Word: songe
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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What makes Amplified noteworthy is the fact that it is ultimately reflective about its playfulness. The CD's unlisted final track, Do It, See It, Be It, contains a heartfelt message. "The song says you can be who you want to be," says Q-Tip. "Just see your goal." Q-Tip raps about growing up in Queens, the breakup of A Tribe Called Quest and his embrace of Islam. He admits his partyin' ways don't always conform to Islamic values, but he's constantly striving to better himself, and at least in his mind, it's the effort that...
...Both Sides (Rawkus), Mos Def's cultural concerns reveal themselves in every number. The opener, Fear Not of Man, delivers a manifesto: "We are hip-hop. Me, you, everybody... So the next time you ask where hip-hop is going, ask yourself: Where am I going?" On the song Mr. Nigga, Mos Def raps along with Q-Tip about the myriad indignities faced by young blacks at the hands of policemen, waiters and others, even when the young black men in question are rich and successful. "Even if it's never said and lips stay sealed," he raps about...
...Next Wave is also getting screen time. Q-Tip is set to star in a film for New Line, which he co-wrote, titled Prison Song. He describes it as a "hip-hop opera" that explores the pressures of the penal system. Mos Def and the Roots' Thompson have roles in Spike Lee's Bamboozled, a film that satirizes television. The Roots' Black Thought has a starring role in Brooklyn Babylon, the forthcoming film by Marc Levin, director of the edgy Slam...
What's compelling about these acts is that they are not overtly focused on chart topping. "Follow your heart/And not mankind," Q-Tip raps on Do It, See It, Be It. Eclecticism is seen as a virtue. The Roots is working on a cover of Bob Dylan's 1976 song Hurricane, a protest anthem about Rubin ("Hurricane") Carter, a black boxer sentenced to die for a crime he didn't commit. The song is scheduled to appear on the sound track to the Denzel Washington film The Hurricane. Mos Def is also contributing material to the album...
...putting them in the open, letting other people see them so they can say "Yes, I know that feeling." More than that, so they can shout it out, tap their fingers, stamp their feet. Perhaps more than any other genre, the blues depends on its audience. Blues songs are a dialogue between performer and listener, a way of creating a shared community of sufferers. It's no coincidence that B.B. King's song "Why I Sing the Blues" starts "I've been around a long time, people. I've paid my dues." The blues have to be told to someone...