Weekend Music

I've never heard much rap/hip-hop that I like. But considering all the wonderful music made by black Americans for the past hundred years or so, I thought there must be some, and so for years now I've had an eye, or rather an ear, out for it. I read somewhere that A Tribe Called Quest's Low End Theory was one of the best hip-hop albums ever made, so I gave that a try, and although it was interesting it wasn't something I wanted to hear very much. And I enjoyed The Fugees' The Score. I heard something by The Roots a while back that I liked, and so when I saw their How I Got Over on sale at Amazon a month or so ago I bought it. And I've finally found it: a hip-hop album that I really like. The video is worth watching, too:

I was slightly disappointed to learn that The Roots didn't write the actual song part of this. It's sampled from a group called Monsters of Folk. Here's their original.

When I saw "Dear God 2.0" I assumed at first that it was a reference to XTC's unhappy atheist "Dear God" from the '80s. Even if that's not what The Roots meant, it works; that is, it seems an appropriate companion or successor piece. You can hear XTC's here.

How I Got Over is not completely free of the egregious crudeness, violence, misogyny, and tough-guy boasting that seem to characterize an awful lot of rap, but there's really not very much of it (although the language is pretty rough overall).  Almost every track has substance, and the whole album has a rich, somewhat dark and melancholy vibe. It's not something I'll put aside after a few listens.