Relive, and Debate, Great Music with "The Rap Yearbook"

Time to download the book about all of our favorite downloaded songs

I just finished another book by another former Grantland writer, and, once again, I really enjoyed it. I just recently finished and reviewed the very excellent "Boys Among Men: The Preps to Pro Generation that Changed the NBA" by Jonathan Abrams. So, naturally I figured another Grantland writer would have an equally as good book. The book I chose was "The Rap Yearbook" by Shea Serrano.

"The Rap Yearbook" was given to me as a gift, and I was putting off reading it until I caught up on some other reading, but boy am I glad that I read this book. It is widely known that I'm a big hip hop fan. I've written about a lot of hip hop groups and have been listening to hip hop for many, many years. This book is a great read about the most important, not best, rap songs from the years 1979 to 2014. It was absolutely fascinating. Serrano is just around my age, so we have very similar taste in older hip hop, but very different taste in more recent hip hop.

Serrano picked the most important song for each year, so it wasn't necessarily the best. It was the most important/influential song during it's particular year. The early years are easy to agree with. In 1979 he has Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight". Obvious choice. Some other obvious choices that are very hard to disagree with, 1980 Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks", 1982 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message", 1987 Eric B and Rakim's "Paid in Full", 1988 N.W.A's "Straight Outta Compton", basically all the late 80's, early 90's stuff is easily and correctly chosen. He also writes a few paragraphs as to why the song is the most important. He points out what the song is about, why it's important, the influence it had, the message it sends, Serrano pretty much breaks down every legit reason why the particular song is the song of the year.

The author and I definitely differ when it comes to 21st century hip hop, and that makes this book great. Serrano seems to think that more popular artist put out more significant songs. I understand why he thinks this. The more popular the artist, the more people it reaches, thus making it more important. I just prefer more underground, lesser known hip hop artists. That's my particular taste. I'd rather listen to Murs or Mr. Lif or Dilated Peoples than Kanye or Drake or, god help me, Macklemore. But, as I said above, I totally understand why he picks those people. Serrano may like more lesser known artists too, but that would not make for a good book for more than half the hip hop listening community. So, in the 21st century, he picks some songs that I disagree with. In 2005, he picks Kanye West's "Gold digger". Yeah, it's a popular song, with a very good beat, but I don't think any song featuring an actor, Jamie Foxx, should be considered. Also, the song is very misogynistic. But, I don't know what I would put in it's place. That's where Serrano has me beat. Serrano also picks other stuff I don't agree with in the 2000's. Stuff like 2008 Lil Wayne's "A Milli". It's a fine song, but Lil Wayne had peaked already by that time and he was definitely on a down swing. It felt more like a lifetime achievement to put him in this book. For 2009 he picked Drake's "Best I Ever Had". Drake is a terrible rapper and an even worse bandwagon sports fan. Drake stinks, his music stinks and he will be irrelevant in about 5 years. Drake does not belong in this book. For 2012, he picks Macklemore's "Same Love". Sure, the song has a very good message, but it is not a good rap song. Macklemore is the biggest poser in the history of music. He is worse than Elvis. He calls himself independent, but he does nation wide commercials and carries himself like a jackass. "Same Love" is important, but not because of Macklemore and I'm sure there is much better, much more important songs from 2012. Macklemore, in my opinion, is as bad as Drake. They are corporate rappers that make corporate, shitty rap music. For 2013 and 2014 Serrano picked two songs I didn't recognize. For 2013 he picked Big Sean's "Control" and it wasn't until I read why he picked it that it was the coming out party for Kendrick Lamar. Personally, he could've picked any song from Lamar's debut album, "good kid, m.A.A.d city" as the most important song of 2013 and it would have been a better choice. In 2014 he picked a song I never heard of by Rich Homie Quan and Young Thug called "Lifestyle". His reasoning was more about the emergence and weirdness of Young Thug than the music. Ok by me.

Another thing that makes "The Rap Yearbook" a great book is the collaborations. In each chapter, Serrano brings a fellow writer or friend in and they give their rebuttal to what should be the song of the year. So, we get at least two different perspectives in each chapter. Serrano isn't married to his choice and that makes him a wonderfully gifted writer. He wants outsiders points of view and ideas. He's open to hearing why he is wrong and why someone else is right. I love that.

"The Rap Yearbook" is a must read for all fans of rap music and music in general. It's fascinating and it brings you back to that time in your life. I knew exactly where I was when I first heard his 1999 choice, Eminem's "My Name Is". I can picture 16 year old me bobbing my head to his 1998 pick, DMX's "Ruff Ryder's Anthem". I vividly remember arguing with friends and family that Jay Z was the clear winner in his beef with Nas, and Serrano picked "Takeover" vs. "Ether" for his 2001 songs. This book is wonderful. Go out, buy it and read it. You won't be disappointed.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is sorry to tell the head editor that 3rd Bass did not make the book. The head editor gave Ty the gas face. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: A Tribe Called Quest

We've been doing our Greatest American Band debate on the website for a little over three months now. We've discussed many great bands, old and new. Some are hugely famous, others a little more underground. What dawned on me this weekend though, we haven't discussed any hip hop/rap groups.

That's a shame.

Hip hop/rap is the only type of music that is truly American. It originated in the US and, only about 10 years ago, did it start to come from overseas. There's a plethora of rap groups that I will be writing about over the next couple of months, one every week to be precise, and today I'm going to start with my personal favorite, A Tribe Called Quest. Tribe, which I will call them the rest of this piece, was the first true hip hop group that I was exposed to that was good. I listened to people like Puff Daddy and Mase and Onyx, but those were all pretty terrible rappers. Puff Daddy is a genius producer, but a not so good rapper. Mase was cool for a minute, but he went into some weird tail spin and I believe he's a preacher now. Onyx had one really good song, "Slam", but in preparation for this blog, I listened to it again, and sadly it doesn't hold up. Puff Daddy did introduce me to the GOAT, Notorious B.I.G., but he's a solo act, so he's out of this discussion.

Once again, my oldest brother, the same one that introduced me to the Velvet Underground, introduced me to Tribe. They were like nothing I ever heard before. They had a smooth, jazzy sound. But, they also were phenomenal rappers. Q Tip was the smooth operator of the group. He had a soulful, yet political consciousness that spoke to me. He delivered his lyrics with ease. He was/is such a good rapper, he made it sound easy. It's like watching a really good NBA player, someone like Magic Johnson, who is so good, they make it look easy. I can't do the things they do, but they make it seem possible. Phife Dawg came at you like a canon. After one of Q Tip's verses, Phife would come in and blow you away with his intensity and, almost angry, delivery. He was the perfect compliment to Q Tip. One was smooth(Q Tip), the other would punch you in the gut(Phife). Ali Shaheed Muhammed was a fantastic DJ, and when he did rap, he was decent. Ali Shaheed was more of the voice of reason in Tribe. He kept them going, even when times were rough. I'll touch on the rough times later. Ali Shaheed clearly just wanted to make music. He didn't want to argue and fight and gripe with the band, he just loved music. Look at the work he's done with D'Angelo or TLC or Tony! Tone! Toni!, the guy is a musical genius. They had a fourth member, Jarobi, but he only appeared on their first album, and he was, for all intents and purposes, their hype man. Jarobi and Phife still remain close friends to this day, so, for that reason alone, he deserves mentioning when talking about Tribe.

All three(four if you want to count Jarobi) were great as a group. They knew what each of them excelled at and they capitalized on that knowledge. In the long run, they grew to hate each other(really Q Tip and Phife hated each other, Ali Shaheed just wanted to make music like I said earlier) because with genius and ego comes jealousy. Q Tip and Phife were both so great at what they did, I think they both grew suspicious of each other and that's when the infighting started. These fights led to the demise of the band, they would reunite for four years, but I will talk about that later, and they only made four albums. But, those four albums are fantastic. Their debut album, "People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm" is groundbreaking. I'd never heard anything like this ever before. You had four guys interweaving jazz grooves with hip hop beats and two of the best rappers to ever walk this Earth. Talk about coming out of the box and crushing a grand slam. This album put not only the hip hop world on notice, but all of the music business started to pay attention to Tribe. This is not only one of the best rap albums of all time, it's one of the best albums of any kind of music ever made. On this album, you can hear the influence it had on other hip hop bands like Digable Planets or Dilated Peoples. Without "People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm", we would never have had those groups. Sophomore albums are usually a step down from debuts, but not in Tribe's case. Their second record, "The Low End Theory" was not a slump, it was a revelation. This is, in my opinion, the greatest rap album of all time. Q Tip was always the leader, but Phife took a huge step forward and became an unstoppable force on this record. They took all their jazzy beats and bumped it to a whole other level. They matured and became better rappers than I ever thought they could be. This is a must own album for all music lovers out there. Even if you don't like rap, you'll like "The Low End Theory". It's music for all different music lovers. After this album is where the fighting started for Tribe. As I said, Phife started to become a force and I don't think Q Tip liked that. It may sound like I'm being too tough on Q Tip and, yes, Phife is my favorite of the group, but that's not the case. I just think that two geniuses will eventually grow to dislike each other when they spend that much time together, and that's what happened. They still made two more albums though. "Midnight Marauders" is a really good record. The story goes, they were fighting so much that each of them recorded in their own studio, but when you listen to this record, it sounds like Q Tip and Phife are standing right next to each other in the recording studio. This is also the album where Ali Shaheed got to do some rhyming. He was pretty good too. They recorded one last record, "The Love Movement", but you can definitely tell that they were ready to be done with each other. It's still a really good record, but you knew it was going to be their last. They put out four great, classic albums in a short amount of time, and I didn't even get to some of the songs on these records.

In fact, let's do that now. Songs like, "Buggin Out", "Bonita Applebum", "Can I Kick It", "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo", "Award Tour", "Oh My God", "Steve Biko(Stir it Up)" and many more are classics. "Buggin Out" is when Phife busted out on the scene. Go listen to his verses in this song and be amazed at how awesome he is as a rapper. He is great. "Bonita Applebum" might be one of the greatest love songs I've ever heard. If it wasn't so dirty, I'd want it as my first dance at my wedding(full disclosure, my first dance song at my wedding was "Sea of Love", a great choice in my opinion). "Can I Kick It" might be one of the most quotable songs of all time. Wherever I'm playing sports with my son and we have a ball that we are kicking, whenever he says, "Can I kick it?", I say, in my best Tribe impression, "Yes You Can!". That song is awesome. "Oh My God" is the best kind of ear worm you can get. I hear that chorus and the rest of the day, I'm singing that in my head and out loud. "Steve Biko(Stir It Up)" has one of the coolest grooves in a rap song that I've ever heard. Q Tip is his smooth self on this song and he delivers his lyrics like a god damned pro. "Award Tour" is my favorite Tribe song. The verses and the chorus are awesome, both Phife and Q Tip shine, and they give a shout out to their main man, Ali Shaheed Muhammed, throughout the whole song. It's a really, really good song. There's many, many more songs I could talk about, but these are my favorites, and the ones I listen to the most.

As I've said before, they fought a ton, but they did reunite for a brief time in 2004 until 2008. They played sold out venues and sold out festivals. Fans were eager to see them live, and for the most part, they delivered. Go watch the excellent movie, "Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest" directed by super fan and actor Michael Rappaport, and you'll see them reunite, but you also see the fights that were going on, specifically between Q Tip and Phife. This is a really good movie about Tribe and it's a must see for all fans. All of the members went on to solo careers, but Q Tip is/was by far the most successful.

Before I give my closing thoughts on Tribe today, I also wanted to mention that they were contemporaries with Busta Rhymes, Common and the great De La Soul. These two bands and two solo artists grew together at the same time. How crazy is that. Tribe is one of the greatest bands of all time, not just in hip hop/rap, but in all music. A Tribe Called Quest is, by far, one of the Greatest American Bands and they absolutely belong in our conversation. The things I've written and many, many more reasons are why I nominate them today.

Tribe rules.

(ed note: A Tribe Called Quest has also not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. What they hell is wrong with the hall?)

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the co-host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. At one time Ty was rocking some series dreds, he now rocks a bald spot. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.