Monday, March 15, 2004
Friday, March 12, 2004
so, i had kind of written them off a long time ago, but the yeah yeah yeahs have proven me wrong with "maps". its a fantastic jolt of post sonic youth noise-pop, kinda like lou reed and lou barlow's illegitimate love child. i can't believe it's on mtv. they don't love you like i love you.
so, the village voice's jazz and pop 2004 results came out a few weeks ago, and the top 40 lists are far less interesting than the comments made by the contributors to the poll of polls. i particularly enjoy how many finally admit to how racist the results tend to be, it kind of explains how mary j blige continually gets kicked to the curb while pj harvey is concurrently praised, or why, i don't know, teenage "where are they now?" fanclub beat out the likes of a tribe called quest and de la soul ten years ago.
outkast got a lot of top nods this year, most notably from the grammys (which are always at the cusp of the cultural zeitgeist, might i add), and, along with a percursory viewing of any week's billboard top singles charts, lead many to exhalt 2004 as the year that hip-hop finaly broke. to me, this couldn't be further from the truth. if anything, this was the year that hip hop completely shed itself of any ties it initally had to being the "cnn of black america" as it once was called and ultimately became a simple unit-shifting commodity. public enemy's fury is nothing but a dimming legacy in a world dominated by chingy, and even haters like myself began to say "whatever, it was good while it lasted, i'm going to download 'hot in herre'" keep in mind andre 3000's side to the outkast album, which is favored by most of those that voted for the love below, contains very little of what would be considered to be "hip hop" by today's kids.
my top nod for 2003 would be q-tip's "kamaal the abstact", which most people haven't heard because it's an album that was never released and resulted in said artist being dropped from his label. it's an album that could have been to hip-hop what wilco's "yankee hotel foxtrot" was to indie-rock/alt-country. if the same critics that praised wilco paid attention to the former tribe called quest frontman, they would have praised "kamall the abstract" for its multi-dimensionality, its simultaneous nods to miles davis circa bitches brew, prince before he was known as the artist, and the early years of house music. they would have called it post-rap or a new era of sorts. instead, q-tip was critcized as unfocused, no documentary about his troubles with his record label was released on dvd, and 50 cent ended up on magazine covers agross america.
there's still hope for music of course. this was the year that justin timberlake, beyonce, britney spears, and christina aguilera put out crafty, timeless songs while the new releases by radiohead, blur, and massive attack bored the shit out of us. and if you get sick of clear channel forcing the same ten songs down your throat, there's always entire catalogs by the likes of john coltrane, sonny rollins, and thelonious monk to discover again, or for the first time.
so, the village voice's jazz and pop 2004 results came out a few weeks ago, and the top 40 lists are far less interesting than the comments made by the contributors to the poll of polls. i particularly enjoy how many finally admit to how racist the results tend to be, it kind of explains how mary j blige continually gets kicked to the curb while pj harvey is concurrently praised, or why, i don't know, teenage "where are they now?" fanclub beat out the likes of a tribe called quest and de la soul ten years ago.
outkast got a lot of top nods this year, most notably from the grammys (which are always at the cusp of the cultural zeitgeist, might i add), and, along with a percursory viewing of any week's billboard top singles charts, lead many to exhalt 2004 as the year that hip-hop finaly broke. to me, this couldn't be further from the truth. if anything, this was the year that hip hop completely shed itself of any ties it initally had to being the "cnn of black america" as it once was called and ultimately became a simple unit-shifting commodity. public enemy's fury is nothing but a dimming legacy in a world dominated by chingy, and even haters like myself began to say "whatever, it was good while it lasted, i'm going to download 'hot in herre'" keep in mind andre 3000's side to the outkast album, which is favored by most of those that voted for the love below, contains very little of what would be considered to be "hip hop" by today's kids.
my top nod for 2003 would be q-tip's "kamaal the abstact", which most people haven't heard because it's an album that was never released and resulted in said artist being dropped from his label. it's an album that could have been to hip-hop what wilco's "yankee hotel foxtrot" was to indie-rock/alt-country. if the same critics that praised wilco paid attention to the former tribe called quest frontman, they would have praised "kamall the abstract" for its multi-dimensionality, its simultaneous nods to miles davis circa bitches brew, prince before he was known as the artist, and the early years of house music. they would have called it post-rap or a new era of sorts. instead, q-tip was critcized as unfocused, no documentary about his troubles with his record label was released on dvd, and 50 cent ended up on magazine covers agross america.
there's still hope for music of course. this was the year that justin timberlake, beyonce, britney spears, and christina aguilera put out crafty, timeless songs while the new releases by radiohead, blur, and massive attack bored the shit out of us. and if you get sick of clear channel forcing the same ten songs down your throat, there's always entire catalogs by the likes of john coltrane, sonny rollins, and thelonious monk to discover again, or for the first time.
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