In 2013, Sho Baraka veered away from the Christian hip-hop (“CHH”) playbook and dropped Talented 10th, an album that broke new ground for a faith-based rapper by challenging systemic racism and other social issues head-on. From that point forward, the rest of CHH spat lines they’d previously held back. 

But courage often comes with a price. Two years later, Baraka released The Narrative, and despite a product description stating the music was “saturated in a gospel worldview,” Christian bookstore chain LifeWay stopped carrying it in stores. Customers complained the album pushed the envelope too far, and the controversy made national news.

Baraka narrows his focus from the social to the personal on So Many Feelings, a joint effort with up-and-coming R&B vocalist Vanessa Hill. So Many Feelings once again goes where no one in CHH has dared tread before. It’s a journey through modern marriage and relationships, touching candidly (but not explicitly) on the happiness, tension, sex and conflict that every couple deals with. We sat down with Baraka and Hill to discuss their latest sonic innovation.

There’s never been a hip-hop project that even closely resembles So Many Feelings. Where did the idea come from?

So I just said, ‘Hey, if I wanted to do this album, who could I actually do it with?’ Vanessa and I had done some shows together—she was on The Narrative—and I loved what she did with that. Funny thing is I thought she was married …

Vanessa Hill: And I am not married. But that was funny.

Baraka: Come to find out about halfway working through the project she wasn’t married.

Halfway? That’s a little late.

Hill: We were just writing, there wasn’t any time for personal questions.

Baraka: She had been dating this guy for 20 years, and he kept showing up with her everywhere. When we did shows together, they were together the whole time. They argued and communicated like they were married, so I just thought they were married.

Hill: You know, we’re heading down the path.

When you made the fake tracklist, how many of those actually became real songs?

Baraka: About 80 percent became real songs.

Sho, your wife is speaking on the record, on the interlude tracks. How much of the record is what your life looks like and how much was hidden behind the veil of art? Is this supposed to be taken as an autobiography or as a metaphor?

Baraka: I think the beautiful thing about art is we have the creative license to blur the lines of reality and fiction. We are creating fictional characters while drawing from personal experience. Everything I communicate on this album is either something I’ve experienced, something I’m going through right now or something I’ve had a conversation about with a friend. So these are not things I’m making up. That’s the reason I think people are able to connect with this, how authentic and real it is. 

Hip-hop has a long tradition of creating interludes for people to connect the stories. I thought it would be like counseling in helpful moments because something can get lost in the communication of art. If we could create a dialogue artistically, I thought it would be good to include the biographical piece.

Hill: That’s the cool part about creating these fictional characters. People who are listening who are not married can still get a lot from the record because the subjects are love, communication and trust. Those aren’t confined to marriage. You can take these principles to how you deal with your boss, how you deal with your aunt, how you deal with your coworker. I think us creating these fictional characters but speaking from a real place is going to give a lot of people wisdom and hope.

Baraka: That’s brilliant. Because really, the idea of marriage is just an intensified relationship. It’s not just a marriage album, it’s a relationship album. This is why I brought Vanessa on; she is a genius.

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So Sareem Poems is not your typical rapper. While others in hip hop celebrate sinning, he raps about living righteously. You could almost call him a Christian rapper, given that he is Christian and a rapper, but that seems like too constraining a label, especially since "Christian rap" isn't exactly a quality cue. You could call him a conscious rapper, and that description fits better. However, he doesn't sound like a conscious rapper, or at least the mellow, bohemian variety. They all smoke pot, anyways. Sareem has a authoritative, commanding flow that is one part preacher, one part Chuck D., and one part Black Thought. It gives his rhyming a gravitas and a sense of anger. Even when he is rapping about love or other positive things, he still sounds slightly ticked off.

He's gone by Sharlock Poems performing with the LA Symphony (the rap group, not the orchestra group), and he released an album as Poems in 2008 on the Hip Hop Is Music label. "Black and Read All Over" originally came out in July of 2009, but it is being rereleased as a digital "Deluxe Addition" with instrumental versions of the songs and a handful of remixes.

Poems is a passionate, fierce rapper. He raps about things that are important to him, and does it in a commanding, uncompromising style. While he does sometimes show a lighter side, he doesn't really crack jokes, and he doesn't mess around. There's a trade off with this. One one hand, it's nice to hear a rapper addressing serious issues and taking a strong moral stance. However, Sareem sometimes comes off like a stern father upset with his son for hanging out with the wrong crowd. Just as your dad had reason for hating your stoner buddies, Poems has reason to be upset with a lot of things in his community. Still, there are times on the album when Sareem's raps feel uncomfortably like lectures. And this from someone who doesn't smoke pot and is generally in line with Poems' opinions. His style is equally unrelenting, and begins to feel limited in the course of the fourteen tracks.

Most of the production is handled by Theory Hazit, who offers vibrant beats that jump out of the speakers. Hazit is clearly not a fan of the "less is more" philosophy, and crams sounds together. "Come Get It," mixes ringing bells, a spaghetti western whistle, and a chugging beat; "Hard Labor" layers wailing ograns over booming drums with some background noise for good measure;  and "Shake It Up" works a loop for all it's worth. Done well, Hazit's beats are energized, exciting, and loud. Hazit can also veer into noisy and cacophonous, and he doesn't always find harmony in the different samples and sounds he mashes together.

Hazit's work is contrasted with a few tracks produced by Oddisee, the D.C. beatsmith who worked on this year's excellent Diamond District album. Oddisee's beats are more soulful and restrained than Hazit's, and he demonstrates the value of a few carefully placed samples on "She's So So." His tracks provide a nice foil to Hazit's beats, and showcase why Oddisee is one of the best producers of the year.

The remixes offer variations on the songs rather than radical reworkings. They are a nice bonus, as are the instrumentals, but don't warrant another purchase for those who already own a copy of "Black and Read." The real audience for this album are fans of conscious rap music that slept on the disc's July release. Sareem Poems offers his take on positive Southern Californian hip hop, and walks the path paved by acts like the Freestyle Fellowship and Jurassic 5.

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 DJ Promote The Wages of Syntax Returns

 

Second installment in hip-hop’s truest mixtape series is ‘a party in a box’

Syntax Records does it again. Last November, the San Diego-based hip-hop label dropped The Wages of Syntax Volume 2, a compilation bringing fans the best of its roster. Spun by DJ Promote, Wages mixes several of Syntax Records’ hottest songs featuring over 15 artists.

This album was produced with hip-hop lovers in mind. DJ Promote remixes 60 minutes worth of street-worthy beats and rhymes. “There’s never been a mixtape like this in our market…  It’s a party in a box,” says Syntax Records President Tim Trudeau, who goes by the moniker “sirROCDOMZ” when producing. “I believe that this second round of  Wages nailed the heart of a mixtape. Anyone who listens through entirely will walk away impressed.”

Wages kicks off with Kaboose’s “Goin’ Outta Control” featuring Royce Da 5’9″ — just in time for the brand new animated music video that was one of the five featured on Yahoo Music. Wages continues to hit fans hard with a constant stream of bangers such as “Universal” by LA Symphony and “Hawthorne’s Most Wanted” by RedCloud featuring Tonex and Kurupt. It goes as classic as 2003’s “I Sigh” by Sackcloth Fashion to the 2008 title track from Braille’s The IV Edition.

Wages was a collaborative effort  that strove to showcase singles that genuinely blended. Tim Trudeau explains, “We took into consideration music theory, such as what key a song was in, and the dynamics of the song. These are things people don’t think hip-hop has. We’re going back to the era when DJs were mixing and remixing songs together. There are years of music here, and we didn’t even go through the whole catalog.”

“Wages of Syntax 2 is a wonderful orchestration of intelligent lyrics, classic beats and well thought out, cross-genre blending that have raised the standards for all future studio mixtapes,” says Newville. “If you’ve never heard of Syntax Records, now is your chance to taste what has been missing from today’s music industry.”

Featured artist Braille says, “For me, this mixtape is very forward thinking and proves that people should be paying attention to Syntax Records.  It takes moments from the history of Syntax and incorporates them without ever loosing speed or energy. It tells a story.”

“It’s underground hip-hop in its purest form. Tight beats, dope rhymes, top-notch scratching and blending every song in an outstanding fashion,” RedCloud praises. “If you consider yourself a fan of ‘real hip-hop’, then quit reading this and buy this album immediately.”

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