Word: gangstas
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...When gangsta rap came under fire as a threat to America's moral values, a few people stood up and defended hip-hop artists as troubadours of the ghetto, even if artists that truly deserved that tag were few and far between. Nasir Jones (aka Nas, aka Nasty Nas, aka Nas Escobar, aka Nastradamus) was one such rapper. Nastradamus, his newest album, cements his reputation as urban troubadour or, as "Come Get Me" announces, "America's foremost young poet." From "The Prediction" to "The Outcome"--prophetic and apocalyptic spoken-word joints from poet Jessica Care Moore--Nas' album...
...value--then again, so has exaggeration. On one hand, rappers want to keep their music true to life. On the other, boasting and roasting are also part of the tradition. Lately, exaggeration has ruled. It's often hard to find real experience in the cartoonish raps of many gangsta rappers. Q-Tip, on his new album, Amplified (Arista), brings back the honesty--but doesn't cut back on the fun. This is a party album about picking up chicks (Vivrant Thing), cruising the streets (Let's Ride) and dancing in clubs (Breathe & Stop). "I look at a track like...
...latest CD the gangsta rapper addresses nuclear proliferation, explores the "digital divide" between blacks and whites, quotes liberally from Hegel...nah, we're just playin'. Dre's album is mostly about weed, "bitches" and guns, just as you'd expect. Still, some of the beats are fresh and involving, and Dre's collaborations with Eminem and Snoop Dogg have ferocity and wit. But you have to wonder: Can gangsta themes age gracefully? Will Dr. Dre 2041 find an older, wiser Dre boasting about the benefits of marijuana for glaucoma...
...government programs to repair the damage of the past and enforce racial justice). Internalists, who are apt to be conservative, stress solutions that require efforts from the inside: education, hard work, self-motivation, morale, bourgeois values, deferred gratification, the old immigrant virtues (turn off the TV, shut down the gangsta...
...Milk and Honey" and the high-energy first single "Sexx Laws" remain sparse, highlighting the intertwining riffs which pop from guitar to bass to trumpet to sax and back. "Sexx Laws" and its driving horns might come straight from the James Brown songbook; other tunes could back up gangsta rap (though it's unlikely Method Man would tolerate this couplet, from "Hollywood Freaks": "We drop lobotomy beats/Evaporated meats"). The fantastically mellow "Debra" even features an impassioned falsetto vocal delivered to the world's most sensuous J.C. Penney clerk. "I wanna get with you," Beck says. "And your sister. I think...