Instead of writing one of the three final papers that must somehow be completed by 14 December, I have been grappling with iTunes for the better part of the past hour. The best way I can describe the struggle is that it was similar to a condensed episode of “EastEnders” (I would have said “Coronation Street” but then I wouldn’t be adequately communicating violence and carnage), perhaps without the hackneyed Cockney (oh, but that does look nice on paper), but definitely inclusive of the tears, fighting, threats, physical blows, incoherent babbling, pleading, tantrums, bribes and empty promises.
With that introduction I wish to communicate that a) I hate computers and b) I haven’t actually watched “EastEnders” except for two (one?) episode(s) I saw when I was perhaps twelve.
So after a software update (that initially appeared to have mysteriously deleted the outdated copy of iTunes that was installed on my laptop), multiple restarts and several desperate reinsertions of my dodgy Ethernet cable, I figured I deserved a reward. Of the musical variety, that is. Which is how we arrive at “Raid” from Madvillainy (Stone’s Throw, 2004). (Yes, I am pretty pleased with myself.)
Ironically (or is it coincidentally? Damn you, Alanis Morissette, and your meta word games), JAMBlog has not been extremely representative of the beefiest part of my (admittedly meager) music library. But I love rap. I do. And I also have an enormous soft spot for anything that Madlib has a hand in, given his partiality for vintage funk (or vintage soul, or vintage blues…) samples and my… well, my love of vintage funk samples (post a comment if you, too, are of the opinion that Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up” basically made the whole “Late Registration” album, which was already a more than worthwhile endeavor to begin with).
Behold, my favorite YouTube video of all time, which owes approximately five eighths of its greatness to its soundtrack - Madlib's "Slim's Return":
Because I am something of an aesthete (stop laughing), I originally wanted to write about track twelve of Dangerdoom's The Mouse and the Mask (Epitaph, 2005), “Vats of Urine”, if only to see its provocatively repulsive title sprawled gleefully across the post heading in no-nonsense 14-point Arial. But all fanfare and no content makes JAMBlog an unfortunate waste of time, rather than the serendipitous one I had hoped to furnish.
I couldn’t resist Wikipedia’s paraphrasing of Madvillain's unusual style: “short songs, obscure lyrics, few choruses and a sound which [is] generally unfriendly to commercial radio”. (Diderot would be proud, rest his French soul.) Would that I were slightly less friendly to commercial radio, because then I could faff about forever with music that actually reflects some semblance of creativity on the behalf of the (gasp!) artist. Ignore this if I go a little further than merely running the risk of incriminating myself as nothing more than a self-inflated poseur, but “Raid” is one of those songs that makes you feel cool just listening to it. It may feel damn good to be a gangster, but frankly I’d be right chuffed if I could manipulate a couple of turntables to come up with two and a half minutes of jazz-laced looping this solid.
