I’m trying to atone for my sins as a former music snob, and today I’m doing it by listening to old hip-hop. I used to be quick to criticize pop styles that I didn’t think were “heavy” enough. But every time I said I didn’t like a particular genre, a counterexample would present itself. Fela Kuti destroyed my dislike of world music; Patsy Cline shattered my hatred of Country and Western.
So I’m trying to learn to like other kinds of music, and to do it I’ll have to do three things:
Let go of needing the music to mirror my own culture, and instead use it to learn about another one, sort of like trying ethnic food.
Look beyond the trappings of style, because they sometimes make good music do bad things. Country artists tend to sing about alcohol abuse and infidelity. Rappers can drop the “N” bomb a lot. I’ll take this as a challenge to go deeper into the intrinsic qualities of the music.
Accept also that most music of any genre is bad. I like rock; most of it is horrible. So I won’t judge a style by what I hear on commercial radio and instead listen to the stuff the connoisseurs like; they can separate the wheat from the chaff for me.
So I tried listening to Gang Starr, a rap duo from Boston, active in the 80s and 90s. Musicians and critics cite them as influential, and I can see why. Gang Starr’s beats are incisive yet cool and jazz-influenced. The lyrical flow is expressive and conversational. There’s no shouting here - just a quiet confidence that can only come from understatement.
Thumbs up from me, and this is coming from someone who used to hate rap.
