Scorpeze explains it all…

If I said that there was alot of music released in the last 10 years that I loved, I’d be lying…

I witnessed people hype up not-awesome stuff and pretend like they loved that music more than their own mothers in a effort to put on a brave face in the musically barren landscape were faced with these days…

but that’s another post…these are the albums (in no particular order)that really hit me as great fully formed artistic statements in the 2000’s…

Res – How I Do (2001)
Doc must be a fucked-up person. I say this not based on any inside knowledge, but just looking at the fact that he was the driving force behind 2 of the most well done albums in recent years (the other was his collaboration with Esthero, Breath From Another) and the artists he created these works with wont have anything to do with him after the fact. This album was a 3 pronged attack–Doc brought the music, Santi White (aka Santogold–yuk.) brought the lyrics, and Miss Shareese Ballard(aka Res) presented it all to us.

Doc served up music that was far beyond the neo-soul curve of the day. It wasnt quite R&B, not quite hip-hop, not quite rock, not quite pop, and not quite soul. It was all of those things at once, but without having the seams showing. But it grooves. Doc’s songwriting and production walk the tightrope of genre bending without trying and excels. Santi White’s imaginative lyrics are thought provoking and poetic without being pretentious and cliche–which is also amazingly difficult. But this doesnt take away from at all from Res herself as the singer who seals the deal and makes it all work.

With her limited vocal range, Res lets us into the world of a very different kind of chick. Not the one who dresses and acts strangely in a forced effort to makes you think she’s different. With those types, you ask them why theyre different and they dont know. It’s all a charade and ultimately just a plea for attention. Res, on this album, comes off as an aloof and observant coffee house philosopher. A young woman who’s not content to just wring her hands over her feelings and seek pity. She takes her emotions and experiences and analyzes them to their logical conclusion and is fascinated by it. She does not whine, pout, or feel sorry for herself. She takes a picture, pulls on her cigarette, and keeps it moving. Her slightly lower register and detached delivery gives the lyrics just the color they need to feel real.

She comments on the sheep mentality in “They-Say Vision”. She refuses the material gains of her criminal lover and walks away in “Ice King”. She casts a critical eye on the pretty, popular, rich guys in “Golden Boys”(oh, yeah, he song was inspired by Will Smith, not Mos Def). She knows that those guys have no depth, and even though the average girl dreams of being with those guys–she’s not impressed at all.

Since then, Doc has fallen off the face of the Earth. Res has drifted around–forming a retro 80’s rap duo with another girl, singing backup for Gnarls Barkley, released a internet only follow up album that no one really cares about, and currently is in a trio w/Talib Kweli and former Doc protege Graph Nobel called Idle Warship. Interestingly, the only one of the trio that made How I Do to get some limelight is Santi White, who broke up her tolerable faux-punk combo Stiffed and reinvented herself as M.I.A. clone Santigold. The Santigold project made Miss White a hipster darling–too bad the music is fucking terrible.

Q-Tip – The Renaissance (2008)
After Q-Tip’s solo debut, Amplified (1999), horrified and hurt the Black Boho nation that he fathered, he decided to try to find his roots again. Amplified, although a fine album musically–rubbed our faces into a grim reality. That reality was that the Black Boho movement was about to die a quick and violent death. The Q-Tip of Amplified was no longer a playful, witty, and warm quasi hippie, but a cynical leather clad street poseur who only interest in his sisters was purely lecherous. The charming young man who once sweetly wooed Bonita Applebaum became a guy who just wanted to fuck you in the back of his jeep. It was just one blow in a series that laid to waste the hope of a young Black culture that wanted to go against the grain and prove that Black was indeed beautiful. The final blow was the mixed reaction to D’Angelo’s much ballyhooed sophomore opus, Voodoo, and D’s subsequent retreat from public life and tragic descent into drug addiction and paralyzing insecurity. The saddest bookend was the death of Amplified’s chief collaborator and the Black Boho generation’s Quincy Jones, James “Jay Dee/Dilla” Yancey in 2006, a young sonic genius from Detroit that Q-Tip discovered and pulled out of obscurity.Q-Tip hired a band and cranked out 2 albums (Kamal the Abstract and Open) over the decade that his labels refused to release. The Black Boho backlash had trapped Q-Tip in artistic limbo.

In a show of pure Aries artistic will, Q-Tip finally saw record store racks with technically his 4th solo album, The Renaissance, released in late 2008. It was here that Tip’s musical evolution finally gelled. The Renaissance streamlined the clunky band experimentation of the 2 previous albums and blended it seamlessly with the beat science that made Tip a studio legend.

As an emcee, Tip had reached a new level. Dispensing his world weary wisdom and experienced musings with a dizzying display of both complex lyrical dexterity and homespun simplicity, Tip literally sparkles on the mic. Musically, Q-Tip responds to the absence of groove in today’s music by stuffing his record full of tasty soul riffs and funky rhythms using both samples and live instruments to maximum effect (see if you can guess which is which). Tip’s production treats the listener with tastefully sUbtle tricks that make one marvel at his attention to detail.

Most of all, what makes this album beautiful is its unabashed display of heart, soul, and maturity. Tip wears his emotion on his sleeve proudly and shows us that a fully realized man is not an emotionless caricature. He’s telling us that warmth and love for one another does not have to be preachy, sappy, or over affected. Love at its best….just is.

Tip writes a tender poem to a young love interest who seeks validation through society instead of the love he offers on Getting Up (the lyrics call to mind a certain person in my life to a T). He celebrates the presence of another lady (the music as love metaphor)on the Norah Jones duet Life Is Better. Hands down, this is the finest Jones has sounded outside of her own debut album. He finally pays a heartfelt, yet upbeat tribute to special people who have passed on in the closing track Shaka.

The Renaissance is a master class on what Hip-hop should sound AND feel like in this new millennium had our generation not lost its way.

Maxwell – BLACKsummersnight (2009)
Poor Maxwell. Even though he is technically a very successful artist both critically and commercially, he cant win.

His audience, while devoted, doesnt get him. He is far too advanced for them. His music is far more cerebral than anyone will ever notice. He is called “The Male Sade” and Im sure that makes him want to break shit. He is seen as the ultimate R&B loverman, and his art is simply reduced to a soundtrack for lovemaking. While it is that on the most superficial level, Maxwell is trying to speak to much more than that in his work.

He made the mistake of thinking that his audience was as intelligent as he is on his sophomore album, Embrya (1998). A staggering work of ambition and sheer genius that flew so far over people’s heads that it was considered a failure even though it still went platinum.

Each Maxwell album is built around a theme. Embrya’s theme was Max’s theory that until we find real love, we are not fully formed. Only when you experience true love do you grow into all you are meant to be. At the same time, it was an elaborate love letter to a woman that Max felt was THE ONE. The album was so far ahead of its time musically and conceptually that people didnt start to get it until many years later. It was then that the album started to get the acclaim it deserved.

Unfortunately, the relationship that inspired Embrya imploded and the next album was the breakup album Now (2001). Forced by the perceived failure of Embrya to connect, Max dialed down his maverick sensibilities. Even though he made things simpler, most people have no idea that Now is about a failed relationship. Maxwell dumbed down was still too complex for his audience to handle. The album debuted at Number 1 on the pop charts and sold platinum but still was viewed as a disappointment. Max responded by taking a very long hiatus from music.

Stories that Ive heard but will not repeat here suggest to me that Max needed to get himself together. Reeling from losing the woman that seemed to be a dream come true and and facing an unsure future in music, Max went underground to deal with things. Luckily, he came out on the other side unlike his soul brother in music, D’Angelo.

Max finally returned with what is said to be the first of trilogy entitled BLACKSUMMERSNIGHT. The album, which is actually titled BLACK, sees a more seasoned and reflective artist than the one who left at the beginning of the decade.

Max’s voice resonates with experience and gained wisdom. The music on BLACK is less eager to please than on previous albums. it coaxes rather than confronts. The tracks simmer to a boil rather than bursting from the gate. The stellar first single Pretty Wings showcases this approach. A subtle and gauzy track that cuts to the core of the listener with its earnestness rather than a fireworks display of emotion. This a new texture to Maxwell’s music that suits his new perspective.

The other standouts here are the almost U2-ish Help Somebody. The song is an urgent plea to recognize how being present in the lives of those around us unselfishly rather than thinking and feeling solely about ourselves all the goddamn time is a duty we should take more seriously. Love You is also a plea, but to a woman. He is asking her to let love grow naturally and just be cool and give him a chance.

The first two cuts, Bad Habits and Cold, hint coyly and pointedly to issues Max was struggling with during his absence. Bad Habits opens the album as Max apologizes for some of his more roguish behavior during his lost period. Cold, on the surface, is written as if its about a woman. All I will say is that its about something else and the woman is pure metaphor.

He employs a crack band here, but the other star of the album is gifted drummer Chris “Daddy” Dave of Mint Condition. Dave’s drumming articulates every mood and point with stunning accuracy.

Most people I know have shrugged this album off, but I guarantee they will get it in a few years. Poor Maxwell.

It debuted at Number 1 on the pop charts and has almost gone platinum (a feat in this industry climate).

Here’s hoping that the next 2 albums in the trilogy appear and that one day people will realize how truly bad this cat is.