September 24, 2004
Straight Outta Strong Island! From Northern State to All City! You Gots to Hear About It!
Hip hop, you've come a long way, baby! The long-player debut from New York City mic trio Northern State is a fresh and unexpectedly captivating entry in the hip-hop game. "All City" will remind those old enough of the Beastie Boys' arrival during the early mainstream commercial years of hip hop that followed the success of Run DMC back in the mid 1980's.
That there are three Beastie Boys and three gals in Northern State, and that they're white, makes drawing superficial comparisons all the more obvious and mostly unfair. In important ways, the two groups are world's apart--not only are they seperated by a generation, Northern State are from the leafy, faraway suburbs whereas the Beasties came from downtown New York City at a time when much of it was a rough and scary place.
But a closer listen to Northern State reveals a few similarities (at most) in lyrical flow and delivery such that these few turns on the mic could arguably read as homage to Adrock, MCA and Mike D. But you could find equal similarities to Mos Def or Beans if you listen carefully enough. The truth is, as with most artists, the music made is directly or indirectly a tribute to everything the artists have ever heard and loved--and Northern State came of age loving hip hop in a big way.
Northern State is Hesta Prynn, Spero and Sprout--three college-educated mid-twenties suburban spawn from Long Island who've most definitely got the skillz to pay the bills. Yet, at first look, they seem the least likely candidates to drop a hip hop record that gracefully rises above novelty or worse, white-girl rap cheesiness. But rise above they do. The beats be real, the lyrics tight and smart. The attitude never comes close to spiraling downward into ridiculously pretentious posturing. Northern State isn't taking itself too seriously, but they're having serious fun.
Which is good because there's quite a bit of humor on "All City." First of all, there's the ironic (or is it?) retro-rap-ghetto vocabularly appropriated only as it could be by years of exposure to MTV and BET's hip-hop music video programming. I mean, when a 25-year old college graduate pumps out gots to, haters, and half-steppin', most anyone who gives a damn would think that it had better be ironic or the whole game's a fraud.
But not so fast. It's been 15 years since EPMD and the seminal "Strictly Business," wherein we were reminded "You gots to chill!" That's more than a enough time for the lingo of the Black ghetto to get disseminated and take root thoughout middle America's mostly white bedroom communities and firmly and shamelessly migrate into the ever-evolving argot of mainstream youth culture.
At any rate, "All City" falls into place and holds it together. The beats will stay in your head long after the lyrics have gone in one ear and out the other. But damn if you don't remember a few of those, too. Go Northern State, Go!
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Posted by at September 24, 2004 11:25 PM
