My favourite albums these days are, by far, LTJ Bukem & MC Conrad. I was always told that was drum and bass, but I never liked other d&b (or hip-hop) nearly as much and I never figured out why.
Also there’s this local band, which is reknowned for latin/salsa/jazz (which I don’t like much), but I always go see them when they gig with a local hip-hop MC; together they are astonishingly great. (A trumpet, a sax, a 7-string bass, two drummers, and one or two MCs, all freestyling - this could be the best Toronto band, ever!)
So just yesterday I realized that I really love hip-hop MCs but don’t like hip-hop music at all.
Seeing as my understanding of music is limited to “Well, I like this band, and they say that this band plays X kind of music, so that means I must like X kind of music,” this was quite a revelation to me.
So, where else can I hear hip-hop MCs with other, non-hip-hop beats?
Hmm. Just off the top of my head I can recommend a few songs/artists that might qualify:
Blondie - Rapture . The quintessential white girl rap.
Cowboy Troy . I dig some country tunes and this guy really got me with “I Play Chicken With The Train”
Quincy Jones - Stomp . Quincy did an album of remakes several years ago and incorporated rap into alot of old school R&B and Jazz tunes. I think this is the best example.
You can write this off as a 40-year-old white guy talking out of his ass, but I liked hip-hip a lot more when the music behind the words had a little bit of playfulness and (I’ll say it) imagination to it. Whenever I try and listen to a hip-hip show on the radio, the beats all have that same blunted grind and the music makes me think that someone fell asleep with their elbow on the keyboard after having made it to page 3 in the “How to Use Your New Sampler” book. Or maybe you can get that vaguely creepy string part for the 467th time. I can live without it.
Anyway.
Try De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising. The beats are usually hip-hop beats, but the samples are all over the place: Steely Dan, Johnny Cash, the Turtles, French language instruction records. Other records in this style might be the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique, and A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory, which features jazzman Ron Carter on upright bass.
Stetsasonic’s “A.F.R.I.C.A” features African drumming, Olatunji’s Drums of Passion if I remember right. Remember Afrocentrism? The round leather medallions with Africa in red, black, and green? 1985 or so? No? Anyway, a good tune.
MC Paul Barman has played around with the talking blues and other non-cool idioms. He’s also a geeky white guy from New Jersey who likes palindromes and very funny rhymes.
OutKast’s “The Whole World” is the only hip-hop song in a triple meter I’ve ever heard. (Someone can come along and correct me – it sounds like 12/8 or maybe triplet feel 4/4, common enough in R&B but not hip-hop). If someone somewhere has rapped over a waltz I want to know.
Cowboy Troy is an interesting cat – I personally think this stuff needs to be brought closer together (like Ray Charles) than further apart. So, more steel guitar in hip-hop gets my vote. As an aside, the other day The Coasters’ “Along Came Jones” came up on the iPod, and I noticed it had a banjo on it. So there’s a small subcategy of music for you: R&B songs with a banjo. That’s another thread, though. A boring one that no one will respond to.
I’ll second a lot of these: MC Paul Barman, Jurassic 5, Gorillaz, A Tribe Called Quest, lots of stuff from Outkast. I’ll also recommend Ozomatli, which combines Latin rhythms, rock instrumentation, punk energy, and hip-hop vocals (including Chali 2na from Jurassic 5, one of my favorite MCs ever). And I’ll also mention Deltron 3030 (featuring Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, who you can also hear on the self-titled Gorillaz album), and Kool Keith, who has rapped under various names in addition to his own, each with distinct personalities: Black Elvis, Dr. Octagon, Dr. Dooooooom.
Actually trip-hop was the first electronic music I loved, and Portishead was the first band to rival Neil Young for the top spot in my heart. I actually moved to Bristol because of it … well, I was moving to England, and I selected Bristol because of its proximity to Portishead (the place, which I visited, it was lovely) and because of, well, Tricky and Massive Attack. For the record, I was not disappointed. Best music city in the world. (Well, maybe it rivals Bahia in Brazil.) Plus I met my husband there.
Dummy remains on my Desert Island Top 5 list.
I will definitely go shopping for Jurrasic 5. Gorillaz and Tribe I am already familiar with but will give another listen. Ozomatli always disappoints me, I think it is a case of too much of a good thing: I like simplicity, and it’s a very big band with a lot of sounds. But I should definitely give it another go.
Lovage sounds intriguing, I will definitely take tips from someone who calls Portishead the “sexiest music ever”!
I’ve sung the praises of Lovage on the Dope before. It’s a concept album, very tongue-in-cheek, raw, sensual trip-hop specially meant for seduction and sex. Mike Patton (of Mr. Bungle and Faith No More and several other side projects) growls the male vocals, cleverly intertwining them around the playful, sultry, vampy vocals of Jennifer Charles (of Elysian Fields). Dan “The Automator” Nakamura produced it, and special guests include Afrika Bambataa and Damon Albarn (of Blur; aka “2D” from Gorillaz). You’ll need a cold shower after listening to the album (which just happens to be called Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By, and is perfect for just that).
Huh. I just saw this on youtube.com and it seemed… well, actually, he’s got some pretty good flow. I’m impressed. Anyway, for those who don’t want to click the link, Matisyahu is apparently a Hassidic reggae rapper. Check it out.
When I saw the title of this thread, my thoughts immediately went to Us3 . I think most people here, whether they know it or not, have heard their version of “Cantaloup” which is a fantastic song even if you aren’t a fan of rap. I have a folder of MP3s on my hard drive under the jazz category called “Funky” that includes Us3, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. All great stuff.
I will also throw in a vote for Massive Attack. The funny thing is, I’m a huge fan of all kinds of rap, and I’ve never thought of that as being rap music. But their album “Protection,” which Jakeline introduced me to, was something I immediately loved. Sounds great with the subs in the car, too.
And while I’m bringing up things other folks have already mentioned, I’ll also agree with the Gorrilaz suggestions. And I hope this isn’t being too obvious, but some of the Beastie Boys music, while definitely possessing a “heavy” beat, does not follow the typical concept of hip hop music.
