Word: rapped
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...call it alternative hip-hop. Don't call it neo-rap or jazz-rap or anything that would separate it from itself. What it is, straight up, is hip-hop. Call it underground hip-hop, if you have to; call it the Next Wave, if you need a name; but whatever you call it, it's already arrived...
...Roots, Q-Tip and Mos Def--are at the front of hip-hop's new movement. All three have recently come out with accomplished albums. And all three are creating hip-hop that's more personal, political and spiritual than the bulk of what passes for Top-40 rap today. These are young acts but experienced: Q-Tip, 29, is a former member of A Tribe Called Quest and is releasing his first solo effort. Mos Def, 25, has performed with Talib Kweli as the duo Black Star. And the Roots has five albums under its belt; its members have...
These Next Wavers fill a void; while rappers and rap-influenced rock groups have been taking hold of the top of the charts as of late, there's a numbing sameness to a lot of the hip-hop that's being pushed on radio and MTV. The music, rather than "keeping it real," seems more interested in catering to suburban stereotypes of urban life: Look kids, isn't DMX scary?!? Certainly there are great hip-hoppers out there--Lauryn Hill and Nas to name two--but as record labels jump on the rap bandwagon, the disposable acts are piling...
...said, when most people listen to rap, it's the music that makes the initial impact, not the meaning. Unless you've got more bite than DMX, unless you've got more bounce than Juvenile, people don't want to hear it. Nobody wants to listen to rap just 'cause its supposed to be good for you--this ain't broccoli. The Philadelphia-based group the Roots is worth listening to not just because of the message--the members are fierce champions of artistic expression--but precisely because of the music. This is not just the best band...
...enough to say that you like hip-hop or rock or rap. It's probably even enough to say that you like classical. But to say you like the blues? The blues, it always seemed to me, was not something to be liked; it had to be understood. Singing the blues, even listening to the blues, was supposed to be a commitment to a type of emotion and a type of experience. And what on earth, I used to wonder, could a middle class white boy from the New Jersey suburbs possibly know about the blues...