Emo rap gains exposure
While hip-hop grows more and more aggressive with artists suchas the Ying Yang twins telling us to “shake it like a saltshaker” or the Big Tymerz letting us on to the fact that theyprefer “Gangsta Girls,” small labels such as anticonand Definitive Jux have been quietly spreading a different kind ofrap. For about seven years, a softer more melodic hip-hop, onegoverned by dense lyrics that go beyond booties and bling bling,has evolved.
“I sing about my ex-girlfriend, flower pots, howCafé Brazil won’t hire me,” said John Kennerly,an 18-year-old who spends “hours, all day long, every day of[his] life” in his Dallas home, working on what he calls”abstract hip-hop,” and what the mainstream is startingto know as “emo rap.”
Kennerly is part of the new generation of youth who have spentthe majority of their teen-age years listening and looking up tounderground artists such as Doseone, Sage Francis and Atmosphere,who have been slowly opening the door for this new genre.
Emo rap is gaining attention because it is dominated by whiteartists.
“You tend to lose credibility if you’re white andtrying to do hip hop,” said Joel Price, a Seattle basedrapper who goes by G-Mo. “People instantly think you’regonna be kidding, or just angry and bad.”
Baillie Parker of anticon sees things differently. He thinksbeing a white artist is an advantage.
“Press people do like to go on about white rappersthough,” Parker said. “Whether positive or negative,white people have been a large part of the underground hip-hopaudience for as long as I can remember. It only makes sense thatthey’d use the same form of music to express their ownexperiences.”
Nevertheless, emo rap is just now surfacing from theunderground. Atmosphere, also known as Slug, has found his latestrelease, Seven’s Travel, rising to the top half of theBillboard charts and his video in rotation on MTV2.
Atmosphere might not be the only one to pierce to the mainstream. “I think anticon artists will be on MTV, but theywon’t sacrifice any artistic integrity in gettingthere,” said Parker.
Doseone, Adam Drucker, has been a part of anticon since itsinception. Dabbling in many side projects and group efforts put outby the label, Doseone stands out as an eccentric artist, his lyricsoften departing from reality and common sense.
As half of the group cLOUDDEAD, Drucker switches words out ofthe expected order as a poet would. “A murder of mosquitoes,and moths, and gnats/ravage the florescent flickering ribs of amotel lot flood light/their frantic trajectories perfectlysketching insane in its halogen corona,” comes from his song”Rifle Eyes.”
Drucker’s voice is unique, nasal, and almost unpleasant,but together with the rhythm of the words and the complexinstrumental, it is hard not to want to listen more closely.
Another notable emo rap artist is Aesop Rock of Definitive Jux,whose quick rhyming and driving beats resemble more traditionalrap. A closer look will show unusual lyrics like “Lucy was87, upon her death bed/At the senior home, where she had previouslychecked in/Traded in the lock and clips for a head rest/Traded inthe charcoal sticks for arthritis, it had to happen,” fromhis song “No Regrets.”
A recent SMU grad, Andy Bothwell, also known as Astronautalis,has been part of the local underground hip-hop scene for years.Astronautalis, who is best known for his live audience-inspiredfreestyles, says he has been rapping for nine years.
“I felt that rap music had vast potential that had yetbeen seen, something that would move it along stylistically as wellas lyrically,” Bothwell said. “I started to hear thingsin other genres that seem to have direct connections to rap musicand I tried to draw on those items when building my newsongs.”
Emo rappers do not hesitate to charge their lyrics with personalemotions, and many of them cite such songwriters as Johnny Cash,Bob Dylan, and Van Morrison as inspiration for their stories ofheartbreak and frustration.
Kennerly’s songs are all charged with raw passion, withwords such as “I told him without a word/why don’t youkill yourself/he was innocent and young/ there goes my knife/ withme off her shelf/she was crying,” from his song”Austrian Rug.”
It does not take long for listeners of emo rap to realize thatthese young men are true poets, who open their minds and let wordsflow without interruption or second thought, creating songs filledwith metaphors that at first seem mostly nonsensical. But theselyrics run laps in your head and tug at your brain until yourealize that this is deep, really deep.
The beauty of it all is that it seems effortless. Could the newunderground hip-hoppers be geniuses? Superior suburbanites withamazing brains that link word to word at astonishing speeds? Or arethey simply silly kids who are laughing to themselves as we raiseour eyebrows in confusion at their songs about dead bugs and oldladies?
