Blogs and Stories
The Thinking Man’s Rapper
But sometimes those breaths miss the mark.
I mean, if I swallow incorrectly or if I breathe and some dust goes down the wrong pipe, words will be missed or a line might be left out. The audience may be none the wiser, but more importantly it’s a bump in the stride of us onstage. And there’s gonna be a bloop, a sonic taxing for it, and everyone’s gonna be brought out of their zone for just a split second to acknowledge the fact that this one person just fucked up or left out this line. So you want everything to be as effortless as possible. It happens all the time but that’s one of the things you micromanage.
Every rapper, when they first hear a beat and start relating to it they go uh, uh, yeah, uh, uh—what’s the about?
It’s like a map. You have to be synced.
So you’re getting into the rhythm?
Yeah. When you hear a beat it usually takes a measure or one or two lines of the music before you become accustomed to the rhythm. It’s like jumping into a jump rope. You just start turning and then I jump in.
The double-dutch analogy is interesting, because you’re very much a part of The Roots in that you’re an instrument in this mix. Most rappers do it as an ego gesture—I’m the man, check me out. All eyes on me. That’s not where you’re coming from. It’s more of a musical gesture.
I’ve become an instrument in this. I’ve become a functioning cog in the machine called The Roots, but in my youth I was comin’ from a more braggadocious, egotistical perspective. I started changing as an artist the day that Ahmir [aka ?uestlove, The Roots’ drummer and leader] and I met. I feel like I became more musical and he became more street. That’s what we brought to one another. I was definitely knowledgeable in the world of hip-hop and Ahmir was knowledgeable about jazz and soul and all other music and we turned each other on.
You guys met in high school at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts. Did you take music classes together?
I’ve never studied music. Music for me was a hobby, something to do other than the art I’ve always done. I’ve been in art school from the age of three. I was a visual-arts major so what I learned at the school was just about colors and warm colors and cool colors and the effect that different colors have on people when you see a certain colors or two colors together. Which is where I got my name from: black being all the colors of the palette. The thing that’s carried over from my visual-art education into what I do musically is my openness. I can deal with sonic colors, the sound palette, from the experience I have dealing with the actual palette.
Has another rapper ever told you something that made a difference, or made you better?
Well, in KRS-One’s book The Science of Rap, he said come out with your jacket on. Begin your performance and your rapport with your audience by warmin’ yourself up, and that means start rappin’ with your coat on and at some point during the first three songs you take it off. This gives the impression that you’re getting even more personal, getting down to business. And that way you get an extra rush, an extra roar from the crowd and your performance elevates from that point.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Upset for the Ages
Touré is a columnist for The Daily Beast. He's also an NBC contributor and the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, Soul City, and The Portable Promised Land. He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was CNN's first pop culture correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N Heard. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker and the New York Times.
Do Bold Outfits Win Matches?
Touré is a columnist for The Daily Beast. He's also an NBC contributor and the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, Soul City, and The Portable Promised Land. He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was CNN's first pop culture correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N Heard. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker and the New York Times.
Lessons of the Beerfest
Touré is a columnist for The Daily Beast. He's also an NBC contributor and the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, Soul City, and The Portable Promised Land. He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was CNN's first pop culture correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N Heard. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker and the New York Times.
Thought is one of the most unheralded-but-ill rappers out there. He doesn't get much attention because of his membership in a group, I think, but when he gets an opportunity to display his skills, he shines brightly.
His flow on "Web" off of the Tipping Point disc is one example of his jaw-dropping ability. Rapping styles don't define him. Instead, he changes styles within the same song, or the same verse, or even inside a single line or two. Thought uses different styles as he sees fit.
Dude's mind moves quickly. His rhymes inspire me to keep moving and stay ahead of the game. He might talk about it being a hobby or whatever, but he's truly a devoted disciple of the art.
On the song you mention I am pretty sure that Thought is imitating both Big Daddy Kane and Kool Moe Dee (possibly Kool G. Rap) on two different verses. I was shocked and amazed that was him when I first heard it. I can barely listen to rap these days, but finally seeing these guys last summer was awesome. True artists, musicians, and showman. Not one of these best live hip-hop acts, one of the best live acts period
The song you're thinking of is "Boom", its on the same album, The Tipping Point, as The Web. He imitates Kool G and BDK
I really did get a chuckle when I found out that the Roots were going to be the house band on Late Night. I mean really, who is talent and who is supporting whom? In my mind, Thought and the Roots are on the short list of great intellectual artists of this time. Thank you for bringing us this piece and consider bringing us more of the same.
Great interview! This article makes me think of a Biggie line "Dumb Rappers Need Teaching...Lesson A..." Black Thought and the Roots are Brilliant musicians and they can teach these "Dumb Rappers" a thing or two about music.
Always good to see intelligent rap and hip-hop artists getting credit in a world dominated by shallow pop versions of the genre. It's about time that the Beast posted something regarding other kinds of music though. There's a lot of very intelligent musicians in rock, post-rock, folk, and jazz that are all writing songs about the state of our nation and the world. If you need somebody to write something like that Tina, give me a ring and I'll run a few ideas by your people.
What's with the strange anti-rapper climate?
"Most rappers do it as an ego gesture-I'm the man, check me out. All eyes on me."
"Black Thought and the Roots are Brilliant musicians and they can teach these "Dumb Rappers" a thing or two about music."
Umm...Black Thought has plenty of 'all eyes on me'/braggadocio raps, he also gets plenty of attention as a rapper. Most of it begins with explaining how he doesn't get enough attention as a rapper...
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.