Friday, August 12, 2005
"Ask your sister if I can borrow her boom box."
For long time Bubblegoose (i.e. pre-blog) fans, Urban Lenny is no stranger. In many ways, his involvement with the BGN (Bubblegoose News, an email distributed newsletter/magazine) was integral to me being able to blog today. His inspiration for mixing editorial with introspection, and flavoring it all with humor is greatly appreciated. I don’t get to sit down and chat with Urban Lenny enough, and in a lot of ways my life is at its most “right” when I am in better communication with him.
Earlier this summer, Urban Lenny and I sat down for a long day together, and agreed to allow himself to be drilled with interview questions for use on this blog. So, over the next few months I am going to publish a few excerpts from that interview, I hope you all get a kick out of something in it each time.
Mao: Let’s just jump right in, I was surprised hear you like hip hop. Care to comment?
Urban Lenny: It shouldn’t surprise you… I mean, I realize that I am usually seen as a bit of a rocker but… man, I love music. There is this huge out-lash in certain circles against rap. It is founded in racism, I am sure of it. America is hiding this latent racism that is pretty scary. The back lash is also due to the way certain rappers are packaged as thugs. But hip hop is at once the new punk and the new Motown. There is something infectious in the beat that speaks to the soul, and yet there is so much true creativity in the lyrics… the rhymes…
M: So is it a legitimate art form?
UL: Definitely. And just to finish a random thought I had, hip hop isn’t necessarily a “black” thing. A lot of great hip hop elements have been co-opted into white musicians’ music. It’s more than music too, it’s a style. An attitude, fashion sense, and so on. I have some Japanese hip hop that is surprisingly good. It isn’t about shooting and bitches either. The core of hip hop is soul after all, and let’s face it… there aren’t a lot of soulful whites…
M: (laughs) What’s that?
UL: You know… a lot of white folks don’t have any soul. Fakin’ the funk, you know? Bustin’ out the rhyming dictionaries, working two months on the lyrics of a three minute rap. The real cats are like Shakespeare, inventing phraseology. The pretenders are all about rhyming every word, regardless how weak the lyric is. “word to your moms, I came to drop bombs, I got more rhymes than the Bible’s got psalms,” how whack is that?
M: (laughs) I had better steer this back to music before things get controversial. So what do you like… who do you like… in hip hop?
UL: Well, I like two sides of it. I like the creativity put into the beats. A lot of that was stolen by the techno culture. Especially the drum and bass community. Roni Size, Bjork, and Portishead all used it well. Anyway, I love dudes like Kool Keith, Danger Mouse, and DJ Shadow that can weave a killer, off kilter beat. But I also love a guy that can really “spit hot fire” like Dylan on Chapelle Show would say. It’s what rappin’ is all about, even back to the dance hall reggae days. The selector puts on a groove and the MC just rat-a-tat-tats over it. Greatest rap song ever; “Paid in Full.” The best at this sort of hip hop are, in my opinion, surprisingly unpopular. Everyone remembers Eminem, MC Hammer, and so on. The ones that are better at marketing than rhyming and producing. To me, Nelly is the new version of “Wacky D and Sunshine” (from CB4). The real warriors are De La Soul, Mos Def, Nas, the Roots, Q Tip, Wyclef, MF Doom, and so on.
M: De La!
UL: I knew you’d dig that. They sort of mix both sides of hip hop that I like. I sort of came into rap during the party rap phase. It really was about the rhymes then. Lame rhymes, like “Nightmare on my Street.” Then came NWA and Public enemy… wow. Run DMC was awesome, but they were creating a format on the fly. Not all of their stuff is gold. NWA and PE took the ball and ran with it in a great new direction. Now we’ve come too far and we have G Unit. Anyway, I like music. I will listen to anything, literally, until I decide I don’t like it. It just so happens that I dislike almost all country that I hear. It truly is soulless white people trying to play pop blues. It sucks. I mean, Big and Rich?! Come on.
M: I saw bits of the CMA Festival on CBS. They showed Big and Rich playing acoustic at a Children’s Hospital. They were singing “Save a horse, ride a cowboy” and having the kids sing the “cowboy” part. That seemed so wrong…
UL: (laughs) That is insane? I mean, that whole song is sexual innuendo isn’t it? Maybe we can hear 2 Live Crew on Radio Disney. Wow. I guess that Sir Mix A Lot is doing all sorts of versions of “Baby’s Got Back” on TV commercials and kids shows. Nothing like two hillbillies teaching 8 year olds about the birds and bees. But not to just bash on country, let’s try to be equal opportunity. I hate modern rock too. You can dress pop music up all you want, but when you try to make it something it isn’t, it will suck every time. I love a good pop song. It wouldn’t sell so many records if it wasn’t full of hooks. But don’t tell me that Jason Mraz is some sort of urban Lennon or (Bob) Dylan. Give me Gwen (Stefani) or Kelly (Clarkson) over Avril (Lavinge) and Allison (Morrisette) any day.
M: So Urban Lenny likes Kelly Clarkson too?
UL: Well, she is cute, and sings a good song. I should say, she has clever writers handing her good pop songs. If I am going to hear pop, I want to hear it from someone who has no delusions of being anything more than temporal. Jewel sucks, Smashmouth sucks.
M: I am more surprised to hear you go on so positively about pop music than I was to hear you were into hip hop…
UL: Oh, I am a musical softie from way back. (laughs) I mean, I am a sucker for it. I love George Michael, for instance. Having old INXS and Genesis alongside my indie stuff seems pretty lame, but I love a good song. Even the Cure is soft, man, but I dig it. Its like, “hey, ask your sister if I can borrow her boombox.”
M: Do you think the music industry is in trouble?
UL: Sort of… no… well, what a hard question. I think people will always steal music if they can. I dream of the day that there is an iPod for movies, but no one will rush to make a small, compact format for movie data storage now that we have seen what peer-to-peer has done to music. But the industry was dying on its own, there is so little good music being supported. There is so much crap. And when the major labels get into bed with Target and Wal-Mart to push crap on us for $15 to $20 a shot, eventually there will be a lull. Like Hollywood is having. There is so much cookie cutter rap, metal, and “alternative” (motions quotation marks with his hands). But the independent circuit is doing fine. In movies and music. I don’t mean fake independent like Good Charlotte, Killers, and Green Day. I mean true, off label gems. As much as I hate to say it, look at Bright Eyes and the success Connor (Oberst) has found). I prefer Polyphonic Spree and New Pornographers to anything else on the market today, to be honest. And what was that lame fad of rap-rock-emo-goth? “Bring me back to life?” “I’m broken” Staind. Lincoln Park. Limp Bizkits (sic?). Horrible moments on rock history. As horrible as Creed and Puddle of Mudd. I fear the VH-1 “I love the 00’s” specials. Just like I am ashamed I ever got mixed up in that grunge scene…
M: Let’s save that for another time. So to wrap up this long and boring rant on music, give us five recommendations for current music.
UL: Hmm. You got me into this one… Skindred. If you like metal, get Skindred. It is a little weak, a little pop, but the mix of reggae and metal would have to be. Reggae is pop, it always caters to the crowd. It’s about having a party, man. And beside, reggae is the foundation for all good music… punk, hip hop… So Skindred rocks. Mclusky broke up, but they are… were… the new Pixies. They sort of have a great noise sound that is wholly their own. New Pornographers are the perfect band, so you can’t go wrong there. Garage pop, you know? I would love to say Queens of the Stone Age, your guys, but the new album was trash.
M: I agree, it sucked.
UL: Flaming Lips have a new one coming out. They are always good. The Lips and Beck both impress every time. Did I give you five yet? Gorillaz is very good, System of a Down is… interesting. Its easier to tell you what I hate. Stay away from Jack Johnson, Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails, Jason Mraz, Green Day, and John Mayer. If you want to throw away $20 on something self important and awfully uncreative, go see an Oliver Stone film twice.
M: Favorite song in the last few years?
UL: Easy. Tribute by Tenacious D.
Horns up!
Comments:
Hey Mao,
Everyone of those bands recommended is self important losers of music. I would much rather listen to people who are having fun with their music than the ones who take themselves way too seriously.
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Everyone of those bands recommended is self important losers of music. I would much rather listen to people who are having fun with their music than the ones who take themselves way too seriously.