A Tribe Called Quest has released an incendiary album that’s as purposeful as it is angry and as polished as it is raw, whilst still being relentlessly funky. “The Space Program” uses the space race as a metaphor for white people having an easier time at success in a system that’s inherently rigged, with samples of Gene Wilder’s mad rant in Willy Wonka and Vincent Price’s insane cackling from Thriller mixed effortlessly in a song in which black people rot behind bars whilst white privilege reaches for the stars. Whilst “We the People” is a response to the Trump presidency and the rise of the rightwing in America precipitated by the smokescreen propaganda of mainstream media raising “false narratives of Gods that came up against the odds.” This is the album 2016 needs.
Originally printed in Kirkby Extra, January 2017.
0 Comments
|
Martin Summerfield
Monthly music columnist for the Kirkby Extra, sometimes article writer for Get Into This. Freelance writer/artist/maker. Archives
February 2017
Categories
All
|