By the end of the nineties, Snoop Dogg looked finished. Gangsta-rap lost its cachet, his collaboration with Dr. Dre fell apart, and his attempts at trying softer directions did not gain the popularity that his gangsta braggadocio brought him. He also had serious trouble with the law, and the feeling was that he was burned out. But then, he hooked up with the sexy and bouncy style of the Neptunes, wrapping his flow perfectly around it, and recreated himself in a cute, romantic and lovable image. His private language is silly as hell, but he manages to make even that sound like the coolest thing in the world. This little sizzle proves that Snoop is still the dopest thing in pop.
Showing posts with label pharrell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pharrell. Show all posts
Friday, January 29, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
64. Busta Rhymes feat. Pharell – Light Your Ass on Fire (2003)
The quality by which rappers are judged is what is known as their "flow" – the way they phrase the words within the bars and thus affect shifts in the rhythm of the rap, creating a feeling of a stream that in some places is gushing and in other places slow. Every rapper has their own distinct flow, and every hip-hop fan has rappers whose flows delight him more than others. For me, the flow I most enjoy streaming with comes from Busta Rhymes, especially when he collaborates with the Neptunes, who always make him less aggressive and more funky. He had many good records along the decade, and I chose the one that deals with the body part most identified with the funk: the pelvis, or, to be more specific, the ass.
To understand why the booty is so important, we must once again go backwards. Naturally, music is something that moves the entire human existence, feet, gut, heart and mind. But European "high" culture emasculated music, and repressed the beat. This is because Western thinking created a split between "body" and "soul", and rather than treating them as one unit, regarded them as separate worlds, and asserted that the soul should escape the body. Therefore, European music is designed to make you forget your body, and moves the soul alone. Dancing, in this culture, was demoted to a function serving other activities, such as courting, and its dance music does not generate ecstasy, but is very inhibited. In the dances of European "high" culture, the body remains stiff, and only the legs move, obeying a predetermined set of steps.
In African culture, on the other hand, dancing animates your entire being. African music is polyrhythmic, and the rhythms take hold of your being and make all parts of body and soul move freely. When the Africans were brought to America as slaves, they were forbidden to play their own music, and compelled to play the European music of their masters. But they always played it in ways that preserved some of their sensibilities, and when slavery was abolished, African-American musicians started to develop styles based on these sensibilities, and slowly created a new black consciousness. You can actually describe the history of twentieth century black pop as a gradual breaking away from the shackles of emasculating European consciousness, and a return to a more African perception of music. Full release was obtained with sixties funk, which put the emphasis back on rhythm, and produced polyrhythmic records that rattled all parts of your being. Funk also taught us how to dance in the correct way again, where the pelvis, the center of your body, moves freely, and makes the rest of your body move as well. "Free your mind and your ass will follow, the kingdom of heaven is within", preached Funkadelic, the premier prophets of funk: when we free our mind from the inhibitions planted by European culture, and move our pelvis freely, the stiffness in our body dissolves, and then we realize that the key to paradise is not in some distant place in the sky, but lies within our bodies, a-posteriorily part of us, and ecstatic dance turns the lock.
The demand to move your ass is therefore featured in many funk records, and naturally, it is usually directed towards women, mingled with sexual desire for that part. When it is done in a distasteful way it is offensive, and too many records made in the last couple of decades are just insulting and pointless. But if it is done with humor, and sits on a good funky beat, it enlivens body and soul. Humor is something Busta Rhymes has in abundance, and funky beats are the Neptunes' expertise, so the meeting between them has to result in something good. From the moment the records starts with the "boom, boom, bababoomboom boom", we get the mental image of a voluptuous woman moving her juicy booty as she walks, and all Busta has to do is provide the details. And, as usual, he delivers.
To understand why the booty is so important, we must once again go backwards. Naturally, music is something that moves the entire human existence, feet, gut, heart and mind. But European "high" culture emasculated music, and repressed the beat. This is because Western thinking created a split between "body" and "soul", and rather than treating them as one unit, regarded them as separate worlds, and asserted that the soul should escape the body. Therefore, European music is designed to make you forget your body, and moves the soul alone. Dancing, in this culture, was demoted to a function serving other activities, such as courting, and its dance music does not generate ecstasy, but is very inhibited. In the dances of European "high" culture, the body remains stiff, and only the legs move, obeying a predetermined set of steps.
In African culture, on the other hand, dancing animates your entire being. African music is polyrhythmic, and the rhythms take hold of your being and make all parts of body and soul move freely. When the Africans were brought to America as slaves, they were forbidden to play their own music, and compelled to play the European music of their masters. But they always played it in ways that preserved some of their sensibilities, and when slavery was abolished, African-American musicians started to develop styles based on these sensibilities, and slowly created a new black consciousness. You can actually describe the history of twentieth century black pop as a gradual breaking away from the shackles of emasculating European consciousness, and a return to a more African perception of music. Full release was obtained with sixties funk, which put the emphasis back on rhythm, and produced polyrhythmic records that rattled all parts of your being. Funk also taught us how to dance in the correct way again, where the pelvis, the center of your body, moves freely, and makes the rest of your body move as well. "Free your mind and your ass will follow, the kingdom of heaven is within", preached Funkadelic, the premier prophets of funk: when we free our mind from the inhibitions planted by European culture, and move our pelvis freely, the stiffness in our body dissolves, and then we realize that the key to paradise is not in some distant place in the sky, but lies within our bodies, a-posteriorily part of us, and ecstatic dance turns the lock.
The demand to move your ass is therefore featured in many funk records, and naturally, it is usually directed towards women, mingled with sexual desire for that part. When it is done in a distasteful way it is offensive, and too many records made in the last couple of decades are just insulting and pointless. But if it is done with humor, and sits on a good funky beat, it enlivens body and soul. Humor is something Busta Rhymes has in abundance, and funky beats are the Neptunes' expertise, so the meeting between them has to result in something good. From the moment the records starts with the "boom, boom, bababoomboom boom", we get the mental image of a voluptuous woman moving her juicy booty as she walks, and all Busta has to do is provide the details. And, as usual, he delivers.
Friday, January 22, 2010
44. Pharrell feat. Jay-Z - Frontin' (2003)
One of the reasons for the hip-hop takeover of the beginning of the third millennium is that the period was blessed with several hip-hop producers that cooked up wondrous things in the studio, and drew musicians from other styles, who wanted the same kind of treatment done on their records. Dr. Dre and Timbaland were two who stood out, but above all were undoubtedly the pair of Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams, better known as the Neptunes.
The unique style that turned the Neptunes into a hitmaking machine is based on exotic sounds, either digitized or instrumental, ordered to create a bouncy and sensual rhythm section, minimalist funk that invokes Prince in his prime. Their bass always has something crackling about it, a dirty sound that makes you feel horny and dissatisfied, but the treble pampers the body and the spirit. The Neptunes play many of the instruments themselves, which enables them to create a live and hungry feel, and their mastery of technology is absolute, allowing them to intensify every effect. And the icing on the cake is Pharrell's funky falsetto, which always adds a sexy dimension to the records, and his baby face which does the same for the videos.
The Neptunes worked together as producers some years before this sound gelled in 1998, but once they found it, it didn't take them long to become the hottest producers around. Their springy style, and Pharrell's soft backing vocals, made the music of hardcore rappers like Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and Busta Rhymes a lot more accessible, and elevated them to a higher level of popularity; lit a fire under the white nerdy asses of Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Gwen Stefani, and made them cooler and funkier; launched the career of several artists, like Kelis; and yielded interesting results even in the field of rock. In 2003, about every third record you heard on the radio was their production. In my chart this is the sixth, and certainly not the last, record they have produced.
With such domination, it is no wonder they started to produce records of their own. This is their biggest hit, and also the most representative. "Fronting", in black jive, means pretending to be more than what you really are, putting a front. But in the context of this record, it is of course also a symbol of the moment Pharrell steps up to take front-stage. In the song itself, Pharrell is indeed fronting, boasting and coming over as a lover-man to impress some chick, in a typical combination of romantic sweetness and funky dirty talk. But in 2003, Pharrell really was the man.
The unique style that turned the Neptunes into a hitmaking machine is based on exotic sounds, either digitized or instrumental, ordered to create a bouncy and sensual rhythm section, minimalist funk that invokes Prince in his prime. Their bass always has something crackling about it, a dirty sound that makes you feel horny and dissatisfied, but the treble pampers the body and the spirit. The Neptunes play many of the instruments themselves, which enables them to create a live and hungry feel, and their mastery of technology is absolute, allowing them to intensify every effect. And the icing on the cake is Pharrell's funky falsetto, which always adds a sexy dimension to the records, and his baby face which does the same for the videos.
The Neptunes worked together as producers some years before this sound gelled in 1998, but once they found it, it didn't take them long to become the hottest producers around. Their springy style, and Pharrell's soft backing vocals, made the music of hardcore rappers like Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and Busta Rhymes a lot more accessible, and elevated them to a higher level of popularity; lit a fire under the white nerdy asses of Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Gwen Stefani, and made them cooler and funkier; launched the career of several artists, like Kelis; and yielded interesting results even in the field of rock. In 2003, about every third record you heard on the radio was their production. In my chart this is the sixth, and certainly not the last, record they have produced.
With such domination, it is no wonder they started to produce records of their own. This is their biggest hit, and also the most representative. "Fronting", in black jive, means pretending to be more than what you really are, putting a front. But in the context of this record, it is of course also a symbol of the moment Pharrell steps up to take front-stage. In the song itself, Pharrell is indeed fronting, boasting and coming over as a lover-man to impress some chick, in a typical combination of romantic sweetness and funky dirty talk. But in 2003, Pharrell really was the man.
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