Dance music as a genre always has the danger of being trite. Booka Shade have a knack for making it profound. Whether it’s the mystery of Night Falls or the warmth of Charlotte, Booka Shade make electronic music that is enriching. The power of their music is largely due to their genre-shattering approach, incorporating elements of classical, rock jazz and even film score into their lethal drum and synthesiser combo. When it comes to live shows, Booka Shade more than prove their chops as musicians. Their live sets are famous for the frenetic energy of Arno and Walter – sweatily pounding away on drums and keys. Booka Shade has again blessed Australia with their live music, headlining Harbourlife and Strawberry Fields Festival. We had a chat to Arno from Booka Shade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWJbT9djaYA
You’re both family men. How do you make the transition from a sweaty 6am sunrise set to playing with your kids?
That’s always a challenge there of course. We try to have good time management, when we are in the studio we work with focus basically, that’s the whole point. But when we’re with the family, we’re also with the family. And the travelling – we’re not that crazy like we used to be, the whole touring schedule –we try to keep in a way that we have weekends off. We play much less weekends then we used to because for us its very important that we spend time with the family, because you know at the end of the day you could do this touring for ever and ever and ever, you could go every weekend, everywhere all the time. – good time management, not so many shows as their used ot be, and we try to have it like we do in Australia, we fly in, we don’t have extra days, so we do the 4 shows and then we fly back – there used to be a time when I had the great privilege two years ago I could bring the family and then we had some extra weeks in Australia so that was amazing, because we could see the country a little bit, and we flew up to the north to Queensland and then we spent some time there, and Walter does the same some times if its okay to bring the kids, and umm yeah its important for us and its doable –you have to be a bit more healthy, and you know we look after ourselves, to do some sports and stuff like that, and that works.
You’ve had a successful partnership for more than 30 years. What’s the best and worst part of working with the other?
It depends that we are still together and that we can work together. There were times obviously when you don’t’ get along so well its over the years. Nowadays, we’re much more like relaxed. When you look at a career it’s a long thing, (hopefully at least for us). There are times when you’re more focused on the music, and times when you’re more focused on pure travelling and touring and then you take some time off again. But we still have the feeling that together we can do great things and produce great music. Every time we are together and we write something, and then we realise that, yeah, the two of us together really works. Obviously the downside is that yeah, you spend so much time together when you don’t really want to, when you’re tired, you’re sick, sometimes you just want to be home but you’re still on the road… But you know you can’t have it all! There has to be a little suffering for all the good stuff that’s happening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6E6sSblQOs
You were previously pop producers. What was it like becoming your own boss when you started Get Physical?
To be our own bosses… It’s funny, I just talked to somebody the other day about work in general, and how great it is that you are your own boss and that nobody tells you what to do. Sometimes I actually wish there was somebody to tell me what to do! I would just have to do it, and not think so much and not have all these options and you could do this and do that. But at the end of the day both of us are really – we wouldn’t function in a system where we would just have to be in a big company, in a big enterprise. I don’t think we wouldn’t work very well there – so yeah for us its great we’ve always been independent minds and independently working people. So yeah it works, it’s a great privilege and also a lot of risk as well, but it’s the only way that would work for us.
What do you make of the increasing presence of dance music in pop?
We think its great. It opens all these – I was just talking about the dubstep in America that changed the landscape completely. Before that it was all the euro techno stuff in America. Of course you can think about the music what you want – I don’t listen to the music very much – but I realised that it opens doors for us, for people like us. Because the kids listen to this kind of music. And I think that at the moment you can already feel that kids want to explore more what is there – and where does the electronic music comes from? And there’s great opportunity’s for acts like us who have been around for a while – and we do have a certain fan base – but also an opportunity to reach out to young people.
You can cop tickets to see Booka Shade thumping drum machines here:
November 19: Brown Alley, VIC
November 20: Strawberry Fields, VIC
November 21: Harbourlife, NSW
November 22: TBC Club, Brisbane
With Straight Outta Compton earning a whopping $160 million at the box office, it’s fair to say producers have finally been alerted to the commercial potential of the rap biopic. Enter the Chinese: a nation famous for business savvy, extremely low overheads, and merciless disdain for international copyright law. Until the End of Time is the completely unauthorised Tupac biopic from the pen of visionary Chinese director Stephen Sheng. No one does knock-offs better than the Chinese, and it’s now become clear Until the End of Time is the Gucco or even the Calvin Klaim of rap biopics.
In a plot line too confusing to be offensive, two lives separated by time and space are miraculously connected. One is a rebellious Chinese teenager. The other is slain hip hop legend Tupac Shakur. When the surly teenager (artfully played by newcomer Dean Xue) has to do a presentation on a famous activist in history, he is naturally despondent. Coming from the mean streets of Huangdhongpingphang, Xue can’t relate to ancient figures like Ghandi or Mandela. But his heavily moustached Caucasian teacher offers a more urbane activist: Tupac Shakur. In investigating the life of Shakur, Xue has a chance encounter with a stranger: a former friend of the late rapper, and the only black woman to live in China. Thus the two lives are intertwined, with the memory of Pac brought to life through stunning re-enactments. Tupac is played by doppleganger Tsalta Baptiste, in a performance that knocks Anthony Mackie from his frontrunner position. Baptiste captures Pac’s voice, appearance, and absurd hand gestures perfectly. “This is for anyone who started at the bottom,” says Pac in flashback. “Young black kid, young Korean, young Mexican… Whatever.” This seems like a real missed opportunity to say “young Chinese kid,” given our protagonist is most both certainly and inexplicably, Chinese. But Sheng favours a subtler approach.
The poetic words of Tupac recorded in the form and characters he would have wanted.
Until the End of Time still manages to thrill, even despite the fact that its most interesting character is established as long deceased. “I think what your doing is dangerous,” Says a saucy coed to our hero. In one of the films more realistic scenes, Xue is shot at by the Chinese army – presumably for sharing the gospel of Tupac to his brainwashed students and thereby planting the seed for a hip-hop revolution that will topple the Communist government.
That face you make when you publicly announce that you’ve chosen ‘Tupac’ for your history project and the whole class laughs at you.
The film still makes for more compelling viewing than Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B – which failed to secure the license to play even a single one of Aaliyah’s original songs. Until the End of Time saves the raw power of Tupac’s music for the final moments of the trailer. Sheng selects that most iconic of Pac’s tracks as the clip crescendos – Until the End of Time, track 13 on Pac’s fourth posthumous studio album, released 5 years after his death.
Sadly, the movie does not seem to contain any karate. Again, this seems like a missed opportunity. Audiences have already been thoroughly warmed to the idea of the hip-hop/Kung Fu cross over – both with years of Wu Tang cover art, and DMX literally karate chopping Triads in Cradle 2 The Grave.
Until the End of Time is due Summer 2016 and still promises to be the most sophisticated hip hop biopic yet made.
Watch the remarkable trailer here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=S_eoZMbhi4A
When a substitute teacher walks into a classroom, students look forward to a 60-minute bludge filled with dated instructional science videos and surreptitious laptop Tetris. The grade six class of Fiske Elementary School, Chicago must have been surprised when their sub hit them with a one-day intensive into the musical history of Chief Keef.
Now, Chief Keef is not typically an object of academic examination in the mainstream quadrivium. This may be due to the controversial nature of his personal life: at age 20 Chief Keef already has a comprehensive criminal record and four young children. His youngest son was named ‘Sno FilmOn Dot Com’ – in an effort to promote his new label FilmOn Music. Or it could just as easily be due to his limited talents as an artist. Either way – that wasn’t enough to stop one plucky substitute teacher from channelling her inner Dewey Finn and dedicating an entire lesson to the Almighty Sosa.
Maybe she felt it was her duty to educate the next generation of world leaders about the beautiful union of 808 kick drums and off beat raps. Maybe she needed to read them that ancient tale of the Gucci duffel bag, brand new Jordans, and bubbling Pyrex. There comes a time in everyone’s life when they have to learn about Drill.
Well, the kids will have to learn about Drill sooner or later
But whilst her taste in music was modern, her teaching methods were dated; assessing her student’s knowledge with the archaic method of standardised testing. Question 3: who shot Chief Keef when he was 16? Question 11: why was he placed under house arrest? “At what age did he stop attending school?” asks Question 8, casually inviting the class to examine the causal link between money, power, fame – and the necessity of a formal education. (Answer = there’s none). And just to be a real hard ass she graded them. Look! This dude got an ‘A.’ A little trap lord in the making.
Parent Shawnta Powell was upset to learn that an entire lesson had been devoted to the controversial rapper. “If you were a sub, you were supposed to take on whatever assignment the regular teacher was given, not what you wanted to give them” she says. Another concerned mother, Katrina Sanders, had hoped music class would teach her son about the great composers: Mozart and Beethoven. Ahhhhh, but Katrina, is it not time to embrace a less whitewashed curriculum that examines the music of different cultures?
Sure. But start with Jay-Z. Chief Keef is somewhere way further down the line. And a thorough examination of his criminal history probably wasn’t necessary. Even a 6th grade music class has the good sense to leave out the part about Beethoven’s post-hepatitic and cirrhotic liver.
But in perhaps the greatest dereliction of her duty as an educator, the questions she asked weren’t even hard! Everyone knows Chief Keef’s real name is Keith Cozart. The mind of a 12 year old is a precious, giddy and ever-expanding thing! It has to be challenged! Not with asinine questions about stage names. But with stimulating discussion on the birth of Chicago Drill from Atlanta Trap.
Despite the attempt of this modern day John Keating to bring the gift of music to the youth – she was formally dismissed. That’s that shit I don’t like.
Few up-and-coming rappers can deliver a live show quite like Chance The Rapper. Chance boasts an incredible set of pipes, a near amphibious lung capacity, and a fully live jazz band, fellow Chi-town natives, The Social Experiment.
At the Summer Ends Music Festival, Chance performed a live cover of Kanye West’s Family Business to honour the birth of his daughter. Chance more than does justice to the Kanye classic, adding his own brand of awkward charm. Now he’s given us a studio recording, complete with visuals that splice colourfully edited home movies with footage from the electric live show. You can’t help but “awwww” when an image of a young Chancellor Bennett shimmying in junior theatre is juxtaposed with the fully-grown performer serenading a stadium.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=107&v=ZCI2cK7AeEg
Taking his show to Austin City Limits, one fan captured footage of a brand new track. The new song has an appreciation for trap, and the current state of ambient house music. But it’s still pure Chance, with saxophone jazz and his hallmark warbling. Given that Chance used the performance to hint at a possible third glorious mixtape, I am going to speculate wildly and say that the mystery track will appear on Chance’s latest offering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=36&v=ykx3pAb-ExU
This has been a busy year for Chance, having already dropped two projects this year: Surf a collaboration with his band, the Social Experiment, and the bizarre Lil B side project Free (Based Styles Mixtape). Given Chances’ commitment to his unsigned status and producing totally independent mixtapes, it’s looking more and more doubtful that we’ll see an official studio album in the near future.
Because they were not adequately provided for, the estate of Jimi Hendrix is suing the owner of a music store for a guitar that was once owned by the late artist. The guitar is currently held by Harvey Moltz, the owner of Rainbow Guitars. As The Guardian reports, the estate allege that Moltz is not the rightful owner of the Acoustic Black Widow, and are seeking a court order that the it be returned.
“The guitar is priceless to our family” said Janie Hendrix, Jimi’s adopted sister. It’s also literally priceless, valued between $750K and $1 million. As CEO of Experience Hendrix, the company that runs Jimi’s estate, Janie is pretty keen to get the sentimental object back into the estates control. “It is one of the few guitars that came home after Jimi passed away” she said “we just our guitar returned safely and back where it belongs.” And where it can continue to accrue value.
Harvey bought the guitar from a middleman, who bought the guitar from Sheldon Reynolds, the ex-husband of Janie. Renyolds is said to have stolen the guitar. Reynolds was likely painfully aware of the value of the Black Widow, given that he strummed similarly valuable axes as lead guitarist for Earth, Wind & Fire.
It seems that the Hendrix estate have a pick-sized chance of success. “My client purchased the guitar in good faith from a private seller, without knowledge of competing claims of ownership” said Moltz’s lawyer. So unless the dude from Earth, Wind and Fire showed up wearing a ski mask and pawned the axe for cold hard cash – they don’t have much of a case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9irsg1vBmq0
Hayden James is the Sydney wunderkind behind certified rompers like Permission to Love and Something About You. Aside from crafting infectious, deep and soulful beats, he’s also blessed with some incredible pipes and serious chops on the decks, remixing the likes of Odesza and Dillon Francis. He’s in good company; having been signed to Australian EDM powerhouse Future Classic along with Flume, Chet Faker and plenty more.
This year he’s come off a massive US tour including a blistering set at Coachella, and recently graced his homeland with performances at Listen Out. We had the pleasure of talking to Hayden about in-house competition, nerves and Zac Efron.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mVJJvx04_w
First up – congratulations on the ARIA nomination.
Thanks mate, I’m really excited about it. It’s pretty ridiculous really.
I see that you’ll be going head to head with your label mate Flight Facilities – is it very tense in the Future Classic offices at the moment? Are you guys on speaking terms? Are you giving them dirty looks? Spitting in their coffee?
Fight yesterday. Huge fight. No, no, no, it’s mad being involved with these guys. We’re actually; all of us were at Listen Out, all of us on that list we’re just hanging out together on the weekend. We’re actual mates.
Speaking of Future Classic – you, Chet Faker, Flume, Touch Sensitive – what is it like being part of the Avengers of Australian EDM rosters?
This is my favourite interview already. It’s obviously really cool to be a part of Future Classic because everyone pays attention to you, what you’re doing. And the calibre of the artists on that label is just ridiculous.
Do you guys hang out heaps? Is it the Big Brother house that I’m imagining?
Not as much. Everyone travels. I mean Harley (Flume) now lives in LA. Chet and I don’t actually know each other very well. I know he lives in Melbourne. But he travels a lot. But a few guys, Touch and I hangout. Wave Racer lives down the road from me. So yeah, a few of us hang out when we can. But we usually see each other at the Christmas Party.
What is the Future Classic Christmas party like? Who mans the decks?
Whoever! We use their offices. Mason, Chad and Ed from the label, get some beers and play ping-pong.
Lets talk Something About You. Heaps of people are saying that the most incredible part of Something About You is the vocals. I had a friend who though that it was a new SBTRKT song, and that the vocals were provided by Sampha.
The vocal track is me and a girl called George Maple, who is also on Future Classic. We wrote that together a while ago. And then I started to piece together the whole track and the way it sounded, and the production – I actually hit up Sampha a while ago, he was working on his album, about a year ago, I would really like to work with that guy, I love his work with SBTRKT, that ‘d be cool. It’s amazing what the track has done for me this year, really excited to bring out new stuff to be honest.
And how do you feel about getting props purely as a singer?
It’s good. Well it all started from Permission To Love and singing Embrace. I would need vocals for a demo, and I don’t know anyone that can sing, or will sing like I want them too.
Because previously you hadn’t done work as signer yourself
No, exactly. And I don’t really sing on other people’s tracks. There’ll be lots more to come with the new music.
The tune is a bonafide babymaker. How do you feel about the idea of a generation of children conceived to Something About You?
Totally, totally cool with that. It’s awesome.
Would you prefer that babies were named ‘Hayden’ or ‘James’ in your honour?
I’d like a 50/50 split.
The song is even featured in the new Zac Efron film “We Are Your Friends” – if you could give Zac Efron one DJing pointer, one tip, DJ to DJ what would it be?
Stop DJing. I haven’t seen the film either. I’m waiting for it to like be on a plane or something that I’m on.
Not gonna buy the DVD?
I don’t think so, no.
Apparently there’s one scene where he talks through the art form of DJing and he explains that the beat of EDM has to be in sync with the human heart beat. Can you either confirm or deny that claim?
I deny it. Because Something About You is 116 BPM. If that were true – I’m in a lot of shit.
Do you still get song requests by fans and how do you deal with them?
I was playing an impromptu set with Alison Wonderland in Brisbane on the weekend after Listen Out. And someone gestured to their iPhone with Something About You on it. And I’m like yeah, yeah okay. I had been on the decks for 5 minutes.
You came up very quickly. How did you prepare for being a big stage performer?
It’s really important to me to play all my own music when I perform live. So anything you heard at Listen Out, was either stuff you’ve heard, or new material, or remixes. I didn’t want to just DJ, I wanted a performance. What I have on stage if a MS20 Mini Korg, I play like bass notes and effects and things on that. I have an SPD-SX Roland drum pad that I love playing with live. It’s important for people to see something. I think people enjoy that too.
And how about your visuals and the future of the live show?
That will be a big part of the live show when I bring out an album next year. I kind of envisioned it like Daft Punk Interstellar the movie where all the tracks coincide with an actual event. I’m working with a good friend at the moment, a lot of 3D work, a lot of simple stuff as well. While I like the visuals, to me it’s more about the music, it’s just a nice visual representation of what I’m trying to do.
You’ve mentioned the new album. What can we expect from it?
Well I’ve got a new single that will come out this year. It’s poppy, but its dark. It’s accessible, darker electronic music. I love writing like pop hooks. It’s very poppy and catchy. But it’s very moody as well. There’s a lot of artists that kind of describe the sound. But at the same time I think I make my own sound.
Absolutely. You’ve just come off an American tour where you played Coachella. Your sound is almost going to be more popular to American audiences. Did you find they were more receptive to your style?
They call my music over there ‘Deep House’. What? In my head I’m just writing songs. But Coachella was an incredible place to play. I played on a pretty cool stage to a huge crowd and I didn’t expect it, and a lot of people came out to watch me. So it was really great.
When is the most nervous you’ve ever been in your whole life?
That is easy. It happened not to long ago. From Norway, in Bergen to Reading festival in London. I had to go through customs. I arrived at about 1pm, had to be at the festival by 3pm. Reading is about an hour and a half away from the airport. I jumped into an Uber. Got there about 5 minutes before I was supposed to play. It takes me about 15 minutes to set my gear up. I nearly spewed I was that anxious. I literally got wheeled on, as I was still plugging stuff in. That was the most intense crowd I’ve ever played too as well.
Hayden James will be performing at Sea N Beats, Australia’s FIRST EVER cruise ship festival! Headlined by Alison Wonderland, Peking Duk, Kilter, Slumberjack, Tkay Maidza and more, the festival runs from March 5 – 8, 2016. Tickets and more info at their official website.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfttyNSCI-g
Lately, the new single from Sydney MC B Wise absolutely nails the aesthetic of modern Australian hip-hop. It’s crisp, mature and brave enough to embrace progressive production styles.
Australian hip-hop is typically wary of modern beats, preferring a classic or throwback sound over any fashionable and passing American trend. Here up-and-coming producer Dopamine delivers a sophisticated trap beat that has the breezy house hallmarks of the genres Australian progenitor (Flume). It’s extremely polished and the dreamy undertones offset the typically jarring nature of the trap drums. B Wise clearly knows how to pick his producers, having collaborated with Ralph Lauren of Jackie Onassis fame on the infectious Prince Akeem, another smooth summer jam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea2vXsWdqnM
B Wise’s rhymes are simple and effortless, “forward thinking, forward motion / I must be honest drinking water with that potion.” He shifts the focus away from the words themselves to the track’s overall effect. It’s a relaxing experience. The song is inspired by a quote from the film Almost Famous, “from here on out, I am only interested in what is real. Real people, real feelings, that’s it, that’s all I’m interested in.” The style is undoubtedly authentic.
No matter how good Australian hip-hop is, it always runs the risk of being laughable. That’s why a good Australian rapper will always incorporate an element of humour and never take themselves too seriously. B Wise’s whole aesthetic, his voice, appearance and flow, ensure that he’ll be seen as edgy. B Wise’s persona is a driving force in his success as an artist. His upbeat videos put the rapper front and centre. An accomplished performer, B Wise has supported international acts like G-Eazy, Souls of Mischief and Kid Cudi. Now he’ll be supporting MC Tuka of the Thundamentals before opening for Yelawolf in December.
Do yourself a favour and go catch B Wise at any of the following million venues before he kicks of touring with Yelawolf:
SATURDAY OCTOBER 3rd – LISTEN OUT FESTIVAL SYDNEY
FRIDAY OCTOBER 23rd – THE GOV, ADELAIDE (with TUKA)
THURSDAY OCTOBER 29th – THE CAMBRIDGE HOTEL, NEWCASTLE (with TUKA) – TICKETS
FRIDAY OCTOBER 30th – OAF, SYDNEY (with TUKA)
SATURDAY OCTOBER 31ST – TRANSIT BAR, CANBERRA (with TUKA)
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 6TH – CORNER HOTEL, MELBOURNE (with TUKA)
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7TH – WOOLY MAMMOTH, BRISBANE (with TUKA)
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 8TH – NEWTOWN FESTIVAL, SYDNEY
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 13TH – AMPLIFIER CAPITOL, PERTH (with TUKA)
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 14TH – MOJOS BAR, FREEMANTLE (with TUKA)
SATURDAY DECEMBER 5TH – THE MET, BRISBANE (with YELAWOLF)
SUNDAY DECEMBER 6TH – MAX WATTS, MELBOURNE (with YELAWOLF)
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9TH – MAX WATTS, MELBOURNE (with YELAWOLF)
THURSDAY DECEMBER 10TH – METRO THEATRE, SYDNEY (with YELAWOLF)
FRIDAY DECEMBER 11TH – VILLA, PERTH (with YELAWOLF)
Toiné Houston is an MC from Chicago making intelligent hip-hop with a neo-soul and jazz flavour. And while the aesthetic couldn’t be more different, Toiné has drawn comparisons with that ‘greatest of all time’ contender, Jay Z. Both Toiné and Jay Z are rappers obsessed with flow. Like Hova, everything Toiné does is effortless. She oozes over the beat. Bars are delivered relaxed, cool and confident. While her raps are presented almost as spoken word, her impeccable rhythm gives musicality to everything she says. She has that same delectable cadence as Jay Z, where even the most insignificant lines bounce.
Toiné’s EP Love States has arrived at a good time; where the appetite for both neo-soul and sophisticated female lyricists has never been greater. In 2015, Australia has rediscovered the chic of Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill – Hill, alongside Mary J Blige, Jhene Aiko and more will be in town to perform at next month’s Soulfest. On a local level, this is perhaps no more evident than in the rise and rise of Melbourne natives Hiatus Kaiyote. Toiné’s work can accurately be described as neo-soul, jazz or even spoken word, but I would argue that its essence is distinctly hip-hop. At its core, it has a vitality and energy that is often lacking in those other, more passive genres.
The production is cool in the truest sense. Relaxed soul and jazz sounds that evoke the speakeasy where that word was first used as slang. Cool On You is pure strutting jazz, complete with saxophone and female vocals. I Remember uses bubbly fusion jazz, while You Ever? captures the throwback sound and the warmth of the distortion of a spinning record. These are blended seamlessly with some modern elements. Summertime is almost house-y in its composition. You could almost sample any vocal line to form the chorus of a 90’s banger. BMW is more for the hip-hop purist with hardcore 90’s boom bap.
Toiné’s background in poetry and spoken word is apparent in her lyrics. Virtually anyone can connect a series of irrelevant rhyming boasts, but only the greats could construct meaningful stories that didn’t sacrifice quality rhymes. BMW is a masterclass in hip-hop storytelling. Instantly reminiscent of those spine-tingling rap tales like Brenda’s Got A Baby or the more recent Kiesha’s Song – this is both important social commentary and excellent music. It deals with the universal tragedy of the allure of the abusive relationship. An issue that affects so many, and yet this is one of the only times it has been reduced to song. Toiné offers a refreshing perspective on some rap clichés. Cool On You is a feminine imagination of A Tribe Called Quest’s Electric Relaxation. Both are smooth jams that deal with desire. I Remember reverses a typical trend of objectification. Toine lusts after a “long-legged dude, look so long-legged right.” This is all delivered with that same breezy charisma, that makes it suave and sophisticated.
Toiné Houston offers a classy debut that masters everything that is cool in modern music: jazz, neosoul and hip-hop. Have a listen on Soundcloud:
There’s nothing special about The Blueprint. It’s not innovative, it’s not groundbreaking. It explores the same themes as countless rap albums before it. Musically, it’s a half-hearted blend of old and contemporary. But nothing new. Yet what makes The Blueprint so memorable is its complete mastery of these conventions. The perfection of that tried-and-true formula, that same blueprint that had worked for so many rappers that had come before Jay Z. It is the archetypal rap album. The most emblematic of the genre. Bouncy rhythms and soul-samples. Dexterous rhyming and nimble flows. A boastful ode to hustling and rags to riches success. All these hallmarks perfected. If you had to pick just one hip-hop album to beam into space as exemplary of the entire genre – it would be this. And lord knows Jay Z has the technology to make that happen.
Get this. Jay Z’s The Blueprint was released on September 11, 2001. Album sales were strangely unaffected by the cataclysmic terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre, selling over 420,000 copies in its opening week. Further, Jay Z reportedly donated one dollar from the cost of every ticket sold from his tour to relief organizations. You don’t get to half a billion dollars by writing a whole lot of cheques. Hmmm. There are 4 letters in the name ‘Jay Z’. There are 4 letters in the name ‘Bush.’ George Bush’s daughter, Jenna Bush revealed in 2014 that her father “likes Jay Z.” Wait, did I say 420, 000 copies? Illuminati confirmed. 9/11 was an inside job. What more proof do you need that Jigga and Bush jammed out to On to the Next One at some Eyes Wide Shut sex cabal?
In 2015 it seems that we have the most respect for rappers who can ‘go in’ – rappers like Kendrick or Eminem, who can give us a relentless 4-minute barrage of lyrics without breath or pause. But as impressive as this ability is, you run the risk of talking rather than rapping. You forgo the sonic joy that comes with landing perfectly on beat. Consider the schizoid flow of Kendrick Lamar in For Free? – as mesmerising as it is, it loses a great deal of its impact. It doesn’t satisfy that aural urge to hear a rapper ride the beat. Jay-Z is a disciple of the beat. A student of rhythm. “Switch up your flow,” he warns Nas on The Takeover. A fair criticism against Nas and that East Coast school of stream of consciousness flow. Jigga is forever changing his flow; he treats rapping like dancing. He lands a complex move on one beat, and then relaxes. He does a quickstep, and then is motionless. Jay-Z skips along the beat. It gives musicality to his rapping. It feels like a song, rather than being yelled at. It makes even the most simplistic track (and there are many) positively bounce. It’s a delightful change from that East Cost tradition of simply speaking over a backing track (think Ghostface Killah). “I’m an 88, ’96 a reasonable doubt,” he says on Hola Hovito. It’s a completely unremarkable line. What is amazing is the cadence that makes it stick in your memory. It evokes another simple piece of poetry from another all-time great “dare I squeeze three, at your cherry M3?”
In 2001, hip hop production was dominated by the keyboard driven sounds of artists like Timbaland. Sampling as a deliberate art form had largely been abandoned due to the legal implications of copyright infringement. The Blueprint saw the partial return of the art of sampling, particularly soul samples exploited for hooks. It gave the album a crackly throwback atmosphere. To that extent, there is nothing sonically innovative in The Blueprint. Merely the partial return of something that had been done in the not too distant past. But The Blueprint did it better. It was more fresh than nostalgic; East Coast rap for the newly entered 21st century. Clean and crisp. No adornments, but not lacking anything either. Simple, but with teeth. Minimal, but big where it counts.
“Take ‘em to church” says Hova on Heart of the City, before the chorus comes in with a warm guitar riff and a Bobby Bland sample. The effect is soulful and more importantly, pure. The album is a masterclass in hip hop production and just as notable for the rise of two of the games most important producers – Just Blaze and Kanye West. Both artists create a vintage gloss through rich vocal samples of soul acts: Al Green, David Ruffin and the Jackson Five. It moves past the brutal sound that had been characteristic of gangster rap and becomes the sonic representation of confidence. There’s the staggering beat of U Don’t Know complete with robust drums and a high pitched vocal sample you might expect from German trance act Scooter. All the beats are just as self-assured as the lyrics. Music that oozes just as much charisma as “the 8th wonder of the world.”
Rappers have always struggled with how to moralise the crimes they commit. To be Robin Hood’s or even Escobar’s, but never actual villains. Countless albums have shown how drug dealing was the difference between abject poverty and boundless wealth. It makes the choice obvious. But drug dealing is uniquely insidious, in that it slowly destroys the very community closest to the individual who profits. Jay Z’s rhymes never acknowledged that in his effort to escape poverty, he condemned countless just like him to a pitiful existence. That’s why Jay Z has always painted his rise as revolutionary. Jay Z’s rise in spite of white oppression is the message. His image of decadence is not insulting, but subversive. “I do this for my culture,” he says on Izzo, “to let ‘em know what a n*gga look like / when a n*gga in a Roadster.” Jay Z’s enormous wealth benefits the entire black community for the sole reason that it is an affront to white people. A symbol of the black man conquering. And whilst the people of the drug-infested Marcy Projects where Jay Z grew up will never personally benefit from Jay Z’s wealth, they can benefit from him shattering the perceptions of race and power in America.
Because Biggie and Pac both died young, they never had to confront the dilemma of the ageing rapper: how can I still talk about poverty and crime when these things have not affected me in 20 years? In 2001, Jay Z came face to face with this problem. Everybody knew of Hova’s past as a drug dealer, a hustler working tirelessly to escape the ghetto. But the image became increasingly trite (and farcical) as his wealth edged ever closer to the half a billion mark. “I sell ice in the winter, I sell fire in hell, I am a hustler baby,” says Jay Z on U Don’t Know showing the depth of his slick sales pitch. The genius of The Blueprint lies in rationally linking past and present, Jay Z the drug dealer with Jay Z the entrepreneur: both are the story of the hustler. Never Change contrasts the fiscal concerns of both the drug pusher and the businessman. The savvy drug dealer buys crack on consignment to offset lost bricks. The canny businessman doesn’t flitter money on chains, but instead pays “lawyer fees.” Both demonstrate Hova’s unique business acumen and unquenchable hunger for more.
14 years later and Jay Z is still the hustler. He is a record mogul. The owner of his native basketball team. The teach guru behind Tidal. He has the ear of the President and is married to a Goddess. The formula is still working.
Last year, after almost a decade on the air, Stephen Colbert chose to close his iconic The Colbert Report with a performance by Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick shocked the audience with the performance of an entirely new piece of spine-chilling music. The track was simply credited as Untitled and fans waited for an official release that never came. Nine months later and Stephen Colbert has shrugged off the Bill O’Reilly parody to replace David Letterman as the host of the Late Show.
Given the overwhelming response to Kendrick’s performance, it’s little surprise that Colbert has enlisted the Compton native for the second episode of the Late Show. Whilst it’s maybe disappointing that K-Dot didn’t opt for another smouldering original, he still more than delivered with a To Pimp A Butterfly medley. Kendrick manages to capture the feeling of the album even in the live performance. He lends a slam poetry feel to Momma, with some long-empty silences. The standout track is unsurprisingly King Kunta, in which Kendrick channels James Brown with a “huhhh” that emphasizes the jazz undertones. Colbert has already set the musical benchmark for his new format very high, assembling Mavis Staples, Ben Folds, Brittany Howard, Buddy Guy for a rendition of Everyday People in his first episode.