Sonic Youth Gossip - View Single Post - louder's hip-hop café V

Severian · 11.18.2016, 10:56 AM

One thing I really love about this is that it frames ATCQ as the true heroes of conscious (and street) hip-hop, leaving little room for argument about who hip-hop's historical standard bearers truly are.

Think about it:
• NWA has kind of tarnished their own rep with the ludicrous behavior of their individual members, and a film-album marketing campaign that, despite being pretty high-quality, still screamed "marketing campaign!"

• Public Enemy has crapped all over their own legacy, first with Flav's fucking despicable VH1 career (something Tip nods to on the new album, I believe), and then with this nonsense Prophets of Rage bullshit.

• Wu-Tang never occupied an overtly political space, but they did rule the roost for some time, and we all know what happened there (even if we can't identify why these exceedingly stupid and humiliating decisions were actuallly made)

• the Roots, for all their remaining strengths (I still think ...And Then Yoi Shoot Your Cousin was pretty fucking brilliant), have made some very real compromises. I understand why they made them, I guess... being the Fallon band has freed them up to do what they want in the studio, without concern for sales or charts... but I don't understand why Questlove has decided to be the rich white guy's Jiminy Cricket, or why he has associated himself with absurd marketing campaigns and talent contest tv shows. Yuck.

A Tribe Called Quest has made all of these groups seem even more distasteful and ridiculous than they already were — vying for continued relevance with stunts and promotions that are nauseating to varying degrees.

Almost as if in direct response to all this shit, Tribe has (rather quietly) stomped all over the lot of them, not with stunts but with *actual music* that comes off as classy and effortless, asserting themselves as the closest thing hip-hop cultures has to a defining act.

Kanye might be "the Black Beatle" in the sense that he's reinvented the wheel countless times and seen unprecedented critical and commercial success with album after album of epoch making, hiccup-free excellence. But ATCQ are the the real BeatleS (plural.. multiple minds, one elemental force) of hip-hop. And this makes the rest of those groups look rather sad and desperate by comparison.

We Got it From Here... shows that all you need is love and great music... not sparkles or fanfare... to be relevant and definitive.

11.18.2016, 10:56 AM	#3501
Severian invito al cielo Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 11,835	One thing I really love about this is that it frames ATCQ as the true heroes of conscious (and street) hip-hop, leaving little room for argument about who hip-hop's historical standard bearers truly are. Think about it: • NWA has kind of tarnished their own rep with the ludicrous behavior of their individual members, and a film-album marketing campaign that, despite being pretty high-quality, still screamed "marketing campaign!" • Public Enemy has crapped all over their own legacy, first with Flav's fucking despicable VH1 career (something Tip nods to on the new album, I believe), and then with this nonsense Prophets of Rage bullshit. • Wu-Tang never occupied an overtly political space, but they did rule the roost for some time, and we all know what happened there (even if we can't identify why these exceedingly stupid and humiliating decisions were actuallly made) • the Roots, for all their remaining strengths (I still think ...And Then Yoi Shoot Your Cousin was pretty fucking brilliant), have made some very real compromises. I understand why they made them, I guess... being the Fallon band has freed them up to do what they want in the studio, without concern for sales or charts... but I don't understand why Questlove has decided to be the rich white guy's Jiminy Cricket, or why he has associated himself with absurd marketing campaigns and talent contest tv shows. Yuck. A Tribe Called Quest has made all of these groups seem even more distasteful and ridiculous than they already were — vying for continued relevance with stunts and promotions that are nauseating to varying degrees. Almost as if in direct response to all this shit, Tribe has (rather quietly) stomped all over the lot of them, not with stunts but with actual music that comes off as classy and effortless, asserting themselves as the closest thing hip-hop cultures has to a defining act. Kanye might be "the Black Beatle" in the sense that he's reinvented the wheel countless times and seen unprecedented critical and commercial success with album after album of epoch making, hiccup-free excellence. But ATCQ are the the real BeatleS (plural.. multiple minds, one elemental force) of hip-hop. And this makes the rest of those groups look rather sad and desperate by comparison. We Got it From Here... shows that all you need is love and great music... not sparkles or fanfare... to be relevant and definitive.
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