Word: rappings
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...confrontational volumes. The scene challenges the old cliche that music is the universal language. Often, in fact, it is an expression of what divides us--Shania Twain and Tupac Shakur don't share much of a crossover audience. It's therefore a delight to encounter two engaging, offbeat new rap groups, the Japanese-American duo Cibo Matto and the Haitian-American trio the Fugees. Neither makes overtly integrationist music--no hip-hop covers of We Shall Overcome--but both of them cross cultural and musical boundaries to create a sound that is bold and fresh...
...good deal of their music has gangsta-rap aggressiveness (in The Beast, for example, they decry police brutality), but the Fugees deliver a very different message from gangsta rappers, steering clear of boastful misogyny and empty-headed machismo. They criticize performers who fail to make clear that their violent songs are fantasies, not instructions. "You got a lot of kids who look up to these artists, who think what they're saying is true," says Michel, who was a philosophy major at Rutgers University before he took a break to pursue a musical career. "I'm not saying...
...everyone will relate to updating Sammy Davis Jr.'s schmaltzy Candy Man, but Cibo Matto puckishly turns it into an eerie, atmospheric dirge. Like the Fugees, Cibo Matto provides a twist on rap, a genre in which groups seem to have the shelf life of yogurt. No need to try to identify the taste--from Tokyo or Trenton or Port-au-Prince. As Hatori sings on Cibo Matto's Birthday Cake: "Shut...
...opened White Squall, Getty's the romantic lead in Lost Highway, the David Lynch movie being filmed in Death Valley. "It's a twisted love story between me and Patricia Arquette," says Getty. "It's got sex, love, murder--all the good stuff." When not making movies, Getty produces rap records and plays golf. In fact, life would be perfect if everyone could just drop the Getty thing. "It's a hassle," he says of his family name. "I don't try and hide it, but I'm doing my own thing...
...this writing, Jesus isn't around--not in the flesh, anyway--so it has been left to others to do the hard work of updating his message and making it '90s friendly. For a growing number of Christian musicians, this means using rock and rap as vehicles to carry religious messages to young audiences. Of course, this isn't a new strategy, since musicians have been combining popular music and religious themes for decades. Gospel, with its roots in the blues, was once considered too earthy to perform in church; the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar came out way back...