ABSTRACT MINDSTATE’S COMEBACK
Legendary Chi Hip Hop Duo Produced By Kanye West
Say what you will about Kanye West, but the man knows his music. Not only is he a wild savant in the studio, but he also recognizes a good act when he hears one. And here they come, Abstract Mindstate, the duo of E.P da Hellcat and Olskool Ice-Gre, a rare female/male (respectively) hip-hop duo. After a sixteen-year hiatus, the pair embarked on an adventurous and fresh new take of old-school styles with the album Dreams Still Inspire, produced by Kanye West for his new label YZY SND.
They teamed up at Jackson State University in the 90s, and Abstract Mindstate belonged to an underground community of hip-hop artists that included Common and West. The powerful lyrics reflected the covert consciousness of the time, especially against the mainstream that lacked sophisticated meter and rhyme and failed to address many of the social issues that underground performers highlighted. After gaining more traction, Kanye West produced their debut album, We Paid Let Us In! But, the album never found a large audience. However, Abstract Mindstate is the real deal when it comes to underground style: “she like a zebra / two things at one time / it ain’t black and white when / you lived it a lifetime” (A Wise Tale). They use metaphor and connotative meaning to create a complex set of ideas with a certain sense of duality to these lines, especially when it’s “two things at one time.” They express an individual’s complexity about any number of things like individuality, identity, and perception. The album’s production, delivery, and lyrics echo Gil Scott-Heron, taking us back to the days of spoken word performances; speech was an impetus to change.
We all know that Kanye West is as an eclectic producer as he is a performer. His work on Dreams Still Inspire spotlight his style. Once there may have been an 808 electronic drum kit providing the beat, here are samples of actual drum kits in many of the songs. There are often female vocalists providing melodic lines in place of, say, a keyboard or bassline. West chooses to use the loops grounded in real instruments playing actual songs, not just clips of riffs taken out of context and forced into the music. Don’t get me wrong; I love Kanye West’s digital manipulation masterpieces such as My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and especially Yeezus. Still, Abstract Mindstate isn’t a project like that, and Kanye West knows that in his infinite wisdom. For Dreams Still Inspire, Kanye goes back to the original way of production, utilizing crate digging for records and looping individual pieces of music. The assembly creates a layer where the vocals shine and individual parts are selected carefully to complement the rhyme. Dr. Dre pioneered this studio technique by looping Parliament and Funkadelic records and recording real instruments. For Dreams Still Inspire, Kanye West recognizes that the lyrics need that old-school flair, a more straightforward production that supports the words rather than the other way around.
Abstract Mindstate has been doing this for decades. You can hear the experience in their voices and witness the ground they have traveled through their words. Although years of hard work and perseverance have paid off, it’s the talent that lives on, and the words make the poet immortal. Dreams Still Inspire isn’t just a record. It’s a textbook that outlines what makes excellent hip-hop.
