It's becoming increasingly obvious to me, via sites like Bring That Beat Back (kind of an Industrial Recollections for hip hop heads), that we all- all us of the rather specialized musical interests- completely missed the boat on hip hop.
http://beetbak.blogspot.comBut it's as obvious that matters not as The Future is now Past. The boat was made to be missed. Hip hop is long dead. Long animate the festering corpse.
I am particularly enamored of a group of artists operating in the late 90s under the name Imprints. One Tommy V seems to be credited with a great deal of the actual sound but this is seriously great. Very rough, raw, looow-fi, scratchy, but also quite creative layering of sounds. The MCing is adventurous and unique for the most part, not the slightest hint of bragging, bling, bitches, etc. This truly was "real" hip hop; the shit that the industry obviously completely ignored in an effort to market the shit to the suburban white kids. (A pet theory, I'll concede, but I'll wager an uncontroversial one.) That much of this is archived from very poor quality tape, hissy as fuck, massively adds to the charm. Appeals in more ways than one to the Zoviet Frenchy in me... maybe.
Imprints - Homeless Tea Party 1998:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBqXcqkeO9SY2QKXcw1n2c4xhs4MuLrskBut this goes beyond Imprints. The pool of contributing artists seems at once impossibly deep, and incestuously close, much of it seemingly concentrated on the West Coast of the US, possibly revolving largely around the Shapeshifters collective, also including people like Joe Dubb and Dave Dub mentioned earlier in this thread. I rather suspect that there are huge mounds of such shit out there, all of it abandoned by starry-eyed suckaz bamboozled by the commercial pop machine and the empty promise for anyone with two turntables and a microphone. (Whoops. Snuck in my pet theory again, sorry bout that.) What's interesting (or not! re- pet theory) is when you catch up with what some of these characters were doing more recently, including the above-mentioned Tommy V, and the results are shockingly inferior, plastic, simplistic in scope and completely lacking in the amazing levels of creativity flowing through the works of yesteryear. Was it talent, fluke, some weird shit in the air? I dunno, but all I gotta say is: Bring that beat back!
A more solidified, more recent, re-presentation of the above might be via a group like Kill The Vultures. Again, employing old scratchy (blues) records but infused with a kind of stripped back punk aesthetic. Also, these guys are clearly possessed of genuine talent.
Kill the Vultures - Moonshine:
http://youtu.be/p9zUol0oCpYKill the Vultures - Wine Thief:
http://youtu.be/qro--6J7GosA current boat that may or may not blossom into trend proper: hip hop informed more by the likes of Godflesh and (early) Swans than RnB or whatever. Slowed down heavy percussion, slowed down vocals. Kind of what you'd get if Gira tried to make a hip hop album in the 80s. (Actually maybe Gira did- he called it "Greed". He then called it "Holy Money" in case you weren't paying attention.) One potential contender in this stream is Moodie Black. Would be cool if there were others working in the vein.
http://noiserap.com/track/bhttp://noiserap.com/track/m-a-r-r-o-wAlso:
The Bug - 'Fat Mac' ft. Flowdan:
http://youtu.be/a3FqlHa3Vwc'Course, Kevin Martin has worked with Broadrick so no stretch here.
