Word: hip-hop
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Double albums in hip-hop tend to be as unnecessarily tedious as two-part sitcom episodes and director's-cut home videos. Even the late rap superstars Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. released disappointing double CDs that were heavy on gangsta attitude and light on well-crafted songs. Last week the hard-core rap group Wu-Tang Clan came out with theirs, Wu-Tang Forever (Loud/RCA). Given the fact that the group's last album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) had been lauded in hip-hop circles for its labyrinthine lyrics and creatively jagged production...
Folk music is all over the place these days. There's Beck with his hip-hop folk, Ani DiFranco with her punk-folk, and Jewel with her sexy, wet-lipped pop-folk. Relative to that lot, the veteran duo Indigo Girls and newcomer Laura Love sound almost like folk traditionalists...
...liked the symbolism of the number seven). It's a creative breakthrough for the group--its previous work, which was mostly a cappella, often seemed unfinished and overly jokey. For Seven, instrumentalists have been brought in to help out, as have some accomplished producers, including Michael Franti of the hip-hop soul group Spearhead...
...with bruised passion. Other songs, like African Sunset, draw deftly on the upbeat music of South Africa's townships. But the best song is Daulne's seductive cover of Phoebe Snow's Poetry Man; that song, like much of this fine CD, has the liquid groove of hip-hop and the broken heart of a great torch song...
...themes of this conference is to bring together in discussion artists, executives, listeners and journalists involved in hip-hop and the issues surrounding the culture," Bloodworth said...