I’m Revved Up about the Rap Game at SMU. Now in all honesty, Bishop Boulevard was not ready to encounter the likes of someone with ambitions to make it big in the rap/hip hop sector of the music industry, but when I received a CD by SMU junior and Morrison-McGinnis RA, John Harris, I was definitely intrigued.
I popped in the mix tape Every 1 Knows and was greeted by the sounds of a unique blend of the introspective rhymes of Kanye West, the rhythms of the East Coast and the attitude of the Dirty South. The new school style of J. Smith and M. Taylor has enough groove to be comfortable on the charts of a Top 40 station, but the experience-borne narratives and thought-provoking lyrics hearken back to the era when Tupac was making us remember the power of spoken word.
This isn’t the type of album that you would put on shuffle and play at the club. This is the mix-tape experience that accompanies those memorable moments you and your friends had on the stoop. It’s the type of accompaniment you want when you’re having the time of your life with your friends even though you’re not doing anything spectacular. Ladies and gentleman, “Every 1 Knows” goes hard.
I was even more stunned when I learned Harris forged this work in a recording studio on campus. The album was mixed, mastered, produced and engineered using the equipment at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts. Harris took me to the sound lab where he produced “Every 1 Knows.” There, he spent hours upon hours toning the voices, beats, effects and loops.
In my interview with him, he mentioned that if he had the time and money, he would use live instruments. This is not just another weak sauce, all-tech-but-no-talent, music a la Soulja Boy’s “Crank That.” It’s proof that Harris, Taylor and Smith are artists learning to paint with the larger pallet that music has to offer as a medium for meaningful messages.
That being said, Harris and crew have a long way before they make the big time. While each track is a bit more promise than the last, the album, on the whole, is lacking the solid bass line that compels faithful listeners to genuflect to the beat. Finding that simple hook to help compliment the otherwise solid effort could rectify this. To further elaborate on the power of beats, allow me to point your attention to three particular selections of music.
1. The cello line in Franz Joseph Haydyn’s string quartets. Theses rustic pieces contain provide a rustic rhythm that permeates the Rhineland.
2. Andean/Quechua music, Ã la Peru. This is folk music that, in the words of Kelly Rowland, “you can bump to.”
3. Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony,” fourth movement. If you think the melody is beautiful, listen to the bass line.
All in all, you owe it to yourself to get a hold of this album.
If you like undiscovered music that takes you to a new world, check out “Every 1 Knows.”
Richard Newton is a student at the Perkins School of Theology. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
