Fluxblog 498 trip hop in the 90s, hip hop in the 20s
New songs by Tyler the Creator, Mach-Hommy, Freddie Gibbs, and Crimeapple & Michaelangelo
This week’s playlist is NOT EXACTLY LOVERS: TRIP HOP IN THE 90s, a retrospective of the moody mutant genre's prime years with a focus on Tricky, Portishead, and Massive Attack. But you can also expect to hear music by Morcheeba, GusGus, Hooverphonic, Sneaker Pimps, Nightmares on Wax, The Herbaliser, and DJ Shadow, plus genre experiments by Madonna, Garbage, Pulp, Radiohead, and Natalie Imbruglia.
[Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube]
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The Dreams You Left On The Shelf
Tyler, the Creator “Take Your Mask Off”
The lyrics of “Take Your Mask Off” is essentially a series of four character sketches – a well-off kid posing as a thug, a pastor on the DL, the bored wife of a rich guy, an insecure rapper who bears a striking resemblance to Tyler, the Creator – all very critical and “tough love” about their particular self-deceptions, but ultimately empathetic. These are vivid portraits of people exhausted by having to perform their identity 24/7, and either denying themselves what they want or indulging their desires in unhealthy ways. The lyrics are clearly on the other side of some personal epiphany on Tyler’s part, but he’s most brutal in talking about the guy who sounds a lot like him. Or at least the version of him the most negative part of himself sees every day.
I think this is one of Tyler’s best musical compositions. As far as I can tell, it’s built around elements of People’s Pleasure and Alive and Well’s 1976 song “A Feeling Inside,” though it doesn’t seem to be officially credited. (It’s been very difficult to get a copy of Chromakopia on CD.) But there’s sampling and interpolating, and then there’s where Tyler goes with this song, which I think is an even more sophisticated piece of music. He’s basically using this very Stevie Wonder-esque groove as a foundation for something with very different architecture. My favorite touch is the piano figure that gets sprinkled around the back half – possibly another sample but Tyler is a talented keyboard player so it could be all him. In any case, that part sounds gorgeous but slightly camp, like an aggressively fancy and elegant piano bar. It’s a brilliant touch, almost a musical non-sequitor, but a totally logical tangent in context of the lyrics.
Buy it from Amazon.
Say It With Your Chest
Mach-Hommy “Sonje”
Sometimes I do a little research about artists I don’t know a lot about, and let me tell ya, I was not surprised at all to find out that Georgia Anne Muldrow is the child of session musicians. Muldrow, who produced this track under the alias Hephzibah, creates music with the casual sophistication of someone born into jazz. “Sonje” is a rap track and operates on those terms, but even within the relative rigidity of a hip-hop beat you can find her getting playful with the bass. It’s a very busy bass line for a rap track but Mach-Hommy maneuvers around it with ease, sometimes lining up in tandem and at other moments cutting between the bass notes, like dancing between raindrops.
Buy it from Amazon.
Freddie Gibbs “Wolverine”
Freddie Gibbs raps through this track in a straight shot with only a few seconds between verse breaks. His writing is a little too composed and structured to feel like a freestyle, but he does sound like he could keep rapping over this drowsy, jazzy track indefinitely. Gibbs burns through a few topics here, but the stuff that stands out to me is him musing on how he might make money after his rap career goes dry, a riff about basketball, and the bit towards the end where he admits that he’s still into R. Kelly’s music even if he doesn’t condone what he’s done.
Buy it from Amazon.
Crimeapple & Michaelangelo “Nikki Beach”
“Nikki Beach” is a good example of one of my favorite types of rap track – a kinda-sorta love song in which obvious earnest affection is obscured only somewhat by the rapper’s vulgarity. Crimeapple and Michaelangelo mostly come off as sweet guys who are very eager to brag about their cool, sexy girlfriends. It’s cute stuff. It’s the rap guy equivalent of carving a pair of initials on a tree.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
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• I highly recommend the latest episode of Time Crisis if you’re a big fan of The Sopranos. About two thirds of the episode is Ezra Koenig and the Crisis crew interviewing David Chase almost exclusively about his history with music, and how music was selected for scenes in the show. They go particularly deep on “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey. Note – this is only available on Apple Music.
• Jenny Eliscu interviewed Jessica Pratt on her LSQ podcast, with an emphasis on talking about Pratt’s upbringing, writing methods, and unusual path to becoming a professional musician. Pratt’s most recent album Here in the Pitch is one of my favorite records of the past few years.
• Matt Souva put together an extensive “starter pack” for music writers on Blue Sky, which includes my account. I’m trying to decrease my use of social media in general, with it mainly serving as a way to promote Fluxblog, but I will probably favor using Blue Sky over Twitter from here on out.
• I enjoyed these YouTube videos examining the music theory gimmicks of two recent King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard albums – this one is about the chord games they were playing on Changes, and this one is about how each song on Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava is composed using each of the seven Greek modes.
Loved this one!!!