Music Curation.
For the first playlist on MaadWave, we give some jazz, some oldies, and some other stuff.
In the 90s violence plagued the Hip Hop community and divided a nation. This war between east and west coast, went on for years and ended in blood shed claiming the lives of two of hip hops greatest.
To understand what happened, you first have to understand that in the world of Hip Hop, you represent your city. Generally, if you’re from a state in the east, you rep the east coast, and if you’re from the west you rep the west coast. Two prominent record labels during the 90s were Bad Boy records, founded by P. Diddy and with the Notorious B.I.G. as its major artist, and Deathrow records, a label started by Dr. Dre, Suge Knight, and the D.O.C, three major producers in West Coast Hip Hop at the time. Their major artist – Tupac.
Once you understand this, you can understand how two major artists in the music industry went from being good friends, to starting a war that would span three years and turn hundreds of thousands of people against each other.
How it all started is, to many, still a source of argument. While there are many theories as to what caused it, it is generally agreed that the first spark of came from Tim Dog, a New York based rapper who was unhappy with the growing popularity of West Coast Hip Hop. He released the song called ‘Fuck Compton’. The Hip Hop community saw some responses come from artists like Snoop Dogg releasing Fuck with Dre Day and Everybody’s celebrating and $20 Sack Pyramid, both featured on Dr. Dre’s album, The Chronic.
After this track was released tensions grew between the two coasts, with increasing amount jealousy by the East Coast since the west coast was doing so well in recent years thanks to records like Straight Outta Compton, Doggystyle and The Chronic. Then one day in September 1994, Notorious B.I.G. released Ready to Die and brought back all the attention to the East Coast. Tupac himself loved the album, citing ‘Party and Bullshit’ as his favourite song. For a few months Pac and Biggie visited each other and were good friends. It seemed, all was well in the world of Hip Hop.
All that changed on November 30, 2016 when Tupac was shot 5 times, outside of a recording studio in New York city. He survived, but accused Biggie and Bad Boy records for the shooting since he was in the building at the time. Biggie and P. Diddy denied all allegations. In spite of this, Biggie released the song, ‘Who Shot Ya’ with some lyrics which seemed to be referencing the Tupac shooting.
A year later, Tupac was released from prison on other charges, and the first thing he did was record and release the song Hit‘em Up taking hits at Biggie Smalls. This song caused huge controversy in the music industry because of its explicit nature. Hip Hop moguls like Chuck D and Kool Moe Dee said 2Pac had gone too far with Hit ‘em up and that it caused some of his fans to turn on him.
At this point the beef between the two artist became a full blown war between the two coasts, further exacerbated by the flashy news reports in the media. Not only many of the artists in the industry turned on each other, but also hundreds of thousands of fans.
It was only a few months later, that both Biggie and Tupac seemed to have gotten past what had happened, with both focusing on their careers and increasing their wealth. But the media and the public did not stop.
Eventually, on the night of September 7th 1996 after the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson boxing match with Suge Knight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, Tupac was shot in a drive by shooting. Only a year later Biggie Smalls was also shot in a drive by and died. Two Hip Hop legends were gone.
Eventually, the hip hop community decided it was time to put the killings to an end and held a peace summit in 1996. This summit was convened in Mosque Maryam by the honourable Louis Farakhan who still continues the summits to this day.
With his latest release, Love and Hate, Michael Kiwanuka has truly shown that an artist can grow and develop while still staying true to his sound.
Many of the songs in Love and Hate have melodious instrumentals while still maintaining an original old school sound to them, like something you would here from a 1960s Motown record. Though Kiwanuka is emulating an old sound that (surely) everyone loves, he does it in a very original and creative way. Many of the songs, for example, have modern effects dancing flawlessly with violin ensembles to create a balanced sound.
The tone of the album is certainly sorrowful and deep, a tone he most likely took on in order to expose his emotional side fully to the world. Backed by choirs, Kiwanuka sounds much less isolated in Love and Hate than his last album, Home Again. The lyrics are an inspiring reflection of his struggles, his racial identity and the part that spirituality plays in his life.
Throughout all of the intricacies on the album are his vocals – raw and full of heartbreaking conviction. You truly believe him when you hear his voice. From the start Kiwanuka was destined for critical success. Though his name has not become one of households, he manages to grab the attention of anyone listening to this modern day triumph, he can call his own.
daytrane