Quick Takes is an occasional column in which we choose any
song that we’re currently listening to – old or new, pop or rock, jazz or folk
or blues, or anything else under the sun that can be spun. One of us writes up one or two short paragraphs on some of our general thoughts about the track, and our
partner takes another couple paragraphs to respond. The rest is up to you, dear reader.
For this entry, we consider a track from Shabazz Palaces
album Black Up.
Aaron: While I
don’t listen to tons of hip-hop, I do try to keep up with the genre’s more
interesting releases, both the commercial and the more experimental stuff. So
when Shabazz Palace – an outfit I’d never heard of – started popping up on all
the “Best of” lists of 2011, I decided to check out Black Up late last year. It
certainly falls on the experimental end of the spectrum. Disjointed rhythms,
odd and spooky production, otherworldly lyrics – it’s the kind of hip-hop album
that demands close listening to unpack all its pleasures. And it’s most
definitely not a disc one throws on to get the party started (well, I guess it depends on the kind of party).
This track is one of the album’s more accessible. In part because
it’s a type of love song and in part because it’s rhythmic cadences are less
angular or oddly contrapuntal. The rap pretty much flows straight forward from
beginning to end and does so in close unison with the song’s beat. It’s not my
favorite song on the album, but it is the first song that grabbed me – perhaps
because it is “easier” than a lot of the other tracks. I really like the way
the lyrics start out describing what seems essentially to be a crush (“I was
hopin’ that maybe / I could be her baby”) and develop into something closer to
full-on sexual obsession (“I want to be there / I should be in there”). And as
the lyrics take on a different tonal shading, the production slowly builds the
ambient background sounds into something more insistent.
