k-os : Joyful Rebellion (Virgin) by Alan Moore [evil:cat]

Pop meets rock meets rap meets reggae meets... well everything.

A review of the freshest slice of hip hop in years.
k-os understands hip hop. He understands its early days, its golden age, and where it’s at now. He recognises that, these days, all music is pop music. This we have been taught over the last five years of mash-up and bootlegs that show Dolly Parton and Destiny’s Child as one and the same, for all their aesthetic differences. What k-os has done is take the spirit of these mash-ups and make a rap album out of them.

In the late 70s/early 80s, New Yorkers into punk and hip hop would go to the same clubs. The divisions were unimportant. In the UK, dub reggae would be played by DJs at punk clubs because there were no punk records out there. Those buying early hip hop records would find them equally split between live bands and looped samples playing behind MCs. Over time these ideas have been distilled – now MCs should perform over samples or a DJ spinning 12s. There should only be certain beats used. A chorus? too rock. Hip hop is now 'rap' as typified by 50 Cent. Anything else just isn't real.

Recently, artists like Andre 3000 have attempted to work outside of the boundaries set by conventional wisdom for hip hop, whilst maintaining the attitude of the early days – it doesn’t matter what the components are, it’s the result that defines music as hip hop. K-os takes these ideas and runs with them, further that Mos Def’s Black Jack Johnson, further than The Love Below. He takes it right out of hip hop’s leftfield and round to the world of pop.

Almost every track on this album is performed over live instrumentation, yet still feels like hip hop. In the same album, we hear a mix of reggae, Quincy Jones era Michael Jackson, Public Enemy, mid-90s backpacker hip hop, early 80s block parties, acoustic guitars strummed over hip hop beats, 20’s jazz swing, Rasta ballads… and that’s just the music. Over this, k-os sings, raps, talks and squeals. No two tracks sound the same, yet they all have a common voice. Conscious raps are performed alongside everyday tales similar to those of Lyrics Born over the last few years.

The production levels are far above even the most popular of sellout hip hop acts. The care taken here rivals that taken with billion-selling manufactured pop acts, but never compromises the music or the message. The Man I Used To Be has what sounds like an acoustic demo of the song tacked on the end, without breaking the flow. The hidden track, in which a helium-addled k-os talks to himself, sounds like Eminem would if he could get any inspiration these days.

This record travels many moods, which is something most rap acts are incapable of: joy, regret, melancholia, wonder, rebellion. The album is called Joyful Rebellion for a reason. It throws out convention, sticks up a middle finger at The Man, and celebrates modern life and diversity, smiling all the time.

In Canada, k-os is a Platinum act. It took nearly a year to get this album a UK release. It was worth the wait. K-os redefines the structures of rap, hip hop and pop, and their relationships to one another. He shows it is possible to make a genius pop record without tacking obvious Police samples to a tired old beat. He shows rappers can (and should) sing, where it works. Yet he never loses what he calls his B-Noy Stance. Check it out.