JA MUSISC x Rap

Those within the hip hop community – performers, promoters and the like – don’t generally make a big deal about where the genre came from beyond name checking DJ Kool Herc or Mr. James Brown. But Herc was born in Kingston during the ’50s. So, while folks can figure anyone from Kraftwerk to Gil Scott-Heron influencing the music that today constitutes hip hop, JA related stuff is an inseparable part of the culture.

Lawrence Parker and Derrick Jones understood all of this going into the recording of Edutainment (1990) and its title track, which makes use of a classic Skatalites rhythm.

“So why is the Pope such a political figure,” asks KRS One as he aligns himself with the likes of Lee Perry in critiquing international goings on. Compounding the confluence of ideas here is the ska-beat of “Man in the Street.” The original finds itself virtually untouched, just looped endlessly with only the choicest horn line plundered to good effect.
“Edutainment” isn’t the first or only example of a producer making use of JA music, but there aren’t too many tracks from the formative period of the island’s music utilized in the same fashion.

Gabriel Teodros
Lovework
(Massline Media, 2007)

Let’s begin with the fact that the track listing is all jacked up on here and I can easily say that after a while I simply gave up trying to figure out what was going on and just enjoyed the music.
If a consumer was to catch a stray earful of this release from the Seattle based emcee, one could easily and justifiably categorize this as “conscious hip hop.” That term has been handed out to basically every rapper who thinks deeply, so it isn’t a slight. And further, Teodros wants to eliminate such categorization, or at least extricate himself from it.

Lovework goes along way in explaining the rappers background, beliefs, ruminations and fondness’s. What it doesn’t do is remove him from any typical genre (or sub-genre) categorization. The production and guests over the course of the album – Moka Only and Common Market/Blue Scholars members – only solidifies the link between Teodros, the jazz, funk and soul that make up the beats and whatever it is about “conscious hip-hop” that he’s attempting to distance himself from.

Instead of examining this as a slab of ‘90s style jazz infused rap (or whatever else it could be lumped together with), it actually serves to better familiarize the world with a newer hip hop scene in Seattle. Not generally thought of when considering musics other than rock, hip hop has been pouring out of this area during the last few years. And while some of the higher profile groups are on display throughout Lovework, they all deserve examination. This release, just as other recent Seattle hip hop ventures, doesn’t go a long way to align itself with the Anticon/Def Jux contingent, but creates something very genuine, adept and true that many could use as a road-map to some sort of Northwestern enlightenment.