Breaking Down Kanye and Franti : "The College Dropout" and "Everyone Deserves Music"

[sisabet]

So I am so filled with the Kanye West love right now that maybe I am not seeing the forest for the trees. I happen to think the his debut album "The College Drop-out"(as a headliner - he has produced several) is one of the best releases of anything this year, and I think that as an album itself it works incredibly well - this is one very complex, intelligent man and he presents such an honest look at himself and what makes him who he is that I just want everyone to listen to it right now.

Cutting for length

See, I was taught from a very early age when one has a religious experience, one goes out and converts. Otherwise the people you don't will burn in hell and it is all your fault. See, to me - *not* listening to Kanye would be like burning in hell or at least missing out on a really great experience. I am filled with zeal - but upon reflection, to someone not really familiar with hip-hop or common themes in rap/urbania - the man's genius could be lost on them. To someone not familar with early gospel "Jesus Walks" will not mean nearly as much (and GOD! What he does in that one song is both clever and also terrifying and also uplifting).

I walk through the valley of Chi where death is
Top floor the view alone will leave you breathless Uhhhh!
Try to catch it Uhhhh! It’s kinda hard hard
Getting choked by the detectives yeah yeah now check the method
They be asking us questions, harass and arrest us
Saying “we eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast”
Huh? Yall eat pieces of shit? What’s the basis?
We ain’t going nowhere but got suits and cases
A trunk full of coke, rental car from Avis
My momma used to say only Jesus can save us


If you don't know Lauryn Hill's "Mystery of Inequity" then "All Falls Down" won't make the impact it is meant to make - although I really think even without that, it will trigger at least a reaction:

Man I promise, I'm so self conscious
That's why you always see me with at least one of my watches
Rollies and Pasha's done drove me crazy
I can't even pronounce nothing, pass that versace! [Ver-sa-see]


But if you don't get that he is operating within a culture of extreme materialism - where obtaining goods is primary - then you won't get how astounding this song really is, astounding because of his honesty.

But if you are not familiar with the genre (and rap is hip-hop, but hip-hop can emcompass more than rap. Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock and Linkin Park do not rap and are not hip-hop. I don't care what they say - not rap) then this is not that significant. If you don't know who Mos Def is - and if you don't understand the culture of thugs or what gansta rap is or how East v. West started - then when Kanye all of a sudden on his album has Ludacris on to sing:

Yeah, breathe in, breathe out
If ya iced up, pull ya sleeves out
Push a big truck, pull ya keys out
Girls go wild and pull ya deez out


Which is classic Ludacris - just - that is him. And if you don't know that then when Kanye joins Ludacris on the song and says:

Golly, more of that bullshit ice rap
I got to ‘pologize to Mos and Kweli (probably)
But is it cool to rap about gold
If I told the world I copped it from Ghana and Mali? (Mali!)
First nigga with a Benz and a backpack
Ice chain, Cardi lens, and a knapsack
Always said if I rapped I’d say somethin’ significant
But now I’m rappin’ ‘bout money, ho's, and rims again

And to get this you have to understand the line Kanye is walking: Commercial Success and Total Lack of Content (Ludacris) and Socially Conscious Significant Spoken Word (Mos Def). And Kanye walks it and comments on both.

And if you don't listen to R&B and especially what passes for contemporary R&B on the radio, then you are not gonna get the BRILLIANT satire in "Slow Jamz"

She got a light skinned friend look like Michael Jackson
Got a dark skinned friend look like Michael Jackson
I play ‘Ready for the World’ - she was ready for some action
My dawg said you aint no freak, so you got to prove my man wrong
Imma play this Vandross
You gon’ take your pants off
Imma play this Gladys Knight
Me and you gon’ get right

Not to say Kanye does not have his critics. He does - man has been criticized for heavy sampling and some people (undercover bro I look at you) are turned off on his tendency to speed up and layer samples.

Samples: taking a track from an already published song and sometimes layering multiple tracks to get the background for a song. This is not confined to hip-hop although it is very common in rap ("Bittersweet Symphony" by the Verve is a sampled song). Sometimes the original vocals and/or gist of the song is maintained - it is like a revamp (Puffy and "Missing You" over "Every Breath You Take") sometimes you can't tell at all. Until the court date *g*

Kanye also has a tendency to take himself very seriously - but... eh - no, really I think that is just part of him really growing up making this album. There are some immature throwbacks, but for the most part he is self-aware in the most wonderful sense of self-awareness possible. There are very few dying unicorns doodled into the fabric of this album. This is a portrait of a man figuring out what he wants to be and becoming it and dealing with the struggles that arise along the way from a disfiguring and potentially fatal accident ("Through the Wire") to reconciling himself to the fact that while his family is changing - they are still a family in "Family Business"

This is family business
And this is for the family that can’t be with us
And this is for my cousin locked down, know the answer’s in us
That’s why I spit it in my songs so sweet
Like a photo of your granny’s picture
Now that you’re gone, it hit us
Super hard on Thankgiving and Christmas, this can’t be right
Yeah you heard the track I did man, this can’t be light
Somebody please say grace so I can save face
And have a reason to cover my face
I even made you a plate, soul food, know how Granny do it
Pumpkin bread on the side, know how the family do it
When I brought it why the guard have to look all thru it?

But now I see that Kanye is *not* the best intro into hip hop for the totally uninitated. Once you have a basis - then cool - totally - you will get this man. But he is not a starter set - he is more in the intermediate level (at the advanced level you begin to understand the absolute incredible genius and fire that is Dr Dre. Well, if you are me).

So, I'm thinking - what is a good intro into the genre and we could do an entire historical breakdown and start with "Rappers Delight" and move into early Run DMC and Public Enemy.

Eh. Instead go buy the Fugees album or even better - pick up Michael Franti and Spearhead's "Everyone Deserves Music" cause progressive hip-hop (HIPPIE HIP-HOP!!!) is something we all can appreciate. Such as this from "We Don't Stop" - the third track (? working off memory here)


They gotta war for oil, a war for gold
a war for money and a war for souls
a war on terror, a war on drugs
a war on kindness, a war on hugs.
A war on birds and a war on bees
they gotta war on hippies tryin'a save the trees
a war with jets and a war with missiles
a war with high-seated, government officials

Wall Street war, on high finance
a war on people who just love to dance
a war on music, a war on speech
a war on teachers and the things they teach
a war for the last 500 years
war's just messin' up the atmosphere
a war on muslims, a war on jews
a war on christians and hindus
a whole lotta people sayin' kill them all
they gotta war on Mumia Abu Jamal
the war on pot, is a war that's failed
a war that's fillin' up the nation's jails
world war one, two, three and four
chemical weapons, biological war
Bush War 1 and Bush War 2
They gotta war for me, they gotta war for you!!!


So yeah - I think this album is just as good as any as a starting place. So we start here and then we go to A Tribe Called Quest. Eventually. I should consult with heres_luck.

Comments

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

Ooooo. Another Kanye fan! I love him for a lot of the reasons I love Emimem, especially early eminem. They're aware of the hipocracy, the things they do, even when they know they shouldn't. And he's so damned good. I've been indoctrinated into love of Mos Def and Kweli, so this is just fabulous stuff :)

[permetaform]

::adores you:: yes, hell yes, and a thousand times yes! ::mad applause:: I love you for doing this and breaking it down like this because rap (good rap) is so very overlooked and to hear some of the reactions towards rap vids I'm just so very "er?"

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Well is is like any genre of anything in that not all of it is good and not all of it is bad - but until you understand what it *is* and what is going on - you can't be expected to make heads or tails of it.

It is like going to fanfic.net and choosing a story at random in a fandom you have never heard of. Not only are you chancing the quality of the story - you don't even know who the characters are.

Then you have to get into different categories -PWP, angst, humor and not all of it is bad and not all of it is good and some of it is mediocre - in EACH different type. And there is a fanon history that you won't know either.

Jumping into any genre of music - especially one as rich in history and meaning as contemporary hip-hop - there is bound to be some confusion.

I mean - we are talking about a world where Source magazine did a cover article questioning if 50Cent was as hardcore as he claims, because get this: even though he actually has been shot some ridiculous number of times (like 9) he has only suffered 9 bullet wounds - not 9 separate incidences. So yeah - he has been shot 9 times - but only over 2-3 actual shootings.

Source wondered if this information would hurt his album sales????. This is the world we live in. People need to know this stuff.

[permetaform]

Source wondered if this information would hurt his album sales?

::just giggles:: yeah I think I remember that, and it was wrapped up in the whole beef that they had with Eminem. What I adore is when songs come out in *retaliation* against other songs, it's like a MC battle over the airwaves. XD

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Well - it becomes this big soap where Dre is in with Em and out with Snoop and So and So tried to kill so and so and 50 has it out for Jay Z which means that Em and Jay Z are still feuding and since Kanye is squarely on the Jay Z side, where does this leave Dre?

It gets reeeeeeaaallly complicated and is very much like the Aaron Burr/Alexander Hamilton Duel. As I learned by watching The Daily Show.

[permetaform]

The Daily Show is a font of truth.

Or is that a fountain? ::has confused look and tries to find dictionary::

Meanwhile, the feud? Very Shakespearian. I can imagine Dre with these little mini!Dre on his shoulders doing a whole Montague and Capulet thing...

[renenet.livejournal.com]

Omigod. Sign. Me. Up.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

For what - drafting the Beginner's Guide to Hip Hop or for more Michael Franti and Spearhead? Cause I think I need to review the entire album. I think it would be popular here.

[renenet.livejournal.com]

Well, I meant the Beginner's Guide to Hip Hop, but I will also take more Michael Franti and Spearhead, please.

I'm also over the moon about your little primer on The College Dropout, above. I get a lot of what you're talking about, but I have big gaps, so I'm making homework notes like "study essence of Ludacris" and "listen to Ready for the World."

I would love to take these topics step by step with you and h.l. We could have ongoing Kanye West discussion, too. Just based on lyrics right now I'm very intrigued by the "All Falls Down" reinterpretation of "Mystery of Iniquity" and the biblical/theological references wrapped up in the phrase "mystery of iniquity," (which is from 2 Thessalonians). I need to listen and read and think and discuss.

[renenet.livejournal.com]

And, okay, now I re-read your question and have to clarify that I was *signing up* for your class on hip hop, not volunteering to help develop it. I mean, twist my arm to research shit and you know the two of you can get me to do anything, but I want to learn from this. For real learn, not just do the passing-familiarity, recognize-names-and-general-vibe, can-mostly-follow-a-conversation thing I tend towards on my own.

[heresluck]

Michael Franti, man. I have loved his work since the days of Disposable Heroes. And yeah, EDM is a pretty good place to start with hip-hop. Although I still think Black Star might be even better, or Mos Def's Black on Both Sides, because: not only are those CDs unbelievably good, they've got a mix of singing and spoken word that might be more *musically* accessible to folks unfamiliar with hip-hop. Kinda like The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which is another CD that I know brought a lot of people, if not into hip-hop per se, then into sympathy with the idea that hip-hop can be of the good.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I was afraid Mos Def would be *too* off-putting for a primer (the man gets deep) and I am totally unfamiliar with Black Star (Correcting NOW) -- I went with Fugees over "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" solely because of the Wyclef.

Help me. We need a hip-hop primer for people to get their feet wet. It pains me that there is a whole genre of music that is being so overlooked by people who love music and would love this.

HEY! After we do this - what say we tackle bluegrass?!!

[heresluck]

You are so right that Mos Def gets deep... but whether that's an obstacle or not is an audience thing, right? I mean, I held off on rap and hip-hop for years because I was all "blah blah materialist blah blah misogynist blah blah no redeeming value" and then a friend made me listed to Disposable Heroes and Arrested Development and Tribe Called Quest and Queen Latifah and I was like "ohhhhhhhh... ideas... progressive politics... serious stuff..." and I was totally sold.

So my knowledge of hip-hop is totally skewed. I don't know much about the big names and major-label releases -- Ludacris and the other Commercial Success No Content folks -- because that's not the subset of the genre that appeals to me. I'm over here with Talib Kweli and The Coup and The Roots and Dead Prez and J-Live and Dilated Peoples and KRS-One and Ms. Dynamite and The Streets and the other crazy marxists and feminists and vegans... and you know, it occurs to me that Digable Planets and De La Soul might be good things for a primer to include.

But you're on your own for bluegrass, because what I know about bluegrass you could fit in a thimble with some room left over.

[way2busymom.livejournal.com]

Hip Hop Primer! Yes.

Bluegrass Primer! Yes.

And pretty please don't forget about the Blues & about Jazz....

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

*adds all of these albums to To Buy list*

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

This is very, very cool.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Wow. I think I even understood that.

Yes, please, please, please do a Beginner's Guide to Rap. And Hip Hop. And Bluegrass. Please?

[luminosity]

Okay, intro to Mos Def? I'd say go for the ultra-pretentious "Black Star," with Talib Kweli from what? 2-3 years ago? I know next to nothing about hip-hop and rap, only what I glean from Jaime and Liza, but I know what I like, and I like KOS and Children's Story and Respiration, and ... and stuff.

Kanye's a new thing, and I really like him, even without the history.

Blues? Somebody talking about the blues? Sigh. I *love* the blues.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Mos Def hurts my heart, he's so good. Nas gives me chills. Talib Kweli makes me still. I used to see Erika Badu before she hit it big, I love Common, I tried to turn everyone on to the Roots (oh my God. I love them.) For the uninitiated, all they know of "rap and hip-hop" is Uhn. I like it like that. Back in the day for me it was De La. Arrested Development. (listening to them is like going to church) Q-Tip. Public Enemy. I STILL get chills when I listen to "By the time I get to Arizona."

Preach on , sistah. I'll listen to your sermon!