Word: def
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...world had better be careful. It is getting dangerously close to mainstream acceptance. Eminem's movie, 8 Mile, won raves from stuffy, middle-aged film critics and raced to the top of the box-office charts. Now Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam has barged its way onto Broadway. An evening of in-your-face street poetry by nine performers with noms de rap like Black Ice, Georgia Me and Poetri might seem to have an uphill battle in the land of Rodgers and Hammerstein. But the show, being marketed to urban audiences and sporting a relatively low $65 top ticket...
...this one. Simmons and director Stan Lathan have assembled a fast-paced, highly charged evening that manages the rare feat of satisfying insiders while introducing outsiders to something revelatory. The first thing to notice about Def Poetry Jam is that the audience is engaged more directly and passionately (shouts of assent or murmurs of sympathy after each line that connects) than any other on Broadway. The second thing to notice, especially after the gangsta-posturing insult raps of 8 Mile, is how empowering, often funny and always life affirming the words...
...hail Def Jux, saviors of American hip hop. Not only have they produced a brace of rappers outrageously talented enough to redeem a near-moribund genre—in RJD2, they have proved that they don’t even need a rapper to do it. The beats and cuts on RJD2’s debut solo album, Deadringer, are as fresh as they come, neither burdened with artistic pretension nor simply catering to the dance floor...
...debut I Phantom is a momentous occasion. Having spent years building up a following in his native Boston releasing raw singles and playing awe-inspiring live shows, Lif was becoming increasingly hot property and was snatched up by the powerhouse underground label Definitive Jux. He released an EP on Def Jux this summer entitled Emergency Rations, an angry firestorm of an album that included on its lead single the lyrics “Headlines: Bush steals the presidency” and “Planes hit the towers and the Pentagon / Killing those the government wasn’t dependent...
...Def Jux CEO, produced much of the album, and his potent influence is abundantly apparent, particularly in the industrial beats and dystopic family theme of “Success,” which recalls El-P’s own “Stepfather Factory.” However, Lif is a much more elegant, talented and hard-hitting rapper than El-P, and now he finally has the album out to prove it. Hip hop may be wack these days, but if anyone can bring back the B-Boy, I’d put my money...