Dig of the week: Black On Both Sides
By: Kay Tee Vlk
Tags: New York, Hip Hop, Rap, Love, Music

You’ve found yourself in the little corner of the internet, where I like to shine a spotlight on classic albums, from a musical and cultural perspective, that I consider highly essential and always in some way relevant to the current month. Sometimes regularly, sometimes less so. Nevertheless, always with love.

Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def or Dante Smith, was born today, so it’s only right to use this space to show some love and give props to one of the best MCs of all time, hailing from the projects of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. ‘Black on Both Sides’ is an important and beautiful album that has hit me like a brick back in the day and is hands down my favorite work of his (aside from the groundbreaking Black Star album he made in collaboration with Talib Kweli, an absolute classic and a separate chapter on it’s own). Coming out on Rawkus Records as an underground album at the time, ‘Black on Both Sides’ has hit number 1 on the Billboards Top Rap Albums Chart within a few months after its release and is certified Gold.

Discovering it during my first year in the States as a 16 year old exchange student from Slovakia, with limited understanding of english language, has allowed me to reveal it layer by layer over the years. At first musically, rhythmically, atmospherically, later diving deeper into the lyrics and reading between the lines. Eye opener is an understatement.

Ms. Fat Booty video

The cover art alone makes it clear that you’re in for a personal journey. Amidst the reign of the so-called ‘jiggy era’ of shiny suits, Mighty Mos addresses inconvenient truths, crucial, critical and necessary topics ranging from the state of hip hop, shadiness of the music industry, Y2K and panic over the new millenium, the global water crisis, importance of community, police harassment, to love, lust and infatuation. All the while doing it in a completely earnest way with delightful wordplay and captivating storytelling that in time concludes into positive encouragement.

Umi Says video

On top of that the level of production on the MC’s debut solo album is absolutely brilliant. The soundscape includes productions from ATCQ’s Ali Shaheed Mohammad, Ayatollah, Psycho Les from the Beatnuts and great jazz instrumentalist Weldon Irvine. On the uplifting track ‘Umi says’ you can hear Weldon on hammond organ, Yasiin on bass and Will.I.Am of Black Eyed Peas on keyboard. The original samples come from Nigerian pioneer of afrobeat Fela Kuti, Fleetwood Mac’s singer Christine McVie, Kool & the Gang and Queen Aretha, to name a few. I’d like to point out these few soulful cuts that are dear to my heart:

‘Ms. Fat Booty’ sample

sampled on ‘Fear Not of Man’

sampled on ‘Know That’

guitar licks sampled by DJ Premier in his mad-scientist ways on ‘Mathematics’

used on the 15th track of the album

“In the days of hip hop being based on the samples, sample’s picked and then additional tracks are put in to reinforce the sound. Sometimes the sample goes away and we’re only left with the new stuff, so the sample works in different ways, but it’s almost like we learn more about the original song through this hip hop record, because it’s like we’ve taken this piece of music and put it in an X-ray machine. And we get to see the different layers of it and the DNA of it and we examine it in a way that doesn’t get to happen when we just listen to the original. In its original holistic version there’s a unity and balance that gets upset in the hip hop process to create something new. And we get to learn so much through this process. It’s amazing.” -Rick Rubin in conversation with Pharell Williams, Broken Record podcast

I feel like regardless if you get into this album in 1999, today, or anywhere inbetween, it belongs to the category of musical pieces that have the power to really move you. And if you pay attention, you’re bound to be hit with some crucial, critical and necessary perspective and information that remains very relevant until this day.

SPECIAL TREAT

For those who haven’t had the opportunity to see this clip of Mos Def freestyling in a cypher, it’s one of those uplifting moments in history that will continue to be shared for centuries for all the right reasons. Hip hop in it’s purest form.

Thank you, Yasiin, for the light you shine on the world.

Feel free to share the love & hit me up with what’s been catching your ears these days. I’m always on the look-out for music and would love to hear from you.