Friday, September 28, 2012

Kids these days....

Kids These Days. Loud, bashful, opinionated, rebels without causes, talented, out of control. I don't mean the general population of people under 21. I'm talking about the band hailing from Chicago.

"Fresh" and "Original" don't completely explain this band, nor how they came to be. The Roots are the only true predecessor to these youngsters from Chicago. Live instrumentation backing Hip-Hop is a difficult art, difficult mainly due to the fact that it is impossible to put a label on. The band members tried though. Kids These Days created their own genre of music, one they affectionately call "Traphouse Rock", fusing Jazz, Hip-Hop, Rock & Roll, and soul.

Half the band met at Whitney Young high school in Chicago, and after jamming together for a while, met up with other musicians, some training classically at the Merit School of Music. The band consists of rapper Vic Mensa, lead singer and guitarist Liam Cunningham, and six instrumentalists including one singer, one trumpeter, a saxophonist, keyboard player, bass guitarist, percussionist, and a trombonist.

Vic Mensa rhymes slick and confident for his 19 year old frame, with the wisdom of someone who's been through everything twice, and it's believable. He continues to rhyme with the free and creative youthfulness of a young graffiti artist, but is no doubt a serious, socially conscious, MC, often rhyming about murders and crime that occur in his birthplace.

Listeners are quick to compare KTD to live-Hip-Hop-veterans the Roots, but this is not a fair comparison. In an overall sense, the correlation between the two is impossible to ignore: rich instrumentation backing a severely underrated rapper, bands that can deliver party songs, ballads, and social criticisms all at once. The difference between the two lies in the bands. There is no doubt the Roots are innovators in their craft, especially with their last album, "Undun", which was a true concept album about a young boy growing up in the ghetto of Philadelphia. KTD are a new brand though. While the Roots are hyper focused on finding a groove, KTD likes to experiment and improvise, and the instrumentation bears little resemblance to conventional Hip-Hop. The Roots find a loop to stick with, develop a chorus, and let rapper Black Thought rhyme for three verses. Despite the fact The Roots do not use a computer to make their beats, they are still very Hip-Hop, in some cases defining the genre.

KTD is redefining the genre. The music has no discernible loop, staying true to the concept of Jazz. The band continually switches up their sound throughout a song, sometimes without a clear chorus, other times welcoming a trumpet or guitar solo. Kids These Days are a truly singular entity, and their overwhelming ability aside, should be able to get noticed because of their individuality. They're just too loud to ignore.

Check out their new "Don't Harsh my Mellow" music video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_60ihLGHylc

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