When the 90's Came

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共20首歌曲

艺人: Watts Prophets
语种: 英语
厂牌: Acid Jazz
发行时间: 1997年03月11日
专辑类别: 录音室专辑

专辑介绍

by Don Snowden

Over a sort of trip-hop/acid jazzy groove broken by a "Superfly" strings bridge, the title track of When the 90's Came details Amde Hamilton's futile attempt to overcome his "negative social outlook" due to the same old, same old social problems persisting nearly 30 years after the Watts Prophets' first recording. But know what else happened when the '90s came? The Watts Prophets came back matured and fully grown into an elder/griot role for the hip-hop generation, their words now tempered and deepened by life-experience details, and When the 90's Came is an extremely convincing return. The sound collage mated to rhythm tracks technique developed in hip-hop turns out to be a perfect fit for the Prophets: the lead voice comfortably cuts through the arrangements throughout, and the counter commentaries are more creative. The varied lyrical themes are matched by a wider musical spectrum to draw from than was available 25-30 years ago: Horace Tapscott's piano brings back the jazz roots on several tracks, but "Hey World" tackles ecology over a moody keyboard bass, and the strong "Me Today, You Tomorrow" is reggae produced by Ras Michael. "Trippin'" rides the hip-hop tip over Rob Bacon's funky bass and producer DJ Quik's drums, and the addiction tale "Searchin'" is treated with a jungle drum machine and discordant piano and sax by producers Us3. "Everybody Watches" tackles apathy about African starvation and inner-city blues, and a "children today are raised like chickens" metaphor triggers an effective meditation on education with gentle Tapscott piano musings on "Breed What You Need." They use understated sarcasm, which can be as effective in bringing word as pissed-off anger, for the antiresignation message coursing through another nice trip-hop groove on "Nothin' New." Richard Dedeaux's "I Remember Watts" has a wonderful opener about other cities needing millions of watts to light up, but only one Watts was necessary to light up Los Angeles, and the lonely blues harmonica works on a lot of levels. The string of unaccompanied poems closing the disc doesn't lose the thread: Otis O'Solomon's "Public Enemy Number One" condemns the materialist basis of society, but "Hongry for Your Love" deals on basic human need and "Vanity" looks at self-awareness. There's food for thought in them, not just youthful venting and flailing about, and a depth of experience that boils down to that old blues adage about paying your dues. The title track is reprised in their old-school style, and you might add that when the '90s came, the Watts Prophets really found, and came into, their element as the griots/elders for the hip-hop youth they were looking for when they were coming up.