post006: tempo sets modes.

While working on drums for the new ish, I get whipped over the head with all these tempo combos based on math and such. I trip out because in my time of rapping over other folks production, I have ripped every tempo between 56 and 145, This is to the nearest decimal place that you can come up with. And while hip-hop/rap is a linguistically viral medium, (meaning that, while you can use any instrument on any manner of genre based on the instrument’s interpretation of the genre’s theme, if you incorporate elements that are commonly found in hip-hop, it then becomes a genre based in the macro-file of hip-hop based musics and judged as such.) if a person (i.e. me) engages in rapping over instrumental styles not common in rap (e.g. songs with no percussion or rhythm section, songs incorporating instruments normally filed in ethnic sections of music stores, uptempo music not normally used for hip-hop, etc), then they find themselves subject to the supposition of “muddying the water” or mixing up genres in a foolhardy attempt to commodify and ultimately trivialize hip-hop and it’s standing, yet another time in it’s long and storied history.

We can use the recent wave of people crossing genres and rhyming over dance music, for an example. More than one experienced and technically sound emcee went over to the dance set in the great purge of 2006-2009. The first and most celebrated were those who may have played a minor (if not unseen) role in the avant garde smash and grab of 2002-2005, as well as those who already had cred for rapping over electronic influenced music. Following hot on the heels of those dudes were a bunch of people who never really rapped, but figured that it could be done. These individuals were inexplicably joined by rappers that occupied an entirely different history and fanbase 10 years prior. For some, the new synth based sounds and metronome programming made rapping at double and triple times even easier and at the same time, more challenging. This made the whole early grime invasion all the more rewarding because lots of those dudes were just making hit after hit and none of the stuff was below 130 BPM. Unfortunately for those in the American contingent of the fast rap movement, this paradigm shift did not happen and in order to express their creative streak and still remain commercially relevant, they switched it up. While this shouldn’t be a big thing simply because hip-hop’s roots are on the dancefloor, it’s most sacred exploits were conducted at a 97 beats per minute average. Therefore, the first paradigm shift of the early 90’s started at a slow burn and didn’t fully kick off until 2003, when all the independent labels (or crews disguised as labels) started to sell significant units and penetrate the media at large. The labels acted as sub-genre filters of good taste and eventually became descriptions under which to classify the onslaught of music being released as a whole. Things became described under label genres not unlike Motown and Blue Note, with the Def Jux/Stones Throw/Anticon labels being the capstone on the pyramid. Labels that were previously unrelated to hip-hop, found artists that they could relate to and upon releasing their records faced derision and exclusion by not only the genre that they were marketing the record to, but their own primary ingrained fanbase. The consumers of products by THESE brands felt cheated because they bought into the whole initial brand ID and thought that they were being abandoned in favor of money coming from the other side of the tracks. These folks who were against these unholy reunions weren’t just fans, they occupied large amounts of the industry as a whole and sometimes were the reason why records wouldn’t get the just exposure they deserved.

I still find all of this crazy because if you listen to Edan’s mix entitled “Fast Rap” then you will hear all sorts of raw uptempo styles during hip-hop’s tweenager (assume it ages in dog years) period of development. People were dancing in videos up until 1988, and then signs of the first shift started showing. The white-hot liquid surface of hip-hop started cooling off and this translated in tempo and subject matter. People still had stage shows and at times even dancers, but that was on the way out and the big budget performances of MC Hammer signaled the end of an era steeped in showbiz. Once rap dropped to the point of people gathering in circles and rapping while smoking weed on street corners, the pace of the music was stunted to a crawl. Clever producers in both hip-hop and electronic concentrations mixed and matched tempo and came up with all sorts of mathematical equations that in turn begat drum and bass, downtempo and whatever else the U.K., U.S. and France came up with in the early to mid 90’s. I just remember hearing Boards of Canada in 2001 and wondering where I was in 1998 when their record “Music has a right to children” first dropped upon unsuspecting society. MIx that with whatever Timbaland was concocting and any new Autechre record or release on Schematic/Merck and I was definitely hooked into the different timed way of style. With me, in a genre that existed partly on individuality and innovation, show me WHO was rapping over these beats? If you want to get into style specifics, that was a whole other thing. Fast forward to now and people want to basically put a chokehold on music by way of tempo and arrangement. I figure that once I become notorious for doing whatever in regards to rap and it’s building blocks, I can show off all sorts of variations on the formula of constructing a “hip-hop banger” in the present day/age.