Jasmine: If things had been different I...I think that's interesting because I don't really think there was anything wrong with Zingalamaduni. The whole hip hop world just changed and there really wasn't room for anything in the mainstream that wasn't about killing people and partying and so forth. It was what it was. Anyway, there are ten or so brief questions in that interview so check it out!
Speech: ...would have waited longer to release our second album.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Short Speech Interview
Here's a short little interview with Speech from a site called Concrete Playground, done to promote their upcoming tour of Australia. I found the first question interesting:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I always loved Zingalamaduni. At the time of it's release, i even liked it better than 3 years... (Now, I'm undecided) At first the critics liked it. But now many of them hate it. I think people were hard on AD. Zingalamaduni was darker and less "Pop" than the first album, it felt different. They were just as bolt as Public Enemy and that scared people who enjoyed the light hippie vibe of the first album.
Kel
I'm not going to lie, I slept on Zing. for like 5 years, because I wasn't all that impressed by Unplugged (covered here a whole back) and then I read a bad review of Zing., so I just kept it moving with AD and stuck with the debut. But I went back and picked it up at some point along with Speech's debut, and to this day I don't get the bad reviews. I mean, Africa's Inside Me? Pride? In the Sunshine? Ease My Mind? Praising You? United Front? These are great songs. So while I prefer the debut just because, Zing. is a great album. And really, I picked it up during some tough times in college, and it was the perfect album to get me through that time.
Funny you mention PE as they were struggling around the same time despite dropping the very good Muse Sick album (also hated on by critics). It was just an awful climate for most rap groups with any kind of message, and still is to a large degree.
Wow. Personally, I prefer Zingalamadunui over 3 Years, and it's one of my favourite albums of all time. It's stirring, it's funky, it's playful, it's haunting, it's catchy, it's an inspiration and it's a high watermark.
"WMFW (We Must Fight And Win) Fm" is a brilliant, brilliant album-opener. I love the piano melodies, the vocals in the background, and of course Baba Oje's voice. And how many of those bands would I have not have heard of if not for this intro?
"Fountain of Youth" is such a fun and playful tune; I still love Speech's 'chip, chip chiddily uh's intro to that :)
Ok, I have to stop or I'll be writing a paragraph on each song about why I love each one. :)
And yeah. I guess, commercially, dropping songs about abortions, owning your own land, and pervy racist landlords probably would have scared off or confused a lot of people. AD were too good to write an album full of vapid party tunes, though, and I for one appreciate that artistic intensity and integrity. I wouldn't change a thing about it.
Post a Comment