Spoek Mathambo/Big K.R.I.T.
Think Positive--Or Not
Spoek Mathambo: Father Creeper (Sub Pop)
Although I slotted this Soweto-raised 27-year-old's 2010 Mshini Wam as promising kwaito electro, I never imagined it promised a hip-hop record so dark it reveals his labelmate Shabazz Palaces for the arty pothead we can assume he is. Contra the nervous crits who claim to hear a "palpable feeling of hope" or "summery highlife melodies" (highlife, eh? I've heard of that‑-African, right?), even the sweet opener about the sexual maturation of a guy who was feeling it before his pubes came in ends ominously. After that come evocations of oppression only more brutal because they're sometimes dissociated‑-blood diamonds, why we hate our crap jobs, the deadening surrender of the tricking American hip-hop makes light of. The music suits because it's also dissociated‑-beaty enough to keep your foot tapping and your subconscious involved, but devoid of the escapist joy that is the miracle of so much Afropop produced from equally horrendous daily struggles. A
Big K.R.I.T.: 4Eva N a Day (free download)
He was just Kritikal, but the Mississippi underground had trouble pronouncing that word‑-check out the consonant-averse "1986" intro to understand why‑-so he made it Big K.R.I.T., claimed it stood for King Remembered in Time, and continued a rapping career that imagined high school coaching as a fallback. No hip-hopper has ever been bigger on getting up when you're down and making every minute count. Could get tiresome, but on a no-cameos mixtape Def Jam couldn't clear, his proudly drawled, lucidly conceived preachments go undefeated. Almost every soulful track grew on me, with the clincher "Down & Out," one of his periodic explanations of why sometimes he sips and smokes instead of trying yet again. A MINUS
(But by then there was a restaurant right next door called Casablanca which was a sentimental piece of crap.)
Closing very shortly, I am told. Food's been rot for years and even before that I never forgave them for destroying the old bar where I spent the end of the '70s and the dawn of the '80s turning gray matter to rot. Best jukebox ever.
Related: is anyone else deeply annoyed by the inclusion of '80s hair metal in the 'classic rock' category?
Not much - it kinda makes sense. Take Journey/Foreigner/Styx-style corporate-rock, add sex and a vaguely rebellious stance and emphasis on image - it's where things were headed all along.
But I'm wondering if that means that at some point many will push Fleetwood Mac, Little Feat, CCR, anything that doesn't fit the Grand Funk/ Bad Company template will be pushed out as some kind of other thing.
Even simpler than that, what is already starting to happen is the 70s getting pushed out of the classic rock radio canon, the way that the 60s vanished from it years ago. Same thing is happening with oldies radio, give or take a decade.
sangfreud- This i got from Wide Right's Facebook page
The Triumphant return of Wide Right- Friday May 11th at Hanks Saloon, 46 3rd Ave Brooklyn, 8:30-11:30.
Hope this helps, wish I could go but i'm in Seattle. Hopefully some of you will go and show our collective support for this under appreciated band
I did go the the Brattle Theater to see Casablanca
Ah Milo, you're so sweet. But I have long forgiven my father. He does the best he can with the hand he's been given -- his parents treated him like garbage, never gave him the support and acceptance he so clearly craved, yet despite that, he loves me the best he can. His love for me has never been in doubt. Whenever he is cruel to others -- and that's often --- I feel for him, because his heart's been broken for a very long time. The best I can do is to give my friends and family and my wife the support that he couldn't give to those around him -- to live my life by his reverse example. But I'm glad that my little story about my life has given you insight enough into my soul to advance me a little empathy.
we will always be far outnumbered by the Chicago people
I was much more shaped by the '70s than the '60s -- stuck in small-town MT, I might as well have been on an island in the South Pacific. I've always resisted three widespread impulses:
1. The need to declare the '60s (or the Boomers) where the action was and where have all the prime times gone? I thought the "we're too late for the party" tone of the early '70s was crap.
2. The later, backlash attitude that the '60s were an un-American aberration that had nothing to teach nobody and were best buried and forgotten.
3. The still-later smug attitude that the '70s were only a curdled joke version of the '60s that had nothing to teach etc.
Now, I did go the the Brattle Theater to see Casablanca just so I could say I'd done it, but it felt touristy. And I never did get around to checking out the Rocky Horror ceremonies, mostly because the coolster consensus was that it was by and large for straight squares out for their idea of a wild and kicky time.
Such qualifications aside, I found Mr. Tatum's comments, how you say?, illuminating.
“It’s crazy,” he said, at one point, “you know, some of the things, some of the things I think about the daily, is just really wanting my people to be safe.”
Someone yelled back, amused and faintly superior: “What you think about, bro?”
Lil B thought about it. “Man, safety,” he said. “I’ll be thinking about. Real talk, everybody, make sure you wear seatbelts, for real.”
More laughter, obviously, but here’s the thing. Lil B does not intend that answer as a “f-ck you” (he is just respecting the question he’s been asked, and answering it with guileless honestly), and the person laughing at the answer is not receiving it as a “f-ck you” (he is merely entertained), but it is totally, in its function, a kind of wonderful f-ck-you, is it not?
As one of the many straight camp fans round these parts, I'd like to make this observation...
I don't think camp is big with straight people of Milo's generation because honesty/sincerity was a big issue in regards to Vietnam, Nixon, etc. So when people don't straight talk them, it rankles. So I can understand that.
Camp (and irony) is big with people my age because....
Your post was blocked because it appears similar to spam or green eggs and ham which I will not try Sam I am.
Ok, nobody's happy with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But dude, really? Styx? KISS? Chicago over the Beastie Boys????
You can't possibly have any idea how bent out of shape AOR/classic rock people get over R&RHOF inductees. Tedious rants like that one come out every single year, each one more predictable than the last. And they get the comment sections they deserve.
It's a useful reminder that though the Ramones have been kinda sorta vaguely accepted in the canon by a segment of the mainstream, we will always be far outnumbered by the Chicago people.
about the blogger
Starting in 1967, Robert Christgau has covered popular music for The Village Voice, Esquire, Blender, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He teaches in New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, maintains a comprehensive website at robertchristgau.com, and has published five books based on his journalism. He has written for MSN Music since 2006.
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