Word: hopã
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Unfortunately, that is about as far as it goes, as the band lacks any of the features that made trip hop??s pioneers stand out so much. They cannot match Portishead, the band they most resemble, for eerie gloom and atmospherics, nor Massive Attack for their raps and stylistic breadth, nor Tricky for his sheer, well, trickyness. By about half-way through the album, there is the distinct impression of having heard that particular drum loop somewhere before, and the lyrics certainly aren’t going to save the album: Like Portishead, you’re doing...
...trilogy, perhaps hip-hop??s most gutsy undertaking yet, began last year with Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump. Backed by the two strong (and commercially popular) singles “Ooooh!” and “All Good,” and the group’s Spitkicker tour (which they repeated this year to receptive audiences around the country), Mosaic Thump was De La Soul’s biggest selling album to date. It also earned them a Grammy nomination. It may not have won, but in any case, De La Soul were definitely back...
James Wong, the director of Final Destination, demonstrates true artistic flair with his direction of The One. Additionally, he wisely eschews the usual clichés that seem to dog many American-made, Hong Kong-styled movies. The tired “kung-fu hip hop?? of Rush Hour and Romeo Must Die is thankfully absent, with the actors essaying roles and not racial caricatures. There are no Ebonics or broken accents found here. Nor does he fall into the trap of simply repeating what came before. For example, countless other films from Reservoir Dogs to Kiss...
Long Beach’s Ugly Duckling, who opened the show, only managed to worsen my expectations. These guys exemplified purist hip-hop??s worst qualities—a formulaic, unexciting musical aesthetic of mediocre loops and scratches, paired with uncharismatic M.C.s who, with their “clever” yet predictable punchline lyrics, ended up saying as little as any “thug kna’a mean?” gangsta rapper. Occasionally taking breaks from their set for some rather awkward sketches, lame jokes and clichéd sermons on the real meaning...
...This action and that statement set the tone and clarified the goal of the lecture. West then identified himself as a figure and not an artist, stating, “Hip-hop is a rich moment in a long tradition [of] struggle.” West emphasized hip-hop??s historical and intellectual context, instead of a pop-cultural one. Many tend to inaccurately see hip-hop and its followers as markedly unintellectual. However, as West argued, hip-hop articulates the pressures of living an unstable, uncertain life. West connected the genre to “tragicomic?...