By Lisa DiCarlucci and Ryan Sexton, Entertainment Editor and Assistant Entertainment Editor
This week the head of the National Endowment for the Arts announced that he wants to explore giving government funding to the hip-hop culture, including rap music. A lot of people are outraged, claiming that the hip-hop genre is overall offensive and vulgar and therefore, undeserving. These people have probably never heard of the C-4 movement.
C-4's new album, "Prepare 4 the C-sons" is proof that not all hip-hop music is about "slappin' a hoe" or living some kind of thug life. C-4's lyrics are refreshingly intelligent. These guys are not afraid to take a point of view on the world and challenge listeners to do the same.
"Prepare for the C-sons" takes advantage of the high energy and aggressive nature of the rap genre to make, an often politically minded, point. C-4'S rhymes are in a constant stream, compounding to drive more than just a beat into your head. It's like systrophe at work in music.
The album's production is sonically ambivalent. Some songs sound like pro tools gems, and others like lower-fi homage to their hip hop brethren from the early 90's: A Tribe Called Quest and KRS-One come to mind. But that doesn't mean it's all over the place musically. Given the inherent stylistic competition that occurs between band members vying for creative control, the album is surprisingly cohesive though in terms of writing quality.
High points include: The song "Searching" featuring Samantha Davies (or feating, as the group denotes) is a sublime major scale romp doused in feminine energy. C4's sound harkens back to the masculine protest of Public Enemy records minus the narcissism and ignorant "gun porn" aspect of their lyrical repertoire.
Still, C4 hasn't forgotten how to enjoy themselves, and the album contains lots of lyrics bristling with panache and potent insults. But as a whole, the album marks an evolution of that content from the primordial beginnings of their influences. Gone is the pervasive anger that characterized the older volume of work that influenced C4.
The song "Bonus- Down Chuck Up" directly eludes to Hofstra and Hempstead, mentioned the "hallowed halls" of the University, chronicling the intellectual development of the rappers. Their erudition might even eclipse that of the average HUHC student, and certainly the album could improve the vocabulary of the typical Hofstra WSC student. C4 is serious. "I invite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to surrender," proclaims the song "Yeeuw", which combines cognizant lyrics with a beat that sounds bred not out of the digital age, but an old AKAI sampler. In this age of binary domination and overmanufactured hip hop, this is a refreshing change.
The album gets a bit self indulgent at parts, though not to such a degree that it undermines the listenability of the album as a whole. Still, it's more than enjoyable throughout, maybe even good enough to last a six-pack of Schlitz and a few spins around the black circle on your dad's old record player.
From Left to Right (Stephen Cooney/ The Chronicle)