Friday March 21, 2008 at 21:44
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Every single moment of the beginning of the song works to create this gorgeous, eerie mood. It’s 100% perfect.
And then the school bell rings and the RZA verse kicks in and it all shatters and disappears. The rest of the song is dead to me, unlistenable, wholly disconnected from everything that preceeded. They took something wonderful and defiled it. Why.
Next up: more good stuff. If you have songs that you only half like, I would love to hear about them.
OK! The musical theme here in the coming days will be Songs I Only Half Like. This is a theme that is near and dear to me. Because yes, art is subjective and there is some that you love and some that you hate. But I like to think about the in-between stuff. The art that you experience and think: “Wow, this would be so good if only the artist hadn’t done X. What were they thinking, in creating something I am drawn to and yet prevented from giving myself to completely.”
Song #1 that I Only Half Like:
Masta Killa - “School”
This easily could have been one of my favorite hip hop songs of all time. Love love love:
- the Esther Rolle/Good Times intro
- the way the drums kick in like thunder on the word “black”
- that Masta Killa comes in half-way through the measure, instead of at the beginning like you’d expect
Every single moment of the beginning of the song works to create this gorgeous, eerie mood. It’s 100% perfect.
And then the school bell rings and the RZA verse kicks in and it all shatters and disappears. The rest of the song is dead to me, unlistenable, wholly disconnected from everything that preceeded. They took something wonderful and defiled it. Why.
Next up: more good stuff. If you have songs that you only half like, I would love to hear about them.
