Music for a Monday: Things Are Starting to Pick Up

Finally, something to praise...

Some assorted thoughts as we begin to close out the first quarter of 2007...

- Remember when I wrote this, lamenting how poorly this year had started? Internets celebrity and Pride of Creve Coeur Bol noted it last week while discussing his review of Black Milk's Popular Demand, which BC Dot C rightly hailed as being among the year's first truly strong records. Just ask Henry. But beyond its innate qualities--such as Milk's flow, which sons those of lots and lots of better-known rappers--Popular Demand is also a notable record because it presents what is, in effect, a defining regional sound.

No rapper or producer has defined Detroit hip-hop in the past decade better than Jay Dee. While Eminem and even D12 are likely the most well-known acts from the area, their music has not emerged as the sonic shibboleth that Jay Dee's has. After all, Eminem's sound is really a mixture of whatever moves Dr. Dre, one of the three most important figures in the history of the West Coast; the heightened, synth-driven emotion of inauthentic menace that defies geography (it's boring and generic) and has been adopted by Eminem; and the similarly market-non-specific pop rap of catchy melodies (almost to the point of self-parody--see: "Without Me") and sing-song hooks. This is not meant as judgment, but it's fair to call this style decidedly non-Detroit.

Jay Dee, meanwhile, put together a sonic catalogue that established a musical identity for the area. Though multifaceted, with everything ranging from the distorted chops of "Players" to the bass-and-drum of "Reunion," and from the woozy synths of "Dee Zee" to the crisp electronics of "Y'all Ain't Ready," you tended to know when you were hearing a Jay Dee beat. There was and still is always a uniqueness about that Dilla sound. My man Taj, an expert, has always lauded Jay Dee's beats for their "grit," and I think that whether or not that's the right word, it perfectly speaks to what might be an ineffable something that serves as Dilla's musical watermark. You even get it when you throw on a beat meant to sound like Dilla's--just ask BR Gunna, the production collective that seemed to fill the music-making void for prominent area collaborators once Dilla left Slum Village and moved on to other projects. That Black Milk founded BR and has now put together such an authoritative Detroit record only lends credence to the assertion that Jay Dee's legacy will always be, at least in part, his patriarchal role in Detroit's distinguishing hip-hop scene.

When considered within this context, Popular Demand is very much Southeast Michigan's contemporary analogue to something like a classic Redman album (which we'll call What?, Dare Iz a Darkside, and Muddy Waters)--it's a record that is undeniably of its regional era but also a vehicle for adding further definition to the very distinction by which it can be identified. It's almost like listenable circular logic. What is this? A Detroit record. What's a Detroit record? This.

Beyond its place in a historical frame, Popular Demand is great for what it offers on the surface: Black Milk's inviting and impressive flow showcased by the complementary production and enhanced by a number of welcomed collabos. Milk doesn't really break any new lyrical ground as he makes his way through the usual boasts, wordplay, everyman hedonism you hear so many Detroit rappers spit, and other hip-hop conventions, but you probably won't even notice. He rides the beats ably, and Popular Demand is a taxonomy of contemporary Detroit production, whether it's whaling loops, synthesizer melodies over stiff drums, creative samples, or anything else that will remind you of Jay Dee as you appreciate both the faithful emulation and the original twists.

For all intents and purposes, this is the record that has so far defined 2007.

Black Milk, "Three+Sum"

- Also in contention may be Devin the Dude's Waitin' to Inhale. I haven't been able to give it as thorough a listen as I've given Popular Demand, but I can't think of another album that's been as easy to throw on. There is a surreal quality to it, with each track blending Devin's rap-singing and narratives that celebrate the quotidian with these muted, pillowy beats that you can't turn off. They fall just short of being mesmerizing, and I mean that as a compliment. I'd liken the production to some of the better experimental OutKast beats (think: an improvement on something like "She's Alive") that skewed toward the melodic as opposed to the aggressive (think: "Bust"). Really, Devin is a better, more fully realized version of the artist that Andre 3000 has tried to be, at times. He can't rhyme or flow like Andre (who's criminally underrated as an MC since he did his thing in a group and most people were distracted by the risks OutKast was taking with their sound), but that's not his thing. And his thing is the sort of style that Andre has seemed lost while pursuing.

Devin the Dude, "Almighty Dollar"

- I'm not sure if you can call an album that contains music mostly recorded more than a decade ago a 2007 record, but Mobb Deep's The Infamous Archives is also pretty exciting. And depressing. It's nearly startling to hear new tracks from Havoc and Prodigy on which they sound young and hungry because, as I wrote last month, The Infamous not only remains a seminal record thanks to its incredible music, but also it has become a melancholy symbol of promise squandered. They were great and grew worse over time. Even though it came from an era that gave us Illmatic, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, and so much other timeless material, The Infamous stands out as a definitive street album that created an emotional tenor unrivaled but just about any other record with a significantly great gully quotient. Not that this is news--many people have eulogized Mobb Deep many times. It's only again worth remembering Hollywood Hav and VIP's (I just threw up) halcyon days of youth because this new material is anachronistic in its overall sound and intangible characteristics. Youthful and unrefined, there are tracks on Archives that put Blood Money and so much other recent Mobb Deep music to shame. And while it's not fair to fault the duo for growing up or trying to change (they'd be skewered for being boring and redundant had they not), the relative failure of this process's results and the contrast between what they are and what they were is unavoidable. Culled from a time when Prodigy was not yet shook and Mobb was still authentically capturing their bleak but engrossing world on record, Archives has some quality material that will get your nostalgia up. There's plenty of shit, too, but still, the new glimpses into an old ideal are both refreshing and sad.

Mobb Deep ft. Big Noyd, "Rep the QBC"

- I also wanted to shout out this underground cat called Ecks. I think that dude runs with KRS-One, and he's got some music up on MySpace that's not bad (peep "Street Anthem"). When he raps, he sounds like he's spitting simultaneously as the beat plays--he doesn't always find the beat, so to speak--and that can make it sound like he's shouting a little bit. But I give him credit for trying to rap about something; there's a discernable amount of thought behind his words.

- Finally, a random joint that I'm feelin' right now:

Cilvaringz ft. Raekwon (and Ghostface Killah and RZA, sort of), "The Weeping Tiger"
Everything, from the title to the beat to the scattered bars to the RZA's yelling to the overwrought aesthetic (that chorus...), feels like a Wu-Tang self-parody. And Cilvaringz is Dutch or some shit. So cumulatively, this song cracks me up for a number of reasons. It's just so evocative of this.