It's not exactly fair listening to an entire album, after recently having played a gig. It's like presenting someone with a pizza, right after they gorged themselves on steak, or maybe white castle... I'm thinking my band gigs would be more analogous with the latter in that I associate both with copious amounts of alcohol.I'm a fan of Lauryn Hill's singing; I've heard of Wyclef even before his Hatian political aspirations but wouldn't be able to place his voice; and I remember a couple hit songs from The Score, Fugees second and last studio album.This is my launching pad.
Red Intro- A spoken word movie hype-type intro that reminds me of an annoying version of Flava Flav... as if there's another kind.
How Many Mics- Lauryn Hill's rapping in the first verse.. powerful and mesmerizing. Wyclef's on the 2nd verse, solid. Pras on the third verse, even more so. Over all, very clever use of rhythmic word parsing rhyme "Hands get calloused, from grippin' microphones from here to Dallas, Go ask Alice if you don't believe me, I get Inner Visions like Stevie, See me, ascend from the chalice, like the weed be."
Ready or Not- If Lauryn's rapping didn't grab you, her singing will. Enya sued the Fugees for unauthorized use of her song Boadicea. I'm pretty sure the Delfonics didn't sue for the use of Ready or Not. In a 2008 interview President Obama listed this as his favorite song.
Zealots- Built on the sample of "I only have eyes for you" Even Lauren has a hard time making the tight loop of the music not sound repetitious. I won't hear the Flamingo's hit the same way again.
The Beast- I think the beast is corruption, in government, politics, police. "Say can't you see cops more crooked than we, by the dawn's early night robbin' niggas for keys." "Probable cause got flaws like dirty drawers" There's also a memorable line early in the song about one of the republican candidates. The karate "movie" at the end is a nice bonus.
Fu-Gee-La- was the first single from the album. Who's old enough to remember Teena Marie? Wow, again big thanks to the Internet for giving me the lyrics to read along. So much great detail coming at you fast, I would have otherwise missed all the words while hypnotized by the great Ramsey Lewis sample of If Lovin' You is Wrong.
Family Business- "If I should fall asleep and death takes me away, don't be surprised son, I wasn't put here to stay" The weaving of chorus & verse by Lauren, Wyclef, and guest rappers Forte and Omega... it's clever and engaging. There's reference of mafioso type street violence-- family here references that.
Killing Me Softly- This is a song that should fall under the "played to death" category, but I think I still have a few hundred times I could hear it without getting my fill. Rap and hip hop was never my thing, but a song I did love was A Tribe Called Quest's Bonita Applebaum who's sample drops early and often in this song. When you have the vocal goods, you don't need processing, effects, or frankly instruments. Lauren Hill is living proof of this.
The Score- The title track from the album, has two verses of Wyclef self promoting while referring to himself in the third person-- not impressed. Lauryn is such a gifted singer, it's almost unfair that her rapping is better than both Wyclef and Pras. Put the W in L's column, that's the Score.
The Mask- Great use of samples, horns, trombones... the rap is intelligent, it reminds me of the message behind Billy Joel's The Stranger. The ending of the song has Nights in White Satin from The Moody Blues.
Cowboy- A slam on the rap industry's image of rapper thugs, when in reality most are posers. Possibly a diss on Tupac? I like the nods to Kenny Roger's Gambler and Michael Jackson's Wanna Be Startin' Something.
No Woman, No Cry- Wyclef covers Bob Marley's classic. I'm happy to say they didn't go too far off the original, at least musically. Lyrically, it's an account of life in Brooklyn and Jersey. Trenchtown = Trenton.
Manifest/Outro- To Wyclef, it's weed, Jesus and crooked cops. To Lauren, it's heart, truth, and life. Praz, violence and/or maybe the cowboys. Each builds their rap around the word Manifest. Perhaps their breakup was manifest destiny. The outro reminds me of an old radio program, a black Prairie Home Companion?
Tom Petty sang "You don't have to live your life like a refugee". Maybe the band took this advice to heart-- not long after the success and two Grammy's garnered from this album, they broke up. What struck me about this album are the almost acrobatic rhythmic rhyme and flow of Ms. Lauryn Hill (I was already a fan of her singing.)
Hip Hop can be such a great link to other music, like the aforementioned Ramsey Lewis and his cover that I'd never heard before. It can be clever, thought provoking, and intelligent; and sometimes I lose sight of this amid all the bravado, mafioso-rap, and feuding. Perhaps it was I and not Lauryn that was Miseducated.
Next Up- #476 The Paul Butterfield Blues Band- The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965)
No comments:
Post a Comment