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De La Soul's Art Official Intelligence (Mosaic Thump) (Tommy Boy)
is billed as the first volume of a long anticipated "triple album
set" that I bet won't generate volume two for a year--if we're
lucky. Though the surviving standard-bearers of the humanist rap
that was quickly outdistanced by L.A. gangsta a decade ago have
never gone mega, they've remained commercially viable and honed
their skills to match, so for an album that was worked over so hard
for so long, Art Official Intelligence has an easeful feel. Densely
playful textures that once seemed exotic smoothed out as the world
caught on, and now De La's beats are just intelligent pop--an
intelligence augmented, as always, by rhymes you can dig into for
weeks. And although such cutting-edge producers as Rockwilder chip
in, smoother r&b grooves prevail as guest stars from Chaka Khan to
the Beastie Boys tell us just how much respect De La Soul deserves.
Let 2001 take care of itself--this will hold us for a while.
The "pornographic" Lil' Kim's The Notorious KIM (Queen
Bee/Undeas/Atlantic) is an even more hotly anticipated release that
also appeared much later fans had hoped. Only a teenager when she
debuted in 1996, Kim has matured. Her honey-grit voice enunciates
without a hint of effort and never stumbles over the beat, her
boasts carry the occasional hint that she's learned the difference
between sexual power and sexual pleasure, and her angry lament for
her beloved Notorious B.I.G. claims womanly growth. But she still
has a tendency to try and wave her clit wherever her male opposite
numbers wave their dicks, and let's face it--that's a trick she's
unlikely ever to fully master.
Playboy, July 2000
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June 2000 |
Aug. 2000 |
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