Thanks! You've made me realise that perhaps one of the things that I like most about Lupe is that he seems to embody both at the same time. It's like you've got the Flavor Flav side and the Chuck D side in the same person. Sometimes inside a single song, eg Daydreamin'. I know at the start we tended to think of him in his sort of "nerd" guise because he's into comics and skate culture and designer labels and whatnot but he's always had that ability to balance what used to be referred to as almost separate sub-genres, of "conscious" and "street" hip-hop, in the same song. And of course he wasn't above sending himself up a little bit about that, while also showing us that he was miles ahead of us, in Dumb It Down.
To an extent, Cee-Lo maybe does this too - I've always been a fan of those first two of his solo albums, and the second in particular, where he can go from hymning the joys of what music means to him even in the midst of breaking down the politics of the business that facilitates it (I Am Selling Soul) to doing a rap-record version of a Loony Toons carton (Childz Play) then be going all-out blazing raw battle emcee on Glockapella in in the space of a few songs in the middle of the album.
Another who maybe could be a foot-in-both-camps artist is E-40. Maybe that's more a case of letting his sense of sharp humour and his love of wordplay blend in with what material that always seems to be rooted (either explicitly or just by some of the metaphors he uses or even sometimes just the slang) in what he saw and learned around the drug game - and maybe therefore that's a bit off to one side of what you're describing. But he can be talking about pretty straightforward street subjects yet he still always throws in some unique way of describing a situation that wows you with its vision and imagination. I loved that song he had out online last year, Bands - it's basically just a big old-fashioned emcee brag, but he's so witty and clever with it that you almost feel like it's never been done before. The video is one of my go-tos when I need a three-minute pick-me-up - always come away from it with a spring in my step.
Thanks! You've made me realise that perhaps one of the things that I like most about Lupe is that he seems to embody both at the same time. It's like you've got the Flavor Flav side and the Chuck D side in the same person. Sometimes inside a single song, eg Daydreamin'. I know at the start we tended to think of him in his sort of "nerd" guise because he's into comics and skate culture and designer labels and whatnot but he's always had that ability to balance what used to be referred to as almost separate sub-genres, of "conscious" and "street" hip-hop, in the same song. And of course he wasn't above sending himself up a little bit about that, while also showing us that he was miles ahead of us, in Dumb It Down.
To an extent, Cee-Lo maybe does this too - I've always been a fan of those first two of his solo albums, and the second in particular, where he can go from hymning the joys of what music means to him even in the midst of breaking down the politics of the business that facilitates it (I Am Selling Soul) to doing a rap-record version of a Loony Toons carton (Childz Play) then be going all-out blazing raw battle emcee on Glockapella in in the space of a few songs in the middle of the album.
Another who maybe could be a foot-in-both-camps artist is E-40. Maybe that's more a case of letting his sense of sharp humour and his love of wordplay blend in with what material that always seems to be rooted (either explicitly or just by some of the metaphors he uses or even sometimes just the slang) in what he saw and learned around the drug game - and maybe therefore that's a bit off to one side of what you're describing. But he can be talking about pretty straightforward street subjects yet he still always throws in some unique way of describing a situation that wows you with its vision and imagination. I loved that song he had out online last year, Bands - it's basically just a big old-fashioned emcee brag, but he's so witty and clever with it that you almost feel like it's never been done before. The video is one of my go-tos when I need a three-minute pick-me-up - always come away from it with a spring in my step.
i remember the great last battle of the manchild vs childman. 50 cent vs Kanye West.
Kanye coming out on top officially putting the Kidults, like you mention in the article, on top.