R.A.P. Music (2012)

I used to consider hip-hop to be my favourite genre of music but I've kind of been out of touch with the whole scene for a while. I can quite accurately pinpoint when it started to fade into the background as Guitar Hero managed to reinvigorate my love of guitar based music. It provided an insight into the music that I didn't have before, gave me a deeper appreciation of it and I even found myself starting to like guitar solos! It also introduced me to bands I hadn't heard before like Avenged Sevenfold and Lamb of God, which are now firm favourites. As much as I loved DJ Hero it didn't really have the same effect on my appreciation of hip-hop as I already knew a lot about production and DJing, even if it did give me the chance to 'perform' routines that I would never master in real life.

However I seem to have had a renewed interest this year, at least partially down to two albums produced by El-P - his own Cancer For Cure and Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music. I was originally planning to write a single post about both albums at a later date but when R.A.P. Music was made available to listen to online via this Spin article I decided to separate the two. It's actually looking like being the harder album to get hold of a physical copy so I'm glad there was a legal way to hear it, even if it's no longer available. It's also great to have a rough run-down of the intention of each song on the album, which helped me to get into it quicker. I can imagine I will be going back to that article regularly as different parts of songs stand out to me.

The first few tracks I heard off this album included Big Beast, which is the first track on the album and Don't Die roughly from the middle. They are both big bombastic tracks that showcase El-P's production and feel like Public Enemy's original energy brought right up to date. One line from the former seemed to sum this up perfectly - "Like Def Jam circa '83 you get rushed". Other than the amazing production that caught my ear I didn't really know much about Killer Mike, though I eventually realised I must have heard him guest on some of Outkast's material. The tracks that I heard first may have been rather brash and throwaway lyrically but there is more depth to the album as a whole.

I felt like the heart of the album is a track called Reagan, which is bookended by quotes from President Reagan himself, speaking before and after it was revealed hostages had been traded for weapons. I'll admit that the Reagan era is not really something I know much about and it felt very surprising that I'd never heard these contradictory statements before. It really seemed to highlight how almost anything can be spun in a positive way by a charismatic speaker. I felt that this is where the album took a more serious turn, the delivery of the lyrics on that track seeming calm but still masking anger and pain caused by that era. There are some calmer moments again later but I was left with the feeling of an album that just doesn't let up.

This all builds towards the penultimate track Willie Burke Sherwood, a song about Mike's grandfather. He talks about the emotional effect it has on him in that Spin article and I can totally agree with him. Regardless of the personal context for him, it also feels like a moment of calm after how furious the album seems by then, that chance to relax seems to let emotions creep up on you. To me this track cements the fact that this is still a personal album, despite gaining the limelight largely due to El-P's involvement.

The closing track has the same name as the album, where it's made clear that R.A.P. in this case is an acronym (another popular '80s rap trait brought up to date), meaning Rebellious African Peoples Music. The song pays tribute not just to hip-hop but all genre's that were influenced by black culture, which seemed a fitting end to a wide reaching album that's made me excited about the future of hip-hop again.