The most beautiful thing about music is its nature as a collaborative art form. Imagine your favorite rock song without the drums, bass, and guitar all working together. Would Beethoven's Ninth move us to tears without the power of a full orchestra? And now the internet has opened avenues of musical exploration and collaboration never before possible. There is no better example of this than my new favorite CD from the library collection:
"We're New Here" - an amazing collaboration between jazz poet legend Gil Scott-Heron and "The XX" producer Jamie XX.
It is a strange pairing: the raw style of recently deceased "bluesologist" Scott-Heron with the industrial, dubstep beats of Jamie XX. But "We're New Here" is one part social message, one part slam poetry, and one part club smash blended to perfection. On the track "NY is Killing Me," Jamie XX weaves Scott-Heron's somber words "fast city ain't livin' all it's cracked up to be...New York is killing me" into a frantic dance tempo like a nightmare merry-go-round spun out of control. The track "Running" races forward on an absolutely stunning bass line, Scott-Heron preaching, "It's easier to run...than staying and finding out you're the only one that didn't run." My favorite track, "I'll Take Care of U," is a remix of Scott-Heron's previous cover of Bobby Benton's 1959 smash hit, "I'll Take Care of You" (hooray for collaboration)! Scott-Heron's vocals, raw and wounded, are layered atop soothing island drums and an awe-inspiring tribal breakdown. It is an amazing song - so good that rap superstar Drake used it as the title track of his
latest album, "Take Care" (also available from the library).
This album introduced me to the great Gil Scott-Heron, a jazz legend who influenced the creation of hip-hop and R&B music, not to mention countless artists of all genres (Usher, Public Enemy, Lupe Fiasco, and of course the XX). I look forward to exploring more of
Scott's "traditional" works, which I've read delve into the social injustices and pain and beauty of life of the past four decades. But for now, I urge everyone (and especially electronic, jazz, poetry, and fans of good ol' collaboration)
to explore the fantastic "We're New Here."
-James
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