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What has this got to do with hip hop? Well, when hip hop drags its lazy-ass out of “Da Club”, it reflects on, and engages in, a dialogue with these selfsame ghetto streets. And hip hop is as much at war with itself as with the outside world.
Hip hop is also, in its most visible and productive form, simultaneously dependent on, and at war with, the music business.
In lieu of the current silence on the American West Coast, apart from the Dysfunktional Family soundtrack (Tha Row), which showcases upcoming Suge Knight related artists like Crooked I and the late Lisa Left Eye Lopez’s N.I.N.A., Beats And Rhymes goes East and all points beyond this month...
Veteran artist and produer Prince Paul asks some awkward questions on Politics Of The Business (Antidote) with a less leftfield approach than on his recent jams. Accompanied by an X-Men-size cast of characters from DJ Premier and Masta Ace to The Beatnuts, MF Doom and Tash, he resolutely deals with the side effects of a life in the industry and it’s both hilarious and thought provoking.
More so than Cam’ron Presents The Diplomats, whose Diplomatic Immunity (Def Jam/Roc-A-Fella) finds members of Cam’ron’s clique identifying themselves with the Taliban. OK, so these Harlemites’ beats are tight and the heavy ghetto verbals often extreme, but why court controversy to get over?
Somewhat shockingly, Del Tha Funky Homosapien is back to burn, spitting complex metaphors on Dope Style 1231’s “Size Double D” (Threshold) as the monstrous rhythmic undercarriage suggests musical propulsion and mental space-travel. You wouldn’t want to fuck with Freddie Foxxx either. His second album in a planned trilogy, Tha Konexion (BBE/Rapster), once again decapitates many a rapper in the music industry, and stays stubbornly grimy and underground—with beats by DJ Premier, The Alchemist and more.
Back in the United Kingdom, hip hop producer P*Nut takes on the haters before even making his mark with “The Don” (Cheeky/BMG), a track on which MC Shells lists his likes and loves and declares he’s never taken crack cocaine. An idea that will be equally alien to teenage girl group Tommi, and the way “Like What” (Sony) enthuses
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on and on about a nice, fresh and clean lifestyle over overtly populist (for seven year olds and under) hip hop.
Which emphatically remains an accusation you can never level at East Connection, an MC trio of Double O, God’s Gift and Major Ace. “We’re Ready”(So Solid Beats) is an East/South London culture clash as well as a poisoned musical laurel tree of threats and boasts.
Over in New Orleans, a shady cat named Magic seems destined to fall foul of the law, should he happen to return to the activities he sometimes revels in on White Eyes (Universal/New No Limit). The production is suitably strange for someone affiliated with Master P and the party tunes carry real weight.
I know I’m only supposed to being writing about rap but there’s also a cool new reggae compilation called C4: Greensleeves Rhythm Album Number 38 (Greensleeves) which collects the hardest of the hard current Kingston dancehall DJs on one keyboard drenched riddim (it’s ok for me to say that because I’m black). Sizzla, Capleton, Anthony B, Elephant Man and more are all present and correct. Ex Company Flow man Big Justoleum and henchman Orko Eloheim are here to rail against the current state of the First World as NMS, which stands for Nephlim Modulation Systems, with Woe To Thee Oh Land Whose King Is A Child (Big Dada). It ain’t as noisy as Lost Treasures (Make Some Noise) by Berliner Patric C and various collaborators, but it’s still really fucked-up.
Dele Fadele
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