Hip Hop

Like the Erykah Badu song, its probably the love of my life. From NWA and Public Enemy, to The Roots, MF Doom and Saul Williams, I have always been drawn to the rhythm and the noise, let alone how it can be elevated to the rarefied heights it has in recent years.

I love the repetition of it, the structure and how it can be both organised and yet seeming to be random scraps of other instruments, vocal sounds and other ephmera. I love how it incorporates so many other genres, and makes them its own. I love how it allows for chrome stadium grandstanding and avant-beat poetry, and I love how it makes your heart race and your mind delight.

I have my favourites, and there is as much safe and uninvolving hip hop as there is in any music form, but it is a form of music as valid as jazz or classical. Its DIY origins came from necessity, from hunger and that informs greatness, without argument.

I love how it works with live instruments, both as a listener and as a musician, it seems to have something although I doubt I will ever approach the depth and genius of Jay Dilla or Danger Mouse, but I reach for the best Surge Lounge I can, the one that lives in my head.