SLICKER THAN MOST
Cultural contemplations on the world of hip hop…
I woke up early this morning… I don’t think y’all heard me. I woke up EARLY this morning.
A few months back, I came home to my flat in Glasgow after a gig, poured myself a drink, stuck some tunes on my small Bluetooth speaker then almost immediately fell asleep on the couch. Classic.
Woke up around 4am, slightly confused but with the most incredible hip hop tune playing - not on the playlist I had fired up earlier. “Wow. WHAT is that?” I thought. Quick screengrab of tune on phone, then retired to my usual and slightly more salubrious sleeping quarters - my bedroom.
The following day, woke up and quick stretch (I’m up and yawning) before putting the tune back on. Music tends to be the first action and ritual of the day, round my way. I had to check if it was anywhere near as good as my disorientated, hazy recollection. It very much was. And it’s been on every day (at least twice) ever since. The tune in question being (image above, video below) Slick Rick feat. Outkast with Street Talkin’ from 1999. An exceptional piece of work of the highest degree. And then some.
As Greg Koronka (more of whom later) puts it: “Silky smooth and about as cool as it gets”.
Word.
Here’s some words I have subsequently manifested on the subject of hip hop, having been listening to and thinking about it a fair bit since.
It goes a little something like this…
Hip hop music is not something I’m an expert in, or particularly an aficionado of, and it is probably not something that features in my Top 5 favourite genres or scenes. However, like most broad styles of music, the best stuff is pretty mind-blowing, spiritual and right up there among the best tuneage ever made, for me.
Also - like most musical flavas - I can’t listen to it too often or on rotation, really. A dippety-dip on the ol’ boombox every now and then is just the ticket.
So yes, on the back of that fortuitous encounter, I’ve been diving into and really feeling lots of the better stuff that’s out there of late, among other standard issue audio side-quests and distractions. Re-digging and rediscovering some old musical friends and finding some new faves along the way.
The discovery of hip hop to my ears was in my early teens, 14 or 15, coinciding with first introductions to “dance” music and some other slightly less wholesome activities and substances. Sorry mum. I think I turned out not too bad in the end…
To paint the picture, I firstly need to tell you a little about some good mates who had an important key role in my musical journey during those years, as that relates to my connection with the world of rap music and hip hop culture.
Jamie & Lewis - Jamie is my big brother and Lewis was his best mate during this period while they were at high school and then afterwards when they were at Uni. Hip hop was really their thing, along with copious amounts of soap bar. Hung out with them a bit and listened to lots of their respective collections. Big ones from then being Wu Tang, Gravediggaz, Gang Starr (DWYCK, Discipline and Words I Manifest being my faves of theirs and the excellent Guru Jazzmatazz vol. 1 album), Jeru The Damaja, Capone ‘n’ Noreaga and Big Punisher. Fond memories of listening to and chatting tunes with them a bit over the period. Gifted. Unlimited. Rhymes. Universal.
Hoody - Hoody was a good mate, a little order than me, he was best friends with the older brother of my best mate at school, Derek. His crew and our crew were kinda thought of as the elder and younger troublemakers of the period, by most we encountered. These two factions joining forces from time-to-time to cause it a bit and get up to all sorts of hi-jinx, me aged 14-17. Wayward and off-the-rails, to a certain extent years, but not a huge amount I’d change. There are a few things.
But anyway, Hoody has very good, diverse taste and is a very talented guy. He introduced me to Doggy Style by Snoop (and Dr Dre) and we had a shared love of the first Eminem record, as well as lots of stuff from other varied and disparate musical categories. More on that here.
The origins of how Hoody discovered Doggy Style are classic teenage fodder.
He, like me, was buying (and sometimes shoplifting - again, sorry mum) CDs and tapes all the time. In HMV one day and spotted the album title and sleeve and thought that looks good to me. Been with him ever since.
Teenagers, what will they think of next…
I imagine it might have been similar for lots of folk buying that one. Funny to think of all the things I took a complete punt on back in the day based on album sleeves alone! Win some, lose some! Hoody and myself still chat music to this day (not all the time, but more so than the others mentioned in this piece) and whenever I think of Eminem and Snoop, I immediately think of him. Top egg.
Greg & Ross - Greg was another really good mate during high school - the most ‘into-the-tunes’ mate I had then, and his brother Ross was too. Wrote about that (and Derek mentioned above) on this piece here.
After years of NME, Melody Maker and Select obsession for me, it was Ross who introduced Greg and myself to Jockey Slut magazine around this time. Therefore had a massive hand in us both really getting into lots of electronic music and hip hop.
Lots of the stuff already mentioned plus Beastie Boys (esp. Paul’s Boutique - their best one, the best tune and video from it below), De La Soul, ATCQ and the wider Native Tongues world, KRS One, EPMD, The Pharcyde, Ugly Duckling, Stetsasonic and Cypress Hill. Those are the ones that remain most vividly insane in the membrain with the Koronka brothers.
Hugely grateful and thankful to all of the above for the initial educational and introductory musical scenarios.
Bumping into Slick Rick that morning and the deep dive that followed, also got me thinking more deeply about hip hop’s more contentious ingredients. Particularly some of the lyrics.
In my vaguely liberal and progressive white man mindset, these are hard (but not impossible) to reconcile and condone, and I can understand why they can be off-putting to many (esp. those who are easily offended), but when the accompanying music and overall application and attitude is so utterly immense… one is left with something of a dilemma on one’s hands.
The music from its very beginnings has been driven and exemplified by the street-level, life experiences of a specific and distinctive culture and, as such, often has a bit of a subtext-flavoured FUCK YOU to elitist, white middle class, “civilised” and progressive norms baked into it, sometimes overtly and at times more subtly. And that’s no wonder, really, when you consider the context…
As Arrested Development would say - on the subject of homelessness on their most famous (but not best - that would be U or Tennessee) track Mr Wendal - Are we really civilised? Who are we to judge?
The history, struggle and horrifying tribulations of that particular culture (black America) being something most of us will never be able to comprehend or appreciate, in even a minuscule or nominal fashion. Generally speaking, comparatively and to put it mildly, they tend not to have it very easy these days either. Most didn’t at the advent and beginning decade or two of hip hop’s explosion into the universe.
I love lots of different types of art and music but I’m especially keen on stuff that’s borne from the “streets” (tough ones, that is) rather than from elitism or privilege.
Obviously love LOTS AND LOTS of amazing music from the middle class world too but there’s a special spicy ingredient and place in my heart for the musical dreams that (unlike me) come from the schemes, the projects and the ghettos, the world over.
Hip hop often regales us with tales of that lived experience - chancing and romancing, the old how’s your father (let’s talk about sex, BA-BY), hanging about in gangs, robbing cars, banks and houses, selling drugs, murdering people (bit too far that one, lads!) and the other sad, predictable and avoidable outcomes experienced by those lacking opportunity and social deprivation more broadly, in the modern world. My stomach hurts, so I’m looking for a purse to snatch.
But the music is also characteristically exemplified by amazingly inventive and clever creativity, energy and vision. Sometimes fun, sometimes hard-hitting. Sometimes both. And then to top it off, just the sheer brazen and unwavering confidence to make it happen and get it down is majorly monumental and quite magnificent. Hat’s off, yo…
Happy Mondays were the last high class example of this in UK music, for me. There are no doubt others in more recent years that I’m less familiar with. There was lots in the decades that preceded the Mondays on these shores. America (both black and otherwise) is awash with it, and always has been.
Aside from the ingenuity and creative expression, I love this type of gear because it carries a certain grass-roots swagger and bravado that’s hard to put into words but which is hugely impressive, magnetic, compelling and soul-full to the extreme.
Back to Slick Rick. I think the real stand-out there for me with that track and the parts of his other material I have checked out subsequently, is the eccentricity, flair and chutzpah of the wordplay and vocal delivery and the beats and grooves are just really, quite hypnotic and potently lazy (as in easy-going), deep and laid-back.
My favourite rappers and hip hop artists tend to be ones with a bit of eccentricity and weirdness about them in one way or another esp. in their delivery. ATCQ’s Q Tip & Phife Dawg, ODB, Hieroglyphics, Digable Planets, Dilated Peoples, Andre 3000, Black Sheep (video above - normal album version better) to name a few.
The man like Slick (potentially the best of the bunch on that front) was responsible for the most sampled lyrics in history (I think) with his early masterpiece with Doug E Fresh, La-di-Da-di. Snoop’s take on that, Lodi Dodi, a BIG one for myself and the previously mentioned, Hoody many moons ago. Arguably the stand-out track on Doggy Style and that’s saying something. Slick Rick has loads of other good ones too. As does Snoop. I went back in, I forgot my Indo!
Wouldn’t really be an Andy McColgan-penned Spicy Crisis piece of work without some semblance of Steely Dan woven in, now would it? Some of my fave tunes from the hip hop world feature some quite staggering sample work of some of the best tunes from that most acerbic and illustrious, beyond definition, double-act.
Black Cow is sampled on Gas Drawls by MF Doom and on Deja Vu (Uptown Baby) by Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz. Tremendous tunes, the latter one definitely falls into misogynistic territory with some of the lyrics though - the dilemma deepens…
Also LOVE the well-worn section in the Classic Albums TV documentary on Aja with Don and Walter vibing off and rhyming off that tune when discussing the production of Black Cow. Should be on YouTube if you’re interested. A Black Cow, incidentally is not a racist, sexist slur but rather a strange drink combination of milk and Coca Cola, I believe. Just so you know.
Americans, what will they think of next?
Further Steely sampling can be heard with Green Earrings on Don’t Trust ‘Em by Ice Cube. The tune’s not It Was A Good Day, but is still very good. FM (No Static At All) is sampled on No Static At All by 3rd Bass and The Royal Scam sampled on Ride Up by Freeway and Joe Budden. All really great rap tracks, respectfully and imaginatively reimagining great tracks by The Dan. I think The Dan digged it. Not everyone has the same open-mindedness to modern artforms.
Less fond of the guy but Kanye also samples Kid Charlemagne on Champion. The OG Dan track being a paean to the legendary LSD chemist and pioneer, Augustus Owsley ‘The Bear’ Stanley III. Just so you know…
Slick Ricky, don’t lose that numba!
That masterful re-imagination and revamping of old records into new pieces of art was and is obviously a key and critical component of hip hop. I think it was Picasso who said, “good artists copy, great artists steal…” so point made there on that one. Can’t add much to that. Over and out.
The (at times) controversial nature of hip hop lyrics is typically most visibly under the microscope of scrutiny, when it comes to language and terminology relating (often negatively) towards the female of the species. There is, however, a LOT of outstanding female hip hop out there too.
Like most genres, they are seriously under-represented but some of the best stuff out there comes from that direction. Salt N Pepa, Kelis, Missy Elliot, Queen Latifah (LADIES FIRST), Lauryn Hill, JJ Fad, Monie Love to name a handful.
These artists, interestingly, often appearing with and collaborating with many of the esteemed but seemingly highly offensive, high-profile perpetrators of some of the colourful usage of language towards and to describe women. The dilemma turns into a head-scratcher…
As I say, borne from a culture we are unqualified and unworthy to question or belittle, in my humble opinion.
Sometimes the more mainstream and well-known ones really do it for me. A few next level, choice cuts on that front here being the work of Arrested Development, Millionaire by Kelis & Andre 3000, ODB & Kelis’ Got Your Money, Changes by 2Pac, Biggie’s Juicy and the also La-di-Da-di homage-ing, Hypnotize, Satisfaction by Eve, Stressed Out by ATCQ & Faith Evans and Gravel Pit by the Wu (possibly my favourite of theirs which is generally laughed out of town by big fans of them and of hip hop).
Check out my grovel pit? I love it. Wu-Tang is the CD that I travel with. Don't go against the grain if you can't handle it…
One final, lighthearted and peculiar point on the subject. I had a short period in my 20s where I thought adding Noël Coward style vocal delivery to hip hop classics would be funny. Try it (in your head, or out loud) with Jurassic 5 and see how you get on.
“You want action, satisfaction, the brrrr-others with the posi-tive RE-action!”
Things that make you go, hmmmmmmmm…
Feedback on a stamped, addressed, postcard please, see if you can reach me through the US mail.
Hip hop overall and in super short summary form. All around the city and from coast to coast - when it’s at its very best - it’s slicker than most. And Slick Rick might just be the host with the most…
When all is said and done, if I had to pick one. De La Soul’s Roller Skating Jam Named Saturday might be my absolute number one in this realm. Never fails me. Promo video and tune both RIGHT UP THERE.
Some personal faves from the hip hop department can be found below. All you proper hip hop heads (and there’s lots of good eggs I know on that front) please feel free to enlighten me further with your own faves, your takes on the culture and this piece if you like. Always up for finding out more and chatting about tunes. Ragnar Jonasson - I am mostly looking at you, homeboy.
Final slight digression but relevant to a degree, it’s always worth bearing in mind and remembering that Caravaggio - the iconoclastic 16th century Italian Baroque painter - was an actual murderer and doesn’t get half the stick lots of people nowadays do, for far less…
Thanks for reading, bitches! More soon.