As 2011 came to a close, I felt happy that the year had brought a significant expansion to my musical taste; a newfound appreciation of jazz. So just before the new year I was asking myself what type of music I should try to get into for 2012. I was thinking about classical or electronic music. It goes to show how stupid it is to try to plan these things out, because within a couple weeks I had gotten onto a hip hop binge that has lasted for a month and a half by now. I certainly wasn't anticipating that at all.
Truthfully, my foray into hip hop wasn't completely unprecedented - a year or two ago I was listening to Aesop Rock's Labor Days and a couple others, and got kind of into it, but not enough to buy any albums. I actually tried to get into 36 Chambers at the time, since I knew it was considered a classic. I couldn't get past the first couple songs though. The first track, aptly named "Bring da Ruckus," contains the chorus "Bring da mother, bring da motherfuckin ruckus, bring da motherfuckin ruckus", which seemed kind of tacky. The second track, "Shame on a Nigga", succeeded in offending my cultural sensibilities with its gratuitous use of a word which I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to type without an asterisk.
Well, last month I got curious about hip hop again. In my continuing quest for behavioral consistency, I reminded myself that I already listen to horrifically offensive albums (like Cannibal Corpse's Butchered at Birth), horrifically stupid albums (pick something by Rhapsody), and albums by people who I'm - hopefully - just as culturally removed from as inner city blacks from the early 90's (pick something by Burzum).
The other psychological stumbling block was the general idea of being a white male listening to hip hop. But that can't possibly be worse than being an affluent and well educated white male listening to Kind of Blue while in possession of a french press, and I already went there. These realizations were basically all it took to rid me of my squeamishness so I could dive into one of the most infectious and visceral albums I've heard in a long time.
In retrospect, it's hard to understand how I could have listened to the opening track of this album and registered little more than the chorus. In a way, it has all the makings of a song I would love - aggressive, almost sinister tone, intricate layers of sound, musical complexity on the small scale without sacrificing an overall coherence and simplicity to the song itself.
This album seems particularly suited for a newcomer to the genre since it's evenly split between 7 rappers (there are 9 in the group but a couple of them don't do much on this album). The variation keeps things interesting at first, and for me it was kind of an activity to try to figure out whose verse was whose.
Ol' Dirty Bastard is the most immediately recognizable of the bunch, and his inclusion of assorted grunts and wails initially attracted me. His style works well in the context of the album, but as time goes on I feel less interested in listening to his solo stuff (which I haven't heard yet). Method Man and Ghostface Killah are the next most distinctive of the bunch, so it's probably not surprising that theirs are the most well known names. But the stuff from Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, GZA and RZA (who also does all the production) is equally good if not better. GZA is definitely my favorite, but I'm a little biased because his stellar Liquid Swords is the only solo album I've listened to so far.
Right now it's a little hard for me to judge how I'm going to feel about the album after time passes. There hasn't been an album in a very long time which I've listened to this many times within the first few weeks of hearing it. That surely says something about it's quality, but when I was listening to this last night the appeal wasn't as strong. It's mostly that I'm burnt out on the album at the moment, but I've also gotten into several more hip hop albums in the last few weeks. In comparison, this seems a little bit more like a party album. Liquid Swords contains almost the exact same line up, but the tone of the album is largely dark and brooding, and the rappers alter their delivery to suit it.
Overall, it's easy to see why 36 Chambers gets the "classic" tag, and it did a good job of intiating me into the world of hip hop. In a way I surprised myself with this development, but I guess it's a lot less surprising than if I were to suddenly get into country. And even that seems more likely than a sudden embrace of indie. I've come to realize that there is great music in virtually every genre, and it's just a matter of seeking it out and being mentally ready to hear what it has to offer. In that sense it seems necessarily true that the progression of my taste is dictated by extra-musical factors. At times like this I wonder why I had to think so hard to arrive at such an obvious conclusion.
