Classic in compromise

“I don’t make dance music/This is R.A.P.” What’s that mean to a college kid? That if you don’t spin rap in your car or in your bedroom, don’t bother. What puzzles, then, is the physical momentum of these dozen songs — what could be their dance-floor force if the lyrics didn’t shade off into lamentation or invective or quasi-Christian pomp.

Anyhow, lyrics are a compelling second half, and not by virtue of the tastelessness of Killer Mike’s younger days. Lamentation and invective are becoming for the rapper, who’s too sincere for his Outkast mentors’ bewildering irony.

Sincerity can stultify, but the story-song “JoJo’s Chillin” is lighthearted enough, and the line “I’m glad Reagan dead” is direct enough to preclude boredom. In the rap world now — Mike is right — to emphasize radically  your lyrics only requires refusing to sing them. But noble as it is to buck minstrelsy, rap’s not poetry; lyrics aren’t all.

So, El-P’s fluid and diverse production well-praised, let’s not fail to notice what a purist and a self-styled renegade like Mike should be loath to admit: If he’s got a classic on his hands, it’s only by compromise.

By Zech Scott