Hip-Hop for Hip-Hop Haters

This week is Country Week on American Idol. So it stands to reason my post is about hip-hop. It’s a cliché genre rivalry (country vs. hip-hop): if you love one, it is assumed you hate the other. I recently talked music with a co-worker, Martina*. Martina is a country gal through-and-through, so we had a grand ol’ time trading favorite singers from the South. Then Martina took the conversation in a completely different direction: a ten-minute tirade about how hip-hop is terrible.

Finally, I had to stop her. "You might be talking to the wrong person, because I like hip-hop." Given my proclivity for country music, she was surprised. The girl then confessed she had never listened to a single rap song! So here, for Martina and others who claim to "hate hip-hop" is a sampling of tracks you might find palatable.

Seriously, with this cloistered show, when am I EVER going to get a chance to sing the praises of rap music?

“Rock ‘n Roll (Could Never Hip-Hop Like This)” by Handsome Boy Modeling School

This is a good stepping-stone for non-rap listeners. The track is a dizzying history lesson, a look at how rock 'n roll and rap are twined together. It’s from So… How’s Your Girl? and creatively samples classical music, putting solid beats over Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” In addition to an introduction by two pioneers, DJ Jazzy Jay and Grand Wizard Theodore (who also contributed the scratching), the track appeases the modern rock ear by featuring Linkin Park. Then there’s a hilarious parody of rap vanity at the end. Phew… and that’s just the album’s first track!

Handsome Boy Modeling School is a collaborative experiment conducted by Dan “the Automator” Nakamura and “Prince Paul” Huston. The two take on alternative personalities and critique the modern state of hip-hop, all while honoring the beats and beat-makers who made the genre what it is. So… How’s Your Girl? features an eclectic group of guests: Three Dog Night, Cibo Matto, Sean Lennon… Some have called the album “grab bag,” but I say it has something for everyone.

“Bucky Done Gun” by M.I.A.

Martina told me “all hip-hop is degrading to women.” This oft’ heard statement spotlights the speaker’s ignorance more than anything else (right up there with saying all classical music is “boring”). How can all hip-hop be degrading when there are so many great female rappers? Case in point: Maya Arulpragasam (a.k.a. M.I.A.) She’s a recent addition, but a good one.

M.I.A. is an artist (a girl after my own heart). She’s the daughter of a Tamil activist/militant and grew up in Sri Lanka, but due to ethnic civil war, she and her family fled to London. As a result, her lyrics often deal with violence, poverty and prejudice, and she is a rousing voice for world issues. “Why don’t we ever get to hear the starving African kids say something?” she asks. “We show them, but they don’t have a voice.”

File sharing and online word-of-mouth about her single “Galang” shot M.I.A. into the hip-hop stratosphere. She has two albums out: Arular (named after her father) and Kala (after her mother). “Bucky Done Gun” is my favorite single from the paternal album, and it perfectly exemplifies M.I.A.’s crackling lyricism and world-beat sound.

"Guajira (I Love U 2 Much)" by Yerba Buena

Yerba Buena is a New York-based multicultural fusion group (emphasis on the fusion): part Latin, Soul, Funk, Afrobeat, Jazz, and Rumba. In 2003 they were the musical guest at Chicago’s Samba in the Park. I enjoyed the performance so much, the next day I went to the record store and cluelessly asked the clerk (who was Hispanic), “Do you have Yerba Buena?”

He gave me a pretty funny look.

Eventually we cleared up the confusion and I bought President Alien. With heavy Afro-Cuban rhythms and a cross-pollination of talent, you’ll be hard pressed not to shake your hips. The music features violins, flutes, saxophones, trumpets, electronics, guitars, and some soaring vocal work. “Guajira” is the most hip-hop influenced track on the album, with raps by Stic.Man (from Dead Prez). Other band members include Andres Levin, Descemer Bueno (who has since left), Skoots Warner, Xiomara Laugart, CuCu Diamantes, El Chino, and Pedro Martinez. Yerba Buena’s second album, Island Life, is equally groove-a-licious.

Check back later for Part II of this series: Country for Country Haters.

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* The names have been changed to protect the musically closed-minded.