It’s that time again. Time to relax your mind, set your conscience free. You’re now rolling with the sounds of your homey P. PF, that is. That’s right, it’s Friday, and in case you’ve been living under a not very fun rock, I am the Musical Nectar Selector, the iGod of your iPod, the Fix, Pretty Flaco. Once again it’s on, I’m back in the [sexual acting toward your mother] booth, with the [continuing sexual act toward your mother] truth, in mixtape form. But before we get to that, a thought…

For those of you who spend as much time digging in the crates as PF (and that’s the best you can hope for, because unless you live on some moon with extra hours in a day, you ain’t beating me), you may have noticed that an event which would, in most musical circles, be a major event occurred: A new Jay-Z single leaked. And while I’m sure everyone and their brother is going to be hailing it as the harbinger of another genre saving album, I’m sad, and it has largely to do with this column; Jay’s latest leak will NOT be making the Week-ness. I don’t care if it’s Jay. I don’t care if the rest of rap is in ruins. Here, you listen…

Or don’t. I certainly don’t anymore; it’s too sad. This single, if nothing else, proves what I’ve been afraid of ever since Jay released Volume 3: Jay-Z may go down as the greatest waste of influence in musical history. Think of great rock bands, who passed their sound on from generation to generation. The same is clearly true of electronica, the result of which is probably the richest genre in music (PF will beat you with his keyboard if you say that you don’t “go to raves,” you sonic Neanderthal).

In rap, this has always been the case as well. Rappers routinely trace the inspiration for their flow back through the artists from which they have borrowed, like Biggie and Pac from KRS and Kool G Rap, and subsequent generations from both of these two. Yet Jay has not had this kind of musical progeny; he’s never taken on a real apprentice (Bleek was more of a good friend who could rap; Beanie was more of a Big follower than a Jay apprentice). Furthermore, it appears unlikely that anyone will use his legacy to build upon, as Death Row did with Pac or Bad Boy did with Biggie. Every attempt Jay has made to do the same has been met with, at best, mixed results (read: I think Memph Bleek sells books at a table on Amsterdam and 110th).

In the end, unfortunate timing combined with an abandonment of responsibility has left Jay’s influence in its present state. For better or for worse, southern rap’s growth coincided with the peak of Jay’s artistry. Translation: While PF was bumping Volume 2 in the car, he was getting crunk on the Discman. Jay’s willingness to bend his own style to the influence of his southern neighbors certainly bought him at least a decade’s worth of dominance in urban music, but it also sealed his fate as a tastemaker. Instead of finding the man who would carry his torch and his sound into the future, Jay was finding ways to secure his own throne, leaving the future to the bottom coast invaders. As a result, Jay sells records, and he sells an image, but he no longer sells a sound that anyone can build upon, both because doing so is so much more difficult than the current sound on top of the charts and because Jay never took the time to groom an artist the way he was groomed (an art that urban music has forgotten all about). With this single, Jay seems to have finally given in and let rap’s ugly present wash over him. He’ll tell us, I’m sure, that he was just trying to make music that was hot, and we’ll all know that he’s exactly right, and that’s the problem; while he was busy making what was hot, he could have been deciding what was hot.

But enough of me crying to old Jay records. On to the Week-ness!

Monday:
Gnarls Barkley – “Run”

Speaking of artists who push the music forward, Gnarls Barkley returns with a leaked single from their upcoming sophomore effort. The aptly titled “Run” picks up with the same energy that made their debut a hit. Cee-Lo, who tragically lost the race for “pioneering black rock artist of the decade” to Andre 3000 (who really should have stuck with rapping after “Hey Ya”), infuses Danger Mouse’s frenetic soundscape with a sense of danger, returning after each stanza to the frantic command to RUN!!! Whatever it is we’re panicking about, this track should make us all grateful for it.

Tuesday:
General Elektriks f/ Mr. Lif – “Requiem for a Neo-Con”

PF has been in a funk all week, and when the mood gets funky, the Week-ness gets murky. This track is the standard bearer for the week’s shade of gray, with Paris-born, Cali-bred keyboardist General Elektriks teaming up with Def Jux rapper Mr. Lif to create a thumping, dark blend of hollow snares and perky synths. Feeling like a new age Wu-Tang effort, the song is filled with the kind of playful darkness that made early 90’s east coast rap great, yet is infused with a sort of Caribbean flare that makes it irresistibly danceable. So just because PF is sour when he picks it doesn’t mean you can’t be sweet when you play it.

Wednesday:
XL – “Hate Yourself”

One day, PF is going to put together a mixtape of the greatest bitter R&B songs of the last 30 years, and you can bet that this unspeakably mean yet undeniably well written track will be on it. A few years old, yet still fresh (largely due to the fact that nobody was checking for R&B mixtapes at the time), XL comes through with the ultimate breakup song for angry dudes, penning a scathing ode to an ex that must have done something very, very wrong. Whatever your current status is, you’re lying if you don’t understand the catchy hook that you’ll be reciting after you’re done with this one.

On a side note, it’s very telling that as every other genre of urban music gets more and more repetitive, R&B somehow finds ways to continue to expand and experiment. Take note, rapper looking for the next awful trend in jewelry : SUBJECT MATTER IS THE KEY, and when you’ve got love as your inspiration, how can you not find something fresh to bring to the table (See? I AM a ROMANTIC, people! Stop hating on PF’s fondness for R&Bitter!!!)

Thursday:
Howlermonkey – “Life on the Beat Part 1&2”

Sounding like a depressant loaded Justice (HINTHINTHINTHINT), electronic musicians Pittsburgh based DJ (something in the water in that town…) Howlermonkey delivers a decidedly trippy affair, dropping guttural synths on top of spacey female vocals and the pitter patter of rhythmic drums. With each addition, the song seems to get another, previously unseen sonic nook or cranny. At its finest, music a journey, and “Life on the Beat” is certainly a trip that winds you up in a very different place than where you began, satisfied for having made the trek.

Friday:
Deepside – “Booty Music”

You know what? I’m not even going to try and excuse this selection. Nor do I have to; MUSIC IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN (PF is talking to YOU, kid spending all day in the dark listening to your Joy Division collection). Here, over a track produced by T-Pain (whose use of the vocoder and synth work has made him more INFLUENTIAL to MUSIC than Jay-Z…hold on while I get my bulletproof vest after that…), Deepside, whose MySpace page is NOT a good look , creates a breezy, lighthearted affair. Love, and its second cousin Making Love, aren’t always heavy, so why should every song about them be? Whoever said that music wasn’t fun anymore can hold my coat; PF is going dancing.

Saturday:
Flosstradamus – “Girlie Rock”

PF has an editor at SphereMagazine.com (YOUR NUMBER ONE DESTINATION FOR ALL THINGS URBANE CULTURE…/shameless plug) who we’ll call the Handler. Basically, she’s responsible for keeping me on schedule and in line, and because, as Jack Nicholson taught us in A Few Good Men, “there’s nothing sexier than a woman that you have to salute,” when she makes a recommendation, it gets play on the Week-ness. Thankfully for all of you, The Handler has a good ear, as this mix by Flosstradamus is everything that genre blending is supposed to be. Equal parts dance, electronica, and hip hop, Flosstradamus shows here that they’re just as good at going dark as they are at letting their fun flag fly. The resulting compilation of sounds defies any definition other than funky. Mark my words, we’re moving toward an era when the only sections in record stores will be “funky” and “left behind.”

Sunday:
Billy Danze (of M.O.P) – “God Bless & Good Night”

Why not close out the week with an east coast rapper who, whatever else you can say about him, at least made the effort to advance the music in his image. Over a sonic death march of a track, Billy Danze’s trademark anger is infused with a sadness that has been absent from M.O.P’s music, and the sound is better for it. Instead of the hit or miss madness, this track remains constantly grounded in a sense of desperation and reminiscence, heralding the glories of its creator, whether or not anyone else ever heralds it. Go out with a bang or don’t go out at all, says Danze; PF agrees.

del.icio.us! | Share on Facebook

See Also:

No related posts

<-->

This entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 6:09 am and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.