Arrested Development - 3 years, 5 months, and 2 days in the life of

Genre: Early to mid 90s Hip-Hop

Where would I have heard of them: They had a career of note in the early 90s, won a bunch of awards, They contributed original songs to the soundtrack for Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. They broke up by 1996, but have reformed a few times, most notably in order to sue NBC for copy write infringement of the name. The show laughed it off but, uh, these guys weren’t nobody. NBC’s lawyers really should have found them. They started doing the odd show or tour with increasing frequency in the oughts, culminating in a new album recorded entirely on a laptop which was released in 2012. This album was their first, the one that won all the awards.

Anything of note: The group was founded as a “positive, Afrocentric alternative to the gangsta rap popular in the early 1990s.” I have to say, my genre of comfort is the rock underground, so finding what is essentially underground rap is both immensely exciting and somewhat unnerving. I know the basics of the background history but am hardly an authority. But here goes.

As early rap became popular it was scary to white people because black folks. The record companies got the most inoffensive, radio friendly acts and pushed them. Hip Hop evolved as a reaction to these saccharine type acts, and in a period of loose record company oversight, new technology, and new composition techniques a period of intense creativity followed. The sampling lawsuit against DelaSoul effectively closed this down by making samples expensive, meaning anyone aiming at mainstream success would need record company approval and monetary outlay for each sample. This made high quality production expensive. At the same time early Gansta Rap had found that it could make up for its low-fi shortcomings by combining fight for the underdog lyrics with an intentionally confrontational attitude. The record industry latched onto Gangsta Rap as a way to capitalize on the emerging market without the extensive legal fees inherent in the lush productions and artistic compromises of the other Hip Hop artists. Those who objected to the increasingly spare nature of the actual music were branded as out of touch crypto racists.

Alternative Hip Hop has existed since the very beginning, and ultimately began achieving mainstream recognition in the oughts via groups like OutKast and Kanye West, but ultimately these acts have not changed the fact that mainstream hip-hop has been more or less the continuous domain of the Gangsta since NWA. Arrested Development helped found this alternative tradition, combining some of the lushness of Golden Age Hip-Hop, the confrontational social commentary hijacked by Gangsta Rap, and acting as a voice of the Afrocentric middle class liberal black community.

Is it good: Yeah, it really is, warts and all. There are lyrics here that sound like they might come from the Cosby show, but there are others that are progressive without being conspiratorial, and all are well delivered. I guess they call that flow. I think I heard that one time. There is really good flow. More importantly this is recognizable as music, made from a diversity of samples. This is not music put together in ten minutes on fruity loops before the guest vocalist came in for a chorus. There is a diversity of influences here, and they are layered into music that is enjoyable on its own without the lyrics. Thank fucking god.