Emcee of the Month: Black Thought

I've said quite a bit about this month's emcee, so with this post I'll try to keep it simple.

I can only think of two or three emcees ever that so thoroughly and consistently attack the art of rapping with the energy, hunger, and ambition of Black Thought. And absolutely none of them are 40. This guy is an utter phenom. There's no other way to put it.

peace.

Mother Load

Whoever thought it was a good idea for me not to know about the Red Bull Music Academy and its archive of artists' lectures had their head on straight, because now that I've discovered it, my productivity is headed in the crapper.

Here's a Questlove lecture from around five years ago.

This lecture/interview seems to have been recorded around the time The Roots were finishing up their first Def Jam project Game Theory. Quest gives us a very in-depth narrative describing the emergence of the Soulquarians, the inspiration of De La Soul on his decision to pursue making hip hop as a career, J Dilla's works and influence on his thoughts about drumming, and a number of other events and moments that have defined or shaped his music. Quest is the first to admit he is the unofficial the mouthpiece of The Legendary Roots Crew, and with this clip it seems he also serves to translate the energies of a large conglomerate of hip hop and soul artists, including folks like Jay-Z, D'angelo, Cody Chesnutt, Jill Scott, Talib Kweli, and James Poyser.

As for the Red Bull lecture archives (here's the link), the line-up is nothing short of stellar. I could sit here and drop names all night (over 270 clips) but I'll leave it to you to explore them further. I'm off to the Madlib video.

This paper is never going to get done...

peace.

Watch The Throne: Re-view Preview

I'll get you primed with this:

from The Huffington Post:

I'm absolutely not a music critic. Absolutely not. I'm a film person who loves music. I've directed four music docs, two about hip hop. Still I have no real appropriate skills for what I'm about to do, which is write about an album. With that said, I'm inspired by this beautiful thing entitled Watch the Throne and I must jot something down. However amateur.

It's past 1 a.m. and I've now listened to Watch the Throne four full times, with very necessary repeats of my new personal anthem "Murder to Excellence." Actually, "listened" might not be the right word. Bumped. Bumped is a word that'll be appreciated by patrons of the new Huffington Post Black Voices, right? We can speak freely here, right?

So if I submit that this thing -- Watch the Throne -- is a Black Nationalist Masterpiece for the New Millenium. Too Much? Because that's how I feel right now. That's what I hear. I hear Black Rich Militance, in the best definition of such a term. I hear the audacity of black gazillionaires saying wonderfully black things like, "I arrived/When Fred Hampton died." Whaa-at?! You did? Okay. Damn.

Catch the rest of the article here.

Without a doubt this is the most anticipated hip hop album of the year, and for good reason. Everyone has been wondering what Jay and 'Ye cooked up in their self-imposed recording exile. Many reports put them in Hawaii and Australia for large chunks of the recording process, cutting themselves off from much of the world. That level of obsessive dedication to secrecy and isolation always leads to intrigue and speculation, especially with artists at this level of visibility.

One thing I can give you for certain: I think they should have waited until the fall to release this record. It simply doesn't work as a summertime album for me.

But I will expand on that in the full review later in the week.

peace.

The Rhymes of Our Lives

This is the first hip hop song I ever memorized.

I was six years old when LL's album Bigger and Deffer (B.A.D.) came out. My parents bought the tape for me. (This was before parental advisory labels!) The only tape deck in our house at the time was the boombox in my brother's room. I remember going in there when he was away and playing this song over and over. I think I was really into watching reruns of Dragnet on Nick at Nite at the time, so I guess the beat reminded me of some kind of hip hop crime drama. There were other tracks on that album that were dope as well, like "Bristol Hotel", "Kandy", and "My Rhyme Ain't Done." However, it was always hard for me to get past "I'm Bad" because I spent so much time trying to learn it.

This track is super-fresh.

peace.