The Souls of Mischief is renowned for bringing attention to the Bay Area and garnering the respect of New York-based Hip Hop heavy hitters. These wordsmiths approached rap like Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Thelonious Monk approached jazz. Like other movements, germane to the diversity found on the east coast in the 90s, these artists flipped music samples from the 60s and 70s but chose to use a different level of music intelligence in their lyricism over drum breaks. The soundtrack these artists provided became a staple in the various circles of Hip Hop’s emerging underground scene. Some elements are part of Kendrick’s rap lineage that picked up in the 90s and include artists like California-based Hieroglyphics, Souls of Mischief, and The Pharcyde, who got their start at the cultural Medina called the Good Life in Los Angeles - a countermovement to the popular subset of “gangsta rap.” As Scott-Heron’s reign waned and Hip Hop began to gain traction up into the ’80s and ’90s, the genre generated sounds unique to coastal pockets across America. Throughout time and the release of several albums, Kendrick and Gil provided a window into events including, but not limited to, the #BlackLivesMatter uprising, South African Apartheid, and Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Scott-Heron and Lamar shouldered the obligation, as truth speakers and searchers, to use their songs to shed light on political movements and current events disproportionately affecting Black and Brown communities. These can be heard in tracks like “Poe Man’s Dreams,” “Alright,” and “Mortal Man.” Not without his personal social critique, Kendrick Lamar’s albums and singles often guarantee an address of political events past, present, and future. The proclamation was an admonition to Black people to be proactive about their liberation. Scott-Heron filled his bars with several examples of where the revolution will not be and tethered them to popular media, advertising, and products of the time. The track was a response to “When the Revolution Comes” by The Last Poets. Scott-Heron’s most renowned poem, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” is one of Hip Hop’s most distinguished muses. The perspectives taken by Lamar and Scott-Heron reveal internal and external turmoil as they battle the effects of personal traumas conjunct with their relation to the world as Black men. A heavy focus in Gil Scott-Heron’s lyrics was his battles with drug addiction. Without many of the synthesizers and drum machines that would later become production staples, he laid potent rhymes over raw beats woven together by jazz melodies and diasporic drum patterns. Scott-Heron created a style of music that demanded full attention. Heron’s musical style and, inarguably, the foreshadowing of what Hip Hop would become, are detectable in Lamar’s storytelling texture. Regardless, both projects would eventually supply the momentum necessary to launch Kendrick and Sly into their respective atmospheres of musical influence.Īnother artist in Kendrick’s genealogy is Gil Scott-Heron. Section.80 only sold 5,000 units in the first week. When Stand! was released, the public acclaim was slow. The musical vigor it took to birth Section.80 and its subsequent social consequence is embedded in the formula that caused Sly Stone’s popularity. Kendrick Lamar’s debut album Section.80 likens itself to Stand! for similar reasons. Sly and the Family Stone broke into pop music prominence with their 1968 hit single “Everyday People.” Off of their debut album Stand!, “Everyday People” was a response to prejudices of the time, popularized the catchphrase “Different strokes, for different folks,” and became a social anthem.
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