Does hip-hop need saving? It's a question that is asked each year. The latest attempt to throw down the gauntlet came courtesy of Jay-Z, who decried the "softening" of the genre in Death of Auto-Tune. The single fell flat for a number of reasons, partly because it was the sound of a man buying too fully into his position as an elder statesman of the genre, forgetting how he built his own career on production gimmicks. Not only did Death of Auto-Tune come off like a grandfather shaking his walking stick at kids messing up his lawn, but the song's vision was so underwhelmingly small. Jay-Z devoting a lead single to bitching about a production trend is more of an indictment of hip-hop than any number of T-Pain hits.
However, there was a kernel of truth in his premise. The genre is in as rude health as ever, if you look in the right places. Southern-rap pioneers UGK's final album, UGK 4 Life, for example, is a record that is by turns thoughtful and exuberant, a fitting memorial to the deceased Pimp C. And there are up-and-coming talents such as Gucci Mane (goofy charm and deceptively clever rhymes), Pill (gritty tales of Atlanta life) and Nicki Minaj (clipped precision meets surrealist similes). But equally, there is a lot about mainstream hip-hop that is increasingly wearying. From unimaginative grabs for crossover success to the disproportionate hype around soft-serve hipster rappers with little to say and no compelling way to say it, such as Charles Hamilton and Wale.
This is why an album like DJ Quik and Kurupt's BlaQKout is so refreshing. Almost entirely unanticipated by critics and tastemakers, it's the dash of cold water in the face that Jay-Z so dearly wanted to provide, the antithesis of every major-label album bloated and blighted with trend-jacking crossover attempts and senseless guest appearances. Clocking in at just 40 minutes, it's a tight, fat-free, perfectly sequenced exercise in discipline that starts out jaw-dropping and, if anything, gets progressively more outré. Each of its 11 tracks blows your mind with a minimum of fuss: there are no attention-seeking gimmicks on BlaQKout, merely immense amounts of creativity and cojones.
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