Word: hopã
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...songs such as Atmosphere’s tinkling piano ballad “Abusing of the Rib” and the startlingly mundane anthem “Like Today” could incite such gleeful abandon is an achievement that surely cannot be overlooked. It was as if hip hop??s towering wall of machismo had been doused with a bucket of water, leaving a shivering mess and a newfound urgency in the process. For a few hours, the music seemed like the most important thing in the world again...
Catching a primetime exposé on hip hop music last month, it was tempting to lose faith in the mainstream media all over again. True to the sensationalist American “news,” the show blasted mainstream hip hop??s depravity, even admonishing Russell Simmons (Def Jam’s founder) in a comically stern interview for promoting hip hop music in spite of poor literacy levels among black children...
Anti-Pop are hip hop??s Autechre, sounding far-out on first listen but making perfect sense on the fifth (appropriately, they’re also on the UK’s experimental Warp label). As former slam poets, emcees Priest, Beans and M. Sayyid rhyme multisyllables like androids possessed by funk, their unfathomable words sounding vaguely familiar at times—like lyrics about hip hop lyrics. They attack the mic with a coordinated fervor not seen since early Wu-Tang or Souls of Mischief, or even the Beastie Boys...
These albums are especially strong testaments to hip hop??s vitality and versatility, to be sure, but their release is business as usual for the artists—uncelebrated, unseen. With stuff like this happening every month, who needs an old, joyless news anchor telling us what not to like...
...music signals a return to hip-hop??s roots, situating the fringe art of turntablism within a more immediate song-based context. For the most part, this yields fabulous results. The first four tracks are unstoppable. After a dizzying intro, rapper Large Professor spits raw battle salvos over spine-cracking drums and a sick guitar lick on “XL,” followed by a whirling display of beat juggling and a multi-movement beatbox piece. The guest emcees are also a major step up from their previous album, featuring the inimitable Biz Markie...