In a realistic, sad world, a hip hop blogger/writer has to find a way to be able to give an honest, unbiased review of music they don't care about. They listen to stale artists day after day to be able to get a review of an album out, and when it comes to the "actually being able to listen and enjoy the music" aspect of it all, love is lost. As a hip hop blogger/writer, this happens to me at times as well. Is it because the shelf life of a song nowadays is a day? Does social media ruin the impact that the music has on people? Or are artists just not making music that measures up to our expectations anymore? These are questions that not just the writers, but die hard rap fans think about constantly, but recently an album dropped that made me forget about all of that, and allowed me to get back to enjoying the music. Compton: The Soundtrack has opened up my eyes on the musical aspect of rap, and the practice of not only perfecting an album's overall sound quality, but crafting the perfect song with the right people. I refuse to do an album review on Compton: The Soundtrack, those are out there if that's what you want, so instead, I've decided to list a few things about the soundtrack that you don't hear in hip hop today (and maybe a few things that I liked about it, but that's beside the point).
Soulful, Emotional Singing
It's been quite awhile since I've heard anything in hip hop that has allowed the listener to understand what the artist is going through, where he/she is from, etc., and for some reason I have truly connected with Dr. Dre on Compton: The Soundtrack. It'd be wrong to say that Dre has updated people on what he has been up to since his last album release, but Compton: The Soundtrack does an incredible job of making it easier to connect emotionally with a billionaire. The singers Dre reaches out to on the album might not have been big names we had heard before, but ones who played a very crucial part in the sound of each song. Justus and BJ The Chicago Kid's voices on "It's All On Me" truly portray the sound of a man who has dealt with stress to a breaking point. Marsha Ambrosius and Andersen .Paak bring the soul to a high on "All In A Day's Work", and Andersen .Paak's voice on "Animals" says a lot about how residents of Compton feel about the way their city is depicted. If hip hop had more artists that devoted themselves to relating with their fans, with voices that have emotional range that make you really think about the subject matter, then hip hop wouldn't be where it is now.
The Breakdown Of A Song
It's also been a long time since I've heard anything in hip hop that doesn't sound repetitive. After a certain while, the music just becomes a beat, or even worse, the music becomes complete noise, almost as if someone plays the music just to have some background distraction, and not actually playing the music for how great it truly is. Anyways, Dr. Dre flips this on its ear. Sometimes it's 50/50 when a song can sound great or terrible when the beat completely flips into something else, but Dr. Dre made a point to have a point. Towards the ending in "All In A Day's Work", Dre and protégé singer Andersen .Paak do make a point that symbolizes Dre's career as of the last 16 years: "back to work." In the song "Issues" featuring Ice Cube, Andersen .Paak and Dem Jointz, .Paak's (ironic to say just his last name) singing breakdown is great. It' almost an eye opening view of Compton and what it is. The gunshots and the helicopter sounds only paint the picture more vividly. If hip hop had more artists that knew how to put together a complete song and get to a point, a message with their song, then it wouldn't be looked down upon and spoken ill of as it is now.
Cadences
Another thing that Dre brings to the table with Compton: The Soundtrack that you just don't see in rap anymore is cadence. Now for those who don't know what cadence is, cadence is the way an artist goes about singing or rapping their part in the song. So if an artist is angry in the song, you should hear their anger, or if the artist is truly hurt and expressing it in the song, you would be able to hear the cracks and trembles in their voice, and the pain being expressed by the artist. Dre finds ways for not only himself, but the artists he features to reach their maximum potential possible on each cut (as we know, Dre is a perfectionist, he'll admit it and people he's worked with will tell you). Dre's 2nd verse on "All In A Day's Work" is a perfect example of his frustration/anger with what hip hop has turned into. On Game's song "Just Another Day", his flow and delivery is as vicious and tenacious as Game is known to be, and his talks of coming up in the game (ha) and growing up in Compton is a great reason for Game to show that he has a fire for what he does, and that he's electric about his journey from where he came to where he is now. If hip hop had more artists that spit and spat the way they felt, and actually showed emotion in their music as opposed to acting like a bunch of money grabbing, expensive car driving robots, then hip hop would be in a better place.
Dr. Dre's mere presence almost forces artists to step their game up. Once you start working with The Good Doctor, you're supposed to give your all, or you can leave the studio. From listening to interviews of countless people working with Dre, the likes of the obvious names like Eminem, Kendrick, Snoop, Game, etc., and even down to the not so much expected artists like Gwen Stefani (whom Dre made cry working on the hook for Eve's song "Let Me Blow Ya Mind"), they will all tell you that Dr. Dre is about the craft. Dr. Dre and his protégé's all have 1 noticeable character detail in common (maybe besides Game, considering he looks for fights); they let their music do the talking. Eminem and Dre hate doing interviews, and Kendrick is as humble a person as it gets if you've ever seen him in an interview. These guys focus on 1 thing; music.
So Compton has introduced me to some new artists I need to look out for (King Mez, Andersen .Paak, Marsha Ambrosius, but also reintroduced me to Jon Connor), but also reminded me that that the Doctor is one of those rare artists. He's not just rare because he doesn't put out music every day, he's not just rare because this is his first album in 16 years, but he's rare because of this: he cares about how the song turns out. He cares about the music. How can you not appreciate someone like that? His craft is a craft like no other, he goes after the absolute RIGHT people for the job. I had admittedly never heard of Andersen .Paak, Marsha Ambrosius, Candice Pillay, Asia Bryant, or most of the other artists he featured, but every artist featured had a specific part that they had to play, and they did it. That's why it blends so perfectly, and that's why Dr. Dre is doing things that expand, and push hip hop to an entirely new level. Dre proves that California hip hop is a brand and a sound, and it is global. Once hip hop artists stop making beef (although entertaining) over stupid little things, once hip hop artists stop making "twitter fingers" a valid phrase, once hip hop artists stop making "turn up" music and popping "molly's"... then maybe... just maybe... The Doctor will see you as a worthy artist, and give you the Good Treatment.
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