Indie Hip-Hop's Surge

Count me among those who’ve been skeptical of the continued artistic relevance of indie/underground hip-hop in 2008. There is still a lot of great talent on the scene, both in terms of vets (Murs, Madlib, DOOM, Jean Grae) and rookies (Blu, Black Milk, Pac Div, Blue Scholars), but barely any decent new music was released in the first eight months of the year. The only indie hip-hop album with any replay value was Jean Grae’s Jenius, which was recorded three years prior. And then September hit.

[Click the "Continue Reading..." link to listen to a playlist featuring the music discussed in this post.]

The first great album of the season was Koushik’s debut album Out My Window. Koushik, a Canadian producer signed to Stones Throw, is only hip-hop by association. Out My Window is full of beautiful psychedelic pop collages: lightly strummed guitar figures weave through rickety drum breaks, ramshackle horn vamps, random cowbells, background whistles and Koushik's echoed whispers, which serve as the track's backbone. The music here is frail and somatic, and with his emphasis on obscurity, nostalgic for a past that few of us ever knew.

Koushik shares this obscurity fetish with Stones Throw brethren Madlib, who has put out two albums in the past few weeks, and plans to put out at least one other in the next month. The highest profile of these is King of the Wigflip, which is (sadly) the last dispatch in BBE’s famed Beat Generation series (previous Beat Generation contributors include Pete Rock, J Dilla, will.i.am and King Britt). Like most of Madlib’s output, Wigflip is a concept album, with the general idea being that the listener is flipping through the AM dial late at night. (Side note: when I interviewed DOOM three years ago in conjunction with his collaboration with Madlib on the Madvillainy album, he mentioned that he was working on a similar concept to be called AM Food.) It’s a neat conceit to fit Madlib’s various stylistic detours, and the album is predictably dizzying, with the minimalist rumble of "Heat" nestling against the hypnotic space funk of "The Ox." There are times, such as on "Blindfold Test," when center evaporates, and each minute brings a new motif of jittery turntable abstractions (when examining Madlib’s production aesthetic, it’s instructive to remember he considers himself a DJ first). As others have pointed out, the rhymes on this album are generally sub-par, but that judgment does miss the point. Aside from Madvilliany and perhaps his collaboration with Talib Kweli, Liberation, the rhymes on a Madlib albums are always secondary to the music.

Speaking of DOOM, Madlib also released a sequel of sorts to his classic 2005 collaboration. Don’t get too excited though – Madvillainy 2 is little more than a remix of the first album. As legend has it, Madlib had a particularly long flight and decided to remix the album in its entirety. It was never intended to see the light of day. Madlib thrives off this looseness and spontaneity (Madlib's 2000 classic Unseen was also made as a private joke and never intended for release), so it’s no surprise that this is probably more satisfying than Wigflip. Samples are plucked from the ether of musical obscurity, sliced, diced and strung together with a haphazardness that is both disorienting and hypnotizing. Commercial jingles, third-world pop, psych soul, racist comedy and samba are just some of the genres mined in this hallucinatory, lo-fi trip through Madlib’s frontal lobe. Less dark and more kitsch than its antecedent, this should hold over Madlib fans until the real thing (hopefully) drops.

When I spoke with Blu, he mentioned that his group Johnson & Jonson's producer Mainframe grew up in Oxnard and ran with the Stones Throw crowd. Listening to J&J’s self-titled debut album, the connection is evident. There’s a giddy schizophrenia to the record as it crosses genres. And while it’s tempting to get lost in Mainframe’s canvases, Blu is on point here. Much has been made of his skills as a confessional lyricist (think early Common or Talib), but Johnson & Jonson reveals Blu as a great rapper. Songs such as “Up All Night” and “Mama Always Tell Me” are filled with great and unexpected internal rhymes and quick, quirky flows. It’s a fun, goofy album, and though Blu’s potential is still largely untapped, Johnson & Jonson will definitely be a contender on my year-end list.

One album released recently that will definitely be on my year-end list is Black Milk’s Tronic. The accepted line on the Detroit emcee/producer is that he’s carrying Dilla’s torch. Viewing him exclusively through that prism is unfair. The helium-hook and jerky rhythm of “Give the Drummer Some” recalls Swizz Beatz, while also utilizing the organ-swell/hard drums juxtaposition commonly employed by Just Blaze. Black Milk’s drum work throughout (both in terms of sounds and programming) is ridiculous, and it instantly puts Milk in the upper echelon of hip-hop producers. His raps have also improved. He approaches the mic like a producer, concentrating on flows and rhythms before words. As a result, dude is not saying anything too deep, but he sounds great saying it.

One album released recently that caught me by surprise, though it really shouldn't have, was Heltah Skeltah’s new one, D.I.R.T. There’s something special about the combination of Rock and Ruck (nee Sean Price). Rock’s gravely snarl is a lot to take on its own, but it goes great with Price’s smoother baritone. And though Price’s solo albums have been good, they lack the humor or sheer propulsion of his work with Heltah Skeltah. The album largely begins where Magnum Force left off a decade ago, though this offering seems more self-consciously ignorant. Any question about whether their old chemistry is still there evaporates over the one-two punch of “Everything Is Heltah Skeltah” and “The Art of Disrespekinazation,”  where the two bounce jokes off one another and finish each other's lines. The glorious, messy "Da Beginning of the End" clatters about like a dozen other hip-hop songs carelessly stitched together, while "Hellz Kitchen" is dribbling, John Carpenter house of horror camp. The emcee's performance is likewise irreverent, taking shots at Rihanna, Lil Mama, Eminem and hipster rappers, while espousing the glory of living poor and hungry. This is one of the enjoyable hip-hop releases of 2008.

There have been a handful of other hip-hop releases this past month that have ranged from mediocre (People Under the Stairs lightweight Fun DMC) to hit-or-miss (Jake One’s White Van Music), but, if nothing else, it’s great to see indie hip-hop’s A Team actually releasing music. You have to question the wisdom of the labels who decided upon a crowded Q3 release schedule, but, as a listener, it’s a good problem to have.

Comments

[Dart_Adams]

Are you serious? There were NO indie Hip Hop albums released in the first 8 months of this year with no replay value? What else would you expect from someone who dares to write about indie Hip Hop and consider Black Milk a "rookie".

I would write out a list of about 25 indie Hip Hop releases from the first 8 months of 2008 that I'm pretty sure you never heard or even know existed. You called Jake One's "White Van Music" "hit-or-miss" so no one should even take your opinion seriously.

You dared to compare ANYTHING made by Black Milk to Swizz Beats (when has Swizz EVER got his drums to sound like that)? Sam Chennault, you should be barred from commenting on Hip Hop altogether.

SMH.

One.

[Dart_Adams]

Blue Scholars were "rookies", too...back in 2003/4. SMH.

One.

[Sam Chennault]

Rookie may have been the wrong word, but the rest is a matter of opinion. There were several good hip-hop albums (Elzhi, Guilty Simpson, J-Live, Flying Lotus, C.R.A.C., Fat Ray spring to mind), but few had replay value after the first two or three weeks. In general, things have been slow.

Black Milk did freak the vocal sample in "Give The Drummer Sum" in a way that reminded me of Swizz Beatz. I wasn't comparing their drum sounds. As I said later in the graph, Black's drum sounds are ridiculous.

Jake One is a good producer, but his album was a collection of leftovers. There were a few good cuts (hence the "hit or miss" bit), but his finest work is elsewhere.