6/29/2023 0 Comments Gnarls barkley st elsewhere![]() ![]() (Avenues he's tried include futurism, mysticism, Baduism, sincerity, dandified couture, genre-less chart hits, and close study of Aphex Twin.) The same goes for Cee-Lo, one half of the Gnarls Barkley duo- a Goodie Mob rapper turned funk freak and soul-shouting faux preacherman. Andre 3000, of Outkast: It might seem like he's just trying to be weird, but the guy has spent the last decade visibly searching for some new way to be- not just new music, but a whole new model of identity for the black male musician. Two guys interested in scratching that itch, hip-hop-wise, are both associates in Atlanta's Dungeon Family. ![]() ![]() This kind of uneasiness isn't new, of course, but it's interesting: It seems like there's a big itch out there right now, everyone looking for ways to make the music feel as new and free as it did when they first came across it. Now that hip-hop has nearly three decades under its belt, every major genre of American pop music is more or less "mature." You know how rock geeks, after nine or 10 years immersed in the genre, start looking elsewhere for surprises- hip-hop, dance, bluegrass, anything they haven't already figured out? Well, these days we can read Public Enemy producer Hank Shocklee telling Tape Op that rap is all repetitive big business now, and claiming that alternative rock is where the innovation is- in other words, sounding not unlike an old rock guy wondering why bands still sound like the Velvet Underground. I don't mean to spin any big theories on you- this isn't that kind of record- but let's stop for a second and notice the context. ![]()
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