The case of the canceled Gucci Mane concerts
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
GUCCI MANE: The Atlanta rapper keeps it way too real on the cover of upcoming album, The State vs. Radric Davis.
With Gucci Mane once again headed back to jail, his new song, “My Own Worst Enemy,” feels particularly apropos. Over a melancholy synth beat from Drumma Boy, Gucci touches on his near-deadly beef with Young Jeezy, his conversations with the currently incarcerated T.I., and his own frequent brushes with the law: “Me, Jeezy and T.I. share one thing in common/All are poets/Role models to young people/Though at times man we still ignore it.”
On Nov. 12, Gucci (née Radric Davis) was sentenced to 12 months behind bars for violating his probation and was removed from a Fulton County courtroom in handcuffs. He is expected to serve about half of that time. A judge ruled that he had not completed community service requirements, that he failed drug tests and that he did not secure permission to travel. The case dates back to a 2005 conviction for attacking a club promoter, and this is the second time he has failed to meet the terms of his probation – the first time last year, sent him to jail for seven months.
The setback seems to come at a bad time for him. The Atlanta-bred rapper is more popular than ever, and his highly anticipated new album, The State vs. Radric Davis, is due Dec. 8. But it has already caused chaos with fans and concert promoters around the country. His past incarceration and probation terms have led to the cancellation of about a dozen shows this year. His absences have left promoters squabbling with his manager and booking agent — and threatening to file lawsuits.
But beyond the allegations lies the allegory. If Gucci is the frog prince of Atlanta trap-rap, impatiently waiting as he has for the better half of a decade to take his turn on the throne, he doesn’t need anything else to stunt his growth. Despite collaborating in 2009 with the likes of Mariah Carey, Black Eyed Peas, Mario and Usher – who’s featured in the current single “Spotlight” from his upcoming album – Gucci’s transition from ‘hood star to pop star remains fraught with hiccups. It’s something the industry may have to come to terms with, warts and all.
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(Photo Courtesy So Icey/Asylum/Warner Bros)
Though his production work on albums for Aesop Rock and other elite indie rappers gets a lot more attention, Manhattan beatmaker Blockhead has quietly been releasing consistently strong solo albums in the last half-decade. His tracks for other artists tend to be more in the hard-hitting, slicing-and-dicing, traditional hip-hop vein, but albums such as his latest, The Music Scene, give him an opportunity to be more atmospheric and experimental, and at times, to simply space out. The disc is at its best on such creeping, smothering instrumentals as “Attack the Doctor” and “Hell Camp,” which are as compelling as the work of turntablists DJ Shadow and RJD2. One wishes, however, that Blockhead would ditch the canned, vintage-sounding voiceovers he often employs to make things a bit more ironic. On The Music Scene’s title track, it’s a ’50s-style educator chanting, “We call that a joint” – which is pretty silly. (Ninja Tune) 4 out of 5 stars.
On his 2004 track “Chains,” R.A. the Rugged Man raps that he is “mad famous for being unknown.” This is true. Despite having recorded with everyone from Notorious B.I.G. to Kool G Rap and having once been signed to Jive and Priority, R.A. has only one studio album in a career spanning nearly two decades. Which is why his new greatest hits CD, Legendary Classics, Volume 1, seems strange — until you realize the Long Island-born MC has enough beloved unreleased cuts and guest appearances to justify it. The work features Havoc from Mobb Deep, Biggie, and Sadat X, but it is R.A. who stands out with his uber-dense, chiseled-in-granite flow, which is as elegant as his lyrics are profane. If you’re not interested in explicit songs about dirty sex this might not be your bag, but for hip-hop fans unfamiliar with R.A.’s work, it’s a perfect starting point. (Nature Sounds) 5 stars out of 5
A DJ crew composed of four Tel Aviv beatmakers, Soulico blends U.S. hip-hop with traditional Jewish melodies and Israeli folk in a way that feels exotic to American ears while remaining accessible. It helps that the debut CD, Exotic on the Speaker, features many MCs rap heads will be familiar with, including Ghostface Killah, Lyrics Born, Pigeon John and Del the Funky Homosapien. Mainly, however, the disc succeeds because the tracks bounce, and the Middle Eastern-crossover, party flavor will remind listeners of the group’s JDub labelmate Matisyahu. Though Exotic on the Speaker slows down near the end when the mix switches from uptempo rap and dance to slower reggae and dancehall, early tracks like “El Nur” and “Put ‘Em Up” make for an album well worth copping. One is left wondering why no one thought of having Ghostface rap over a pulsing snake-charmer beat before. (JDub Records) 4 stars out of 5
The members of Music Go Music must want you to believe they’re Scandinavian fairies living in the mountains, with only synthesizers and pixie sticks to sustain them. Why else would they give themselves pseudonyms like Gala Bell, Kamer Maza and TORG, and play the airiest, most sugary-sweet dance pop imaginable on their debut, Expressions? The group is actually composed of members of Los Angeles indie-rock outfit Bodies of Water, and this project sees them indulging their love of ’80s electro, cheesy love stories and “whoa whoa whoa” sing-alongs. It’s all as much fun as it sounds, and track highlights like “Love, Violent Love,” “Explorers of the Heart” and “Light of Love” offer enough low-commitment escapist melodies to power a Matthew McConaughey movie. The only difference is that, while you can probably wait for Ghosts of Girlfriends Past to get to cable, you’d be wise to give Expressions a spin post-haste. (Secretly Canadian) 4 stars out of 5
With another Madvillainy CD in the works and MF Doom’s collaboration with Ghostface in the final stages (according to Nature Sounds owner Devin Horwitz), Doom fans might feel less than fulfilled by his new collection Unexpected Guests. It contains rarities, vinyl-only singles and remixes but not a single new song, after all, and some of these tracks — such as “Da Supafriendz” with Vast Aire — have probably been heard on a half-dozen other albums. Still, like pizza, sex and Coen brothers’ movies, even when a Doom album is bad, it’s good. Thus, the largely rehashed Unexpected Guests is still a winner. “Fly That Not” with Talib Kweli, for example, is as hot as the first 50 times you heard it. Throughout, Doom’s gags, double entendres and stream of consciousness rhymes satisfy without ever being, uh, unexpected. (Gold Dust) 3 stars out of 5
“They say just live your life, but I’ma live mine twice,” goes the hook on “True Star,” off of Warren G’s latest album, The G Files. For someone so closely associated with ’90s G-funk this is a tall task, as G has been unable to revitalize his career unlike such Cali vets as Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, G’s stepbrother. The G Files continues in the mellow vein of his last album, 2005’s In the Mid-Nite Hour. Instead of G-funk, it offers sleepy R&B with only the faintest hints of West Coast flavor. “Let’s Get High” is a tired ode to bud, while “Drinks Ain’t Free” is a purportedly humorous club satire that makes one wonder how G is holding up financially these days. “100 Miles and Runnin’” is a winner, featuring a rejuvenated Raekwon and a gothic-sounding harpsichord beat from G. But for the most part, these tracks just make you want to dust off your copy of Regulate…G Funk Era. (Ttl Records)
Brown Bag AllStars aren’t so much a supergroup as a collective of hip-hop supergeeks who work at Manhattan record store Fat Beats. Fortunately their talents as MCs and producers are as great as their passion for record collecting, which makes their debut project, The Brown Tape, 10 tons of fun. A digital reissue of their first mixtape (which they sold in the shop last year), the work’s golden-era influence is obvious through its generous use of cuts, scratches, samples and relentlessly goofy punch lines. “I’m Soul Khan/You know me/I only drink breast milk and Old E,” raps Soul Khan on “Get Up,” an album highlight along with “The City Never Sleeps” and “Undeniable (Audible Doctor Remix).” Mostly devoid of politics, whining about the industry, or current hip-hop production gimmicks, The Brown Tape is a throwback rap album of the best kind — the kind that doesn’t take itself too seriously. (Coalmine Records) 4 stars out of 5
Shafiq Husayn was a producer on Ice-T’s O.G. Original Gangster, and later became a member of Los Angeles group Sa-Ra Creative Partners, in addition to writing and producing beats for Erykah Badu. The music on his debut album, Shafiq En’ A-Free-Ka, often veers closer to the neo-soul and experimental sounds of Badu’s New Amerykah, Part One (4th World War), however, than Ice-T or the electro funk and rap on Sa-Ra’s discs. Husayn’s title references Kemetism, a new age spin on an ancient Egyptian religion, and the album’s lyrics focus on spirituality, metaphysics and existentialism. They are difficult to follow, but Husayn’s production is quite accessible, despite floating from jazz to hip-hop to downbeat techno, sometimes midsong. He has enlisted such singers as Bilal, Fatima and Jimetta Rose, many of whom bring a Badu-like flavor to the proceedings. Overall, it feels like the debut of a man who has evolved and may even have found his true calling. (Plug Research) 4 stars out of 5
