Professor Coldheart ([info]perich) wrote,
2008-12-19 10:20:00
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  • Music: Wu-Tang - "Protect Ya Neck"

not long is how long that this rhyme took me

I lost every winter hat I own in twenty-four hours. The first one I left on the work shuttle; the second I left in a friend's car. So while I hope to get that second one back, I bought a new hat at Filene's Basement on Thursday. This is always A Process for me, as I have a remarkably big head and hate spending money, but I found a lambswool/acryllic cap that comes down over my ears.

I tried it on this morning, in anticipation of the upcoming storm, and it fit perfectly. As I jogged down the stairs to the train, however, I heard something tap-tap-tapping on my head. The Davis Square station disintegrating around me? No - the tag on top of the cap, bouncing off my head as I ran.

Should I cut it off with a pair of scissors, like I meant to this morning? Or should I leave it on and try and make it A Thing, like leaving the hologram sticker on a baseball cap? How would I fare as a trendsetter?

# # #

Maybe it's The Onion, maybe it's the continuing disintegration of American banking, but I've been thinking a lot about the Wu-Tang Clan lately.

Turn the pages to 1993. Dre has just released The Chronic, but we're about a year away from Ready to Die and three away from All Eyez On Me. The rap scene is about to enter a long, derivative cycle of people imitating the success of Biggie and Tupac - spitting about obscene amounts of money, having sex with women and then never calling them, and about shooting cops. We're minutes away from the start of the East/West feud.

Into this scene drop three cousins from Staten Island: the RZA, also called Prince Rakim; the GZA, sometimes called the Genius; and the Ol' Dirty Bastard. They assemble a crew of nine MCs, each of whom has enough talent in his own right to headline his own album. While everyone else is shooting in nightclubs or beach parties, they film their videos in abandoned warehouses and junkyards. They rap about mis-dubbed kung fu movies and Iron Man comics. They rap about nothing but their own lyrical superiority and the pain they'll inflict on competitors.

And their flow is sick.

My style's illegal and death is the penalty
What justifies the homicide, when he dies?
In his own iniquity it's the
Master of the Mantis Rapture coming at you
We have an APB on an MC Killer
Looks like the work of a Master
Evidence indicates that's his stature is
Merciless, like a terrorist hard to capture
The flow changes like a chameleon
Plays like a friend and stabs you like a dagger
This technique attacks the immune system
Disguised like a lie paralyzing the victim
You scream as it enters your bloodstream
Erupts your brain from the pain these thoughts contain
Moving on a nigga with the speed of a centipede
and injure any motherfuckin' contender

Consider: this is the crew that gave us Method Man, an MC respected enough to guest on both Ready to Die and 2Pacalypse Now at the height of the East/West feud. This is the crew that RZA built from nothing with little but Machiavellian maneuvering and a rigorous eye for the bottom line*. This is the crew that made a celebrity out of O.D.B.

This is a group that, by any reasonable standard, should not have succeeded. Their contracts were bizarre, with any member being allowed to record with any other label at any time. Their sound was so far from the mainstream it was practically alien. And the idea that nine incredibly talented MCs could collaborate without feuding or violence for so long is unheard of. But, for a while, it worked.

Stories like this are what give me hope for hip-hop.

(Original post)







* And steamrolling over internal dissent, if U-God is to be believed.

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  • 29 comments

[info]thetathx1138

December 19 2008, 15:43:42 UTC 3 years ago

as I have a remarkably big head and hate spending money,

So you're arrogant and miserly? :-)

I have an unusually thick neck, myself. Buying button-downs and wearing a tie with them is always something of a chore.

[info]perich

December 19 2008, 15:56:36 UTC 3 years ago

Go pound some nerds, meathead.

[info]thetathx1138

December 19 2008, 15:59:45 UTC 3 years ago

Go pound some nerds, meathead.

I'd love to sleep with a bunch of hot nerdy chicks, but my girlfriend would probably object. Also, all the hot nerdy chicks I know are taken. Or are lesbians.

[info]alexparte

December 19 2008, 15:47:48 UTC 3 years ago

as I have a remarkably big head and hate spending money

why did this make me laugh?

[info]perich

December 19 2008, 15:57:08 UTC 3 years ago

Because I have a good sense of the absurd?

Because you've met me and know it's true?

[info]knowthyself

December 19 2008, 15:50:18 UTC 3 years ago

Cut off the tag. Those hologram stickers look dumb left on there; this tag will fare no better.

[info]perich

December 19 2008, 15:57:21 UTC 3 years ago

But ma! I'm totally street!

[info]knowthyself

December 19 2008, 15:58:47 UTC 3 years ago

Sure you are, Rave. Sure you are.

All the street thugs shop at Filene's Basement!

[info]skylark29

December 19 2008, 16:01:36 UTC 3 years ago

If street means absent-minded, then yes.

[info]perich

December 19 2008, 16:05:28 UTC 3 years ago

I'd entertain the argument that it does.

[info]skylark29

3 years ago

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[info]skylark29

December 19 2008, 16:00:27 UTC 3 years ago

I need to listen to more hip hop. I think my friend told me she'd give me some Kanye, and you're suggesting Wu-Tang Clan, what other artists do you think I could listen to?

[info]perich

December 19 2008, 16:05:03 UTC 3 years ago

Hmm. Kanye and Wu-Tang are pretty much exact opposite ends of the spectrum, so it's tough to pin down what else to give you.

I'll do my usual "three questions then a recommendation" trick:

(1) Which hip-hop artists or groups are you already familiar with?

(2) Which is a higher priority - interesting lyrics or interesting beats?

(3) On a scale from 1 to 10, how much do subjects like violence and misogyny bother you in art? Where 1 is, "yeah, I'm gonna fuck the wife of that cop I just shot," 5 is "I'll roll my eyes and deal with it" and 10 is "avoid at all costs."

[info]skylark29

December 19 2008, 16:19:41 UTC 3 years ago

Allow me to bust it out with my white girl creds:

(1)I know the famous singles of artists like Eminem, 50 Cent, Nelly, Jay-Z, that whole P. Diddy, Mace, B.I.G. crowd, LL Cool J, Will Smith, etc. But I never was like, "Holy Shit! I need this album!" for most of them. Well, I do really want an Astronautalis album (but he's not strictly hip-hop) and like I said, my friend is going to hook me up with some Kanye. Oh, and yes, I have that Flo Rida song on my iPod. Good to run to. Oh, and I have M.I.A.'s Kala. I like her.

(2)Can a girl have both? Probably lyrics, but I know that anything Timbaland produces, I like. Yeah, that's the problem: I want intelligent lyrics, but I need the beat or music accompanying them to be worth jamming to.

(3) I'm probably a 4. If the entire content of the song is some hyped up freak reiterating again and again how awesome he is because how many people he kills and how many girls he sleeps with, then I would find it stupid and tiring after a while. I'll dance to the beat, but ignore the words. If the violence being mentioned is being mentioned to make a political/social point or in some kind of simile relating it to another experience, I'm totally cool. I think you get what I'm saying, but I don't know.

[info]alexparte

December 19 2008, 16:24:45 UTC 3 years ago

You did not ask me (and you do not know me), but my top 3 recommendations would be Atmosphere, MC Solaar, and Blackalicious.

[info]skylark29

3 years ago

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[info]perich

December 19 2008, 16:51:49 UTC 3 years ago

I can make you a mix CD with some good selections based on that.

If you'd rather pick your own, as many cooks would, I recommend the following:

Atmosphere, Lucy Ford. Production values are highest and lyrics are strongest on these two albums by the king of backpacker indie-rap. He has issues with women, but they're emo white boy issues (alternating between "I hurt every woman who gets close to me" and "what's with these groupies, yo?") rather than the more common kind in hip hop.
Now, when you come to apply for a job
Don't tell 'em you're homeless
'Cause I promise they won't hire you
And if they like your songs
Just nod your head and play along
Never tell 'em what inspires you
I bet my fans know me better than my friends do
Because my friends don't pay that much attention
The fans memorize every single sentence
Which makes them far too smart to ever start a friendship
I need to start writing pieces about other people's problems
'Cause strangers are starting to get worried
I'm in a hurry to try to slow the system down a bit
And find happiness before I hit thirty


Blackalicious, Blazing Arrow. This one opened my eyes to underground hip hop. It's as smart as it is catchy. Perhaps at the pinnacle of the "conscious style" on the West Coast - rap that speaks from intellectual and cultural concerns, rather than alpha-maleing and posture.

RISE! Like the sun up at the crack of the dawn
Like a waking child in the morning stretching and yawnin'
RISE! Like an infant being held in the light
Like the smoke from an incense when it's ignited
RISE! If you're sleeping won't you open your eyes again
The greatest high be that natural high within
No need to force the progression just ride the wind
You'll know the answer to the where and why and when
If you keep working for your search you will find the end
Though at the end you find it only begins again
See at the end you'll see it only begins again
And everything you learn you're only rememberin'


Two more to come ...

[info]perich

December 19 2008, 16:52:08 UTC 3 years ago

part 2 of 2

Deltron 3030. A side project between Del Tha Funkee Homosapien and Dan "The Automator" Nakamura, this college rap staple tells the tale of Deltron Zero's fight against solar governments and corporate battle mechs in the 31st century. Fun, funky, infectious and clever.
I rise like helium, you're falling rapidly
Trapped in apathy, while I track your speed
I'm what you call a legend, dominance with armageddon
Gives me a warm reception
Verbal war with weapons, installation
Blown to star dust, distance twelve parsecs
Infuse your phalanx with my literary talents
Just a bit of balance, rip the silence
in space, all star systems are our victims
Atomics, synonymous with ominous
implications of information, or information as entertainment
Cyber-tech dialect, you gotta earn my respect
I'm like Gamera to amateurs, hit em with a cannonball
And in all this confusion
The fusion of music and mind precipitates translucent illusions


Nas, Illmatic. This is the only one I hesitate on, as Nas falls firmly within the genre of gangsta rap. But where artists like Tupac or Biggie glorify the gangster lifestyle, Nas brings a more tragic and realistic look to it. Illmatic in particular, the most impressive debut album of any rapper in the eyes of most critics, devotes most if its tape to nostalgic views of crumbling neighborhoods and searching for meaning in a short and violent life.
What's up kid? I know shit is rough doing your bid
When the cops came you should've slid to my crib
Fuck it black, no time for looking back it's done
Plus congratulations you know you got a son
I heard he looks like you, why don't your lady write you?
Told her she should visit, that's when she got hyper
Flippin, talk about he acts too rough
He didn't listen he be riffin' while I'm telling him stuff
I was like yeah, shorty don't care, she a snake too
Fucking with the niggas from that fake crew that hate you
But yo, guess who got shot in the dome-piece?
Jerome's niece, on her way home from Jones Beach - it's bugged
Plus little Rob is selling drugs on the dime
Hangin out with young thugs that all carry 9's
At night time there's more strife than ever
What's up with Cormega, did you see 'em, are y'all together?
If so then hold the fort down, represent to the fullest
Say what's up to Herb, Ice and Bullet
I left a half a hundred in your commissary
You was my nigga when push came to shove
One what? one love

[info]phanatic

3 years ago

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[info]perich

3 years ago

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[info]mwitty

December 19 2008, 16:07:09 UTC 3 years ago

the RZA, also called Prince Rakim; the GZA, sometimes called the Genius; and the Ol' Dirty Bastard.

Ol' Dirty Bastard was known by one or two aliases himself, if I'm not mistaken.

[info]perich

December 19 2008, 16:14:53 UTC 3 years ago

I didn't feel that sentence needed its own paragraph, else I would have started that list.

[info]bwilder

December 19 2008, 16:28:21 UTC 3 years ago

There simply is not another hip hop entity in which an MC favorably compares himself to a baby seal. There just isn't. That's how good they are.

I don't know if I've made this rec before, but I think you and Aesop Rock's "None Shall Pass" will get along nicely.

[info]perich

December 19 2008, 16:30:48 UTC 3 years ago

You make the same mistake [info]hawver, [info]drishta_ro and I made for years.

It's Navy SEAL, not baby seal.

[info]bwilder

December 19 2008, 16:40:05 UTC 3 years ago

oh man, this breaks my heart. Well, I'll still have the moment during the delivery of a 48 hour film, Eric Mill asked, "Did he just say 'fallopian tube?'"

[info]perich

December 19 2008, 16:53:44 UTC 3 years ago

Classic.

And to take my own street cred down a peg, [info]mwitty had to correct me for saying "cash rules everything around me, green, get the money" a while back.

[info]cluebyfour

December 20 2008, 04:18:06 UTC 3 years ago

I think you should keep the tag, and print your address and phone number on it, so when you lose the hat you'll have a better chance of getting it back. ;-)

[info]perich

December 20 2008, 07:35:41 UTC 3 years ago

Not a bad idea, that.

[info]raysimoto

December 22 2008, 05:10:43 UTC 3 years ago

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