REVIEW: Various Artists, Violator: The Album (Violator)
- Michelle Aguilar
Where is rap going into the 21st century? After rising like a slow moving but powerful rocket into the mainstream after all these years, is rap now on the decline? Is it an art finally hitting the wall, lacking in new direction? Is it bereft, depleted of fresh ideas, with nowhere left to go except into decontextualized Puff Daddy-esque grandiosity or appropriation by alternative rock?
Rap entertainment mogul Chris Lighty, who owns Violator Records, Violator Management and also produces the occasional rap record for LL Cool J and others, doesn't think so. He points to beat innovators and breakthrough artists like Busta Rhymes and the Flipmode Squad, Noreaga and Q-Tip (from the defunct A Tribe Called Quest) as evidence that rap is still evolving and changing as an art form.
Not coincidentally, all these artists, who have exploded in popularity in the past three years or so, have Lighty in common and have partnerships with either Violator Records or Violator Management. It is this link that provides the common denominator behind this Violator Records compilation, Violator: The Album. This album, which debuted in August at the number one spot on Billboard's R&B charts and was also the highest debuting album on the Billboard Top 200 pop charts that week, is a gem you might have missed if you're only an occasional rap fan. But it's full of enough gems from that it's worth your while to seek this disc out, maybe as a holiday present to your own bad self.
Yo' bad self is the lyrical substance of many of these songs, with lots of references to gangbanging, clubbing and busting caps on those who ain't fast enough, smooth enough, smart enough, or just man enough to survive. In fact, I tried at one point to count just how many times the word "bitch" made it onto this album (and believe me, it made it on there a lot), but I got bored counting about sixty.
Which is why Q-Tip's, "Vivrant Thing," (which opens the album and was the album's premier single) is a refreshing opener. A lusty paean to the irresistible beauty of a confident woman who knows what she wants from life and her man and is too mature to play head games. Appropriately, the backing track is a tasty disco guitar sample of "I Wanna Stay," by Barry White, who knew better than anyone the alluring power of a sexy, strong woman. When the words, "Such a vivrant thing," roll off his tongue, there's something so sultry in it, so appealing in the way dances off the beat, you're inclined to forgive any minor shortcomings.
Followed immediately by an enchantingly unexpected sample of the Broadway musical "Oliver" by the Flipmode Squad, "Whatcha Come Around Here For," is mostly straight up gangsta posturing, with the unmistakable jester-like vocals of Busta Rhymes and trade-offs by the rest of the Squad floating over the whole thing. But the combination of great samples and bursting enthusiasm of the rapping is so much fun, the song is always over far too early and you don't care that the Broadway sample repeated non-stop throughout is basically a one-trick pony. It's too damn fun.
Noreaga and Scarlet join forces on track three for a he-said, she-said take on the seminal N.W.A. hit "Straight Outta Compton," featuring female voices shouting, "I Want to F**** You," in a direct quote of the old NWA line where the girls scream the same line to Eazy-E. The difference here is Scarlett gets to quote it too, in a sort of equal-opportunity, what's good for the goose is good for the gander philosophy.
Violator arrays its big guns early, with these three tunes and LL Cool J's "Say What" (which is a fine tune but nothing earth-shattering) laying down the groundwork for the album. But for all their heavy hitting, there's a slight sense of these some of these artists, particularly Flipmode Squad and Noreaga, offering up momentary diversions in their career trajectories, fun but inconsequential experiments and ephemera, as a favor to their good friend, manager and record executive, Chris Lighty. What's even more interesting is the few glimpses we get of some up and coming talent on this record, who are offering Lighty their best here.
Particularly intriguing are the opening Q-Tip track, his first bit of solo since leaving A Tribe Called Quest, and Mysonne, a 23-year-old rapper from the Bronx whose voice first made an appearance on Mase's recent album, Double Up. Mysonne is featured on two tracks, in a triumvirate including Mase and Eightball ("Do What Playas Do") a catchy, swinging tune all about who's the real man that sounds like it was made to be played in a convertible, cruising down the strip. There's also his great crossover duet with breakthrough R&B artists, Next, which features judicious use of a talkbox to great effect. And finally, there's his driving track, "The Truth," which among other things features a fun sample of Jack Nicholson screaming, "You can't handle the truth!" Mysonne is definitely one to watch out for. I plan to seek out his debut album whenever Def Jam releases it in the first half of 2000.
There are highlights from lesser-known but still fairly big-name ghetto superstars, including the sexy, undeniable track, "Ohh Wee" by Cru, guaranteed to get any group of party people moving, with its undeniable driving groove. Also worth checking out is an intense collaboration by Noreaga, Final Chapter, Iman Thug, Capone, Scarlett, Musaliny and Mase, called "Thugged Out N*****," featuring great interweaving trade-off raps that make the track come alive. You really feel like everybody was sitting around together, having a great time trying out their stuff on each other, each trying to do a little bit better than the one before them. My favorite line by far? "Marilyn Manson/dumb n*****/imagine me dancin' ---not!"
It's followed immediately by two other gems: First there's the RZA-style Big Noyd track, "S*** That He Said," a breathless, gangsta cautionary tale about how shooting your mouth off about the wrong guy on the street can get you shot, featuring a eerie sample from the Four Tops' "Good Lord Knows"; then there's the fun Latin hip-hop stylings of longtime Violator artists, The Beatnuts, collaborating with Triple Seis on "Beatnuts Forever." The result is a lush, disco-funk track with a great string sample that sounds a bit like a Pras outtake.
There are some disappointments here, such as the Busta Rhymes, Noreaga, Prodigy, et al. collaboration of "Violators" which sounds like a permanent intro and really goes nowhere, despite some appealing tough-chick rapping from Sonya Blade. Ditto on the other Busta Rhymes track, with Flipmode Squad, all of which made me just want to go back to the Flipmode genius on track two. Da Franchise and Ja Rule take a great Teddy Pendergrass sample and do little with it, contributing a fairly plodding rap. Mobb Deep, with "Nobody Likes Me" is equally uninspired, with a one measure loop repeated endlessly, featuring a fairly lifeless vocal track.
But Violator is mostly a great sampler from a great wide-spread stable of diverse rap and R&B artists, both for fans who couldn't get most of these songs elsewhere, and for the rap dilettante looking for a sure bet.
