For some reason, I didn't write about Crime Mob's 'Hated On Mostly' when it came out because I didn't feel like getting into debates about "real hip-hop" and "minstrelsy" even though I basically started one here, but that's how I roll, right? Anyways, 'Hated On Mostly' isn't great but it's quite good and as the initial excitement of 'Return of the Mac' and to a lesser extent, 'Waitin' To Inhale' wears off, ranking 'Hated On Mostly' right alongside doesn't seem quite as outrageous. 'Circles' seems to be getting some radio play and a whole lot of satellite radio play and it, more than any other track on 'Hated On Mostly' could appeal to those generally dismissive of stuff like Crime Mob.
The song, produced by Dirty Doc Jam, was previously used on some mixtape-only (I think) Gangsta Boo track, and samples the Friends of Distinction's 'Going In Circles'. Rooted in a derivative but still well-done chipmunk-soul approximation, the track really moves due to wise changes in beat and subtle production touches. It begins quietly, the chipmunk soul barely audible, slowly increasing in volume. It is drum-less, just an extended section of the original song in chipmunk mode for the first thirty seconds or so. The song finally begins when the Southern drums come-in, accompanied by 'Going In Circles's wobbly bassline which Doc Jam weaves in and out of the beat, mixing it low-to-silent during a 'Stay Fly'-ish stuttering of the "round and round" part of the Friends' chorus and then bringing it right back even louder and more lively when Lil J starts his verse. The baroquey strings of the original also go through the verse but cleverly change from emotive during Lil J's verse to swelling and bathetic during Princess's. The chipmunk-soul chorus is bypassed when moving from verse one to verse two, perhaps because Lil J's 16 bars, while introductory in the sense of telling you this isn't a "beat your ass" song from Crime Mob, is really underwhelming.
The horns heard during the first verse are also removed for Princess' but after her verse, the horns, the strings, the wobbly bassline, the chipmunk chorus, and an additional chipmunk vocal sample, all show up for an extended chorus that feels more like a bridge due to its length and added power. The sample is finally allowed to breathe for this bridge/chorus thing and then, when Diamond comes in, it is appropriately strangled by the conventions of Southern shout-rap and production. The production is like 'International Players Anthem' or 'Stay Fly' (both produced by Three-Six Mafia, which Crime Mob's sound is totally derivative of) in its ability to bridge the contemplative, soul-sampling New York style with the in-your-face immediacy and simplicity of Southern rap. I sort of see it as a concession to another region but ultimately, the song benefits and ideally, it might attract the attention of those less willing to sit through songs by the guys who made 'Rock Yo Hips'.
Earlier in the week, I tried to unpack the pros and cons of 9th Wonder and others' Pete Rock-fixated production, ultimately finding the revivalist style to be ineffective; It rarely makes excellent music, it rarely makes terrible music, it just sort of sits in the middle. I think 'Circles' may actually be one of the better Pete Rock approximations of late. It has Rock's subtle complexity down, the way one must, with each verse and chorus, change it up a bit, never letting the listener feel totally comfortable. It also gives agile and even, semi-agile rappers a lot more room to have fun and be interesting and here, Crime Mob, especially the girls, respond in-kind.
Crime Mob do a good Three-Six Mafia impression just as Joell Ortiz or Little Brother do a good boom-bap impression. Like those artists, when moved slightly out of their comfort zone, Crime Mob can do something a little more interesting. I'd add, that just as Little Brother's Southern roots and great sense of humor separate them from well, the Joell Ortiz-type boom-bap revivalists, Crime Mob's female rappers separate the group from being uninteresting. While Three-Six's female rappers just rapped the same as dudes, kinda tagging along, Crime Mob's females dominate every song, precariously balancing their femininity while never using their gender as a schtick.
Most female rappers do their best tough-male interpretation (which never works), isolate themselves by exclusively focusing on female issues, or go bo-hoe-mian, super-sensitively rapping a feminist, socially "concious" bit that's already annoying when male rappers do it. The last kind of rapper is perfectly parodied on Ghostface's 'Wildflower' which begins with an anonymous female MC rapping some typical over-confident bullshit: "I'm mind-shockin', body-rockin'/Money-makin', earth-shakin'/Sittin' high, lookin' fly, drinkin' on the best wine-" Ghostface then comes in with full-force, not on some contrived passion but serious, earned hunger, nearly screaming: "Yo bitch, I fucked your friend/Yeah, you stink hoe-". Haven't you wanted to say that to any number of piss-poor female MCs at an open mic, getting by and earning respect only because they're broads?!
Perhaps it's because 'Circles' forces the rappers to be vulnerable and females can more safely navigate into the world of admission and weakness, but Lil J and Killa C are the ones adopting the persona while the female rappers give off an amazing mix of confidence and vulnerability and everything in between. Killa C just talks about thongs and a five-hour fuck session, while Lil C drums-up the default guy response, only for a moment, shifting away from it with the line "I'll be the first one to listen" but eventually devolving into dumb-assed threats of physical violence. Princess' delivery on the other hand, doesn't waver, adding a tinge of palpable anger to her mature concerns about being with basically, a lying jerkoff. She isn't desperate, she asserts, she just wants this dude to be real. If he doesn't love her, that's fine, just why the fuck would you say it if you don't mean it: "I don't read between the lines/So, you need to get to talkin'/Spell it and out and make it clear/Don't tell me what I wanna hear". In a way though, Princess' verse and Diamond's (which I'll get to in a minute) saves Lil C's and makes Killa C's irrelevant because it positions the males as two voices in an ongoing male-female dialogue. Here, the girls just end-up winning the debate. Even if their verses aren't in a direct-address with one another (although they are on the song 'Don't Need Ya'), the strange mix of the male and female perspective on every song, complicates the songs a great deal.
Speaking of which, the complication award goes to Diamond, who really, should just drop the rest of Crime Mob, or steal their beats and make a solo album. Male rappers have a script when describing love. First, they lovingly or objectifyingly describe the woman's assets, then they say something about how she gives him the space he needs, and they invoke children or marriage. Female rappers generally provide light allusions to sex, some compliments to the guy's physique, but generally focus entirely on the mental feelings love brings on. Diamond's verse merges thosee physical feelings of sex with the mental feelings of love, making the verse way different from love-song conventions but way more realistic. She describes the increased connection sex brings on "Now, my body once I got him/Fulfilling all my needs/He had me fiendin', obscenin'/I mean it-" but she then, does not separate the feelings from sex or somehow suggest she has grown beyond or "above" well, fucking. The last few lines pretty much describe a female orgasm: "He got me going' in circles/As dizzy as I wanna be/Down through my toes deep into my soul", and then she ends, with the very-honest and sincerely delivered "Man, I want him badly". '
The song is sexual in a way that is really visceral ("just smellin' his breeze") without being Lil Kim obscene or shockingly "dirty". It has a 1950s rock music quality in its ability to be dirty and innocent and this is brought to a girl-group level of bad-boy obsession because the middle of Diamond's verse seems to be about her being under-aged: "I really want him, yes I want him/But the law disagrees/Our love's illegal, certain people/Man, I wish they could see me/He got me goin' in circles..." It adds a weird level of the sex technically being rape but nevertheless, it remains a well-wrought portraint of angsty, immediate, teenage sex and love, something that is rarely addressed anywhere with anything resembling accuracy or sympathy. On par with as I said before, old 50s songs, or maybe a movie like 'River's Edge' or Charles Burns' graphic novel 'Black Hole'...
Wow. Not bad for a group of supposed "minstrels"...
UPDATES:
DocZeus in the comments section dropped the bomb that Diamond's verse is probably about weed, which makes me look like an over-analytical asshole.
Also, Noz posted the original Gangsta Boo song (from which the 'Circles' beat came) with some background info.
8 comments:
Spot on dude. Diamond goes all Ronnie Spector with the sexual tension and just kills it. Her verse jumps off the track the first time you hear it. Love this track.
Agreed. Even on a shallow level (I really only listen to a lot of recent stuff out of curiosity, and the prerequisite is continuing the ridiculous post-Jiggy era porduction of the 00's...seriously shits musically retarded on a RZA level and I love it, the rappers and lyrics, not so much, but that's why I love the Clipse mixtapes.) I thought the girls were clearly more interesting lyrically, even back around "Nuck If You Buck".
The minstrelsy thing is weird because there is a lot of (LOTS, and its just systemic of issues black america needs to take care real soon seeing as the Hispanic american community just stole their shine as the largest ethnic "minority" in the US) basis and examples of this, and sell-outs and ignorant, detrimental cash-ins are nothing new, but it feels like a lot of people, I myself used to be one years ago, are ashamed of or embarrased by the South.
We view our northern heritage the same way other ethnicities do, as smarter or superior or whatever, so a lot of Southern culture (and lets be real, black America exists in its purest form in the South, project and hood culture is superficial, let me get some corn breed and greens in Atlanta, ramble ramble ramble) gets viewed as akin to your friend acting way too extroverted and you feeling embarrassed and hating because people are enjoying his behavior.
People up north forget that black southerners just act like that, so its weird for pseudo-intellectuals to scapegoat so many Southern MC's.
Chris-
Very interesting post. I'm hanging out with my grandmother (seriously) right now, so I can't respond but I've addressed some of your comments here, if you're interested:
In Defense of Southern Production
Yes. That is a very interesting post Chris. I look foward to reading Brandon's response..........
As far as "Circles", Diamond's verse actually has a double meaning...You've already stated the obvious, but the latent inspiration of her verse is her love for Mary Jane....True story.
Doc-
That makes a whole lot of sense if its about weed, much more sense than my OVER-interpretation...Oh well...
Chris-
Sorry, I'm real late on this but I've been a bit busy and I generally like to respond properly...
I considered making this a blog and still might, but here we go-
Real good comments, ones I can only discuss or I guess "argue" against through opinion, so don't see this as a corrective to your response or something-
If you get a chance, do read my Southern production post because it explains some of my points way better than what I'll probably say here.
First, embarassment about the South. This is certainly true in the world of white culture as well, but a great deal more in black culture.
Whites, due to having way more options open, more economic chances, etc. have found a way to often disconnect themselves from their own Southern roots. Almost every white middle-class family I know of has some "white trash" or redneck in its background. A loser sister, a drunk-ass cracker brother, etc etc.
Whites somehow, sort of split their personality in a way that allows them to occasionally invoke this redneck-ness and at other times, ignore it or act as though they have transcended it.
They have also found a way to manipulate, play-up, play-down the redneck stereotype for convenience. There's a guy named George Bush who due to his accent convinced many he wasn't a prick son of a millionaire but an "Everyman".
American Blacks, due to oh...stuff like SLAVERY, can often connect all of their roots to the South, making it harder to shake-off. Also, even the white man with the most extreme of Southern accents and Southern mannerisms, if he has money or power can get respect. Not necessarily the same for Southern blacks.
The question, which you Chris, can probably answer better than I is: Why are Whites not embarassed by their Southern whites pals as blacks are of their Southern black pals?
I mean, I know many of the obvious answers, but I'm posing it anyways. When it comes to issues of, stuff like "double consciousness" it makes sense but not entirely.
I say not entirely because IF ONLY white racism were so hip and aware of nuance. Okay, if Lil Scrappy speaks to an audience or Barack Obama, even the most vile racist will see the difference, But the difference between say, the RZA and Lil Scrappy? The racist will see a thug and stick as many stereotypes upon both of them. You know?
I also think, political influence plays into this. The South is the home of Martin Luther King and that 60s style of race relations. Certainly this stuff existed all over but the East and West coasts were a bit more influenced by the radical politics of Black Power. From a Northern point of view, I think the South looks constantly in deference to white supremacy.
There are also major differences in race realities. I live in Baltimore, MD, which is this weird place considered Northern sometimes and Southern other times. Baltimore is a city, but it is surrounded by counties and 45 mins outside of Baltimore, you get real farming areas both North and South of the city.
I think, from my experience, it highlights the difference in the way race is dealt with. While the city folk, often liberal, democratic, "urbane" will preach tolerance and understanding, they often are much more racist than their more upfront Southern racists.
In the South, a farmer might explicitly say he hates black people, casually use the word "nigger" but he, probably deals with, interacts, converses, works along side of black people on a daily basis! The racism is in a way, in ideology but isn't as practiced while Northerners do shit like move-out when blacks come into the neighborhood..
My point? In some ways (SOME) the South is less racist and more pragmatic about race relations. Some of the complacency and weird in-between-ness of Southern blacks comes out of this complex Southern interaction.
Although I see what you mean, as an idea- I do not agree with the idea of Southern black culture being "purer". I think the divisive-ness is stranger, the races/classes a bit more assimilated. This allows Southern blacks to act less "distinguished"; they certainly aren't dumber. You say they "just" act that way but even that, I just don't buy because it implies tiers of sophistication that I don't personally think exist.
for Crime Mob lovers: new album here
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100791/
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