Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

             Percolating beneath Black music's underbelly, rap's party-rocking rhymes set out on a singular road that went on until the break of dawn. In time, rap embarked on a divergent path lyrically exploring utopian themes ("Planet Rock"), urban working-class woes ("The Breaks" and "Hard Times"), and current events. The peak moment of this seminal shift was Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five featuring Melle Mel and Duke Bootee's "The Message" (1982).  Spawning no less than a half-dozen hard-knock life narratives ("What People Do For Money" "It's Like That" "You're Blind"), " The Message" also planted future inspirational seeds: regional rap markets found their own voices apart from New York hip hop stylings exploring similar subject matter. (See "The Message") On the heels of a few Message-tinged follow-ups, Melle Mel, now cemented as hip hop's resident soothsayer-...

                                                                                                            "We eat fish, tossed salad/and make rap ballads"                                                                       --- Fish (1996)  Every time I hear a Ghostface Killah song I long for the days of sample-based hip hop.  Nearly 30 years ago, Bad B...

                                                 Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides. Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu's words shine a reflection of truth that penetrates delusion. It defies all filter. DMX lived that truth every day of his life. During periods of joy his chiseled frame seemed to shoulder that duality effortlessly. During times of pain he often struggled manage his heavy burdens. X is many different things. He's rap's Antwone Fisher locked in a struggle for his divided soul.Turning inward to soothe the soul of his ravaged peace, he emerges with lyrical masterpieces like Slippin.   For some he's the people's champ whose hard-fought success had vindicated faltered rap careers recalling AZ's grandiose lyri...

                                 "Earth rotates/time won't stop/lyrics on vicious beats/ I drop"  ---Ecstasy "Day to Day" (1991) As 2020 fades into the abyss, it refuses to go peacefully. Intent on snatching as many souls as possible, this year's treacherous reach has no limitations. Hemingway's somber ode to fatality comes to mind: "any mans death diminishes me , because I am involved in Mankinde ; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee ." Paired with ominous keys (replayed on Whodini's 1986 How Dare You) from Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor (skip to 16:42 ), Hemingway and Chopin's unlikely union make for a chilling soundtrack. This time the bell tolls for John "Ecstacy" Fletcher, one third of hip hop supergroup Whodini.  Before Jay-Z, Kane, and Biggie, it was Whodini were Brooklyn's original Kings of New York. Thriving in the mid-...

  Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath of God finds Busta Rhymes in top form, delivering rap's best album of 2020. Over a decade in the making, the Long Island/Brooklyn emcee's patience is rewarded with a modern classic----thirty years after his entry in the rap game as a member of 90s group Leaders of the New School and nearly 25 years after his durable solo career jump-off.  No stranger to the hip hop stratosphere, Busta Rhymes racked up consecutive gold and platinum albums for a decade--- The Coming, When Disaster Strikes, Extinction Level Event (Final World Front), Anarchy, It Ain't Safe No More and Big Bang. Besides massive record sales, these albums had a couple things in common---cryptic titles and a chock full of hits. Busta and ELE2's producers deliver a powerful rap album that echo masterworks from music's past ---Thriller, Songs in the Key of Life, The Chronic , Mama Said Knock You Out and It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back . Lest you think I...

"Part of rap's adhesive is the seamless transition, the sense of continuum, eternity, living with the beat forever"     Barry Michael Cooper: Spin Magazine( 1986) Harlem scribe Barry Michael Cooper's synopsis of rap music circa' 86 could also describe the eternal staying power of two of the greatest hip hop records ever recorded. In 1985, rap music was evolving at the speed of light. Just six years removed from the Sugar Hill/Enjoy simulated breakbeat jams a la Rapper's Delight, hip hop music was emerging with newer sounds and styles that were beating older ones into submission.  Every year since 1979, a series of game-changing records nudged rap towards a nascent cottage industry that was a throwback to rock-and roll/R&B's early days (dubious contracts included). Indie labels run by Blacks, Jews and ethnic whites put out a slew of 12inch rap singles in rapid succession. These imprints had colorful names like Tommy Boy, De...