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Back to 'Africa' With Nas and Damian Marley
Why the blockbuster collusion of Distant Relatives feels so . . . distant
Comments (7) By Sean Fennessey Tuesday, May 18 2010
"Who says we can't go to Africa?" Those immortal words are uttered by Nas's character, Sincere, in the gripping (if narratively challenged) 1998 film Belly. They're words of hope, a desire to return to something original, a home you've never seen. Belly is a modern camp classic unmatched in its visual grandeur and ambition, but also inscrutable in its storytelling, marked by extravagantly lit set pieces, frantic jump-cuts, and sudden shifts in setting from Queens strip clubs to Jamaican dancehalls. And now it has a bookend: Distant Relatives, a full-length collaboration between Nas and Bob Marley's son, Damian. It's a reggae album. And a rap album. But, ultimately, it's an "Africa" album.
The rap-reggae union is hardly a novel idea—Jamaican roots are bedrock in hip-hop's foundation. DJ Kool Herc's dancefloor exhortations at Sedgwick Avenue parties were famously inspired by Jamaican DJs like Dennis Alcapone and U-Roy. KRS-One connected the dots with his incorporation of the Zunguzung melody on 1987's "Remix for the P Is Free." The Notorious B.I.G. often employed the same tricks, initially on Super Cat's 1993 single "Dolly My Baby (Remix)," nodding at his parents' Jamaican roots as he howled, "Yes, it's Bad Boy, hard to the core/Aaaaah! Me can't take it no more." These are the noble examples—for the ignominious, consider Guerilla Black batting Sister Nancy's "Bam Bam" around like a defenseless kitten on the Biggie poseur's "Compton," or acknowledge that Jay-Z's recent dalliances in patois have been, well, less than Jah-like....
full article here:
www.villagevoice.com/2010-05-18/music/ba...ge+Voice+Music)
Why the blockbuster collusion of Distant Relatives feels so . . . distant
Comments (7) By Sean Fennessey Tuesday, May 18 2010
"Who says we can't go to Africa?" Those immortal words are uttered by Nas's character, Sincere, in the gripping (if narratively challenged) 1998 film Belly. They're words of hope, a desire to return to something original, a home you've never seen. Belly is a modern camp classic unmatched in its visual grandeur and ambition, but also inscrutable in its storytelling, marked by extravagantly lit set pieces, frantic jump-cuts, and sudden shifts in setting from Queens strip clubs to Jamaican dancehalls. And now it has a bookend: Distant Relatives, a full-length collaboration between Nas and Bob Marley's son, Damian. It's a reggae album. And a rap album. But, ultimately, it's an "Africa" album.
The rap-reggae union is hardly a novel idea—Jamaican roots are bedrock in hip-hop's foundation. DJ Kool Herc's dancefloor exhortations at Sedgwick Avenue parties were famously inspired by Jamaican DJs like Dennis Alcapone and U-Roy. KRS-One connected the dots with his incorporation of the Zunguzung melody on 1987's "Remix for the P Is Free." The Notorious B.I.G. often employed the same tricks, initially on Super Cat's 1993 single "Dolly My Baby (Remix)," nodding at his parents' Jamaican roots as he howled, "Yes, it's Bad Boy, hard to the core/Aaaaah! Me can't take it no more." These are the noble examples—for the ignominious, consider Guerilla Black batting Sister Nancy's "Bam Bam" around like a defenseless kitten on the Biggie poseur's "Compton," or acknowledge that Jay-Z's recent dalliances in patois have been, well, less than Jah-like....
full article here:
www.villagevoice.com/2010-05-18/music/ba...ge+Voice+Music)
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