Confession time: I think I have a musical fetish. The sight and sound of a black guy playing guitar just does something for me; a quickened pulse, my head nodding, and beads of sweat on my brow. It’s basically a sonic aphrodisiac.

I think I can explain this reaction. My true musical love is punk. There are other forms and style of music that excite me but most of the music that I truly and deeply love can be traced back to punk in someway, whether in sound or in attitude. I love aggressive and loud do-it-yourself guitars playing simple and distorted riffs. I hate wankery and long songs.

Which leads me to why The Knux [Myspace] excite me. They are two black guys who rap but also play all the instruments on their songs, including the guitar on the punk rap of “Bang Bang”. Why is this development exciting? Because black people tend to do things far better than white people. If The Knux continue in this direction of punk rap, they could do something I may just fall in love with.

Hear me out “after the jump”

It is not particularly correct to say that black people tend to do things better than white people but lets look at the evidence. In the realm of music, Hendrix was better than Clapton, the Bad Brains were superior to Minor Threat, and the only sources of innovation in popular music today seem to come from black artists; indie and rock are too backwards looking to innovate while hip-hop (and TV on the Radio) continues to, at least on it’s fringes, move forward. Don’t even get me started on jazz (Kenny G vs Charlie Parker?). It applies to non-musical worlds too. Tiger Woods will overtake Jack Nicholas just as Hank Aaron overtook Babe Ruth. Who else but Morgan Freeman to narrate anything? In this light Barack Obama should be regarded not an exciting possibility but as the inevitable, a black man entering into a world previously dominated by white men and, with respect to John McCain, doing it far better.

Which brings me back to The Knux. I wish I had more of their catalog to judge them on, to see if this is a fluke or a true development (their debut album doesn’t drop for another month). The Hype Machine turns up several other songs. First single “Cappuccino” is a Star Wars reference away from being a Cool Kids song. “Hard Day’s Night” sounds like something out of the West Coast circa 1994, in mostly a good way.

“Bang Bang” [mp3]
“Cappuccino” [mp3]

But “Bang Bang” is something else. It immediately calls to mind two sources: the first and most obvious is Outkast. “Bang Bang” is in the evolutionary heir to “B.O.B.” The second reference point I find in this song (and this is why I’m excited) is The Clash. One cannot help but be reminded of the glory days of punk when they hear the populist chants and riff that dominates the backing track. Punk and rap developed in close quarters, on the edges of society in New York City in the 1970’s. Their development ran parallel for almost a decade (see Boys, Beastie) but then diverged. What I see in The Knux is the continuation of a trend I’ve been noticing in recent years with the likes of artists such as the Gorillaz, M.I.A., and Santogold; the reconvergence of “punk” and hip hop. Santogold and Diplo’s Top Ranking mix tape is exhibit (Xzibit?) A in this case with its fusion of old school punk samples and Santogold’s urban pop.

Coming back to the topic at hand, “Bang Bang” is a rare creature. It is a major label released song that has major label production but that has not been polished to within an inch of its death. It sounds crisp and clean yet the guitar is raw and full of punch. It makes me want to fight the power, much like a White Riot or a Clash City Rockers does. This sort of simple raw guitar power is almost non-existent in today’s musical world so to find it in a hip hop song excites me. If straight white punk was good, I can only imagine how good the black hip-hop version could be. Or I hope could be. Let us pray that a punk rap does not become what rock-rap was. While I wait and see, I think I’ll just cue up Bang Bang for the 20th time this week and bliss out.

Last 5 posts by Tom Williams

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