Hip-hop and the myriad styles and sounds that it spawned have moved a long way from the soul and funk and jazz and pop that it sampled to find its formative sound, often not for the better, not creatively anyway. Thankfully, while some are content to make music from off-the-shelf, lowest-common-denominator beats and sounds, mumbling pointless rhetoric to impress the impressionable, others have found a way to reconnect with their roots and broaden the potential of the musical landscape they work in. And of those people, few do it better than Us3.
Snap, Crackle & Bop is either a hip-hop album that revels in all manner of roots sounds or a jazz-soul album that embraces a hip-hop groove and deft vocal flows; it just depends on how you look at things.
‘Cool Cat’ blows things open right from the start: soul and big-band vibes drive MC Akil Dasan’s dexterous word salvos, 70’s keys dance around, skittering beats run through organic rhythms, and we are quickly reminded of the sonic patchwork quilt hip-hop was born from.
‘Have A Great Day’ runs on sweet soul seductions, a familiar blend of organ and brass riding fresh grooves; ‘Catch the Vibe’ ebbs and flows between hip-hop vocal deliveries and funk-soul waves, the sassy and the serene; and ‘You Got Me Open’ throws some neo-reggae, island vibes into the mix. Nothing is off limits.
In the modern world, many would view jazz as something retro, old-school, something of the past; Us3 reminds us that the genre can still be every bit as edgy, exciting and dangerous as it was in that mid-twentieth-century golden age. Jazz With Attitude? Absolutely.
More than that, it’s the sound of an ever-evolving, ever-moving, forward-thinking genre reconnecting with its sonic tribe…and like all the best family gatherings, it’s a lot of fun and a memorable experience.
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