Abdominal and DJ Fase

Originally uploaded by georgeaye.
I’m a passionate fan of hip hop and all that comes with it. I understand that with the good comes the bad. For every Biggie, there’s a Chingy. And for every EPMD, there are the Ying Yang Twins. But for all the years that I’ve listened and head nodded to, I’ve always struggled to explain what hip hop is. KRS once said, ‘Rap is something you do, hip hop is something you live,’ which is great if your life is hip hop (like Kris’ clearly should be). But for a Burmese/English Chicagoan that likes to bump 9th Wonder on his iPod, I need it broken down in more practical terms.

Sometime last year, I came across an album by Abdominal and DJ Fase called “Flowtation Device” on PIAS (Play It Again Sam, UK.) The album’s songs are quite tongue in cheek, but a track called “Slow and deliberate” managed to explain what I love about hip hop music. And the message here folks, is to not take it too seriously.

“Class, you may have noticed in the chorus how I mentioned my name,
and did the same for DJ Fase and went on to explain
our respective roles within this little entity.
How he’s the DJ, whereas I’m the MC.

See now this is not unusual, in fact it’s common practice
for the content of the song to refer back to the action
of making the song, like reflecting on the process.
And I guess my dad put it best when he said,
“your hip-hop’s always about hip-hop”.

To which I reply, “actually Pop, that’s not entirely true.”
We also have some more conceptual songs,
but then again, you’re not entirely wrong.

See rappers like to rap about the act of rapping,
in particular, how good they are at rapping.
Which I’ll admit sounds potentiall monontonous,
however, put in practice, it’s often just the opposite.

Picture a jazz man playing a jazz standard,
the simple melody acts like a parameter.
We’ve all heard the tune like a million times,
so the art for the jazzer lies in trying to find
the new ways to creatively put his twist on it,
same way we rock mics on the same topic.
Namely the topic of rocking mics.”

Listen to the track here.