They all pick up on the Last Poets/Gil Scott Heron vibe (these are the
first artists to fuse Jazz with Rap).
I beg to differ here just a lil' bit. I'm a bit biased, being a spoken
word artist, and feel that the Last Poets and Gil Scott Heron are in a
slightly different genre. There is a difference between spoken word and
rap. Spoken word (IMO) generally tends to be 'translatable' on paper
without the music. It tends to be lyrically stronger than basic rap. So a
spoken word track could easily be written as a book of poetry. And
rhyming is not 'mandatory'--as it is with most rap songs. This is not to
imply that there aren't good solid wrap rap lyrics that wouldn't qualify
as solid poetry (without musical enhancement). I think Guru's
'Jazzmatazz' fits the AJ category well. As to the Last Poets and Gil
Scott Heron being the 'firsts'....I dunno know about that. What about the
Beat poets of the 50s and 60s......they were speaking over Coltrane,
Davis, Monk and others.......AJ has been around a long time.....just that
no one was calling it that then....
The Puffy stuff.......
IMNSHO (in my not so humble opinion) the Puffy stuff is musical
prostitution. Period.
Well, that's my $1.50......keep the change luv.