Riddim Warfare by Dj Spooky (Review)

On DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing…, there was a track that posed the question (or answer) “Why Hip Hop Sucks in ’96.” Here’s the question: “Why aren’t the majority of rappers (besides folks like Latyrx) getting guys like Shadow or Spooky to conjure up the backing to their rhymes?”

Unlike many beat-driven albums, Riddim Warfare features several MCs that freshen up what’s already a texturally diverse, rhythmically complex album. When Kool Keith Thornton and Sir Menelik make their presences felt on “Object Unknown,” it’s like a positive revelation of all that’s sub-par in mainstream hip hop America. It used to be the words and the beats were both interesting (like they are here). Now Missy Elliott rhymes “unique” with “unique,” and every B-boy in the world uses tracks that have been unbelievably beaten to death by the likes of Ma$e and Dr. Dre.

When you hear this album and face drum’ n bass topped by MCs holding court about quantum electrodynamics (even though he’s completely talking out his rear), it’s like watching the Starship Enterprise swamp the S.S. Minnow in its wake. As if those vocalists weren’t enough, Killah Priest makes a all-too short appearance on the masterfully trippy “Degree Zero.”

Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky, among other names), isn’t content just to make a great hip hop album. He made a great dub-reggae album (see “Theme of the Drunken Sailor,” “Roman Planetaire”), a great jungle record (tracks 10, 19), and any number of other great genre disks. This is an ALBUM. It takes you on the best of trips, it moves yr rear, and leaves you to cool off with kalimba and Buddhist chants for peace on “Twilight Fugue.”

Written by Pearson Greer.