In the mid-90s, RZA negotiated the famous "Wu-Tang deal," where the Clan as a group were signed to Steve Rifkinds trailblazing Loud Records, but all of their solo albums would be spread out across multiple major labels, ensuring that the industry would be working for the crew, not the other way around.Raekwon was approached by Puff Daddy about signing to Bad Boy, but he chose to stay in-house with Loud Records to drop his landmark debut, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…. Puffy saw Raekwon as the perfect weapon: smooth enough to glide on R&B features—as he and Ghostface did on Jodecis "Freek‘n You" remix—and rugged enough to stomp beats like he did on Mobb Deeps "Eye for a Eye." Puffy had perfected this formula with The Notorious B.I.G., and Raekwon was a worthy choice to follow (this was before they became rivals on the infamous “Shark Biters” skit). Instead, Raekwon made the best drug-dealer album of all time, but never found the breakthrough mainstream success of Biggie or Puffy.Twenty years later, you can hear hints of Puffys vision on Raekwon’s recently released seventh solo album, The Wild. G-Eazy, Lil Wayne, CeeLo Green, Andra Day, and J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League all pop up on the record, instead of Method Man, GZA, RZA, and crew, to make sizeable waves with newer audiences. Raekwon can thrive outside of the beloved Wu-Tang sound—his freestyle over Drakes "Pound Cake" is a perfect example—and his work on recent R&B tracks by Mack Wilds, Ryan Leslie, and Faith Evans proves hes still a capable voice on lighter fare. His radical slang therapy on albums by Ghostface, Prodigy, and Statik Selektah continues to keep his razor tongue sharp.The Wild has moments like "Cant You See," “Nothing,” and "This Is What It Comes Too" that can hang with anything from Raes past work, but a stronger plan of attack mightve made the album bulletproof instead of a mixed bag. Rick Ross is a good example of a contemporary street rapper who mixes mafia-flick visuals with sax-laden R&B, all while cranking out gothic bangers. And he’s even done a thing or two with Puffy over the years.Nonetheless, Raekwon is the most active and beloved member of Wu-Tang in the industry, popping up on albums from Kanye West, French Montana, ScHoolboy Q, A$AP Mob, 2 Chainz, and Action Bronson. The Wild fails to match up to his contemporaries, but the abilities that Puffy and RZA saw twenty years ago are still evident when other people call on the Chef. This playlist pulls together the sleek and sinister works of Raekwon: R&B sprinkled with Snow Beach pullovers, crack and weed, Staten Island killers who love Gladys Knight, crushed velour tracksuits, and Moët.
Subscribe to the Spotify playlist here.A Tribe Called Quests fourth album Beats, Rhymes and Life debuted at No. 1 on Billboard in 1996, preceded on the charts by Nas It Was Written and proceeded by Alanis Morrissettes Jagged Little Pill. The second single, "Stressed Out," featured Faith Evans during the height of her estranged relationships with Biggie and 2pac and was a radio mainstay. But the album was largely considered a disappointment, partly due to the inclusion of two unannounced new members of Tribe: producer Jay Dee, a quiet beatmaking genius from Detroit, and rapper Consequence, Q-Tips cousin. Jay Dee, the new member of The Ummah, only caught a fraction of the wrath from Tribe purists for the shift in sound; production credits on Tribe albums were always hazy (Q-Tip didnt admit to producing the bulk of the first three album singlehandedly until the mid 2000s). Consequence, featured on seven of the albums sixteen cuts, was presumed to have broken up the group by usurping Phife Dawg. He was in the videos, he was on the albums biggest hit, and he was related to Q-Tip. He passed on a deal with Bad Boy to stay in Tribe. He was 18 years old. The plan was for Consequence to be the next Cappadonna, a new artist gradually pulled into the Tribe universe on a prominent album and single. But unlike the soft opening of Cappadonna as New Wu-Tang Clan Member on Raekwons Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Consequence ended up on seven songs, and then followed it up with a shelved album on Elektra. He had no appearances on the next Tribe album, The Love Movement, in 1998. This would be like Cappadonna ousting Ghostface on Cuban Linx and then never appearing on a Clan album again. Random white labels dripped out over the years from Consequence: "Queens Get the Money," produced by Havoc of Mobb Deep, "The Riot" featuring Busta Rhymes and produced by The Ummah, "The Consequences" produced by The Lone Ranger (Q-Tips alias). But Consequence didnt move the needle again until 2004 on the beloved album cut "Spaceship" from Kanye Wests The College Dropout. Ye and Cons met in New York randomly in the early 2000s; Kanye, a diehard Tribe fan, was starstruck. Cons was working a day job. Both were told by the industry in so many words that they didnt fit as rappers. They started a production company called KonMan, which later morphed into GOOD Music. Cons dropped one LP on GOOD Music, the uneven Dont Quit Your Day Job, pairing with The College Dropout and Rhymefests Bluecollar as the GOOD Music Working Man Trilogy. He passed the time by dropping singles, ghostwriting for Kanye, beefing with Pusha T and Joe Budden, and playing himself on Love & Hip Hop. Now that Cons is back with A Tribe Called Quest on the outstanding reunion album We Got it From Here...Thank You For Your Service, its worth combing through his archives to hear why people like Puffy, Q-Tip, and Kanye wanted him on their team. Hes energetic, confident, and topical. Hes a songwriter who can be braggadocios and conceptual. Hes a street dude from Queens who dropped mixtapes to get his buzz back (check the classic Take Em to the Cleaners to hear pre-College Dropout Kanye and Cons giggling and rapping like teens while trying to kick down the door for deals). Hes not as Abstract as Tip or as oddly charming as Ye on the mic. Hes a Professional Rapper with an understanding of his limits and a deep list of industry contacts after 20 years holding every title: Next Big Thing, Forgotten Footnote, Underdog Making a Comeback, Grammy Family Member, Tabloid Fodder, Reality TV Star, and now Beloved Tribe Member Who Came Back Home Again.
Vince Staples is the latest disciple of resisting any club that would have him. His sophomore LP, Big Fish Theory, combines one of hip-hops wickedest pens with the most dense, dance-happy BPMs this side of a Burial record. Its a brave gamble for Staples, one previously pulled off by Danny Brown on his own sophomore LP, XXX.Like Danny Brown, Staples loathes convention. Unlike Danny Brown, who telegraphed his fandom of left-field producers and dance music, Staples has previously worked heavily with hip-hop hitmakers like DJ Dahi, Clams Casino, No I.D., Mac Miller, and Tyler, The Creator. Brown made a fluid transition from hip-hop blog worship to massive festival crowds, yearning for beats that would appease the nonconvential rap fan. However, Staples Big Fish Theory—the proper follow-up to his breakthrough 2015 double-disc Summertime 06—feels less like a natural progression than an abrupt break from 2016s excellent Prima Donna EP.Big Fish Theorys production team (Sophie, Sekoff, GTA, Justin Vernon, Jimmy Edgar) would make Azealia Banks jealous, but it feels odd for a guy who doesnt drink, smoke, or party. Alas, his dead-eyed street poetry sounds more at home on previous goth neck breakers like "Señorita," "Norf Norf," and "Blue Suede" than amid the frantic EDM energy of "Party People" and "Homage.""Ascension," Staples collaboration on the latest Gorillaz album, shouldve tipped fans off as to what to expect with Big Fish Theory. While the record deflty pays service to his trunk-rattling west coast roots on "Big Fish" and "Yeah Right," the album is more Damon Albarn than DJ Quik. Albarn actually contributes vocals and keys to "Love Can Be...", and his total disregard for genre mustve rubbed off on Staples during their Gorillaz sessions. To get a full sense of the albums sonic scope, cue up our playlist of its key tracks and their eclectic influences. But as Big Fish Theory proves, sometimes, the best bet is the safest bet, especially when one of top writers under 25 has already made his greatest strengths apparent.
The ’90s have never sounded better than they do right now—especially for modern-day indie rockers. There’s no shortage of bands banging around these days whose sound suggests formative phases spent soaking up vintage ’90s indie rock. Not that the neo-’90s sound is itself a new thing. As soon as the era was far enough away in the rearview mirror to allow for nostalgia to set in (i.e., the second half of the 2000s), there were already some young artists out there onboarding ’90s alt-rock influences. But more recently, there’s been a bumper crop of bands that betray a soft spot for a time when MTV still played music videos and streaming was just something that happened in a restroom. In this context, the literate, lo-fi approach of Pavement has emerged as a particularly strong strand of the ’90s indie tapestry, and it isn’t hard to hear echoes of their sound in the work of more recent arrivals like Kiwi jr. or Teenage Cool Kids. Cherry Glazerr frontwoman Clementine Creevy seems to have a feeling for the kind of big, dirty guitar riffs that made Pacific Northwestern bands the kings of the alt-rock heap once upon a time. The world-weary, wise-guy angularity of Car Seat Headrest can bring to mind the lurching, loose-limbed attack of Railroad Jerk. And laconic, storytelling types like Nap Eyes stand to prove that there’s still a bright future ahead for those who mourn the passing of Silver Jews main man David Berman. But perhaps the best thing about a face-off between the modern indie bands evoking ’90s forebears and the old-school artists themselves is the fact that in this kind of competition, everybody wins.
It may be that 2019 was the best year for ’90s metal since, well, 1999. Bands from the decade of Judgment Night re-emerged with new creative twists and tweaks: Tool stretched out into polyrhythmic madness, Korn bludgeoned with more extreme and raw despair, Slipknot added a new drummer (Max Weinberg’s kid!) who gave them a new groove, and Rammstein wrote an anti-fascism anthem that caused controversy in Germany (and hit No. 1 there too). Elsewhere, icons of the era returned in unique ways: Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor scored a superhero TV series, Primus’ Les Claypool teamed up with Sean Lennon for some quirky psych rock, and Faith No More’s Mike Patton made an avant-decadent LP with ’70s soundtrack king Jean-Claude Vannier. Finally, the soaring voice of Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington returned for a moment thanks to Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton, who released a song they recorded together in 2017.
Taking a look at the playlists for my show on Boston’s WZBC might give the more seasoned college-radio listener a bit of déjà vu: They’re filled with bands like Versus, Team Dresch, and Sleater-Kinney, who were at the top of the CMJ charts back in the ’90s. But the records they released in 2019 turned out to be some of the year’s best rock. Versus, whose Ex Nihilo EP and Ex Voto full-length were part of a creative run for leader Richard Baluyut that also included a tour by his pre-Versus outfit Flower and his 2000s band +/-, put out a lot of beautifully thrashy rock; Team Dresch returned with all cylinders blazing and singers Jody Bleyle and Kaia Wilson wailing their hearts out on “Your Hands My Pockets”; and Sleater-Kinney confronted middle age head-on with their examination of finding one’s footing, The Center Won’t Hold.
Italian guitar heroes Uzeda—who have been putting out proggy, riff-heavy music for three-plus decades—released their first record in 13 years, the blistering Quocumque jerceris stabit; Imperial Teen, led by Faith No More multi-instrumentalist Roddy Bottum, kept the weird hooks coming with Now We Are Timeless; and high-concept Californians That Dog capped off a year of reissues with Old LP, their first album since 1997. Juliana Hatfield continued the creative tear she’s been on this decade with two albums: Weird, a collection of hooky, twisty songs that tackle alienation with searing wit, and Juliana Hatfield Sings the Police, her tribute record to the dubby New Wave chart heroes (in the spirit of the salute to Olivia Newton-John she released in 2018). And our playlist finishes with Mary Timony, formerly of the gnarled rockers Helium and currently part of the power trio Ex Hex, paying tribute to her former Autoclave bandmate Christina Billotte via an Ex Hex take on “What Kind of Monster Are You?,” one of the signature songs by Billotte’s ’90s triple threat Slant 6.
