A beginners guide to … acid r’n'b

ginuwine - pony (instrumental) (mp3)

brandy - what about us (instrumental) (mp3)

lisa “left eye” lopes - the block party (mp3)

although the title suggests an ambitious attempt at capturing the essence of a whole musical genre (and believe me, how i wish there were enough of these records to label it a ‘genre’) this post is better read as a starting point for an appreciation of the oft-maligned black pop of the late 90’s/early 00’s. whilst much of the play-it-safe mainstream output of these artists reeks of soulless money grabbing blandness, nuggets of astoundingly produced tracks do exist.

it is fair, i think, to attribute godfather status of this sound to mr tim ‘timbaland’ mosely. preeminent producer of missy elliot, justin timerlake and, most recently, nelly furtado, timbaland’s continued relevance at the head of black america’s musical table has persisted since crafting missy’s first important steps into an unassuming pop landscape in 1997. mr mosely cannot rap. he can, nevertheless, create pieces of four-minute magic that coerce self-consciously cool kids into record stores and into buying 12″ singles by the risible ginuwine. now that’s some trick.

another peer of timbaland is rodney ‘darkchild’ jerkins. responsible for jacko’s underrated ‘you rock my world’ comeback in 2001, jerkins loves playing with electronic harps (see brandy and monica’s seminal ‘the boy is mine’) and injects shuddering acidic synths into the bouncing jeep beats of the track included here. much like ginuwine, the girl otherwise known as moesha ultimately represents an interchangeable instrument of the song’s overall aural ambition. therefore, like ‘pony’ above, the instrumental is the one to go for - just wait until the final minute and a half where jerkins wrestles his groove through the kind of stuttering and staggering electronic funk that aphex twin used to captivate us all with. and to think radio play obscured this piece of goosebump brilliance with brandy’s irritating ad-libbed wailing.

combining salaam remi and lisa ‘left eye’ lopes for a shot at experimental pop success was a stroke of critical, if not commercial, genius. remi’s work goes back to the mid-80’s with kurtis blow and continued through the 90’s with the fugees and into this century with nas’ welcome return to form. on first listen - maybe even on fourth or fifth listen - this record appears to be far too sprawling and bonkers to claim any kind of cohesive dynamism. yet one soon understands that the track’s sprawling staccato rhythm and lopes’ fantastically cutesy lyrics define the forward thinking sound of acid r’n'b whilst never for one minute ignoring the traditional oral wordplay of expressive black cultural history. that’s why, in this case, the vocal cut is in! we call it bonkers-hop.

the three records included all achieved pop success and were all over the conservative mediums of fm radio and mtv at the time of their release. however, to me, contemporary mainstream music seemed on the verge of positively changing with each track like this at the turn of the century. sadly, instances of technological sonic shifts colliding spectacularly with the staid music charts are diminishing. perhaps it is corny to suggest that the death knell for the largely abstract ‘acid r’n'b’ movement were the very real and tragic deaths of both aaliyah and left eye within a year of each other between 2001-2002. however, the musical chasm left by two of the boldest and blackest female voices penetrating late-american popular culture has yet to be filled. lets hope their legacy never has to ask: ‘what about us?’

• RELATED / YOU MIGHT FIND THESE INTERESTING
• A beginners guide to … nu groove records
• It’s a konders magic
• I was alone in my room