One of my favorite and most rewarding things I've ever bought was this DVD I randomly found in a Wal-Mart or something called Soundz of Spirit. It was right when I was heavy getting into hip hop and pretty much all I knew was that Andre 3000 and Cee-Lo were my heroes. Now guess who two of the folks on the cover of this DVD are ...
This DVD was a documentary of the inspiration and creative process behind the music writing, poetry, and other forms of art by urban artists. And it may actually have been the initial seed that sprouted me into my full fledged writing. I certainly have nothing specific to directly reroute it to prior to when I watched this documentary the first three times. In addition to 3000 & Mr. Green, the film featured my first iteration I'd heard of KRS-One's infamous "MC vs. rapper" speech. I absolutely loved how he dissected it then, but the 27th song/sermon/interview where I heard him explain it is another story. Sprinkle in some absolutely gorgeous singing by the likes of Goapele, Hope Shorter, and Jennifer Johns along with all the mental hip hop exploration of emcees such as Common, Talib Kweli, Del, and the Nappy Roots crew and I had an hour full of defining soul moments.
Another amazing aspect of the DVD was that it came with a soundtrack that infused many new faces into my budding music collection. While even the little known Cee-Lo cut called "Beautiful Fool" would have made my heart content, I also was introduced to groups such as Dilated Peoples and Blackalicious. But just for the sake of this post, one of the heavy hitting tracks on this collection that I wanted to link up is Hope Shorter's "Rain Don't Last". It's simple and elegant and powerful and I just really like this song.
Hope Shorter - Rain Don't Last
... but do take my word for it.
Showing posts with label Nappy Roots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nappy Roots. Show all posts
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Soundz of Spirit
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Hometown Peoples
So lately I've definitely been running with the CunninLynguists, but I can never count out Nappy Roots. While this is only 2/6ths of them, I still love it.
I absolutely love the tracks like this that the group has proved they can churn out. Besides the Obama version of "Good Day", they're pretty professional at making those non-corny feel-good tracks. And feel-good tracks don't have to be "happy" songs per-say, but this one is. The Southern acoustics are monstrous and Skinny & Scales play off them perfectly in that smooth drawl that they got going.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Kentucky
I feel like a jerk for not pumping these guys up more often. Everybody knows Nappy Roots as the quintessential definition of Kentucky hip hop, but I prefer the CunninLynguists. Who knows, they might be down the street from me since they base in Lexington. I've never heard a bad song from the dudes. Deacon and Natti have such immensely distinctive flow and rhyme patterns. They actually talk about something yet still never come off preachy. They are comparable to none sonically. Kno is up there in my most underrated producers in the game and creates soundscapes absolutely perfect for his emcees. He's kinda like Danger Mouse in that his beats are so atmospheric that you can't help but get emotionally attached.
They've got just enough singing ability in the group to create amazingly nice hooks, always in perfect conjunction with the song sample, and both wordsmiths weave their way in and out of the subject at hand with cultural references and intricate double, triple, and quadruple rhyme schemes. You just can't beat it.
I first heard of them from their song "Caved In" which features Cee-Lo and has a genius Kanye vocal sample strewn in there. I thought that song was absolute perfection by itself. Little did I know that the whole album, A Piece of Strange, was classic as well. Do yourself a favor and buy it.
Kentucky has a hip hop scene. I swear. You'll see even more so when my album drops. Ha. And I managed to get through the whole post with no puns directed towards their name. I'm pretty professional if I do say so myself. Clever students of language, indeed.
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