monoculture vulture
Georgia Anne Muldrow - A Thoughtiverse Unmarred
Around 2006, my family got an Apple iMac, and with it, iTunes. This set in motion my first real period of personal musical discovery thanks to the 30 second previews available on the app. I found weird early 2000s dubstep from the UK, found more ska (LOL), and in 2007 discovered Flying Lotus! A lot changed when I first heard “Massage Situation” from the Reset EP. I went on to explore more of that Brainfeeder sound, which led me to J Dilla, to Mos Def, to opening up Hip Hop as a whole world to explore.
Unfortunately my computer / internet skills were severely lacking and my exploration was limited to what was available on iTunes Store, my friends’ iTunes libraries, and Limewire (sorry). By the time Spotify came around, my exploration slowed and I focused a lot of attention to jazz and classical music. All this to say that Georgia Anne Muldrow remained out of my awareness for much too long!
Her career started in the mid-2000s and was really consistent into the mid-2010s, which means I could have caught on but for some reason I didn’t. I want to say that I think she is under-appreciated and slept on, but I want to remain open to the possibility that I am just a dummy who didn’t look hard enough. I think it’s probably a bit of both.
You guys, this album is straight up hip hop. Her sound is distinct, familiar, unique, rooted, and personal. It has elements I love: pretty samples, textured sounds, good drums, low end, storytelling form. I hear a lot of Detroit in her sound. One thing I found that I value is the presence of “those who came before” in someone’s creativity and artistry, a common sentiment in jazz culture. I mentioned my story in the beginning of this post because I feel like Georgia is so connected to Dilla and Detroit in her sounds and bounce. It has this weirdness that makes the music so compelling.
Saved: September’20
Listened: February’22
Released: 2015
Notes above are kinda weak, but the best part is me wanting to work with more women MC’s. She is a great rapper and very musical and the sound she gets is so smooth and cool. It’s no secret that hip hop is a boys club and dope rappers can come from anywhere.
Talib Kweli has a podcast called “People’s Party” where in one interview he discusses how he has been described and labeled as a conscious rapper and although he has gained success through his art, he doesn't necessarily label himself the same way.
Another idea I heard from artist and stage designer Es Devlin is:
“Preaching doesn’t work. In fact, it may have contributed to how things are now. How about we try to amaze people. Amaze us into perspective shift, into behavioral shifts.”
It is with these sentiments that make me apprehensive to call this a conscious hip hop album, because I feel like it can pigeonhole the music in an unfair way. However, Georgia is talking mad game the whole album and spits tons of gems.
“you can be right and wrong at the same time”- Fifth Shield
Many of her ideas and sentiments resonate with me. I believe she is using her art to call out the shitty parts of society and culture, and to some this may seem like hot takes… but she’s not wrong!
“Monoculture”, “Great Blacks”, and “Pop Iconz” are awesome songs about society, culture, influence, and their effect on Georgia personally as well as society at large.
“monoculture, reign on the world like a vulture” - Monoculture
“my heart do the beating but the blood ain’t mine, my sense of time’s intertwined deep with the great blacks” - Great Blacks
“rap about their back instead of freedom through art, rap about their cheese and a wig from a doll” - Pop Iconz
Also this album slaps! Spotify lists Chris Keys as a producer on the whole album who apparently is in Oakland. I gotta get together with this guy. Hi, Chris!
Listen to this beat!
I’ll do another post about her album Jyoti in the future. Until then…
Happy listening!
