(no subject)
I just spent the past two days writing about this:
To the untrained ear, Baltimore club music is jarring and abrasive. The essence of it is repetition- both in terms of beats and lyrics. Sometimes a song is just a 5-second clip repeated 20 or so times before switching to another 5-second clip. Very rarely does a song involve three or more phrases. To add to the abrasion, there is lots of yelling, gunshots are occasionally substituted as drumbeats and the lyrics are just about as gritty as they come- usually either hypersexual or hyperviolent. Simply put, Baltimore club music is not accessible. It is neither slickly produced nor coyly marketed. The people that make it do so in the comfort of their rowhouse basements, not the cushy hip-hop studios that you see on MTV. But therein lies the value of the music. It is music not for mass consumption, but for a particular kind of person in a particular city. Once you get past the abrasiveness, what you find is a music that represents- lyrically, culturally and stylistically- young African-Americans in a city that is the epitome of urban decay.
http://www.baltimoreclubtracks.com/KW%20GRIFF%20-%20WHERE%20YOU%20FROM.mp3
To the untrained ear, Baltimore club music is jarring and abrasive. The essence of it is repetition- both in terms of beats and lyrics. Sometimes a song is just a 5-second clip repeated 20 or so times before switching to another 5-second clip. Very rarely does a song involve three or more phrases. To add to the abrasion, there is lots of yelling, gunshots are occasionally substituted as drumbeats and the lyrics are just about as gritty as they come- usually either hypersexual or hyperviolent. Simply put, Baltimore club music is not accessible. It is neither slickly produced nor coyly marketed. The people that make it do so in the comfort of their rowhouse basements, not the cushy hip-hop studios that you see on MTV. But therein lies the value of the music. It is music not for mass consumption, but for a particular kind of person in a particular city. Once you get past the abrasiveness, what you find is a music that represents- lyrically, culturally and stylistically- young African-Americans in a city that is the epitome of urban decay.
http://www.baltimoreclubtracks.com/KW%20GRIFF%20-%20WHERE%20YOU%20FROM.mp3