Thirty Three Jones | Desktop Site
Since the days of Kurtis Mantronik and World Class Wrecking Cru in the mid-80's, hip hop has occasionally had periods of flirtation with electronic dance music, be it through sampling or through the coopting of the various software and hardware packages used by electronica artists. The trend fell into dormancy throughout the late 90's and the earlier half of this decade, but signs of an electronic resurgence began appearing a couple of years ago after both Busta Rhymes and Kanye West turned recycled Daft Punk samples into certified radio hits. With the use of Auto Tune, made famous by Cher's millennial dance hit, becoming a prerequisite for success in rap these days, the line between the two genres has become increasingly blurred.
While Kanye often gets the most credit for leading this electronic revolution, it's worth noting that Puffy, for better or worse, was several years ahead of the game. Perhaps inspired by the music from his former girlfriend J.Lo, Puff began discussing the prospect of working with electronica producers and putting out a house music album almost a decade ago. Finally, after years of talking about the project, Puff teamed up with Felix Da House Cat last year to release the following
Puffy & Felix Da House Cat - Jack U (You)
A fairly straightforward update of the JB's classic house track, it was something of a letdown after eight years of hype, however that was apparently only the beginning for his new career as a dance artist. His followup with Felix, Last Train To Paris, a mixtape released under the group name Lectro Black in advance of an official album, is significantly more ambitious. I've seen several links to the mixtape across the internet, but didn't come across any real reviews of it. I'd imagine most hip hop heads would be reluctant to download 200mbs worth of electronic music without at least getting a sample of it, so here are a couple of 30 second snippets from it (RCRDLBL insists on being the sole host of the mixtape, so I've kept the snippets short for fair use purposes):
Lectro Black Snippet #1
Lectro Black Snippet #2
The mixtape opens up with some electronica that sounds like a slightly more aggressive version of the techno that my ex-girlfriend was listening to at the turn of the century, back when she was determined to spend every night as if it were a scene from the movie Go and dragging me out to clubs packed with kids spaced out on horse tranquilizers and glo sticks. From there the pace (and the bass) picks up considerably, transitioning into heavier club music from Dim Mak's Felix Cartal and a song that samples MGMT's Kids (two groups I am only vaguely familiar with [via HRO]). Towards the final ten minutes of the tape the tempo starts to fall off, closing out with some weird hybrid of 80's synth and late 90's trance music.
Throughout, Puff alternates between roles as hype man - shouting barely coherent phrases at random intervals - and as narrator of the mixtape. Spoiler Alert: the "story" behind Last Train to Paris involves Mr. Combs travelling by train from London to Paris in pursuit of a mysterious woman who is apparently brought to climax "14 times" by Puff's mere presence. Strangely enough, while his penchant for talking over tracks is often distracting on hip hop cuts, in this case it actually helps break up some of the repetition that's inherent in electronic music. Puff's lyricism has hardly been his greatest strength as an artist, and with Biggie no longer in a position to write for him (and despite Pharoahe Monch's best efforts to fill that same role) it is perhaps for the best that he's limited his time on the mic for this tape. Despite the futuristic beats in the background, Puffy's own performance here is a bit of a throwback, toasting like the Jamaican artists who served as the original inspiration for hip hop, hyping up the crowd and shouting out catch phrases.
Unlike the recent path chosen by, say, Common, whose half-hearted musical detour into electronica lite was apparently motivated in large part by the possibility of garnering royalty checks from the likes of American Apparel and Mitsubishi (or worse, Flo Rida's sampling of cheesy 90's dance), Puffy has made his entry into dance music with few concessions for the hip hop (and pop) fans who have been following him up to this point. Whether the end result will be something actually worth listening to remains to be seen - the official album is not due out until later this fall - but with the other big name releases on the horizon seemingly determined not to break out of the generic rap mold (see: Blueprint 3 and its insistence on a Drake guest appearance), the Lectro Black album appears to be one of the few upcoming cds that will offer any surprises. Perhaps that says something about the current state of hip hop, that Puff, the man who built his empire off of formulaic rap albums, is one of the few people offering up innovations.
Download Lectro Black: The Last Train To Paris from RCRDLBL.com.
8/26/2009 9:00:51 PM posted by Fresh