The idea of art-rap has always been a precarious one.
A lot of attempts to “elevate” rap from the dance floor have collapsed under their own ideas. It’s not that rap can’t be loaded with meaning or musical production. The problem is that divorcing the immediate and rhythmic elements of hip-hop from its lyrical content can create some terrible mistakes, from the painfully pretentious thesaurus-rap of Aesop Rock to the stream-of-consciousness incontinence that expects us to spend way too much time parsing.
Lyrics aside, though, rap is necessarily operating under a restriction that other sorts of music don’t encounter, especially when getting experimental or unconventional. The nature of rap vocals themselves shape the way the music is created, limiting the breadth of ideas that can be successfully worked into the production. Of course, this is all fine when collage is in order, as in 2Pac’s one-dimensionally pilfered samples, but not if experimentation is the goal.
The fact is that rap is a dense and lyrically complex vocal style, which means that, in order for the vocals to come off as effective, they need to be uncluttered by the background texture. Whether this restriction creates booming dance beats or sparse, suggestive ones, the total amount of sonic information that can be crammed into the instrumental portion of the track suffers. There’s no potential for soundscapes here; while a rock singer can insert his or her voice as a flowing element of the overall texture, a rap artist experiences a necessary divide between vocal and instrumental.
The potential of experimental hip-hop doesn’t really become apparent until some example of beats-as-songs (without rapping), such as the music of L.A.’s Flying Lotus, explores the possibilities. Crafting computerized dystopian electro-soul out of a dense mix of samples and production, Flying Lotus makes music that combines hip-hop’s deep understanding of compulsory body movement with a transforming, evolving musical structure that manipulates the listener’s experience by adding layers of tension rather than stagnating on a beat plateau. Sometimes the tempo wouldn’t accommodate rapping, and certainly the textural details and layered effects would be overlooked if paired with a powerful MC.
Such aggressive beats could hardly render themselves subservient to domineering vocals. It’s a fortunate niche to fill, borrowing electronic ideas but wringing out some of the stiffness. It’s fortunate not because there is anything missing from rap; rather, it’s because the beats that go into rap have a deep potential in their own right, one that is rewarding when expanded and explored.
If you think LaRue’s words would sound better over some booty bass, e-mail him at alarue@media.ucla.edu.