Topic: Dance Music - Electronica
Hip Hop was dance music that began by treating turn tables and speakers as musical instruments rather than mere sound reproduction devices. After it merged with text-centric rap, others playing disco combined hip hop’s intensity with synthesizers and drum machines to create music only useful on a dance floor. Jesse Saunders released the first popular House Music recording, "On and On," in Chicago in 1984. [1]
The genre was taken up in Europe where it merged with rave music, then remigrated when promoters realized it was an inexpensive way to fill clubs and sell drinks. The onus was on one man, the DJ, to provide music for four hours from tapes he had made. [2]
Jason Madeira lived the life. His father played keyboard in a Portuguese band in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and worked as a DJ. Jason helped the group at events and honed his technique "practicing the art of djing in his bedroom." He got his first job in Boston in 2007 when he was just 21, then moved to Providence, Rhode Island, in 2009. At the time he was posting to Facebook, he was working steadily at one club in Boston and performing as a "rotating guest DJ" at other places. [3]
He put together a tape of "Kumbaya" in 2014 that spliced together two versions of the song, random distorted voices, and a deep voice that began with "let’s get ready to rum-bullllll." The constant was the drum machine that began alone and continued until the sounded faded at the end. The syncopated rhythm used a loud drum on the down beat, hand drums on the second and third, and a rattle motif.
The first and third vocal repetitions were the usual kumbaya verse sung by a group of girls or children. The second iteration was done by a man with horns playing ascending chords after every phrase. His verbs were distorted, whether because they wouldn’t have passed YouTube’s standards, or because Dera wanted to create that impression.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: unidentified man
Vocal Group: unidentified group
Instrumental Accompaniment: keyboard, brass
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum machine
Credits
None given
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: man used kum-bye-ya; group used koom-by-YAH
Verses: not audible
Vocabulary
Pronoun: no more
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: one-verse song with beginning and ending chorus
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: fast
Basic Structure: diverse segments over constant drum beat
Singing Style: group sang one syllable to one note in unison; man used some melisma
Instrumental Dynamics: only the drum machine was constant. Other instruments were used in discrete segments.
Notes on Performers
Madeira said on Facebook:
"My life has been dedicated to music. I want to keep it that way. The best feeling in the world is when I look down at the crowd, and everyone is having the time of their life. That’s my job, and i love every minute of it!" [4]
Availability
YouTube: uploaded by Dennis Rahayaan on 18 September 2014.
End Notes
1. Wikipedia. "Electronic Dance Music." Saunders’ record was "On and On." Jes Say Records JS9999. 1984. (Discogs entry for record)
2. Diplo [Thomas Wesley Pentz] described the economics to Philip Sherburne. "The New Rave Generation." Spin website. 14 September 2011.
3. "DJ Dera." Facebook.
4. Dera.
Monday, April 9, 2018
Saturday, April 7, 2018
Kazam Laflamme - Kumbaya
Topic: Hip Hop
On the west coast of Central Africa, Dennis Rathnaw said electric bands in night clubs in 2006 would start the evening
"with a set of jazz and American pop and soul standards. That was followed invariably by a set of makossa classics, and the night stretched into morning with bikutsi after bikutsi." [1]
For the young, hip hop was
"the defacto soundtrack of Africa in this decade. Even African pop styles such as hiplife in Ghana and coupé décalé in Côte d’Ivoire are incorporating its elements and visual style." [2]
Kazam Laflamme’s 2017 version of "Kumbaya" was a synthesis of all the musical styles he heard in Cameroon’s port city of Douala.
Makossa was the popular music form that developed in Douala and Paris [3] during the years after French independence when the president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, was emphasizing national unification over tribalism. [4] It was supplanted by bikutsi when Paul Biya became president in 1982. [5] He was from the Beti ethnic group that lived in the area of Yaoundé, the capital city. [6]
Bikutsi had a pronounced 6/8 rhythm within a 4/4 structure. [7] Kazam’s percussionists used a deep-toned, hand-played drum on the first beat and a smaller hand-drum on the second and third, with the third more dominant than the second. Following this waltz pattern, a dull thud sounded on the fourth beat.
The dance music evolved from traditional Beti forms that alternated recitations accompanied by harp-like mvets with dances backed by singing and marimba-like balafons. Messi Me Nkonda Martin substituted a guitar for the balafon, [8] then in the 1970s Maurice Elanga added brass and Knondo Si Tony used a synthesizer. [9] They all maintained the "thud" sound that came from the balafon. [10]
Kazam rapped his verses with a strongly punctuated, guttural voice. This "accelerated, savage, and brutal" style had entered bikutsi in 1993 at the Carrosel Club during a prolonged economic depression. [11]
A group sang the chorus that included the word "kumbaya." Kazam and his vocalists probably used Franglais, a pidgin that developed after the former French and English colonies were united in 1961. One of the first musicians to use it in a performance in the 1980s was Lapiro de Mbanga. [12] Kazam occasionally used recognizable English words like "everybody."
What was clear was the use of alliteration and syllabic repetition, especially of open syllables like "la la la," "yah yah yah," and "what I say, what I say, what I say." This chant style probably was borrowed from makossa. Emmanuel Nelle Eyoum repeated "kossa kossa" in the 1950s, [13] and Manu Dibango used "ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa" in 1973. [14] He noted people at the time thought his ablaut reduplicative treatment of "makossa" was an imitation of stuttering that debased the music. [15]
The iterative motif was carried over to Kazam’s instrumental ending when, instead of the group singing the "kumbaya" chorus, a thumb piano [16] repeated the four-note drum phrase over and over. At the very end, it was joined by the drums and synthesizer.
Under Biya’s regime, two bikutsi subtypes developed: one political and one erotic. [17] Judging from Kazam’s moniker "the flame," his text may have fallen into latter. Just before the final instrumental interlude a deeper voice used the words "dance so dirty."
However, the name of the record compilation, OneTribuland, suggested the man who recorded Kazam may have had a more political vision. Cameroon was a long country that transversed five ecological zones and 250 linguistic groups. [18] Both bikutsi and Franglais were ways average citizens were unifying themselves that were subversive of the government’s efforts to impose a single bilingual culture
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Kazam Laflamme
Vocal Group: not identified
Instrumental Soloist: thumb piano
Instrumental Accompaniment: synthesizer, brass, electric bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: drums, shaker
Credits
© Patrick Jerry Cheukuo [19]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: mixture
Pronunciation: kum by YAH
Basic Form: verse-chorus
Literary Devices: alliteration, assonance, syllabic repetition
Ending: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: AB-AB-AB-CBC where C was an instrumental
Singing Style: verses (A) were chanted; chorus (B) was sung with several notes assigned to occasional syllables. The recording began and ended with distorted voices like bikutsi screams.
Notes on Performance
The song appeared on a compilation put together by OneTribuland Recordz of Douala. [20] The company may have provided the backup singers and musicians.
The album cover design of a circle partially outlined and bisected by bands filled with dots borrowed from the face painting patterns used by a bikutsi group, Les Têtes Brulées. Option Magazine said the motifs came from "traditional Beti ceremonies." [21]
Notes on Performers
Kazam told his Facebook followers he earned an accounting degree in 2014 in Douala. He also wrote his hometown was in a cattle-raising region of Brazil [22] and he since had moved to Paris. He described himself as a singer and rapper. [23]
Nothing more was available on Kazam or the others involved with his recording. Rathnaw and others have commented on the effects of the pervasive corruption in Cameroon where money allocated for any infrastructure project simply disappears and recordings are pirated and royalties non-existent. [24]
Availability
MP3: OneTribuland Compil. 16 June 2017.
End Notes
1. Dennis Michael Rathnaw. "Waiting for Gumbo: Cargo Cults, Media and the Bikutsi of Cameroon." PhD diss. The University of Texas at Austin. December 2009. 144-145.
2. Rathnaw. 77.
3. Wikipedia. "Makossa."
4. Glenn Fowler. "Ahmadou Ahidjo of Cameroon Dies; Ex-Leader Was 65." The New York Times. 2 December 1989. Ahidjo was a Muslim Fulani from the northern part of the country.
5. Jean-Victor Nkolo and Graeme Ewens. "Cameroon." 440-447 in World Music: Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Edited by Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham, and Richard Trillo. London: The Rough Guides, 1999. 442.
6. Amber Murrey. "Thoughts on 30 Years of Biya Power in Cameroon." Pambazuka website. 8 November 2012. Biya was from the Bulu subgroup of the Beti. One clan of Beti spoke Ewondo, a Bantu language.
7. Mick Berry and Jason Gianni. The Drummer’s Bible. Tucson: See Sharp Press, 2012 edition. 4.
8. Jean-Marie Ahanda. Interview, 3 April 1996. Cited by Hortense Fuller and Charles Fuller. "A History of Bikutsi Music in Cameroon." African Sounds website.
9. Nkolo. 443.
10. Fuller.
11. Fuller. Quotation on pedalé form from singer Bisso’ Solo. Interview, 23 April 1996.
12. "Lapiro de Mbanga: Protest, Power and Politics." Bakwa Magazine website. 1 June 2014.
13. Wikipedia, Makossa.
14. "Soul Makossa." Soul Makossa. Fiesta 360.047. France. 1972. Michael Jackson quoted the chant on "Wanna Be Startin’ Something." Thriller. Epic QE38112. 30 November 1982. (Discogs entries for albums).
15. Mano Dibango and Danielle Rouard. Three Kilos of Coffee. Translated by Beth G. Raps. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. Quoted by Ben Zimmer. "Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa." Language Log website. 26 June 2009.
16. The thumb piano was discussed in the post for 18 October 2017.
17. Bikutsis traditionally were sung by women with lyrics that described their problems and dreams, much like the lullabies mentioned in the posts for 19 January 2018.
18. Wikipedia. "Cameroon."
19. The Mp3 file downloaded from Amazon said Vidal Domo was the composer.
20. Notes for Scoopie Ft Edmondo Titre. "Every Day I Try My Best." Uploaded to YouTube by Scoopie 237 on 21 July 2017.
21. Citation and quotation from Fuller. Ahanda organized Les Têtes Brulées in 1987.
22. Kazam said his hometown was "Congo, Paraiba, Brazil." The first land claim was made in 1830 for a ranch. (Portuguese Wikipedia. "Congo (Paraíba).")
23. "About Kazam Laflamme Laglass." Facebook. He wrote "je suis chanteur puis je rappeur."
24. Rathnaw. The title of his dissertation, gumbo, referred to the local term for tips, bribes, kickbacks, and other payments that fueled the economy.
On the west coast of Central Africa, Dennis Rathnaw said electric bands in night clubs in 2006 would start the evening
"with a set of jazz and American pop and soul standards. That was followed invariably by a set of makossa classics, and the night stretched into morning with bikutsi after bikutsi." [1]
For the young, hip hop was
"the defacto soundtrack of Africa in this decade. Even African pop styles such as hiplife in Ghana and coupé décalé in Côte d’Ivoire are incorporating its elements and visual style." [2]
Kazam Laflamme’s 2017 version of "Kumbaya" was a synthesis of all the musical styles he heard in Cameroon’s port city of Douala.
Makossa was the popular music form that developed in Douala and Paris [3] during the years after French independence when the president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, was emphasizing national unification over tribalism. [4] It was supplanted by bikutsi when Paul Biya became president in 1982. [5] He was from the Beti ethnic group that lived in the area of Yaoundé, the capital city. [6]
Bikutsi had a pronounced 6/8 rhythm within a 4/4 structure. [7] Kazam’s percussionists used a deep-toned, hand-played drum on the first beat and a smaller hand-drum on the second and third, with the third more dominant than the second. Following this waltz pattern, a dull thud sounded on the fourth beat.
The dance music evolved from traditional Beti forms that alternated recitations accompanied by harp-like mvets with dances backed by singing and marimba-like balafons. Messi Me Nkonda Martin substituted a guitar for the balafon, [8] then in the 1970s Maurice Elanga added brass and Knondo Si Tony used a synthesizer. [9] They all maintained the "thud" sound that came from the balafon. [10]
Kazam rapped his verses with a strongly punctuated, guttural voice. This "accelerated, savage, and brutal" style had entered bikutsi in 1993 at the Carrosel Club during a prolonged economic depression. [11]
A group sang the chorus that included the word "kumbaya." Kazam and his vocalists probably used Franglais, a pidgin that developed after the former French and English colonies were united in 1961. One of the first musicians to use it in a performance in the 1980s was Lapiro de Mbanga. [12] Kazam occasionally used recognizable English words like "everybody."
What was clear was the use of alliteration and syllabic repetition, especially of open syllables like "la la la," "yah yah yah," and "what I say, what I say, what I say." This chant style probably was borrowed from makossa. Emmanuel Nelle Eyoum repeated "kossa kossa" in the 1950s, [13] and Manu Dibango used "ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa" in 1973. [14] He noted people at the time thought his ablaut reduplicative treatment of "makossa" was an imitation of stuttering that debased the music. [15]
The iterative motif was carried over to Kazam’s instrumental ending when, instead of the group singing the "kumbaya" chorus, a thumb piano [16] repeated the four-note drum phrase over and over. At the very end, it was joined by the drums and synthesizer.
Under Biya’s regime, two bikutsi subtypes developed: one political and one erotic. [17] Judging from Kazam’s moniker "the flame," his text may have fallen into latter. Just before the final instrumental interlude a deeper voice used the words "dance so dirty."
However, the name of the record compilation, OneTribuland, suggested the man who recorded Kazam may have had a more political vision. Cameroon was a long country that transversed five ecological zones and 250 linguistic groups. [18] Both bikutsi and Franglais were ways average citizens were unifying themselves that were subversive of the government’s efforts to impose a single bilingual culture
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Kazam Laflamme
Vocal Group: not identified
Instrumental Soloist: thumb piano
Instrumental Accompaniment: synthesizer, brass, electric bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: drums, shaker
Credits
© Patrick Jerry Cheukuo [19]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: mixture
Pronunciation: kum by YAH
Basic Form: verse-chorus
Literary Devices: alliteration, assonance, syllabic repetition
Ending: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: AB-AB-AB-CBC where C was an instrumental
Singing Style: verses (A) were chanted; chorus (B) was sung with several notes assigned to occasional syllables. The recording began and ended with distorted voices like bikutsi screams.
Notes on Performance
The song appeared on a compilation put together by OneTribuland Recordz of Douala. [20] The company may have provided the backup singers and musicians.
The album cover design of a circle partially outlined and bisected by bands filled with dots borrowed from the face painting patterns used by a bikutsi group, Les Têtes Brulées. Option Magazine said the motifs came from "traditional Beti ceremonies." [21]
Notes on Performers
Kazam told his Facebook followers he earned an accounting degree in 2014 in Douala. He also wrote his hometown was in a cattle-raising region of Brazil [22] and he since had moved to Paris. He described himself as a singer and rapper. [23]
Nothing more was available on Kazam or the others involved with his recording. Rathnaw and others have commented on the effects of the pervasive corruption in Cameroon where money allocated for any infrastructure project simply disappears and recordings are pirated and royalties non-existent. [24]
Availability
MP3: OneTribuland Compil. 16 June 2017.
End Notes
1. Dennis Michael Rathnaw. "Waiting for Gumbo: Cargo Cults, Media and the Bikutsi of Cameroon." PhD diss. The University of Texas at Austin. December 2009. 144-145.
2. Rathnaw. 77.
3. Wikipedia. "Makossa."
4. Glenn Fowler. "Ahmadou Ahidjo of Cameroon Dies; Ex-Leader Was 65." The New York Times. 2 December 1989. Ahidjo was a Muslim Fulani from the northern part of the country.
5. Jean-Victor Nkolo and Graeme Ewens. "Cameroon." 440-447 in World Music: Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Edited by Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham, and Richard Trillo. London: The Rough Guides, 1999. 442.
6. Amber Murrey. "Thoughts on 30 Years of Biya Power in Cameroon." Pambazuka website. 8 November 2012. Biya was from the Bulu subgroup of the Beti. One clan of Beti spoke Ewondo, a Bantu language.
7. Mick Berry and Jason Gianni. The Drummer’s Bible. Tucson: See Sharp Press, 2012 edition. 4.
8. Jean-Marie Ahanda. Interview, 3 April 1996. Cited by Hortense Fuller and Charles Fuller. "A History of Bikutsi Music in Cameroon." African Sounds website.
9. Nkolo. 443.
10. Fuller.
11. Fuller. Quotation on pedalé form from singer Bisso’ Solo. Interview, 23 April 1996.
12. "Lapiro de Mbanga: Protest, Power and Politics." Bakwa Magazine website. 1 June 2014.
13. Wikipedia, Makossa.
14. "Soul Makossa." Soul Makossa. Fiesta 360.047. France. 1972. Michael Jackson quoted the chant on "Wanna Be Startin’ Something." Thriller. Epic QE38112. 30 November 1982. (Discogs entries for albums).
15. Mano Dibango and Danielle Rouard. Three Kilos of Coffee. Translated by Beth G. Raps. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. Quoted by Ben Zimmer. "Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa." Language Log website. 26 June 2009.
16. The thumb piano was discussed in the post for 18 October 2017.
17. Bikutsis traditionally were sung by women with lyrics that described their problems and dreams, much like the lullabies mentioned in the posts for 19 January 2018.
18. Wikipedia. "Cameroon."
19. The Mp3 file downloaded from Amazon said Vidal Domo was the composer.
20. Notes for Scoopie Ft Edmondo Titre. "Every Day I Try My Best." Uploaded to YouTube by Scoopie 237 on 21 July 2017.
21. Citation and quotation from Fuller. Ahanda organized Les Têtes Brulées in 1987.
22. Kazam said his hometown was "Congo, Paraiba, Brazil." The first land claim was made in 1830 for a ranch. (Portuguese Wikipedia. "Congo (Paraíba).")
23. "About Kazam Laflamme Laglass." Facebook. He wrote "je suis chanteur puis je rappeur."
24. Rathnaw. The title of his dissertation, gumbo, referred to the local term for tips, bribes, kickbacks, and other payments that fueled the economy.
Thursday, April 5, 2018
Jose Mc and Juicy Landy - Kumbaya
Topic: Hip Hop
Hip hop developed outside the established channels for music promotion in the United States. DJ Kool Herc said they were too young to enter the disco clubs and gangs terrorized those that did exist in the Bronx, so they created their own venues. [1] Radio stations didn’t play their records,[2] and in fact, no one recorded hip hop until Sylvia Robinson organized the Sugarhill Gang in 1979. Its "Rapper’s Delight" [3] was the first record noticed by Billboard. [4]
Grandmaster Flash made one of the first popular videos for "The Message" in 1982, [5] but MTV didn’t show videos by Black artists until pressured to include Michael’s Jackson’s "Billie Jean" [6] in 1983. Once MTV began playing rap records in the mid-1980s, [7] videos became the medium that spread the genre outside the United States.
In Uganda, nearly 25% of the population lived in poverty in 2009 [8] and the electricity needed for radios and television was scarce or unreliable in rural areas. [9] According to Hendrik Rood, "more than 95 percent of internet connections are made using mobile phones." [10] It’s not even clear if Jose Mc and Juicy Landy’s 2013 version of "Kumbaya" was ever a record rather than a tape made for use in clubs that was turned into a video. [11]
The video had absorbed the aesthetics of MTV. It had two components that were cut into small segments and intermixed in a fast-paced montage. One followed two young men who met some women with whom they flirted, then danced. The other showed Jose and Landy individually singing and together in changing positions.
Like African-American hip hop, "Kumbaya" used drums as the primary accompaniment. Jose and Landy were from Masaka in an area that once was part of the Buganda kingdom. Alfdaniels Mabingo said drum ensembles composed of drums of different sizes and timbres were used in the court and villages. [12] Jose and Landy had drums playing different tones in separate rhythmic patterns.
Many American rappers adopted a verse-chorus refrain with one or several artists chanting the verses. In the latter half of "Kumbaya," Jose and Landy added a native flute [13] to the drums during the verses. They used a synthesizer [14] with the drums in the chorus.
Jose and Landy different from African American rappers, because Landy sang his verses and the chorus, while Jose’s raps were melodic. I don’t know if they were using Swahili or Luganda; the one was an official language for the nation, but the Baganda language was the lingua franca in the capital of Kampala. Jude Ssempuuma said television, radio, and other entertainment forms were "engineered by the Baganda and their performance is in the Luganda language." [15]
The difference between the languages was Luganda was tonal and Swahili was not. The one would have lead to raps that had melodic traits, and might have created an aesthetic preference for musical speech even for chants in Swahili or English.
The word "kumbaya" was heard in the sung chorus:
"Koom-bye-ya
Koom-ba-ya ah baby"
Since the video dramatized courtship rituals, one could assumed the word was used to describe events when men and woman came together to enjoy themselves. One person wrote on YouTube "Kumbaya" was a "NYC song children set." [16] Given the vagaries of Google Translate, this could have meant it was specifically a children’s song brought from the United States, or that it carried connotations of playtime.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Jose Mc, Juicy Landy
Vocal Group: not identified
Instrumental Accompaniment: flute, synthesizer
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum ensemble
Credits
"Juicy Landy rose to fame in 2013 with the song Kumbaya, which he composed with Jose MC Da virus in Masaka." [17]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: Bantu
Pronunciation: koom bye ya
Basic Form: verse-chorus
Chorus Length: four lines
Chorus Rhyme Pattern: ABAB (unday-ally-bye ya-baby) [18]
Chorus Line Repetition Pattern: four lines repeated
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: CVCV1C
Singing Style: one syllable to one note. A group joined Landy on the repetitions of the kumbaya chorus.
Vocal-Instrumental Dynamics: drums, flute, and synthesizer were softer than Jose, Landy, or the vocal group.
Notes on Performance
Location: the video was shot outdoors on a dirt road beside a tall stone wall.
Microphones: unlike rappers in this country who always appeared with microphones in videos, none were shown in "Kumbaya."
Clothing: Jose wore tee-shirts with logos and blue slacks. His hair, which was in corn rows, was often covered by a baseball cap. In some sequences, he was wearing oversized glasses. Landy wore a white tee-shirt and jeans. He had short hair and a small chin beard.
The girl who danced with Landy was slender with straight hair. The one with Jose Mc had a normal build and natural hair. Both wore long shirts that covered their shorts and left their legs bare.
Notes on Movement
Jose and Landy adapted many of poses used by African-American rappers. They sat side by side on low bicycles and back to back. In both positions they moved their arms from the elbows. When they were standing, they bent their knees as they talked or sang.
The dancing was similar to the simplified jitterbug we did in junior high in Michigan in the late 1950s. The couples faced each other, held hands, and moved toward each other and back. Sometimes, the girl turned under the upraised arm of the boy. In this video, more intimate steps were suggested by close ups of the couple’s knees and feet.
Notes on Audience
"Kumbaya" was nominated for the Best Southern Region Song for the HiPippo awards in 2013. [19] Landy remembered "the ladies loved that song a lot." [20]
Notes on Performers
Landy was born Frank Walugembe "in Kibinge Village, Masaka District," and went to high school in Kyotera, some 25 miles away. He started writing songs when he was in Kyotera, where he organized entertainment for his classmates. At the time he was interviewed by Brain Mugyenyi, he was 23-years-old and owned a bar in Masaka. [21]
Jose became a solo performer in 2015 [22] using the name Jose MC Da Virus, and had a song nominated for a HiPippo award in 2016. A spokesman for the music promotion group said Jose had "managed to spill a song that is fresh and beautiful, exactly why he probably got nominated by the fans and other stakeholders." [23] A gossip website confirmed he was from Masaka. [24]
Availability
YouTube: uploaded by tamjoe7 on 18 July 2013. Other versions were uploaded; one was cropped and edited.
End Notes
1. Davy D. "Interview w/ DJ Kool Herc." His website.
2. Richard Simmons said "Black radio hated rap from the start and there’s still a lot of resistance to it." He attributed their reactions to a preference for songs that fit western musical aesthetics. He thought they saw "assimilation as the best way of becoming successful in a white culture and that means emphasizing things that are white. Rap is a return to black culture, a step back from that assimilation." Quoted by Robert Hilburn. "Rap—The Power and the Controversy." Los Angeles Times. 4 February 1990.
3. Sugarhill Gang. "Rapper’s Delight." Sugar Hill Records SH-542. 1979.
4. Wikipedia. "DJ Kool Herc."
5. For more on "The Message," see the post for 26 March 2018.
6. Michael Jackson. "Billie Jean." Epic A13 3084. 1983.
7. Wikipedia. "MTV."
8. Wikipedia. "Uganda."
9. Alfdaniels Mabingo. "The Drum of the Black Africans." 2012. Revised and translated by Hermelinde Steiner. Face Music website.
10. Hendrik Rood. "Uganda – Mobile Market – Insights, Statistics and Forecasts – BuddeComm – BuddeComm." Stratix Consulting. Citation and quotation from Wikipedia, Uganda.
11. No record details were given on YouTube or in the HiPippo publicity for the song.
12. Mabingo.
13. "Traditional Instruments of the Uganda People." Revised by Hermelinde Steiner, perhaps from Mabingo. Face Music website.
14. It might have been a local instrument, but did not sound like a xylophone or thumb piano.
15. Jude Ssempuuma. "The Emergence of an Indigenous Language as Lingua Franca: The Case of Luganda in Uganda." 119-142 in Postcolonial Linguistic Voices. Edited by Eric A. Anchimbe and Stephen A. Mforteh. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2011. 131.
16. Rahmah Leilah wrote "NYC song abaana beka" on YouTube. September 2017. Google Translate indicated the language was Swahili. Since if did not have a Luganda option, I don’t know if the text was similar in both languages.
17. Brian Mugyenyi. "Bad Management Killed My Music – Landy." 26 August 2017. Sqoop and other websites.
18. This was a transcription of the sounds I heard, not the actual syllables sung by Landy.
19. Mugyenyi. HiPippo awards were given by a social media company of the same name located in Kampala. (Wikipedia. "HiPipo Limited.")
20. Juicy Landy. Quoted by Mugyenyi.
21. Mugyenyi.
22. Mugyenyi.
23. Mohamed Kimbugwe. "HiPipo Music Awards 2016; Best Regional Song Review." HiPippo website. 1 May 2016. The song was "Omukajanga."
24. "Sheilah Don Zella now Bonking JOSE MC DA VIRUS." Ki Gossip website. 5 April 2016.
Hip hop developed outside the established channels for music promotion in the United States. DJ Kool Herc said they were too young to enter the disco clubs and gangs terrorized those that did exist in the Bronx, so they created their own venues. [1] Radio stations didn’t play their records,[2] and in fact, no one recorded hip hop until Sylvia Robinson organized the Sugarhill Gang in 1979. Its "Rapper’s Delight" [3] was the first record noticed by Billboard. [4]
Grandmaster Flash made one of the first popular videos for "The Message" in 1982, [5] but MTV didn’t show videos by Black artists until pressured to include Michael’s Jackson’s "Billie Jean" [6] in 1983. Once MTV began playing rap records in the mid-1980s, [7] videos became the medium that spread the genre outside the United States.
In Uganda, nearly 25% of the population lived in poverty in 2009 [8] and the electricity needed for radios and television was scarce or unreliable in rural areas. [9] According to Hendrik Rood, "more than 95 percent of internet connections are made using mobile phones." [10] It’s not even clear if Jose Mc and Juicy Landy’s 2013 version of "Kumbaya" was ever a record rather than a tape made for use in clubs that was turned into a video. [11]
The video had absorbed the aesthetics of MTV. It had two components that were cut into small segments and intermixed in a fast-paced montage. One followed two young men who met some women with whom they flirted, then danced. The other showed Jose and Landy individually singing and together in changing positions.
Like African-American hip hop, "Kumbaya" used drums as the primary accompaniment. Jose and Landy were from Masaka in an area that once was part of the Buganda kingdom. Alfdaniels Mabingo said drum ensembles composed of drums of different sizes and timbres were used in the court and villages. [12] Jose and Landy had drums playing different tones in separate rhythmic patterns.
Many American rappers adopted a verse-chorus refrain with one or several artists chanting the verses. In the latter half of "Kumbaya," Jose and Landy added a native flute [13] to the drums during the verses. They used a synthesizer [14] with the drums in the chorus.
Jose and Landy different from African American rappers, because Landy sang his verses and the chorus, while Jose’s raps were melodic. I don’t know if they were using Swahili or Luganda; the one was an official language for the nation, but the Baganda language was the lingua franca in the capital of Kampala. Jude Ssempuuma said television, radio, and other entertainment forms were "engineered by the Baganda and their performance is in the Luganda language." [15]
The difference between the languages was Luganda was tonal and Swahili was not. The one would have lead to raps that had melodic traits, and might have created an aesthetic preference for musical speech even for chants in Swahili or English.
The word "kumbaya" was heard in the sung chorus:
"Koom-bye-ya
Koom-ba-ya ah baby"
Since the video dramatized courtship rituals, one could assumed the word was used to describe events when men and woman came together to enjoy themselves. One person wrote on YouTube "Kumbaya" was a "NYC song children set." [16] Given the vagaries of Google Translate, this could have meant it was specifically a children’s song brought from the United States, or that it carried connotations of playtime.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Jose Mc, Juicy Landy
Vocal Group: not identified
Instrumental Accompaniment: flute, synthesizer
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum ensemble
Credits
"Juicy Landy rose to fame in 2013 with the song Kumbaya, which he composed with Jose MC Da virus in Masaka." [17]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: Bantu
Pronunciation: koom bye ya
Basic Form: verse-chorus
Chorus Length: four lines
Chorus Rhyme Pattern: ABAB (unday-ally-bye ya-baby) [18]
Chorus Line Repetition Pattern: four lines repeated
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: CVCV1C
Singing Style: one syllable to one note. A group joined Landy on the repetitions of the kumbaya chorus.
Vocal-Instrumental Dynamics: drums, flute, and synthesizer were softer than Jose, Landy, or the vocal group.
Notes on Performance
Location: the video was shot outdoors on a dirt road beside a tall stone wall.
Microphones: unlike rappers in this country who always appeared with microphones in videos, none were shown in "Kumbaya."
Clothing: Jose wore tee-shirts with logos and blue slacks. His hair, which was in corn rows, was often covered by a baseball cap. In some sequences, he was wearing oversized glasses. Landy wore a white tee-shirt and jeans. He had short hair and a small chin beard.
The girl who danced with Landy was slender with straight hair. The one with Jose Mc had a normal build and natural hair. Both wore long shirts that covered their shorts and left their legs bare.
Notes on Movement
Jose and Landy adapted many of poses used by African-American rappers. They sat side by side on low bicycles and back to back. In both positions they moved their arms from the elbows. When they were standing, they bent their knees as they talked or sang.
The dancing was similar to the simplified jitterbug we did in junior high in Michigan in the late 1950s. The couples faced each other, held hands, and moved toward each other and back. Sometimes, the girl turned under the upraised arm of the boy. In this video, more intimate steps were suggested by close ups of the couple’s knees and feet.
Notes on Audience
"Kumbaya" was nominated for the Best Southern Region Song for the HiPippo awards in 2013. [19] Landy remembered "the ladies loved that song a lot." [20]
Notes on Performers
Landy was born Frank Walugembe "in Kibinge Village, Masaka District," and went to high school in Kyotera, some 25 miles away. He started writing songs when he was in Kyotera, where he organized entertainment for his classmates. At the time he was interviewed by Brain Mugyenyi, he was 23-years-old and owned a bar in Masaka. [21]
Jose became a solo performer in 2015 [22] using the name Jose MC Da Virus, and had a song nominated for a HiPippo award in 2016. A spokesman for the music promotion group said Jose had "managed to spill a song that is fresh and beautiful, exactly why he probably got nominated by the fans and other stakeholders." [23] A gossip website confirmed he was from Masaka. [24]
Availability
YouTube: uploaded by tamjoe7 on 18 July 2013. Other versions were uploaded; one was cropped and edited.
End Notes
1. Davy D. "Interview w/ DJ Kool Herc." His website.
2. Richard Simmons said "Black radio hated rap from the start and there’s still a lot of resistance to it." He attributed their reactions to a preference for songs that fit western musical aesthetics. He thought they saw "assimilation as the best way of becoming successful in a white culture and that means emphasizing things that are white. Rap is a return to black culture, a step back from that assimilation." Quoted by Robert Hilburn. "Rap—The Power and the Controversy." Los Angeles Times. 4 February 1990.
3. Sugarhill Gang. "Rapper’s Delight." Sugar Hill Records SH-542. 1979.
4. Wikipedia. "DJ Kool Herc."
5. For more on "The Message," see the post for 26 March 2018.
6. Michael Jackson. "Billie Jean." Epic A13 3084. 1983.
7. Wikipedia. "MTV."
8. Wikipedia. "Uganda."
9. Alfdaniels Mabingo. "The Drum of the Black Africans." 2012. Revised and translated by Hermelinde Steiner. Face Music website.
10. Hendrik Rood. "Uganda – Mobile Market – Insights, Statistics and Forecasts – BuddeComm – BuddeComm." Stratix Consulting. Citation and quotation from Wikipedia, Uganda.
11. No record details were given on YouTube or in the HiPippo publicity for the song.
12. Mabingo.
13. "Traditional Instruments of the Uganda People." Revised by Hermelinde Steiner, perhaps from Mabingo. Face Music website.
14. It might have been a local instrument, but did not sound like a xylophone or thumb piano.
15. Jude Ssempuuma. "The Emergence of an Indigenous Language as Lingua Franca: The Case of Luganda in Uganda." 119-142 in Postcolonial Linguistic Voices. Edited by Eric A. Anchimbe and Stephen A. Mforteh. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2011. 131.
16. Rahmah Leilah wrote "NYC song abaana beka" on YouTube. September 2017. Google Translate indicated the language was Swahili. Since if did not have a Luganda option, I don’t know if the text was similar in both languages.
17. Brian Mugyenyi. "Bad Management Killed My Music – Landy." 26 August 2017. Sqoop and other websites.
18. This was a transcription of the sounds I heard, not the actual syllables sung by Landy.
19. Mugyenyi. HiPippo awards were given by a social media company of the same name located in Kampala. (Wikipedia. "HiPipo Limited.")
20. Juicy Landy. Quoted by Mugyenyi.
21. Mugyenyi.
22. Mugyenyi.
23. Mohamed Kimbugwe. "HiPipo Music Awards 2016; Best Regional Song Review." HiPippo website. 1 May 2016. The song was "Omukajanga."
24. "Sheilah Don Zella now Bonking JOSE MC DA VIRUS." Ki Gossip website. 5 April 2016.
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Lugo - Kumbaya (Jungle Africa Electro Safari)
Topic: Hip Hop
Hip hop emerged in the Bronx section of New York City in the early 1970s when a Jamaican immigrant Americanized his taste to fit that of his audience. Clive Campbell was raised in Kingston’s Trenchtown where he heard music being played in dance halls and on the streets over PA systems. His mother was the first to migrate to attend nursing school. Clive came in 1967, and the rest of the family followed. [1]
He quickly learned the necessity of blending into the neighborhood to avoid the discrimination and violence directed toward immigrants. He listened to radio and sang along with records to change his accent. [2] When critics later commented on the Jamaican roots of hip hop, he responded:
"Jamaican toasting? Naw, naw. No connection there. I couldn’t play reggae in the Bronx. People wouldn’t accept it. The inspiration for rap is James Brown and the album Hustler’s Convention." [3]
Wayne Marshall suggested the migration sharpened Campbell’s already keen interest in music. When his father bought a sound system for a local R&B group, Clive figured out how to connect the components to produce the sounds he’d heard in Jamaica. [4] By then his friends were calling him Herc, short for Hercules, for his prowess on the basketball court. [5]
When he went to dances he noticed which parts of records he and other dancers enjoyed, and also observed the things they disliked about the men playing the music. Dancers preferred the instrumental sections of funk records which had strong beats. DJ Kook Herc’s key innovation was finding a way to extend the intense dance time by changing from one turntable to another when the break ended on one song to the start of the break on another. To cover the short lapse in music, he shouted out to the dancers. [6]
Others, especially Grandmaster Flash, mentioned in the post for 26 March 2018, and Afrika Bambaataa, [7] improved his techniques and replaced his simple calls with extended texts that used rap styles. From there it evolved from dance music into hip hop.
Rappers and others needed repetitive beat patterns for their performances. Men with computer expertise were able to provide them by isolating elements in existing instrumental breaks, reordering them, and repeating them in digital loops. [8] Beginning in 2005, [9] Lugo began releasing albums of Hip Hop Instrumentals that others could licence for sound tracks.
His version of "Kumbaya" opened with conga drums that alternated between two tones. They stopped and a shaker began. When the congas rejoined, they were heard on the four beats of each measure and the shakers consistently played between.
Lugo labeled his version "Jungle." That may been because many associated both "Kumbaya" and hand-played drums with Africa, but it also may have been a reference to jungle music that emerged in London clubs in 1992. [10]
Simon Reynolds said jungle music "upturns Western music’s hierarchy of melody/harmony over rhythm/timbre. In jungle, the rhythm is the melody." [11] Further, it disrupted the steady four loud beats of disco by skipping beats. Thus, Lugo’s congas were able to maintain the rhythm without in fact playing every beat. About half way through the performance, the conga player added a second motif between the main four. Occasionally, a steel-style drum was struck three times on the third beat of the measure.
Lugo’s "Kumbaya" lacked one of the defining traits of jungle music. The tempo was moderate, while the drums in jungle often played 150 beats-per-minute. [12] Reynolds said, the bass line, meantime, was slowed to 70 bpm, [13] and that dancers switched between rhythms. If Lugo included an electric bass, it used a frequency so low, it could not be detected by my computer’s standard built-in speakers. [14]
The other way "Kumbaya" differed from jungle music was it was essentially acoustic. It had a few random sounds that were produced electronically, but it was not electronic music. Wikipedia indicated that when the jungle was introduced into this country, the term often was used as a "synonym for drum and bass," rather than for its English model. [15] That was probably all Lugo wanted to suggest.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: congas, shaker, steel-type drum
Credits
(C) 2006 Edwin Lugo
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: his own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: strophic
Notes on Performance
Lugo may have created the recording without assistance from others. He claimed to be a "Computer and Audio tec. Geek" who could play congas, bongos, drums, and guitar. He also advised potential casting directors he was a "Hip Hop, Latin and Club Dancer," [16] which implied he would have had a dancer’s understanding of what was required from music.
Notes on Performers
Edwin Lugo’s parents were from Puerto Rico, and his mother was related to Roberto Clemente. His father was a Pentecostal minister, who had him singing in a Bronx church when he was three-years-old. [17] He attended New York’s High School for the Performing Arts in the 1980s, and had his first major professional work in a Paul Simon musical [18] that opened in 1998. [19] He told fans his influences included "prince, Michael jackson, marvin gaye, luther vandross, sam cook, tito puente, quincy jones." [20]
Availability
CD: Hip Hop Instrumentals Vol. 11. 7 November 2005.
YouTube: uploaded by CDBaby on 19 April 2015. [21]
End Notes
1. Wayne Marshall. "Kool Herc." 1-26 in Icons of Hip Hop. Edited by Mickey Hess. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 2007. Reproduced on his website, Wayne and Wax.
2. Marshall.
3. Steven Hager. Hip Hop. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984. 45. Quoted by Wikipedia. "DJ Kool Herc." Hustler’s Convention was recorded in 1973 by Lightnin’ Rod (Jalal Mansur Nuriddin) for United Artists Records UA-LA-156-F. (Discogs entry for album).
4. Marshall.
5. Wikipedia, DJ Kool Herc.
6. Marshall.
7. Afrika Bambaataa (Lance Taylor) was noted for using hip hop as a way of diverting gang violence into dance with his Zulu Nation. (Wikipedia. "Afrika Bambaataa.")
8. Simon Reynolds. Energy Flash. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2012 edition. 241.
9. Amazon indicated Lugo’s first volume, titled simply Hip Hop Instrumentals, was released 10 October 2005. Amazon’s release dates must be treated with caution since they often were the most recent reissue dates, not the original ones. Discogs had no entry on Lugo to use for confirmation.
10. Wikipedia. "Jungle music."
11. Reynolds. 242.
12. Benjamin Noys. "Into the Jungle." Popular Music. 14:321-332:1995. 321.
13. Reynolds. 242
14. Reynolds said "sub-bass frequencies operate almost below the threshold of hearing" and were felt rather than heard. 243.
15. Wikipedia, Jungle.
16. "Edwin Lugo." Actors Access website.
17. "Edwin Lugo." Model Mayhem website.
18. "LUGO." Facebook.
19. Wikipedia. "The Capeman."
20. Facebook.
21. CDBaby uploaded another song under this title from volume 6 of his Hip Hop Instrumentals; it was different and did not appear on listings of that volume from its website.
Hip hop emerged in the Bronx section of New York City in the early 1970s when a Jamaican immigrant Americanized his taste to fit that of his audience. Clive Campbell was raised in Kingston’s Trenchtown where he heard music being played in dance halls and on the streets over PA systems. His mother was the first to migrate to attend nursing school. Clive came in 1967, and the rest of the family followed. [1]
He quickly learned the necessity of blending into the neighborhood to avoid the discrimination and violence directed toward immigrants. He listened to radio and sang along with records to change his accent. [2] When critics later commented on the Jamaican roots of hip hop, he responded:
"Jamaican toasting? Naw, naw. No connection there. I couldn’t play reggae in the Bronx. People wouldn’t accept it. The inspiration for rap is James Brown and the album Hustler’s Convention." [3]
Wayne Marshall suggested the migration sharpened Campbell’s already keen interest in music. When his father bought a sound system for a local R&B group, Clive figured out how to connect the components to produce the sounds he’d heard in Jamaica. [4] By then his friends were calling him Herc, short for Hercules, for his prowess on the basketball court. [5]
When he went to dances he noticed which parts of records he and other dancers enjoyed, and also observed the things they disliked about the men playing the music. Dancers preferred the instrumental sections of funk records which had strong beats. DJ Kook Herc’s key innovation was finding a way to extend the intense dance time by changing from one turntable to another when the break ended on one song to the start of the break on another. To cover the short lapse in music, he shouted out to the dancers. [6]
Others, especially Grandmaster Flash, mentioned in the post for 26 March 2018, and Afrika Bambaataa, [7] improved his techniques and replaced his simple calls with extended texts that used rap styles. From there it evolved from dance music into hip hop.
Rappers and others needed repetitive beat patterns for their performances. Men with computer expertise were able to provide them by isolating elements in existing instrumental breaks, reordering them, and repeating them in digital loops. [8] Beginning in 2005, [9] Lugo began releasing albums of Hip Hop Instrumentals that others could licence for sound tracks.
His version of "Kumbaya" opened with conga drums that alternated between two tones. They stopped and a shaker began. When the congas rejoined, they were heard on the four beats of each measure and the shakers consistently played between.
Lugo labeled his version "Jungle." That may been because many associated both "Kumbaya" and hand-played drums with Africa, but it also may have been a reference to jungle music that emerged in London clubs in 1992. [10]
Simon Reynolds said jungle music "upturns Western music’s hierarchy of melody/harmony over rhythm/timbre. In jungle, the rhythm is the melody." [11] Further, it disrupted the steady four loud beats of disco by skipping beats. Thus, Lugo’s congas were able to maintain the rhythm without in fact playing every beat. About half way through the performance, the conga player added a second motif between the main four. Occasionally, a steel-style drum was struck three times on the third beat of the measure.
Lugo’s "Kumbaya" lacked one of the defining traits of jungle music. The tempo was moderate, while the drums in jungle often played 150 beats-per-minute. [12] Reynolds said, the bass line, meantime, was slowed to 70 bpm, [13] and that dancers switched between rhythms. If Lugo included an electric bass, it used a frequency so low, it could not be detected by my computer’s standard built-in speakers. [14]
The other way "Kumbaya" differed from jungle music was it was essentially acoustic. It had a few random sounds that were produced electronically, but it was not electronic music. Wikipedia indicated that when the jungle was introduced into this country, the term often was used as a "synonym for drum and bass," rather than for its English model. [15] That was probably all Lugo wanted to suggest.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: congas, shaker, steel-type drum
Credits
(C) 2006 Edwin Lugo
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: his own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: strophic
Notes on Performance
Lugo may have created the recording without assistance from others. He claimed to be a "Computer and Audio tec. Geek" who could play congas, bongos, drums, and guitar. He also advised potential casting directors he was a "Hip Hop, Latin and Club Dancer," [16] which implied he would have had a dancer’s understanding of what was required from music.
Notes on Performers
Edwin Lugo’s parents were from Puerto Rico, and his mother was related to Roberto Clemente. His father was a Pentecostal minister, who had him singing in a Bronx church when he was three-years-old. [17] He attended New York’s High School for the Performing Arts in the 1980s, and had his first major professional work in a Paul Simon musical [18] that opened in 1998. [19] He told fans his influences included "prince, Michael jackson, marvin gaye, luther vandross, sam cook, tito puente, quincy jones." [20]
Availability
CD: Hip Hop Instrumentals Vol. 11. 7 November 2005.
YouTube: uploaded by CDBaby on 19 April 2015. [21]
End Notes
1. Wayne Marshall. "Kool Herc." 1-26 in Icons of Hip Hop. Edited by Mickey Hess. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 2007. Reproduced on his website, Wayne and Wax.
2. Marshall.
3. Steven Hager. Hip Hop. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984. 45. Quoted by Wikipedia. "DJ Kool Herc." Hustler’s Convention was recorded in 1973 by Lightnin’ Rod (Jalal Mansur Nuriddin) for United Artists Records UA-LA-156-F. (Discogs entry for album).
4. Marshall.
5. Wikipedia, DJ Kool Herc.
6. Marshall.
7. Afrika Bambaataa (Lance Taylor) was noted for using hip hop as a way of diverting gang violence into dance with his Zulu Nation. (Wikipedia. "Afrika Bambaataa.")
8. Simon Reynolds. Energy Flash. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2012 edition. 241.
9. Amazon indicated Lugo’s first volume, titled simply Hip Hop Instrumentals, was released 10 October 2005. Amazon’s release dates must be treated with caution since they often were the most recent reissue dates, not the original ones. Discogs had no entry on Lugo to use for confirmation.
10. Wikipedia. "Jungle music."
11. Reynolds. 242.
12. Benjamin Noys. "Into the Jungle." Popular Music. 14:321-332:1995. 321.
13. Reynolds. 242
14. Reynolds said "sub-bass frequencies operate almost below the threshold of hearing" and were felt rather than heard. 243.
15. Wikipedia, Jungle.
16. "Edwin Lugo." Actors Access website.
17. "Edwin Lugo." Model Mayhem website.
18. "LUGO." Facebook.
19. Wikipedia. "The Capeman."
20. Facebook.
21. CDBaby uploaded another song under this title from volume 6 of his Hip Hop Instrumentals; it was different and did not appear on listings of that volume from its website.
Sunday, April 1, 2018
Jay McGee - Come By Here
Topic: Rap
Secular rappers usually treated "kumbaya" as a string of syllables with rhythmic potential. The first two I discussed began with strong consonants and rhymed with the traditional representation of German brass bands, "oom-pah." The second two used open syllables that rhymed. A few treated the word or song as a generic symbol without amplification.
African Americans who wanted to use rap to advance evangelical goals tended to use "Come by Here," not "Kumbaya," especially if they had spent their early years in the southeastern United States. Thus, Leon, who came from Miami, used one verse as the chorus in his chanted descriptions of conversion experiences. [1]
Jay McGee was born in Lumberton, North Carolina, [2] and raised in Fayetteville [3] in the state’s sand hills. [4] He began performing in the late 1970s [5] when soul and disco were the primary music forms. Libra Boyd believed his singing style had been influenced by Sam Cooke and Johnnie Taylor, [6] both of whom began in gospel quartets.
In 2001 McGee wrote his own version of "Come by Here" that served the original ritual functions. The four-line verses described people in need and asked the Lord to intervene. While the group sang "come by here Lord" eight times as a chorus, he sang fragments of common verses like "we need you" and "please make some time."
After two repetitions of a verse-and-chorus, McGee changed from stating the reasons the Lord was needed to a more passionate request for His presence. This was similar to the free-form witnessing in Evelyn Turrentine-Agee’s version in which a woman spoke about her problems. [7] However, McGee followed MC Hollywood’s example and spoke in time to the syncopated drum rhythm. [8] The rapped lines were longer than the sung ones, but still were rhymed couplets.
After the rapped appeal, McGee sang two more verses that described humans in need before changing his pace again. While the chorus continued its role of repeating "come by here," he sang more extended lines asking for a healing that would come from the Lord appearing for "a little while."
This was followed by an instrumental section in which the keyboard took over the melody. Previously, the piano had played broken chords at the ends of lines. The chorus was repeated one more time, with McGee singing "come by here" instead of the improvised appeals used earlier. It grew softer and faded away at the end.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Jay McGee
Vocal Group: men and women, not identified
Instrumental Accompaniment: keyboard
Rhythm Accompaniment: drums
Credits
(C) 2003 Beacon Records Inc. [9]
(P) 2003 J. McGee [10]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: strongly reflected the drum beat
Verses: come by here, own
Vocabulary
Pronoun: somebody
Term for Deity: Lord, Father (once)
Special Terms: need a healing
Basic Form: verse-chorus
Sung Verse Form
Verse Length: four lines
Verse Rhyme Pattern: AABB
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Line Meter: iambic (xX)
Line Length: ten syllables (pentameter)
Rapped Verse Form
Verse Length: eight lines
Verse Rhyme Pattern: rhymed couplets
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Line Meter: iambic
Line Length: 11 to 16 syllables
Chorus Verse Form:
Verse Length: four lines that repeated "come by here Lord" twice
Line Form: call-response
Line Repetition Pattern: calls sung by McGee were all unique, refrains all the same
Ending: none
Unique Features: variations in verse form
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-1-3
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: AABAAB1 where A was sung, B was partly rapped, and B1 was partly instrumental.
Solo Singing Style: some syllables were sung on more than one note as a way to extend syllables rather than as melismatic accents.
Solo-Group Dynamics: McGee began each line, and chorus joined. Chorus sang "come by here" over and over" while he varied how much of the line he sang.
Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: drums provided the beat and piano played flourishes at the ends of lines. During the instrumental break, the keyboard played the melody to the same rhythm.
Notes on Performers
McGee was born in 1950. His father was a singer, and he began singing in church when he was four-years-old. He settled in Flint in 1968, then moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1974. [11] He made his first records for a Belgium company, Scorpio Records, then did an album for a Canadian company, Quantum. [12] While he remained unknown in this country, one of his songs, "Another Love in Your Life," was nominated for the Best R&B Song for the Canadian Juno awards. [13]
He moved back to Flint in 2001 and, after he "received Christ Jesus as my Lord and Savior." began producing his own religious records. [14]
Availability
CD: No Walls. Cousin Marie’s Music. 2001. [15]
Reissue: No Walls. Beacon Records, Inc. 3 June 2003. [16]
YouTube: uploaded by CDBaby on 23 June 2015.
End Notes
1. For more on Leon’s version, see post for 30 March 2018.
2. Toby Walker. "Jay W. McGee." Soul Walking website.
3. "About Jay McGee." Facebook.
4. Wikipedia. "Fayetteville, North Carolina."
5. Walker.
6. Libra Boyd. "‘Stand Up!’ - Jay McGee." Gospel Music Fever website. 16 August 2013.
7. For more on version by Evelyn Turrentine-Agee, see post for 6 August 2017.
8. MC Hollywood’s contribution to rap was described in the post for 22 March 2018.
9. Amazon page for "No Walls."
10. YouTube notes.
11. Walker.
12. "Jay W. McGee." Discogs website.
13. "Jay McGee." LinkedIn.
14. LinkedIn.
15. "Jay McGee – No Walls." Discogs website.
16. Amazon and YouTube.
Secular rappers usually treated "kumbaya" as a string of syllables with rhythmic potential. The first two I discussed began with strong consonants and rhymed with the traditional representation of German brass bands, "oom-pah." The second two used open syllables that rhymed. A few treated the word or song as a generic symbol without amplification.
African Americans who wanted to use rap to advance evangelical goals tended to use "Come by Here," not "Kumbaya," especially if they had spent their early years in the southeastern United States. Thus, Leon, who came from Miami, used one verse as the chorus in his chanted descriptions of conversion experiences. [1]
Jay McGee was born in Lumberton, North Carolina, [2] and raised in Fayetteville [3] in the state’s sand hills. [4] He began performing in the late 1970s [5] when soul and disco were the primary music forms. Libra Boyd believed his singing style had been influenced by Sam Cooke and Johnnie Taylor, [6] both of whom began in gospel quartets.
In 2001 McGee wrote his own version of "Come by Here" that served the original ritual functions. The four-line verses described people in need and asked the Lord to intervene. While the group sang "come by here Lord" eight times as a chorus, he sang fragments of common verses like "we need you" and "please make some time."
After two repetitions of a verse-and-chorus, McGee changed from stating the reasons the Lord was needed to a more passionate request for His presence. This was similar to the free-form witnessing in Evelyn Turrentine-Agee’s version in which a woman spoke about her problems. [7] However, McGee followed MC Hollywood’s example and spoke in time to the syncopated drum rhythm. [8] The rapped lines were longer than the sung ones, but still were rhymed couplets.
After the rapped appeal, McGee sang two more verses that described humans in need before changing his pace again. While the chorus continued its role of repeating "come by here," he sang more extended lines asking for a healing that would come from the Lord appearing for "a little while."
This was followed by an instrumental section in which the keyboard took over the melody. Previously, the piano had played broken chords at the ends of lines. The chorus was repeated one more time, with McGee singing "come by here" instead of the improvised appeals used earlier. It grew softer and faded away at the end.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Jay McGee
Vocal Group: men and women, not identified
Instrumental Accompaniment: keyboard
Rhythm Accompaniment: drums
Credits
(C) 2003 Beacon Records Inc. [9]
(P) 2003 J. McGee [10]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: strongly reflected the drum beat
Verses: come by here, own
Vocabulary
Pronoun: somebody
Term for Deity: Lord, Father (once)
Special Terms: need a healing
Basic Form: verse-chorus
Sung Verse Form
Verse Length: four lines
Verse Rhyme Pattern: AABB
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Line Meter: iambic (xX)
Line Length: ten syllables (pentameter)
Rapped Verse Form
Verse Length: eight lines
Verse Rhyme Pattern: rhymed couplets
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Line Meter: iambic
Line Length: 11 to 16 syllables
Chorus Verse Form:
Verse Length: four lines that repeated "come by here Lord" twice
Line Form: call-response
Line Repetition Pattern: calls sung by McGee were all unique, refrains all the same
Ending: none
Unique Features: variations in verse form
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-1-3
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: AABAAB1 where A was sung, B was partly rapped, and B1 was partly instrumental.
Solo Singing Style: some syllables were sung on more than one note as a way to extend syllables rather than as melismatic accents.
Solo-Group Dynamics: McGee began each line, and chorus joined. Chorus sang "come by here" over and over" while he varied how much of the line he sang.
Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: drums provided the beat and piano played flourishes at the ends of lines. During the instrumental break, the keyboard played the melody to the same rhythm.
Notes on Performers
McGee was born in 1950. His father was a singer, and he began singing in church when he was four-years-old. He settled in Flint in 1968, then moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1974. [11] He made his first records for a Belgium company, Scorpio Records, then did an album for a Canadian company, Quantum. [12] While he remained unknown in this country, one of his songs, "Another Love in Your Life," was nominated for the Best R&B Song for the Canadian Juno awards. [13]
He moved back to Flint in 2001 and, after he "received Christ Jesus as my Lord and Savior." began producing his own religious records. [14]
Availability
CD: No Walls. Cousin Marie’s Music. 2001. [15]
Reissue: No Walls. Beacon Records, Inc. 3 June 2003. [16]
YouTube: uploaded by CDBaby on 23 June 2015.
End Notes
1. For more on Leon’s version, see post for 30 March 2018.
2. Toby Walker. "Jay W. McGee." Soul Walking website.
3. "About Jay McGee." Facebook.
4. Wikipedia. "Fayetteville, North Carolina."
5. Walker.
6. Libra Boyd. "‘Stand Up!’ - Jay McGee." Gospel Music Fever website. 16 August 2013.
7. For more on version by Evelyn Turrentine-Agee, see post for 6 August 2017.
8. MC Hollywood’s contribution to rap was described in the post for 22 March 2018.
9. Amazon page for "No Walls."
10. YouTube notes.
11. Walker.
12. "Jay W. McGee." Discogs website.
13. "Jay McGee." LinkedIn.
14. LinkedIn.
15. "Jay McGee – No Walls." Discogs website.
16. Amazon and YouTube.
Friday, March 30, 2018
Leon - Come By Here Lord
Topic: Rap
Rap was a style of speaking within a structured format. Despite its associations with Gangsta Rap, the subject matter was varied, but generally restricted to experiences of the rapper and his or her audience.
Leon adapted the style to evangelism in 2006. He described a person ready to kill and one ready to smoke crack using short staccato phrases to advance his narratives. One described a fight
"He hit you so hard
Like he broke your jaw"
that led to the vanquished pulling a gun with
"Balls of sweat
Down your face drippin’"
In the second, a boy stole his mother’s wallet to buy crack from the dead man. In both cases, they were stopped by a voice that told them to put the gun/dope down. This was followed by:
"And fall to your knees
Crying out loud
Lord help me please"
At that point the recording changed from a single male voice chanting slowly against a drum to a group of men singing the "somebody’s praying" verse from "Come by Here" in harmony with the 1-5 melody. The drum continued through the chorus with an Xx beat. In the verse, it had only played a strong beat at the start of the second half of each phrase.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Leon
Vocal Group: men, not identified
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: drums
Credits
(C) 2006 Barrydrecords
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: strong Xx pattern so, for example, "everybody yelling" became "er by yellin’"
Verses: praying
Vocabulary
Pronoun: somebody
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: drug slang
Basic Form: verse-chorus.
Verse Repetition Pattern: chorus repeated twice
Ending: none
Unique Features: used traditional "Come by Here" as chorus
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-5
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: ABAB. Leon described the B chorus as "lyrical harmonic loops." [1]
Singing Style: A was chanted; B was sung in harmony
Notes on Performers
Barry Leon Dorsey was born in Miami, Florida, in 1970. He said he was singing with a toy mike when he was two, and "later played the drums in the church and sang in the church choir." In his twenties, he was performing professionally, although he did not specify with whom or what style music. His favorite groups, Run-DMC and Earth, Wind and Fire, suggested he preferred the disco and early rap of his adolescent years. [2]
Instead of providing biographical details, he recast his experiences into a tale of salvation. He wrote:
"I spent many years writing and performing music that was inappropriate. During this time of rebellion, I battled with good and evil over the type of music I wanted to play. One day my soul hit rock bottom and the devil lost the battle." [3]
Availability
CD: Role Model. 23 May 2006.
End Notes
1. CD Baby website for album.
2. Liner notes reprinted by CD Baby.
3. Liner notes.
Rap was a style of speaking within a structured format. Despite its associations with Gangsta Rap, the subject matter was varied, but generally restricted to experiences of the rapper and his or her audience.
Leon adapted the style to evangelism in 2006. He described a person ready to kill and one ready to smoke crack using short staccato phrases to advance his narratives. One described a fight
"He hit you so hard
Like he broke your jaw"
that led to the vanquished pulling a gun with
"Balls of sweat
Down your face drippin’"
In the second, a boy stole his mother’s wallet to buy crack from the dead man. In both cases, they were stopped by a voice that told them to put the gun/dope down. This was followed by:
"And fall to your knees
Crying out loud
Lord help me please"
At that point the recording changed from a single male voice chanting slowly against a drum to a group of men singing the "somebody’s praying" verse from "Come by Here" in harmony with the 1-5 melody. The drum continued through the chorus with an Xx beat. In the verse, it had only played a strong beat at the start of the second half of each phrase.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Leon
Vocal Group: men, not identified
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: drums
Credits
(C) 2006 Barrydrecords
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: strong Xx pattern so, for example, "everybody yelling" became "er by yellin’"
Verses: praying
Vocabulary
Pronoun: somebody
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: drug slang
Basic Form: verse-chorus.
Verse Repetition Pattern: chorus repeated twice
Ending: none
Unique Features: used traditional "Come by Here" as chorus
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-5
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: ABAB. Leon described the B chorus as "lyrical harmonic loops." [1]
Singing Style: A was chanted; B was sung in harmony
Notes on Performers
Barry Leon Dorsey was born in Miami, Florida, in 1970. He said he was singing with a toy mike when he was two, and "later played the drums in the church and sang in the church choir." In his twenties, he was performing professionally, although he did not specify with whom or what style music. His favorite groups, Run-DMC and Earth, Wind and Fire, suggested he preferred the disco and early rap of his adolescent years. [2]
Instead of providing biographical details, he recast his experiences into a tale of salvation. He wrote:
"I spent many years writing and performing music that was inappropriate. During this time of rebellion, I battled with good and evil over the type of music I wanted to play. One day my soul hit rock bottom and the devil lost the battle." [3]
Availability
CD: Role Model. 23 May 2006.
End Notes
1. CD Baby website for album.
2. Liner notes reprinted by CD Baby.
3. Liner notes.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
J-Bo - Kumbaya
Topic: Rap
Rap developed as a verbal form within African-American popular culture, and, after the success of Straight out of Compton in 1988, [1] within the music industry. [2] As previous posts have shown, [3] it evolved from individuals making random comments, to a verse-chorus format that introduced some thematic unity, to Grandmaster Flash’s "The Message," which imposed unity on the verses as well.
Ice-T added narrative techniques in "Cop Killer" in 1992. [4] Instead of describing his own experience, he put himself inside the head of someone like Rodney King, who was beaten by Los Angeles policemen in 1991. When people criticized him for his asocial views, he was able to say
"All I’m doing on this record is playing a character I invented who’s fed up with police abuse. He’s not the average person who just figured out after the Rodney King incident that police brutality exists. This particular character has seen it too long and he loses it and goes on a rampage." [5]
J-Bo took on the persona of a killer in his 2014 version of "Kumbaya." The first-person verses primarily were threats to a woman, interspersed with a chorus that began
"Kumbaya kumbaya
Chop a head on wise
Since somebody died
Kumbaya kumbaya
Now they’re wearing black"
and ended with repetitions of "kumbaya." The second iteration of the chorus added "oh my God, oh my God."
J-Bo clearly enunciated his words in the verses in a deep voice that was accompanied by a synthetic rhythm. A synthesizer was added on the chorus. There the male voice may have been electronically altered, since it was higher, faster, and harder to understand.
The two kumbaya’s were spoken in a monotone with each syllable given the same duration, but a slight emphasis on the last. The second repetition was lower than the first. Perhaps the slightly menacing delivery was the entire meaning of the reference.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: J-Bo
Vocal Group: other voices made occasional comments in the background.
Instrumental Accompaniment: synthesizer
Rhythm Accompaniment: electronic
Credits
None given
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: koom bi AH
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I
Term for Deity: God
Special Terms: street language
Basic Form: verse-chorus
Verse Repetition Pattern: three repetitions of chorus
Ending: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: ABABAB
Singing Style: chanted
Notes on Performers
Jeffrey Ray Grigsby grew up in Decatur, Georgia, in the years after the white town had turned Black with the expansion of Atlanta in the 1960s. [6] He and Sean Paul Joseph began performing together when they were in middle school. They began recording as the Youngbloodz in 1999, and had their greatest success with an album produced by Lil Jon [7] in 2003. By then they were known as J-Bo and Sean P. [8]
Sometime after their bus was stopped in 2006 for expired plates and everyone was arrested for possession of marijuana and concealed weapons, the two went their separate ways. The driver was later the one charged, [9] but they were the ones whose reputations were tarnished, not with fans, but with booking agents and record distributers.
Availability
MP3: Only the Strong Survive. 26 November 2014.
End Notes
1. N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton. Ruthless Records SL 57102. 1988. (Discogs’ entry for album)
2. Wikipedia. "N.W.A."
3. See posts for three previous entries posted 22 March 2018, 24 March 2018, and 26 March 2018.
4. Body Count. Body Count. Warner Brothers Records 9 26878-2. 30 March 1992. (Discogs’ entry for album)
5. Ice-T [Tracy Morrow]. Quoted by Chuck Philips. "‘Arnold Schwarzenegger blew away dozens of cops as the Terminator. But I don't hear anybody complaining’: A Q & A with Ice-T about rock, race and the ‘Cop Killer’ furor." Los Angeles Times website. 19 July 1992.
6. Wikipedia. "Decatur, Georgia."
7. For more on Lil Jon, see post for 22 March 2018.
8. Wikipedia. "YoungBloodZ."
9. Wikipedia, YoungBloodZ.
Rap developed as a verbal form within African-American popular culture, and, after the success of Straight out of Compton in 1988, [1] within the music industry. [2] As previous posts have shown, [3] it evolved from individuals making random comments, to a verse-chorus format that introduced some thematic unity, to Grandmaster Flash’s "The Message," which imposed unity on the verses as well.
Ice-T added narrative techniques in "Cop Killer" in 1992. [4] Instead of describing his own experience, he put himself inside the head of someone like Rodney King, who was beaten by Los Angeles policemen in 1991. When people criticized him for his asocial views, he was able to say
"All I’m doing on this record is playing a character I invented who’s fed up with police abuse. He’s not the average person who just figured out after the Rodney King incident that police brutality exists. This particular character has seen it too long and he loses it and goes on a rampage." [5]
J-Bo took on the persona of a killer in his 2014 version of "Kumbaya." The first-person verses primarily were threats to a woman, interspersed with a chorus that began
"Kumbaya kumbaya
Chop a head on wise
Since somebody died
Kumbaya kumbaya
Now they’re wearing black"
and ended with repetitions of "kumbaya." The second iteration of the chorus added "oh my God, oh my God."
J-Bo clearly enunciated his words in the verses in a deep voice that was accompanied by a synthetic rhythm. A synthesizer was added on the chorus. There the male voice may have been electronically altered, since it was higher, faster, and harder to understand.
The two kumbaya’s were spoken in a monotone with each syllable given the same duration, but a slight emphasis on the last. The second repetition was lower than the first. Perhaps the slightly menacing delivery was the entire meaning of the reference.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: J-Bo
Vocal Group: other voices made occasional comments in the background.
Instrumental Accompaniment: synthesizer
Rhythm Accompaniment: electronic
Credits
None given
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: koom bi AH
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I
Term for Deity: God
Special Terms: street language
Basic Form: verse-chorus
Verse Repetition Pattern: three repetitions of chorus
Ending: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: ABABAB
Singing Style: chanted
Notes on Performers
Jeffrey Ray Grigsby grew up in Decatur, Georgia, in the years after the white town had turned Black with the expansion of Atlanta in the 1960s. [6] He and Sean Paul Joseph began performing together when they were in middle school. They began recording as the Youngbloodz in 1999, and had their greatest success with an album produced by Lil Jon [7] in 2003. By then they were known as J-Bo and Sean P. [8]
Sometime after their bus was stopped in 2006 for expired plates and everyone was arrested for possession of marijuana and concealed weapons, the two went their separate ways. The driver was later the one charged, [9] but they were the ones whose reputations were tarnished, not with fans, but with booking agents and record distributers.
Availability
MP3: Only the Strong Survive. 26 November 2014.
End Notes
1. N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton. Ruthless Records SL 57102. 1988. (Discogs’ entry for album)
2. Wikipedia. "N.W.A."
3. See posts for three previous entries posted 22 March 2018, 24 March 2018, and 26 March 2018.
4. Body Count. Body Count. Warner Brothers Records 9 26878-2. 30 March 1992. (Discogs’ entry for album)
5. Ice-T [Tracy Morrow]. Quoted by Chuck Philips. "‘Arnold Schwarzenegger blew away dozens of cops as the Terminator. But I don't hear anybody complaining’: A Q & A with Ice-T about rock, race and the ‘Cop Killer’ furor." Los Angeles Times website. 19 July 1992.
6. Wikipedia. "Decatur, Georgia."
7. For more on Lil Jon, see post for 22 March 2018.
8. Wikipedia. "YoungBloodZ."
9. Wikipedia, YoungBloodZ.
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