Hip Hop With A Cause - America Is Dying Slowly
Hip hop is not generally considered to be the most socially conscious of musical artforms, particularly in the mass media. Guns, drugs, bitches... these would probably be the type of subject matter that the majority of people would associate most closely with the genre. Of course, those of us in the know realise that although these may be undeniable symbols associated with the music, it would be ridiculous to state that hip hop does not engage in serious social issues and in this case, charity. Part of the Red Hot Organisation's series of releases that cover a wide range of genres, all of the proceeds from this release went directly to the struggle against AIDS in the US. Judging by the statistics listed in the liner notes, there is no getting away from the powerful grasp that the disease has taken in America: in 1996, 'AIDS was the leading cause of death for young black men and the number one cause of death for all Americans aged 25-44'. Alarming stuff.
Given that the primary reason for this release was to raise money and awareness of HIV and AIDS, you would not necessarily expect that much from it musically, but this is an enjoyable if somewhat uneven album that features some of underground hip hop's true heroes. Providing a cross-section of the genre at this time, the album joins together artists from east, west and the south and avoids being overly preachy, with Biz and Chubb Rock informing us that without a rubber, you won't get a 'backstage pass' and Domino reminding us to 'sport that raincoat'. The fact that these songs can make you dance, laugh and be reminded of a serious issue all at the same time is testament to the power of hip hop and the the artists involved in this project.
Highlights for me are the Prince Paul produced 'No Rubber, No Backstage Pass', Wu Tang's 'America' which delivers the message of the album with an intelligent and thought-provoking eloquence and 'What I Represent' which sees both OC and Buckwild make a thoroughly enjoyable contribution. Despite a few skips here and there, this is pretty consistent over its sixteen track selection: I was suprised by its overall quality when I got a hold of it recently. Click the link and enjoy.
I had intended to put some decent hours into the blog over the weekend but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Hopefully within the next week I will be dropping the 'FDB Guitar Mix' as well as an Alley Al inspired post on the issues surrounding the infamous crossover from underground artist to mass media darling. These to come and more in the future: stay locked and drop some feedback if you're feeling it.
America Is Dying Slowly
4 comments:
Real dope album. The Yearn and Street Life were bangers also.
hey dude i got another post idea, if you don't mind. i posed the qoestion in one of my recent posts, but noone commented on the site, although i got a couple of email replies..
it's the question of sampling, or biting, or honoring, or whatever.. how is the line drawn? it's just things that pop in my head that i wonder what other hip hop heads think about. it just popped in my head again when i was making a comment on someone's post about the nj group TWIN HYPE- they helped to bring in hip-HOUSE in the late 80s with jungle brothers and doug lazy etc.. i liked a handful of those joints, but "?imitators" followed and were wack.. it was said then in mags and clubs and radio and ciphers (over here) that raps over already popular club anthems was wack- more or less.
do we, as a hip hop entity, have a set of rules/criteria as to how we decide what's passable or not? why dis we let/like (or did we?) when k-os took the "hot" house beat for superstar part ?0? but some frowned when missy elliot did the same beat?
it wasn't/ain't cool to bite or just take, but when ice cube was jacking for beats, it ws all good.
and cuz of a recent btf post, on prince paul's psychoanalysis album- that DIMEPIECES beat and rhyme-style/cadence was a jack.. was that cool? cuz it's prince paul? missy/timbaland and that chick that was in their camp had this song where they jack the beastie boy's paul revere style and utfo's roxanne in the same song/video. what's allowed? why is/was puff and jayz hated on when they do the same shit? cuz they're pop?
so maybe that's related to the crossing over to mainstream idea i had.. maybe that's why kanye is hated on cuz he's pop. i mean, his type of arrogance is possesed by all emcees. it's damn near requirement!! even emo-type emcees got i'm-the-hot-shit-attitudes. maybe we should keep our underground heroes where they are. like, i don't know anymore what the roots politics is these days, but i'm kind of happy where they are. i don't know that i want to hear them on the radio every 1.5 hours. i might get sick of them. i don't know if that's something that they're going for, but i'm perfectly ok with DYING to see them in concert when they come around 1-2-3 times a year.
ennnhh it's sunday and i just felt like going to church on 'em.
Another nice idea alley, and as you say it clearly links to the crossover suggestion that you already put forward. As you can see, I didn't manage to put together the planned post today so I may incorporate the two into one big post later in the week.
With the text you just posted, it will be a true collaborative effort - props.
Dan
Damn, I still have a dub of this compilation on cassette somewhere. The best track was the Common/Sean Lett jawn.
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