Archive for the Music CategoryCheck The Technique – Gang Starr Paul Scott wonders if hip-hop can save Black America. I can answer that real succintly. No. Hip-hop couldn’t save Black America, even if it wanted to, number one. And even if it could, the reasons he describes probably would have nothing to do with it. In some ways, hip-hop seems to be like the miracle tonics of yesteryear that could cure everything — or at least, that’s what the salesmen wanted you to believe. In reality, they could do nothing of the sort. In this case, the salesmen are not the rappers themselves, but the people who would argue that hip-hop has some transformative power; people who would convince us that if “our” musical genre could get itself together, it would become a clarion call for us to mobilize and defeat our racist foes. Ain’t gonna happen. Number one, Hip-hop is a genre of music. Like rock. Or jazz. Or funk. Nobody is asking any other genre of music to save anybody. Nobody is suggesting that any other genre could. What’s more, even more than most other genres, there is no real sense of history intrinsic to hip-hop. I’m fairly sure that the recording companies treated it as if it were disposable right from the door, but anything that’s not making profit is disposable to the record companies. More disturbing is that it’s disposable to us. For most other genres, there is a certain level of respect for the acts within that genre that have come before. There are classic rock stations, whose whole format is dedicated to playing songs from across the decades. A jazz show is going to play almost as many songs from before 1965 as after. Hip-hop? There might be a lunch hour mix of songs from the last decade or so, but that’s about as far as it’s gonna go. Many younger listeners have no idea of the seminal voices of the genre because they’re old, and therefore, in the minds of the young, wack. If there are no elder statesmen of the form, then there is nobody to pull the lens from the immediacy of the me…and that’s assuming that the elder statesmen are even that aware themselves. Thing is, being that hip-hop is a form of popular music, if it’s not popular, it’s nothing. Meaning this: I’m sure there are artists who are making exactly the type of music Mr. Scott is talking about. I’d lay a dollar to a donut that Chuck D himself has a song or two recorded. But they’re probably not gonna be on the air any time soon, unless Chuck plays them on his Air America show. (Is there still such a thing as Air America?) The part about Mr. Scott’s piece that really killed me was this: Perhaps ,most important, is the Hip Hop vernacular. Just as the Right Wing folks are able to use code words such as “illegals,” “inner city youth” and “states rights” to galvanize their base, rappers also have slang terms to mobilize their fans toward political action right under the noses of unsuspecting Republicans. F’real, though? The demographics of who actually buys hip-hop records kinda defeat this argument before we can even get to critique the rest. Album sales aside, as a form of popular entertainment, I maintain that hip-hop ain’t built for that. Is it possible for the artists to include some thought-provoking content in their lyrics? Absolutely. And I agree with Mr. Scott that they should, by all means necessary. However, as Mos Def said 10+ years ago, there’s no sense in talking about hip-hop as if it’s some giant living off in the woods. Hip-hop is the output of the people, so whatever the people are doing, that’s what hip-hop is gonna do. Besides, if hip-hop could save us, I’d be more pressed to have it save us from our internal problems than whatever threats “they” pose. Of the Favorite 15s I’ve done so far, this is definitely gonna be one of the most difficult. With most groups, there are several tiers of songs: the pretty good ones, the solid ones, and the great ones. With fifteen, I can normally get all of the greats, most if not all of the goods, and hopefully just one pretty good. No such thing with Tribe. Q-Tip, Phife, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad are right at the top in terms of artistic consistency, with two albums, The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders being near the zenith of hip-hop artistry. I could easily do a Favorite Fifteen between those two albums alone, but I’ma try to include some of those other records, as well. I don’t think I can do this in any sort of an order, though. -Find A Way – The Love Movement gave us the quintessential unrequited love record. If I remember, the video was pretty interesting too. - Ham ‘n Eggs – This song is not on the list so much because it’s one of their best, but because I identify with it so strongly. And not their verses, so much. Well, there is that line, “Chicken for lunch, chicken for dinner/ chicken, chicken, chicken I’m a finger-lickin winner” that I quote a lot. But really, it’s the Nappy Dug Out sample that got me at first, then at the very end, when they’re doing the chorus to close out the song, “I don’t eat no ham ‘n eggs, cuz they’re high in cholesterol…yo Phife, do you eat em? Yo, Tip do you eat em? Nope. Not at all.” But they kick to Posdnuos, who breaks it up with, “YUP! All the time!” - 1ce Again – Beats, Rhymes, and Life wasn’t a bad album, but coming after TLET and MM, it seemed like a more precipitous fall than it really was. I forget if 1ce Again was the first single (it seems quite logical), but at that point, having heard that song and the title of the album, I thought they were going to surpass everything they had done up to that point. - Buggin Out – One of the songs that added a line to my self-definition soundtrack: “Not the best, not the worst and occasionally I curse…” - Steppin’ It Up – Tribe with Redman and Busta. Prima facie fire. On second look? (And third and fourth and fifth?) FIYAH! Red closed it out quite well with the top-notch dismount, “me, Kamal, Bus-a-bus, Phife Dawg/ Shitted. Pussy niggas get Lysoled.” - God Lives Through – To quote myself: Phife won. In the history of A Tribe Called Quest, this is the only song I ever heard where I thought had the better verse. But this one right here? Phife brought it exceptionally well and Tip didn’t. With the exception of Butter, this might be Phife’s all-time best verse. Seriously, to this day, I don’t even know if I can quote Q-Tip’s verse because I kept rewinding Phife. That’s never happened. Even onea my homeboys who can’t stand Phife had to give it up that Phife owns this song. - What? – This song probably gets a lotta run from me simply because of the song it precedes, but it’s a good one on its own. I definitely like the fact that it runs a string of questions, ranging from the obvious to the philosophical. - Midnight – This is an absolutely great song. The first verse, detailings the night time activities of a random dude, is executed with great detail and precision. Not a traditional story in the sense of there being a plot, it’s more of a slice of life, and exactly the type of thing you would expect to hear on a Tribe record. - Can I Kick It (Spirit Mix) – This was the first Tribe song that got me open. “I Left My Wallet In El Segundo” was interesting, but it wasn’t really killin me. But Can I Kick It? Absolutely. I think one of my bigger disappointments up to that point in my life was getting the tape and hearing that the album version wasn’t the same one that was on the video. The Spirit Mix is the video version, with the little scratching sound. - Keep It Rollin’ The star of this joint is the Large Professor’s track, based on “Feel Like Making Love,” as recorded by the great Bob James. It’s an absolutely gorgeous track, perfect for cleaning the house on a cloudy, cool day. - Butter – Phife came off. He had a solo on most of their albums, but this was by far his best work in the group. He killed this joint. And that track? The track is good business. - Check The Rhime – What! This joint here? This joint right here, homey? Ugh. This was one of the joints that made Tribe move up the rankings with the quickness. Phife put in a solid performance, Tip repped as usual, and of course, the track with the Average White Band sample is crazy. And these next three are why I can’t rate Tribe records. You can’t have three number ones, but you tell me which is > the others… So we’ll just do it chronological order. - Bonita Applebaum – One of the first hip-hop love records that didn’t come off as being overly sentimental or corny. This joint is uncommonly good. Cold-blooded, even. The track? Perfect. - Scenario – There are songs I listen to more at a given time, but there’s just not a better song. There are some that are as good, but I can’t think of any that are better. Every. Single. Thing. about this song is just right. Lyrically, for me, it’s all about Dinco D and Busta. Busta’s whole career comes back to this song. - Electric Relaxation They blacked out on this. The lyrics are fine, but combining them with the track? There is no escaping it. Hearing it for the first time was like crossing an event horizon. As I said with Bonita Applebaum, there are some songs that are its peer, but none is its superior. It’s hard for me to properly place Michael Jackson in my personal pantheon. On the one hand, I fully believe that Mike is the biggest star I will ever see in my lifetime, and may very well be bigger than any star that will ever be, given the manner in which media is fragmented these days. At the same time, when it comes to me personally, I liked Mike and all, but he was never on that Stevie-James stratum. Like I told somebody the other day, if I didn’t cry when James died, it ain’t gonna happen for nobody. I liked Mike a lot, and I’ve sho nuff had my days where I played Mike all day — and this is before tragedy struck. At the same time, I can’t really pretend that I was all crushed like some people are. Mike has been in continuous rotation around here, so in that respect, nothing has changed. Nor will it. Mike was due for a Favorite 15, and his will probably be the next one I do, but the contrarian in me just doesn’t wanna do it now. Mike’s popular right now, and honestly Mike got so many hits, it’s really hard for me to find songs I really, really like that aren’t already major, which is part of the point of me even doing a Favorite 15. Ultimately, it breaks down to this: I think Michael Jackson, while not necessarily my favorite at any of the things that he did (singer, songwriter, dancer, etc., etc), put all of those things together in such a fantastic package that I can only call him the greatest entertainer in my lifetime. Possibly ever. Hot Pants – Hank Carbo For it to be the semi-embarrassing moment that it was, Allen Iverson’s “Practice? We talkin bout practice?!” press conference is one of my favorite times with him as a Sixer. I remember listening to it live as I drove up Haverford Avenue. And now it has a remix, along with some other classic moments from other press conferences. Shout out: Huffington Post Inspired by a post by Esquire, this weeks playlist is simply gonna be my most-played songs (as of just now) since I first signed up for last.fm. It’s not a completely accurate count, since my non-ipod mp3 players don’t sync up the play count the way the ipod did, and I’m not always connected to the internet with my laptop, so it can’t scrobble, but this gives a pretty good idea. 1 Stevie Wonder – Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You) 552 April 18, 2009 is Record Store Day. To all my funky folks, this Saturday, join me in adding a little vinyl to your life. I can tell you with no question, I’m gonna be hittin up the Funky Flea Market, and probably Som Records on 14th street. If you’re in the urrea, there’s a 90% chance I’ll be rockin some grey sweats and the notorious EPMD shirt– but prolly not the track jacket in 76 beautiful degrees. This one’s for laying back in the cut. Soaring (At Dawn) – Les McCann
Having said all that, my PE favorite 10. In no particular order, except #1. Of course. 10. Crayola – The last PE album I bought was There’s A Poison Goin On. Crayola, a screed against commercial radio and its close relationship with the recording industry, was one of my favorites. 9. You’re Gonna Get Yours – I like to point to this song as being a throwback to when hip-hop was literally real because even though the materialistic aspect is there — it is a song about a car, after all — it’s an affordable car. It was an Oldsmobile 98. In fact, if you look on the cover of the 12-inch, you can see that it wasn’t even a new car. Even when Chuck talked about replacing the 98, it was with something else affordable – a Bronco. 8. Burn Hollywood Burn – Chuck. Cube. Kane. Nuff said. What’s funny is that of the three verses on this song, Cube, who may have been at his lyrical apex at the time, was clearly the least of the three. I’m tryina tell you : Chuck was nicer than you realize. 7. Can’t Truss It – The middle verse here is killin it. There were a few songs where Chuck completely blacked out, and this was one of them. Mathematics error notwithstanding, the way he recounts the story of the middle passage first-person but managed to make a dope verse of it? Nah, man. You can’t front on Chuck. 6. Revolutionary Generation – This was the first song I’d ever heard where somebody recanted one of his old songs. In this ode to Black women, Chuck actually admits his culpability in recording “Sophisticated Bitch,” from Yo! Bun Rush The Show. The Baby Huey sample in there was what completely sold me on the song in the first place, though. 5. Timebomb – One verse over the Meters’ “Just Kissed My Baby.” This was the first song that really made me think about Chuck as a lyricist, partially because it’s closer to the classic emcee mold. But when I actually started to break it down one day, I realized Chuck could actually rhyme. 4. Fight The Power – This is probably PE’s signature song, and for good reason. I was singin along the other day when I realized that 1989 was 20 years ago. You talkin about feeling old? Pssshh! 3. War at 33 1/3 – That first verse? Chuck. Blacked. Out. Like, if I were gonna do a lineup of all my favorite verses, I’m tryin to tell you that that would stand up against any of them. I guess this song’s just as good as any to mention the importance of Chuck’s voice. Not so much his figurative voice, but his literal voice. I don’t think too many artists could have performed over Bomb Squad tracks. And that’s not a slight on them, like they couldn’t have tailored their tracks to suit the performer, but these tracks right here? As noisy and busy as they were? Chuck’s just about the only person who could’ve handled them. 2. Welcome To The Terrordome – Again with the noisy track. And again with Chuck blacking out on a verse. My favorite Terrordome memory has to be seeing them in concert and Flav riding a bike onto the stage. 1. Rebel Without A Pause – This is just my personal ultimate record. Nothing more, nothing less. Since I started this blog, I’ve probably talked about it 6 or 7 times. No need to do it again, but suffice it to say that it changed everything. |
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I was ridin in the car, listening to one of the songs on this list when it all of a sudden dawned on me that I’d never really focused on any Public Enemy tracks, with the exception of Rebel Without A Pause – and that one specifically because of it’s singular place in my musical canon. So let me say it like this: without having any of the braggadocio that marks classic emceeing, Chuck D was nice with his. Real nice. Was he on that Rakim/Kane/G-Rap/Jheri Curl Ice Cube level? Probably not. But he was far more than functional. When most people talk about Chuck, they focus on the message behind the lyrics and not the lyrics themselves, so much. That’s only natural, because Chuck wrote with a purpose. But that’s not to say that he didn’t have dope rhymes, because he did. In fact, I’d venture to say that if Chuck wasn’t as dope as he was, PE would have never ascended the way they did, and people would never have gotten intoxicated with the idea of hip-hop as an explicitly political vehicle. Or the idea wouldn’t have caught on to the extent that it did.