#ATOZCHALLENGE, Day 12: Lyrics Born

On April 14, 2015March 31, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn MusicLeave a comment

Artist: Lyrics Born
Best Album: Everywhere At Once
Best Song: I’m Just Raw
This Letter Could Have Been About: LL Cool J, Lady Sovereign, Language Arts Crew, Latyrx

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: I’m kinda tempted to say “Because he’s half-Japanese” and leave it at that, but– while it’s true, and while his ethnic background definitely informs his work, the simple fact is that the guy is talented as all hell, and– true to his name– one of the more lyrically inventive MCs working today. True fact: my go-to Pandora station is a mix of Lyrics Born and Atmosphere stations, and it pulls in so much good shit from other artists who I’d otherwise never have heard of that it makes my Pandora One subscription worth it all by itself. He’s also got a live album out, which is not an achievement many rappers can boast of, and he’s the “yrx” part of Latyrx along with Lateef tha Chief. Latryx is awesome as hell too.

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#ATOZCHALLENGE, Day 11: K’naan

On April 13, 2015March 31, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Music3 Comments

Artist: K’naan
Best Album: Troubador
Best Song: Fatima
This Letter Could Have Been About: KRS-One, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Kid ‘N’ Play, Kool and the Gang, Kool Moe Dee, Kwame’

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: I love this guy’s work, particularly Troubador, so much that he managed to make me put KRS-ONE under “B” and thus knock the fucking Beastie Boys off of my list. Go download Troubador right now and listen to it; it’s goddamn magnificent. There are at least four other songs on that album that would be the best song on any other album, and Fatima, the best song on the album, is probably a top-50-all-time song for me. This damn song had me in tears the first time I listened to it, and still gets to me now after literally hundreds of listens. K’naan is amazing. Everyone should listen to him.

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#ATOZCHALLENGE, Sunday Supplement 2: Nicki Minaj

On April 12, 2015March 31, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Music2 Comments

Artist: Nicki Minaj
Best Album: Pink Friday … Roman Reloaded
Best Song: Starships

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: Because N has N.W.A and M has Monie Love, and I can’t allow Nicki Minaj to get pushed out of this series of posts. Nicki Minaj doesn’t get nearly enough credit for being as talented as she is; throw in her complete lack of giving a fuck about what anyone thinks and her absolute dedication to (take your pick) either sex-positive raunch or pure filth (or maybe it’s both) and she’s simply someone who cannot be ignored. Roman Reloaded is a fascinating album on a political level before you even get to the music, guys; you really should give the whole thing a listen.

I’m expecting to catch some crap for declaring Starships her best song, but fuck it; it stuck with me because that was the song where I first realized how talented she was, and then I sought out the video and … well, we’ll just say the combination of green hair and pink bikini does things to me and leave it at that.

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#ATOZCHALLENGE, Day 10: Jean Grae

On April 11, 2015March 31, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Music2 Comments

Artist: Jean Grae
Best Album: Attack of the Attacking Things
Best Song: Hater’s Anthem
This Letter Could Have Been About: Jay-Z, Jurassic 5, Jin, Jungle Brothers

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: Because she’s a black female nerd rapper who named herself after an X-Man and the refrain of her song Hater’s Anthem is just her chanting “Fuck You” over and over again which I’ve always found weirdly endearing for some reason, especially since the rest of the song really does feature a lot of clever wordplay. Women are vastly underrepresented in hiphop (and I’ve unfortunately squeezed some good examples out in a few places in favor of male artists who I was just flat more fond of for one reason or another) and Jean Grae is absolutely the real thing. Plus she didn’t get started in the 1980s and pretty much every person I’ve talked about since the very first entry on this list has been someone I was listening to in middle school, so… yeah.

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#ATOZCHALLENGE, Day 9: Ice-T

On April 10, 2015March 31, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Music1 Comment

Artist: Ice-T
Best Album: The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech… Just Watch What You Say
Best Song: I’m Your Pusher
This Letter Could Have Been About: Ice Cube, Iggy Azalea, Immortal Technique

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: Because most of you fools think Ice-T is an actor. Nah. Ice-T invented gangster rap, for whatever that possibly-dubious achievement might be worth; his debut album Rhyme Pays came out a full year before N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton dropped. He hasn’t released a new album in quite a long time, but he has always been and remains one of the smartest motherfuckers in hiphop even if his TV persona Fin Tutuola is occasionally a little bit on the dim side. His earlier work in particular is blistering, and folks forget just how controversial he used to be before growing up and calming down.

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#ATOZCHALLENGE, Day 8: Heavy D & the Boyz

On April 9, 2015April 9, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Music1 Comment

Artist: Heavy D & the Boyz
Best Album: Big Tyme
Best Song: Now That We Found Love
This Letter Could Have Been About: Nobody I can think of right now. Heems, who I actually just discovered last week.

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: Because Hev was the guy I could always trot out when I was arguing with basically anyone about whether hiphop was some sort of brain-wasting swear-word-having evil cesspool, an argument that I feel like I must have been having weekly in middle school and high school. Half of the Boyz were backup dancers, and there’s something exuberant about even the group’s slower songs that I still love decades later. Heavy D & the Boyz were about fun to a degree that a lot of rap at the time simply wasn’t, and I’ll always love them for that. That said, backup dancer Trouble T-Roy’s untimely death at the age of 22 was the inspiration for one of hiphop’s first funeral songs, a thing that has practically become a subgenre by now; They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.) is the second video below.

Hev himself passed away of a coronary thrombosis in 2011. I miss you, brother.

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#ATOZCHALLENGE, Day 7: Gift of Gab

On April 8, 2015March 31, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Music3 Comments

Artist: Gift of Gab
Best Album: The Craft
Best Song: The Ride of Your Life
This Letter Could Have Been About: George Clinton, Geto Boys, Guru, GZA

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: Pure goddamn talent, that’s why. This is another case where I’m using a solo artist as a stand-in for his group work; Gift of Gab is also the frontman for Blackalicious, and The Craft is technically a Blackalicious album. All of the artists I’ve mentioned so far have specialized in bombast in one way or another; Gift of Gab is all about flow, to the point where I used to use The Ride of Your Life in my language arts classes to teach poetry. I’d play the song and tell the kids to use their hands to show me what the song was doing, and use that to pivot into a discussion of meter and flow. Gift of Gab is laid-back smooth hiphop, not party music– and, to be honest, picking a best song was almost irrelevant for him because the guy specializes in albums. His songs are frequently kinda gibberish, too; the song below being a good example. Paying attention to the words isn’t the point with Gift of Gab; turn it up a bit, lay back, close your eyes, and just listen to the sound.

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#ATOZCHALLENGE, Day 6: The Fat Boys

On April 7, 2015April 7, 2015 By Luther M. SilerIn Music2 Comments

Artist: The Fat Boys
Best Album: The Fat Boys
Best Song: Crushin’
This Letter Could Have Been About: The Fugees, Felt

Why I’m Writing About This Artist: Because the Fat Boys may very well have been the first hiphop I ever heard; it was either them or the Super Bowl Shuffle, right around 1984-85, with the Beastie Boys following soon after. Because they were fun and ridiculous and oh they were also the first group I ever heard beatboxing, a skill showcased in the video below. I’m writing these slightly out of order because I accidentally skipped F and didn’t notice until I got to H. When you get there, in a couple of days, read everything I said about hiphop being fun and apply it back to the Fat Boys, too except that they were always a lot sillier than everybody else. It’s hard not to be, if you call yourselves the Fat Boys.

Another fun fact: The Fat Boys are one of a very small group of rappers to do actual remakes of other songs. Their versions of Chubby Checker’s Twist and the Beach Boys’ Wipeout are both a hell of a lot of fun.

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