Joe is working through an arbitrary and unpublished list of albums that he considers "blind spots," i.e. albums that he's never heard but feels like he should.
Return of the Boom Bap
KRS-One
1993
At the point in my rap discovery phase that I have one of either two reactions when listening to hip hop that is new to me: either "this is kinda disappointing, oh well," or, "this is probably the best rap album I've ever heard." Return of the Boom Bap is probably the best rap album I've ever heard. That's the not the first time I've said that in this column, and it won't be the last. But man, I had a great time with this album over the past week.
In many ways, it feels like the opposite of the last hip hop album I checked out as a Blind Spot, Run-D.M.C. (sidenote: during the week in between, I listened to Hard to Earn by Gang Starr, whose DJ Premier does some production on Return of the Boom Bap). The beats seem more traditional, focused on sample loops from funk songs instead of spartan drum beats (as you read last time, I prefer what's here). But the lyrics feel more advanced, more poignant. Like they actually mean something, and aren't just mindless fronting.
They are political, basically, which I appreciate. KRS-One speaks to ideas that I subscribe to recently, progressive ideas about police violence and the like. A song like "Black Cop" works well as a "message song" while still being catchy. A song like "Sound of da Police" works in two ways—both as a critique of "the beast," and also a quasi-hit that Pam had specific memories of listening to at college parties. I can sit here and hear a treatise on class warfare, and Pam can stand in a basement at University of Mary Washington and hear a chorus to raise a red solo cup to. Both are valid.
It's a nice balance, I think is what I'm trying to say. There are songs that hit hard but then there are also songs that have a joyous levity to it. "I Can't Wake Up" is about a dream in which KRS-One is a "blunt getting smoked," and he's passed around to all the famous rappers and MCs of the early '90s. It's a nice time capsule, and very funny, and very catchy. I take a lot of the subject material seriously but there's also room to take some of this unseriously. The only other mention of KRS-One on the blog was in a review of the U-Roy's deejay rocksteady album Version Galore, which had similar a echo-y delivery and patois but was also similarly joyous in weird, off-setting ways.
"Unserious" isn't the right word. It's more just, like, having fun while being serious. Find celebration in being right, something like that. The "controversies" section of KRS-One's Wikipedia page speaks extensively about a quote he gave in 2004 when he said "we cheered when 9/11 happened." There's more nuance to it than what it sounds like on its face (though I wonder if this is what trump was talking about when he said that people were cheering?). He meant it figuratively, that he was tired of seeing his people getting beaten and killed by the ruling class, and this, finally, was some violence toward that ruling class instead. I'm not saying I agree with the phrasing, since I'm pretty vehemently anti-murder and would never agree with anyone cheering on such an act, especially at that scale, but I do understand the sentiment, said in frustration and with an overwhelming volume of historical evidence backing it. And I think this speaks more broadly to what I mean when I say that Return of the Boom Bap sounds celebratory. Not literally, but still. You get it.
That's an interesting idea, though—what happens to the music when you don't agree with the subject matter. In the final song, "Higher Level," KRS-One does the "both sides" thing that I hate. You know what I'm talking about. "I don't vote because both sides are evil." Which is stupid, and to one's own detriment. But two things. One, I don't agree but I see where he is coming from, even in 1993—which politicians are speaking to the specific societal ills that he's rapping about here? Kamala Harris, who will be getting my vote even if I have to crawl through broken glass to cast it, is absolutely pro-cop, which is gross and wrong, and complicated, sure, but also definitely wrong. I think it's wrong to throw away your vote; I also think that it's easy to empathize with KRS-One here, in a general sense. And then, because of that, the other thing is that it's a catchy song, and easy to nod along to.
That's really the answer here. I love complicated themes, but I don't need them. It's enough for me to nod along to a catchy beat and ride the rhythms of an interesting MC. KRS-One does it for me.
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