Word: spoken-word
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...years - say, 1954 to '56 - he was everywhere. Besides hosting "The Tonight Show" Allen starred in the bio-pic "The Benny Goodman Story;" he wrote the songs (including "This Could Be the Start of Something Big" and "Impossible") for a TV book-musical "The Bachelor;" he recorded some spoken-word fairy tales with hipster lingo that became hits and a book (the still-funny "Bop Fables"); he published a collection of short stories ("Fourteen for Tonight") and a study of TV comics ("The Funny Men"); he wrote the lyrics for movie themes ("Picnic," "Bell, Book and Candle"); and he started...
That's not to say that the artists of Jungle Sky have the magic formula fully figured out. They occasionally run into difficulty integrating rap and spoken-word into their tracks-MCs such as TC Izlam and Steele, however talented, simply fail to impress with the same regularity as many of their British counterparts. And, as with any cutting-edge Manhattan release, a certain degree of pretension is to be expected. Tracks like Drum FM's "Bach & Bass," an uninspired rehash of strings over appropriately hyperactive beats, come off as warmed-over stabs at originality. A mixed bag? Certainly...
...between. Nasir Jones (aka Nas, aka Nasty Nas, aka Nas Escobar, aka Nastradamus) was one such rapper. Nastradamus, his newest album, cements his reputation as urban troubadour or, as "Come Get Me" announces, "America's foremost young poet." From "The Prediction" to "The Outcome"--prophetic and apocalyptic spoken-word joints from poet Jessica Care Moore--Nas' album is a gritty mural of ghetto life at the turn of the millennium...
...must send dance floors mad. Flavored with touches of salsa and samba, the songs flow seamlessly into each other, from the infectious hooks of the opening "Hasta Luego Mi Hermano" to the delicate vocals of Moonbeam floating over the Latin beat of "El Regalo De Amor." True, Sunshine's spoken-word in "Holler," the odd choice for a first single, is overly pretentious--he sounds like a gospel preacher gone New Age in proclamations like "we must rise to embrace our destiny." But other than that, Bryant Street never lets up, sounding like a recording of the killer...
...must send dance floors mad. Flavored with touches of salsa and samba, the songs flow seamlessly into each other, from the infectious hooks of the opening "Hasta Luego Mi Hermano" to the delicate vocals of Moonbeam floating over the Latin beat of "El Regalo De Amor." True, Sunshine's spoken-word in "Holler," the odd choice for a first single, is overly pretentious--he sounds like a gospel preacher gone New Age in proclamations like "we must rise to embrace our destiny." But other than that, Bryant Street never lets up, sounding like a recording of the killer...