"There's Chris Brown and Rihanna. You gotta keep them separate."

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The new DJ Quik & Kurupt video for 'Hey Playa! (Moroccan Blues)' features CAMELS.

One of the very best summer jams of the year, too.

Comments

[meserach.livejournal.com]

Creative sample (what eevr that Moroccan singing in the back is), funny video, clever rhymes and a hooky chorus. Intelligence on display here is really refreshing. It's a shame it's all a little too dissonant to achieve mainstream success.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

AFAIK this album has no UK release planned either, which makes two of my top three of the year so far.

I remember when every second R&B and hip-hop smash sounded "dissonant" or "weird". Now, chart hits just sound trebly.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Also, I love how it pulls together a bunch of things which really shouldn't go together. Moroccan blues sample...with southern-fried New Orleans party horns...with lyrics about, like, "I'm the voice of great antiquity, I'll stop you at the gate/And present you with nightmares of all the things you hate." Like, WTF. And it works so well! That's serious CREATIVITY there y'all.

[meserach.livejournal.com]

I think there's a very interesting conversation to be had about how hip hop and rap was "sold" to the mainstream by compensating for its harshness, largely using soothing RnB/soul female vox (sampled or otherwise). Something similar occured in dance music too.

[meserach.livejournal.com]

Yes, definitely.

[meserach.livejournal.com]

The interesting thing about that is that it isn't entirely true - I feel like rap was doing well on its own even before a trend to mixing in smoother RnB flavours came to dominate.

But now I think audiences have come to expect it. Indeed rap itself often becoems the decoration inside RnB songs instead of the other way around.

But I'd love to hear the thoughts of someone who listens to way more rap music than I do :).

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

The rapping has a bit of a 'golden age' (ie late 80s) vibe to it, although the Moroccan stuff is more reminiscent of late 90s/early 00s hip hop. It's a weird hybrid in other words and none the worse for its retro leanings. I love it; I put it on my last mix CD. Will seek out the album - Lex's Graun review really makes me want to hear the rest of it.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Hmm, not sure about that: think about the 90s hip-hop stars who went supernova with the mainstream success - Biggie, Pac, Snoop and especially Eminem and Jay-Z. A good proportion of their standards don't have any R&B guest vocals - think 'Can I Get A...' or 'Big Pimpin'. I think a combination of brilliant, innovative, danceable beats and really compelling, charismatic MCs was more responsible for hip-hop going mainstream. Plus good business and marketing! If anything, R&B going hip-hop - using hip-hop beats and guest rappers - lent it a lot more credibility.

[meserach.livejournal.com]

It's not as good as 9xs Outta 10, which manages to be both brilliantly backward-looking and breathtakingly forward-looking.

[meserach.livejournal.com]

Yeah see as I posted just above I think I'm sorta wrong. I think rpa made it big in the nineties on its own, but then R&B made it even BIGGEr, and now rap seems to struggle in the mainstream without RnB's help? Just thinking aloud really but that's how it feels to me.

When was the last time there was a massive rap hit in the UK that really was just rap over a backing track? I'm guessing it was probably Eminem, although he's plenty with the gimmicky hooks and things.

[meserach.livejournal.com]

Like, I am thinkign the transition period was in the earlier part of this decade. I would hesitate to point to an exact moment of transition though.

[meserach.livejournal.com]

Key points would include Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life" (gimmick hook) in 1998 running up to, say, Nelly feat. Kerry Rowland with "Dilemma" (really strong RnB inflection, female vox as big part of track, monster hit in 2002)

I feel like the RnB/soul-inflected mainstream rap/hip-hop has largely replaced the "purer" mainstream hip-hop/rap that was more prevalent in the nineties. I suspect it might even have something to do with the increasingly female market for singles.