Who Won Hip-Hop 2013? Part 2
So yesterday we concluded that Kanye West has come out on top in this year’s album battle between himself and Jay Z - their near-decade long recording rivalry always raising the question over who is the real king of Hip-Hop. As far as this year’s releases from both of them go? It was show to be Kanye’s experimentally emotional, but connoisseur crowd-pleasing ‘Yeezus’ that topped Jay’s lackluster performance for ‘Magna Carta… Holy Grail’.
Going by the unequalled brilliance in previous years of Jay Z’s ‘The Blueprint 3’ and Kanye’s ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ – previous albums which practically blew the opposition out of the water, you would have naturally assumed that whoever turned out the better album this year would have immediately been given the title of having made Hip-Hop album of the year. Right?
Well, we’ll be the one’s to say this first: Wrong, so very, very wrong.
So who has produced the greatest Hip-Hop album of the year?
Was it Eminem’s Rubin-tooting, nostalgia revelling return to form in the ‘Marshall Mathers LP II’?
Earl Sweatshirt’s mellow, dark, and domineering showstopper ‘Doris’?
Or was it A$AP Rocky’s Kanye-support-earning debut ‘Long. Live. A$AP’?
Was it even Smif-n-Wessun’s long awaited reggae-influenced ‘Born and Raised’ EP thrasher?
Sadly, it’s a no to all the above, though amazing pursuits they are, each one more worthy than the last, and these are just a few listed out of many.
Needless to say, Kanye had his work cut out.
But who has given their all this year? Worked to revive a publicly insatiable taste for the genre? Who has won Hip-Hop for 2013?
Oh hey Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip! We didn’t see you there.
And damn, that’s one mighty fine collaborative mixtape you’ve got going on there.
That’s right, as a starting statement, it was an incredibly naïve move for nearly every music publication to put out their annual album lists so prematurely, and in the week prior to the release of ‘The Abstract And The Dragon Mixtape’, no less – a mixtape (still an album!) collaboration between Q-Tip (that’s ‘The Abstract’) and Busta Rhymes (taking his moniker under the ferociously apt name of ‘The Dragon’).
Pic: generationbass
The pair gave us a quick musical teaser in November with the seemingly one-off single ‘Thank You’, calling in Lil Wayne and Kanye West to briefly pop over and knock out some hype in favour of the cool, collected Q-Tip and the fearsome, snarling, Busta, who whacks out some double-speed rap technique over a smooth soul sample of the Alicia Myers’ ‘I Want To Thank You’ – a song not requiring the high degree of effects that Kanye sported on ‘Yeezus’; ‘I Want To Thank You’’s sheer sonic simplicity practically does all the work for itself, and who better than two of the most underrated figureheads of the genre to freshen up this 80’s tune and shake up the Rap world in the process.
Two weeks after the release of ‘Thank You’, the online stream for ‘The Abstract And The Dragon’ Mixtape appears, and is currently in the midst of blowing away this year’s competition, at least for us at MS.
In the absence of groups like A Tribe Called Quest, artists like Tyler, The Creator and Earl Sweatshirt and other Hip-Hop affiliates for example being given the advantage of receiving the more attention in their awesomely dirty interpretation of the genre, this absence shifting attention onto the new breed rappers and collectives such as Odd Future, but Hip-Hop has forgotten it’s roots, I know… progress, change, etc. but it never hurt to remind us all of the golden days when knowing all the lyrics to ‘Rapper’s Delight’ was something to be praised. Ok maybe not that far back, but we’ll settle for the chronological middle ground, where acts like A Tribe Called Quest rule.
It’s become commonplace for artists such as Kid Cudi to make something beautiful and complex in an orthodox manner (even if you do slightly lose it after two albums due to extended affiliations with Odd Future, sorry Scott (Bring on ‘Man On The Moon III’!)); but it’s the subtle details that collectives like A Tribe Called Quest, The Beastie Boys, and De La Soul were able to put to the foreground that put emphasis on the lyrical skill itself – arguably the most important aspect of the genre.
‘Thank You’ for example, showcases this Hip-Hop ideal; the background noise in Busta’s gap-filling… rhymes does alter, though subtly, making way for the grand piano sample and additional soul-inspired handclaps for Q-Tips more stylistic and less brutally delivered verses that inject that underrated complexity into their music – something neglected in today’s modernised and less deliberated Hip-Hop.
But nowadays we put it down to the big guns like Kanye and Jay Z, and how they keep their musical style in check with the times, to ease us into the new breed of Hip-Hop coming to the forefront while remaining true to the good old days. But let’s face it, with this year’s unashamedly experimental venture from Kanye, and a minor-scale Hip-Hop-fuck-up from Jay, we have to allow a few more of the legends of the genre through to claim the spotlight.
And so we welcome The Abstract and The Dragon with open arms, like the ‘Marshall Mathers LP II’, the Mixtape is a mind-blowing effort in nostalgia, beginning with a laid-back, bluesy, musically Funkadelic-inspired monologue from Busta – ‘Bringing that real feel-good, boom-bap shit back to life, we gon’ get back to that” – A promise well lived up to, and showing the new school of Rap how it really should be done.
But the Mixtape musically begins with a track from A Tribe Called Quest’s legendary ‘Midnight Marauders’ album (having celebrated it’s 20th anniversary in November, along with the Wu-Tang Clan’s ‘Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)’ – two albums that changed the face of the 90’s Hip-Hop scene), the now Busta-including version of ‘God Lives Through’ kicking off an album-long series of remixed classics from both artists.
The original collaboration of ‘Steppin’ It Up’ from the Tribe’s ‘The Love Movement’ working as a greatly effective track filler, and the iconic album artwork of ‘The Low End Theory’ providing the inspiration for the essentially green and red dragon on the Mixtape cover, going through to the well-received Q-Tip/Busta original ‘Wild Hot’ – an original contribution to the classic 90’s Hip-Hop culture film ‘Rhyme & Reason’ Soundtrack, which was a huge cornerstone for Busta’s and Q-Tip’s frequent future collaborations, and the Mixtape also paying homage to Q-Tip’s earlier solo pursuits in a new version of his minor-key hustling ‘Renaissance Rap’, now featuring some fresh Lil Wayne and Raekwon lyrical.
And among these revamps of the old originals, the pair reacquaint us with a massive capability for creating new music, as well as just lyrical contributions – the title track sees Busta flaring through a dubbed-down, but more thought-over Odd Future-inspired slow jam.
Busta showing that his dynamically vocal wit hasn’t slowed down on ‘We Taking Off’, a laid-back groove-orientated piece working to fly you overseas on Abstract airlines, Busta creating some serious turbulence in lauding some major dominance over the game - “What’s that matter wit’ y’all? Yes I’m talkin’ to y’all, some of y’all frownin’ at me? You said you wish I would fall, you need to stop starin’ at me, you need to look at the wall” – if anything, The Dragon has got some razor sharp teeth, and show-stopping flames in this incendiary summer romper.
Naturally, Q-Tip remains on top form too in the self-explanatory ‘Get Down’, effectively hyping his equally large dominance over others, ‘Other brothers ain’t motivated, they can’t do it, not only do I penetrate it, I ram through it” picking off rappers with extremely precise lyrical technique, proving himself as a rapper more relevant today than ever before, and consistently hitting on the younger generation to remind us of the same attitude shown in tracks like the Tribe’s ‘Phony Rappers’, and in this day and age there are plenty of them out there, ones who do not write nor excite, and you’d better believe that Tip is addressing every last one of them.
Not just heralding the return of two of Hip-Hop’s most heralded forefathers, the latter half of the Mixtape mixes in various collaborations (both new and nostalgic) with Pharrell (who really seems to be getting around this year), Talib Kweli, Missy Elliott, Old Big Daddy, and Leaders Of The New School, the Mixtape also paying their respects to Chris Lighty and J Dilla and in the form of light skits; a nice tribute to one of the promoters and one of the godfathers of this ‘boom-bap shit’.
Giving us a break from the mind-altering sonic experience we are currently hearing, there are several interludes that both continue to make a mockery of the rappers of the younger generation (creating a good run up to the now Q-Tip including Busta classic, and aptly named ‘You Can’t Hold The Torch’), Busta having a slight meltdown due to how far the game has fallen - “some of these Rap N****s is BITCH”, a straight-to-the-point summary, as a side effect showing Q-Tip’s hilarious reaction, probably claiming the title of best laugh in Hip-Hop. Another accolade, well done guys.
Though it is an awesome Mixtape in it’s originals, remixes, and even interludes, the biggest surprise the pair have to offer is a one minute-long teaser from the sequel to Busta Rhymes’ legendary 1998 ‘Extinction Level Event’ album, Q-Tip additionally being announced for production credit by Busta over a thick background drum beat, whistling wind, and teeny-tiny piano trills, Busta waxing some heavy, reggae-influenced lyrical over it in addition, leaving a lot open to interpretation in terms of direction for ELE II, but whatever it is, Busta has officially peaked our interested until it’s release in 2014.
Pic: generationbass
A Tribe Called Quest are said to have played their last show in November supporting (none other than) Kanye at Madison Square Garden, but given their track record of consistent returns in the past (despite a distinct lack of album for 15 years now), and Q-Tip’s recently-rediscovered and unequalled relevance in the game, it shouldn’t be long before the Tribe are kicking it again, fingers crossed, if this Mixtape is anything to go by, it’s that we really can’t afford to lose them.
And with Kanye grabbing Q-Tip and Rick Rubin for production honours on his album due next year – hopefully we’ll get back the comically skit-based , ever-serious, always egotistical Kanye we know and love. 2014’s looking to be a great year for Hip-Hop already, albums from Kanye and Busta that are bound to see us bugging out all year long, but seriously, we need the Tribe back and questing.
Reviving the world’s Hip-Hop sensibilities through the familiar remixes, the old Busta and ATCQ classics have been given a second lift, serving to quench our thirst for more of the mind-blowing material that Busta and Q-Tip so proudly exhibit on the album. The pair have joined forces to create a superhuman modern masterpiece from that of a mere mixtape, resurrecting a world of passion for that 90’s ‘boom-bap’ sound that is so rarified in this day and age; as Q-Tips wisely spouts in ‘You Can’t Hold The Torch’ ‘In retrospect, the game ain’t the same man’, but these two are working to re-establish themselves in Hip-Hop game.
But for reintroducing the 2013 masses with the real sound of Hip-Hop, it’s The Abstract and The Dragon, and you’ll find that we’re the ones thanking them.
Nice one guys, we know it wouldn’t have happened without you.
Veryan Leaper
