything else New Wave was all that it took. But when you’re out all the time anyway, taking enough of a hiatus to have gotten anything that could have been retrieved from the record but not enough for us to forget you entirely, I don’t know …
Track off Nas’ N* album leaked
Posted on: April 23, 2008
Courtesy of Answers I finally heard a leaked track off of Nas’ Nigger album. It’s fire; he talks about Eminem saying the word and kicking it with him, which I was unaware of (I’ve never heard him say it and it’s unclear whether Nas is suggesting that in a rhetorical fashion or if it actually happened, it would have hit harder if he had talked about Jennifer Lopez using it to increase sales after her album flopped). Basically the premise is about other cultures wanting to be that nigger, regardless of how ignorant the stereotype can be. The hook is a clever play on a typical jingle, stating “Don’t you want to be a n* too”.
I was so enthusiastic about the joint I posted my own question asking what rapper could get with the track, if it were ever released. But in doing so I stepped on some toes and was clowned about it, so I revoked the question. Even still, this is some of the best work that Nas has done in years, if this track is any indication, and it should make “Hip-Hop is Dead” seem like a distant memory.
On the negative side it’s a shame that Nas had to resort to working this word to stay relevant. His positivity used to set him apart in rap, but now he’s in an overcrowded genre with everyone from Mos Def and Talib Kweli, Kanye West and even Little Brother, who rarely sees any airplay. His rhyme skills don’t seem to be that much better than Lupe Fiasco these days, who is often heralded as the second coming. Listen to Lupe’s “Dumb It Down” or “Hip-Hop Saved Me” and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
I’m still not sure how I feel about the word, in fact there is still a lot of dispute about exactly what it means. Most of us take it to mean ignorant because those who like to associate themselves with the word seem to act that way. His other track, “Got Yourself …” was a little light and didn’t really bring it home the way this track does. At the end of the day Nas will have a lot of tracks which won’t get any airplay because, well that’s just the way it is for Nas. The topics are controversial, the beats are good but not really meant for pop consumption, and he rarely sells out; one thing you can say about Nas is that he experienced what it was like to do that and figured out quickly that it wasn’t all that it is built up to be …
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Rappers Hating on the South, There’s More to it Than What You See on the Surface
When rappers hate on Southern artists like Soulja Boy I am amused. First off, crime has always been an integral part of the music scene anyway; starting up a record label was a way for former criminals to get into the industry ever since the beginning. The only difference between Northerners and Southerners is that Southern artists used the angle of talking about crime to get into the business while Northern artists had a distinctively different approach, and for good reason. If rap was openly built on the foundation of speaking about crime it never would have penetrated mainstream America the way it had in the eighties, and the party would have ended a lot sooner.
Southern artists finished what Northerners started. There is still a lot of room and much love for the authenticity of old hip-hop, and many artists are still working at that. Some are still popular, Midwestern artists like Lupe Fiasco and Common have a lot of love across the board. But there are times when I want a nice bass line, a few keyboards and something simple I can ride to. Sure some East coast producers have that down, most notably Swizz Beats, but if you’re looking for something subtle you can work the expressway with and don’t mind getting stuck in traffic listening to, you need the laid back Southern sound, one that isn’t as confrontational and aggressive.
It has always been this way, long before rap music, southern artists were always coming through with something that wasn’t as polite or, to hear critics tell it, not as definitively sophisticated as Northern music. When the North was working on the Philadelphia sound and the Midwest was turning r&b into pop music through Motown the South was gangster; an ex-con like James Brown was offering up, well whatever you wanted to call it (such was difficult to define) through a serving of irreverent, almost anti-pop beats that didn’t really go together well, in theory, but were always well executed. Listening back on it today (some of his lesser popular work) it is hard to think that he was able to pull it off, but the main draw was that it was different, though critics hated it back then.
This continued well on into the eighties; in fact the only real advantage of hip-hop at the time was that it was different, people from other regions of the country hadn’t figured out what to do with it yet (or hadn’t heard it) so through it’s very nature that original New York sound is what stuck. Ironically, other influences came into play once producers started abusing samplers, but what New York wasn’t betting on was the influence of hungry producers elsewhere, that were taking the different influences they were accustomed to from music in their own regions and interpreting those sounds through rather primitive production values.
It was refreshing because hip-hop was turning into something that was out of reach for most people artistically, hip-hop had their own “Philadelphia Sound” and needed to be stripped of it’s production values yet again to remain new and fresh. Leave it to some producers from the West and the South to do it for them. The real issue isn’t that Soulja Boy is popular or that he is answering his critics; New York rappers and the music critics that love them have hated on Southern rap back in the early nineties when Master P and his No Limit Soldiers were popular, in fact Tim Dog hated NWA, the issue is that some of the same Northern labels who these artists were signed to, are signing these Southern artists and promoting them, effectively, at times even better than their peers down South ever could, and are making superstars out of them.
When Bad Boy signs and promotes artists like Young Joc and Pitbull, more specifically, Boyz n Da Hood and delivers a product that isn’t only as good as that of their New York artists, but often a lot better, that changes the equation a bit, yet that pales in comparison to Def Jam South, who is dominating the Southern scene with artists such as Ludacris, Chingy, Young Jeezy, Shareefa, Mannie Fresh and Scarface. What’s more Def Jam South also has Slip and Slide Records underneath their imprint, which has such acts as Rick Ross and Trina (Trick Daddy is still with Def Jam though).
What about Soulja Boy, yeah he’s on Universal, in fact, pretty much everyone is on Universal, which is part of Vivendi, a French company. So while American artists, specifically, American artists from different regions fight about authenticity and what region of the country has the best music, of any genre because these fights and in-differences reach across music in general not just rap, it’s over nothing really because a French media conglomerate pretty much owns everything. Twenty-five percent of our “music” is being bought, sold, and promoted from an overseas imprint. So I’m amused, because those same record companies whose American headquarters have some of the tallest skyscrapers in New York City have artists who are trying to make a profit arguing that an artist like Soulja Boy, from a city in the South that most look to as not only the future of the coast, but in way in which it has risen again, put forth empty arguments about authenticity. Too many Northern rappers, artists, and entrepreneurs have found a way to become an integral part of the Southern scene, I’m not even from the South myself, but I know when you’re better off getting over it than preaching to the choir …
okay so the skinny jeans didn't work out for me so well ... 
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