Word: hip-hop
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Everlast (born Erik Schrody) is already well known as the writer of the Santana hit Put Your Lights On. Hip-hop followers probably remember him from the 1990s as the frontman of the proudly uncouth, roughneck trio House of Pain. After four years with that group, he quit, dropped out of music, changed gears and then scored a surprise hit with his 1998 solo debut, Whitey Ford Sings the Blues. That record broke all the rules, using acoustic guitars, rapping, blues riffs and elements borrowed from Johnny Cash and Neil Young to create a striking hip-hop offshoot that sounded...
Only a few years ago, it would have been difficult to imagine hip-hop fans' paying attention to a cd that philosophizes about mortality, at least not without a good shoot-out at the end. A purist mentality kept the genre loaded down with hard-core rappers, most of whom stuck with traditional formulas: shunning live instruments and embracing gangsta bravado. "I love hip-hop, so what I do is done with respect," says Everlast, "but there was a very closed-minded attitude toward live instruments and music that wasn't hard core. I wanted to get out of that...
...that is just what he's done. Although Eminem's sensationalist rapping still rides high on the charts, that old consensus may at last be showing signs of breaking down. In searching for a little meaning in his own heart, Everlast may have touched on something that will make hip-hop reconsider...
...genres in a single album, the result can be hors d'oeuvre music: varied and savory, but perhaps not as satisfying as a main course. Singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado, on her hook-laden debut album, Whoa, Nelly! (DreamWorks), borrows from a wide array of styles, such as pop, rock, hip-hop, bossa nova and even Portuguese fado. But Furtado imbues her work with such sprightly energy that her stylistic mix has real impact. Whoa, Nelly! is more than a plate of appetizers; it's a musical meal...
Once dismissed as a fad, hip-hop has become as quintessentially a part of being young today as rock 'n' roll was for an earlier generation. Now it's even moving into the precincts of adult high culture with an impressive assemblage of artifacts depicting the music's epic, and sometimes controversial, nearly 25-year journey from South Bronx block parties to television ad jingles. Says curator Kevin Powell: "Hopefully people will come away from this and realize it's time for colleges to start teaching hip-hop studies...