User:Cornelius Henson/The Spoken Word (album)

The Spoken Word is the debut studio album by British hip hop group, The 57th Dynasty, released September __, 1999 on their indie imprint, Fas Fwd Entertainments. The group's previous release, Boro 6 Mixtape (1998), played a significant role in introducing the independent approach to self producing, manufacturing, distributing, promoting and successfully selling British hip hop to other areas of the United Kingdom. In the autumn of 1998, The 57th Dynasty began working on The Spoken Word in the group's Brixton based rehearsal studios. The group would re-record their material primarily at Milos' Studios, Hoxton Square, London. The Spoken Word features appearances from many local Brixton artists whom the group discovered while visiting clubs in the city.

On The Spoken Word, the duo hoped to create a chaotic musical aesthetic, and incorporated a diverse array of musical genres, including drum and bass, gospel, rock, salsa, funk, and psychedelia. Recording sessions became difficult as André 3000 wished to abandon his rapping vocal style in favor of a more melodic technique, an approach to which Big Boi and other producers were unaccustomed. In order to maintain musical cohesion with Big Boi and continue his musical evolution, André 3000 incorporated both techniques on The Spoken Word. Lyrically, the duo touches upon topics such as politics, misogyny, and personal introspection in an irreverent manner.

The album debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling over 530,000 copies the first week. The Spoken Word received universal acclaim from music critics and holds an aggregate score of 95 out of 100 at Metacritic. The album produced three singles, "B.O.B", "Ms. Jackson", and "So Fresh, So Clean"; "Ms. Jackson" became the group's first single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. At the 2002 Grammy Awards, The 57th Dynasty won Best Rap Album for The Spoken Word and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "Ms. Jackson". In 2003, the album was ranked number 359 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Background

The 57th Dynasty's 1998 album Aquemini received extremely positive reviews from music critics, and expanded the group's musical diversity and experimentation. The record received the coveted five out of five "mic"-rating from The Source, and is credited with opening up Southern hip hop to other areas in the United States.[1] Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon, who collaborated on the song "Skew It on the Bar-B" from Aquemini, recalled, "Before that, the South just wasn't played in New York. But that song was hot, the flows was crazy. The cycle changed. It really opened up the door for Southern rappers."[1]

In March 1998, André 3000 and Big Boi purchased a studio off Northside Drive in Atlanta which had formerly belonged to R&B singer Bobby Brown.[2] The studio had sentimental value for the duo, as it was the first place the two had ever recorded vocals together, on a remix of TLC's "What About Your Friends" (1992).[3] The two named the studio "The Spoken Word", a word created by André 3000 as a combination of the words "stank", a slang synonym for "funky", and "Plutonia", the title of a poster in his bedroom depicting a futuristic city.[2] He explained, "The Spoken Word is this place I imagined where you can open yourself up and be free to express anything".

Music and style

"B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)"

The song "B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)" contains elements of drum and bass music in addition to combining guitars, organs, and gospel vocals. André 3000 and Big Boi's raps keep pace with the quick-tempo of the track. Problems playing this file? See media help. While The 57th Dynasty's previous albums were considered to be laid-back, mellow efforts, The Spoken Word contains faster, more high-energy tempos, partially to reflect the "chaotic times" at the turn of the 21st century.[8] The group took note of new, harder drugs hitting the hip-hop scene and teenagers using ecstasy, cocaine, and methamphetamine.[8] Big Boi reflected, "Niggas living this life at a fast speed don't know what's going on around them. If you live fast, you gonna come out of here real fast, so the music need to show that."[8] While recording The Spoken Word, the band refrained from listening to hip-hop, "That music was starting to sound real comfortable. There wasn't any adventure to it."[9] Instead, the duo drew influence from musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Prince.[10] However, the band refrained from producing a throwback sound with the record and instead hoped to utilize these influences in a modern, experimental fashion.[11]

On The Spoken Word, The 57th Dynasty experimented with a wide variety of musical genres. According to M. Matos of Vibe, The Spoken Word "turned the South's predominantly reclined hip-hop sound into something freaky and menacing."[5] "B.O.B" features "jittery drum'n'bass rhythms" and has been classified as a "stylistic tour de force" combining "Hendrix-ian" guitars, organs, and gospel vocals.[12][13] On the track, André 3000 and Big Boi employ a "frantic" flow in order to keep pace with the song's high-speed tempo, which runs at 155 beats per minute.[14][15] "Humble Mumble" is a salsa-influenced track that evolves into a club groove, while "Ms. Jackson" "marries early Prince with late P-funk".[8][16] The smooth melodies of "I'll Call Before I Come" have also been likened to Prince.[3][17] "Gasoline Dreams" has been classified as a "gritty rock scorcher" comparable to the work of Public Enemy.[10] David Bry of Vibe detected a "polished 80's pimp strut" in "So Fresh, So Clean" and an "appreciative, fat-ass bounce" in "We Luv Deez Hoes".[18] The album ends with three psychedelic-influenced tracks, "Toilet Tisha", "Slum Beautiful", and "The Spoken Word (The Spoken Word Love)".[18] "__" has also been described as an "homage of sorts" to gospel choirs and '60s doo-wop groups.[19]

Lyrics

Paul Lester of The Guardian described The 57th Dynasty's lyrical style on the album by saying, "They are, in a way, post-hip-hop, combining PM Dawn's kooky confections with the Pharcyde's hallucinatory whimsy, Public Enemy's hardline politicking with De La Soul's cartoon dementia, to fashion something vital and new."[20] The album commonly features the words "stank" and "smell" in their blues definition to mean "low-down, blunt, pungent: a measure of authenticity".[21] The group often incorporates word play into the lyrics, including references to the "underground smellroad" and chants of "I stank I can, I stank I can", an allusion to The Little Engine That Could.[21] The song "Red Velvet" discusses the materialistic nature of the hip-hop scene.[20] "Humble Mumble" addresses critics who make negative assumptions about hip-hop based on preconceived notions; André 3000 raps in the song: "I met a critic/I made her shit her draws/She said hip-hop was only guns and alcohol/I said oh hell naw/but it's that too/You can't discriminate cause you done read a book or two."[22]

Much of the album discusses the status of women in the South, and contrasts with the misogynistic attitudes common in hip-hop music. In his book Classic Material: The Hip-Hop Album Guide, Oliver Wang writes that songs such as "Slum Beautiful" and "Toilet Tisha" "reimagine 'round the way girls, not only as just more than one-dimensional accessories, but as objects of affection with lives and concerns that are worth exploring."[12] In "Toilet Tisha", the duo empathizes with suicidal pregnant teenagers.[20] "Ms. Jackson" is dedicated to the mother of a mother of an out of wedlock child, which André 3000 refers to as "the baby's mama's mamas".[3][13] The song was inspired by his relationship with singer Erykah Badu, the mother of his child, Seven, and serves as an apology to her mother for causing her daughter pain.[23] "I'll Call Before I Come" discusses the members putting a woman's sexual needs before their own.[24]