It’s become more and more clear in the last few months, but with the release of Jay Z’sMagna Carta Holy Grail, it’s obvious: 2013 is a year of innovation for hip hop. That’s not to say hip hop is otherwise static, as it’s a genre that’s been morphing and sending out offshoots (shout outs to Chicago drill) in its three-decades-and-counting of existence. But this year is a landmark one. Chance the Rapper is possibly the first truly post-Kendrickrapper to achieve prominence, less concerned with stringing together multisyllabic rhymes than perfecting the art of sing-rapping.
Kanye West‘s Yeezus was essentially a sonic flip-off towards all of hip hopand Curren$y is teaming up with BitTorrent for a release, but the best example might be Hova’s triumphant return to music. Under the banner of “#NewRules,” the Brooklyn rapper teamed up with Samsung for the most unconventional major album rollout in recent memory, complete with preview videos, censored lyric sheets, and its very own app only to be critically panned for its perceived lack of innovation. It’s not so much that hip hop is being progressive, that’s always been a given. It’s that being progressive is cool again, Beast Coast revivalists be damned. And although The Bullitts’s debut album They Die By Dawn & Other Short Stories has been in the works for years now, it can’t have timed its release better.
It’s difficult to even pigeonhole the project under a single genre it draws as much from Sergio Leone as it does from Nas, and singer/songwriter/producer/director/Bullittsmastermind Jeymes Samuel shifts from pulsing dance (“Supercool”) to atmospheric and spacy hip hop (“Close Your Eyes”) to acoustic ballad (“Stay, Runaway”). He’s even recruited the likes of the painfully unproductive Jay Electronica and actressesRosario Dawson and Lucy Liu to aid him in his daring affair. In the lead-up to his album, Samuel’s promotion strategy might have even topped Jay Z’s. He’s put together viral videos, short films, and an entire fictional story revolving around a character called Amelia Sparks entirely released through Twitter. Oh, and he’s making an almost entirely black-casted Western with the same name as the album starring, among others,Idris Elba and Giancarlo Esposito. It’s casual.
Thankfully, Samuel’s experimentations between hip hop, opera, R&B, and dance generally serve as less of an identity crisis so much as an artistic triumph. He makes it work. Rarely does it seem as if he’s grasping blindly at concepts, or if his creativity has dug a hole too deep for itself. He’s blending and mixing and mashing, but it’s calculated. “World Inside Your Rainbow” is a seven-minute-long record that transitions from a slow-placed crooning ballad to a darting multi-horn interlude complete with reggae-esque behind-the-beat accents. “Murder Death Kill” has Samuel singing in his layered falsettos over a strumming acoustic guitar, dramatic piano chords, and a nimble bassline, right before Jay Electronica jumps in with a characteristically phenomenal verse. And as if all of Samuel’s sonic alchemy wasn’t enough, he’s also intercut pieces of dialogue from Lucy Liu into the album, as if spliced from a movie.
Yeezus has garnered huge amounts of critical acclaim for making music that doesn’t quite fit under the label of “hip hop” – Samuel’s brand of cinematic music doesn’t quite fit under any label. However, although Samuel’s experimentations might not sink his album, his lack of continuity is certainly leaking in water. The addendum to his album title, Other Short Stories, could not be more apt – they may not be actual stories, butThey Die By Dawn’s individually excellent songs dart between themes and genres so aggressively that the album is more of a compilation than a cohesive project. Virtually every song works on its own as a creative triumph, but Samuel seems so intent on breaking barriers that he’s sacrificing his album’s structure.
It’s rough, and the question is - was the addendum Samuel’s original vision or a titular Band-Aid to justify the album’s lack of solidity? Samuel’s intentions and artistic justifications aside, the result is messy. They Die By Dawn is strongest when its songs move together as a unit, such as the opening two numbers (“They Die By Dawn” and “Murder Death Kill”) or its middle (“Stay, Runaway”, “World Inside Your Rainbow”, and “Bouquet of Barbed Wire”). But it’s very easy to imagine Samuel and The Bullitts becoming major players in the hip-hop scene. We may never get Jay Electronica’s fabled Act II, but his collaborative EP with The Bullitts, Mos Eisley, may yet see the light of day. He’s got connections, for sure even beyond the talented ensemble assembled for They Die By Dawn, Samuel happens to be R&B singer Seal’s brother and helped put together the score to The Great Gatsby alongside no other than Jay Z himself. He also comes off as shockingly genuine for someone with so many famous friends (and on the brink of fame himself). Anyone can construct a persona and set up a façade, but the enthusiasm Samuel exudes in his studio session videos and interviews and the quirkiness running through his videos are genuinely compelling.
It’s not that hip hop doesn’t have its share of virtuosos (Kanye says hello/fuck you), it’s that it’s dangerously lacking in the “relatability” department. Samuel, though? What he’s actually like is irrelevant what’s important is that he seems like a great guy. And maybe that aesthetic is exactly what hip hop needs from an artist who’s clearly very talented at making both music and connections. It’s not without its faults, but They Die By Dawn & Other Short Stories is a fantastic first foray into music for Samuel, and certainly good tidings for the future of hip hop if Samuel chooses to head in that direction.