The Electric Mayhem: Black Joe Lewis and K’Naan

Tell ‘em What Your Name is! by Black Joe Lewis & The Honey Bears

If R&B today is like Motown in the 60′s, with it’s processed and over-produced sound, then Black Joe Lewis is like Stax/Volt. Great fucking god it is great to have some dirty and raw soul in this era of R&B.

Black Joe Lewis proudly wears his influences, you’ll hear echoes of Chuck Berry, James Brown, Van Morrison and tons others. But he brings the sounds into his own mix and keeps it in the today and tomorrow.

With caterwauls, screams, wails and exhortations all brought to a fevered pitch this is music on the good foot. Seriously, if Boogie alone doesn’t get your ass moving then you aren’t alive, or you suck, it’s as simple as that.

Troubadour by K’Naan

Maybe the key to the future of rap as a viable art form is to take it out of the hands of the Americans that created it for the time being and to allow those with another (and sometimes outside) perspective to take the reigns for awhile. Like K’Naan.

The language of self expression for rap artists today is mired in the vocabulary that it was using 10 years ago. It’s time for some new words, phrases and usages to be adopted and right now K’Naan is one of the premier rappers changing the lexicon.

K’Naan is the result of an alternate past where the crass commercialism and brand-creation-as-way-of-life of mid to late 90′s rap never happened and instead where the hard language of the streets runs comfortably along side complex wordplay and all of it is surrounded by beats to get you out of your seat.

This cat is the real deal.