This Week in the Mercury
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Let's Talk About... One Man (Rap) Band?
Posted by Andrew R Tonry on Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 12:21 AM
Last week Mos Def played Austin City Limits. It was refreshing to see an MC command the stage without a handful of hype men doubling every rhyme. It's becoming a rarity these days for rappers to perform without live help (not to mention the hooks already nestled in the backing tracks).
But what I'm more interested in is Mos Def's Panda Bear-like drum set up. It's the first time I've ever seen rap as a one man band, and I'm surprised, because it's a fucking awesome idea. The video is not embeddable, so click here and surf to 8:40 remaining.
Is anyone else doing this? Help out commentators.
Def isn't anything to write home about on the drums, but I'm sure someone out there is or could be. Throw in better samples on the pads, maybe some looping and this arrangement gets interesting fast. The hip-hop troubadour, the loner with a nasty drum solo, and the improbable skills to syncopate drums with slick lyrical couplets... I'm enthralled.
Again, here's a link to the video, and Mos only fools around a bit with the kit (skip to 8:40 remaining). Really though, the image above speaks for itself.
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