For me, listening to socially committed hip-hop without a lyric sheet is a little like watching an episode of The Wire without subtitles. It's not that I don't get the main thread of what's going on, it's just that I fear I'm missing some of the key nuances and subtler strands of meaning.
Iswhat?!'s fourth album, Big Appetite. is a case in point.
The main voice of the four piece band ,which formed in 1996, is Napoleon 'Solo' Maddox . He is a - take your pick - beatboxer (vocal percussionist) / rapper / singer from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Napoleon describes this album as "a chronicle of over consumption, cautionary tales about lust, desire, greed and hunger" . He adds that each track touches on a different appetite to express mankind's insatiable hunger for wealth and emotional experience.
To stress the sins of greed and gluttony, the album cover shows three of the band members tucking into a meal which ,on closer examination, consists of dishes full of jewelry and cash.
In the past, Napoleon has collaborated with esteemed saxophonist Archie Shepp and features on Shepp's album Phat Jam in Milano. Veteran percussionist Hamid Drake played on that album too and is also to be found on Big Appetite alongside saxophonist Ricardo Izquierdo and bassist Brent Olds.
In addition, there are following guest vocalists: Fernanda Wilmes (Hungry) Boogie Bang (Cake + Boogie), iLL Poetic (Cafeteria) ,Piakhan (Boogie) and Nymeemah the Soulsayer (Trouble)
As if this wasn't enough voices for one album, the spoken words of the band's ex-sax player Jack Walker can also be heard on several tracks sounding remarkably like Gil Scott-Heron.
Walker is the man who apparently came up with the band's name. While searching for a way to encapsulate their mix of jazz , rap, hip-hop, rock and street poetry he said "It is what it is" and that concept stuck.
Of the twelve tracks, Cats, Homestead and Trouble are the ones I find myself returning to because each has an epic feel of trying to make sense of a world spiralling out of control.
Cats praises big cats because no matter how much you can try to control or cage them you can't contain their free spirit or their talent for "freaking out the circus in a way you can't explain". Homestead has lines about wrecked homes and the search for a place to belong and asks the pertinent question "is life the nightmare that it seems?" Trouble is a powerful groove, marching to a rhythm of impending disaster.
Whatitis? is not a formula but a form, fired by a strong social conscience yet refreshing free of macho posturing.Definitely worth consuming.
