Word: hip-hop
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...glory of 1977, when punk seemed like it just might win. While straight-ahead punk does appear here (the glorious opening suite of "Kill All Hippies," "Accelerator" and "Exterminator"), more important is the group's appropriation of righteous anger. Leftist rage permeates the album, unifying techno ("Swastika Eyes"), hip-hop ("Pills") and guitar noise of the best sort ("MBV Arkestra") with an unmediated rage...
...couple of tracks produced by Shok from the Ruff Ryders are less effective: one titled "Do the Ladies Run This" is marred by a bagpipe-like synthesizer instrumentation. Resemblances to Scottish folk tunes aside, Dirty Harriet is an outstanding album that welcomes Rah Digga to the ranks of hip-hop's elite. The album's title is a direct reference to abolitionist leader Harriet Tubman: let's hope that Rah Digga's debut guides a new breed of female rappers...
with competent sidemen, Schwartz is undeniably sweet and ponderous on "Peace Dollar" and offers striking introspective moments such as the Billy Strayhorn ballad "Chelsea Bridge". Schwartz also borrows from funk, soul and hip-hop influences, stretching out melodically on the fusion-groove "Don't Ask", and an eight-minute bossa nova "The Curve of The Earth" provides some expansive and impressive melodic inventions, while still maintaining a paradoxically loose and driving Latin feel. Everything emerges extremely ear-friendly, and while Schwartz doesn't provide extraordinary insights into old material, he does offer a varying array of comfortable, well-worn tunes...
...rocks where it needs to and slows down most of the time with some soothing guitar distortion. And the lyrics sometimes are razor sharp, the sort of brilliant poetry that Reed's always done (take, for instance, "In the mystic morning where the river meets/The hurdy-gurdy of the hip-hop beat," from "Mystic Child"). Most of the songs deal with Lou Reed's long defunct marriage and the emotion does shine through, anger and sadness and helplessness reflected through the sparse chords. But then there's the other stuff, the stuff that goes "Smoking crack with a downtown flirt/Shooting...
With Romeo, producer Joel Silver has bet that Li, like Jackie Chan in Rush Hour, can click with urban moviegoers if he is paired with black actors and backed by an assaultive hip-hop score. As Han, scion of a Chinese family at war with a black clan in San Francisco, Li must juggle ethnic rivalries and ethical responsibilities--in other words, kick everybody's ass, without regard to race or kinship. Han's only ally is the black kingmaker's daughter Trish O'Day (R.-and-B. thrush Aaliyah), in a romance so tepid it is consummated with...