Soul Glo Stuff and I'm still alive
A look at Soul Glo's "Diaspora Problems" and it's many hip-hop references
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‘Rap References on Diaspora Problems’
Soul Glo’s latest album, “Diaspora Problems,” dropped a month ago to mostly raving critics (wtf Kerrang!), calling it a landmark album for its genre-bending sound, face-melting pace and truly radical lyricism. It’s always beautiful to see a DIY band break out, and Soul Glo has certainly done that. But as any good punk band should, they are spreading the attention to other artists and activists like the album cover’s spotlight on Audre Lorde (great article here on her btw from Danielle Chelosky). But equally notable, are the hip-hop references and influences dotting the album.
In an interview with Brooklyn Vegan, vocalist Pierce Jordan said, “There are a lot of rap references in the album, just about songs that really mean a lot to me and artists who really mean a lot to me. I hope one day somebody writes some kinda article that's like "Every Rap Reference on Diaspora Problems," I would like that very much, to see if everybody gets covered.”
I thought I’d try to do that for Pierce and this piece is a rickety attempt to pull together those references or at least lay the groundwork for someone else to do a better job. Let’s start with the references mentioned in that Brooklyn Vegan piece. On Soul Glo’s “Coming Correct is Cheaper,” a track about the exploitation of black people, Jordan notes Cannibal Ox frontman, Vast Aire and his track “Pigeon” directly.
“N*ggas are all industries favorite food / But some get stuck in tooth and stay there, partially chewed / I try to listen the way I wanna be listened to / So I don't end up like the pigeon Vast Aire said never flew.”
Vast Aire inspired Pierce with his powerful metaphors. In the song “Pigeon,” Vast Aire compares pigeons living off pizza crusts at the bottom of the food chain with poor and black people surviving poverty. It’s a dismal track that subverted typical hip-hop tropes of being a rich rapper with women and nice cars to instead show his experiences battling poverty (awesome excerpt from documentary Bazooka Tooth).
“You don’t want to hear my stories about eating mayonnaise and black pepper,” Vast Aire said, “You want to see a beautiful girl on the beach laying on a BMW. Let’s be real. You don’t want to hear ‘Pigeon.’ You don’t want to hear ‘Iron Galaxy.’ It’s sorrow. It’s pathetic.”
So in Soul Glo’s “Coming Correct is Cheaper,” Pierce is continuing the metaphor to include black artists in the music industry who are often exploited. But he also offers a solution to the pigeon’s dilemma: eat the rich.
On a similar note, Soul Glo references Jay-Z a few times to say Black people should exploit the system in return. According to Ian Cohen at Pitchfork, Pierce also evokes Jay-Z on the track “Driponomics” alluding to the famous “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” with lyrics on reselling shoes.
“Reselling, upselling, I’m telling you/Labor to get comfortable is only for the gullible.”
Creating art as a black person has its risks and rewards. One side there is fame, money and influence. There’s building community and helping those around you. But it can also lead to artists’ own demise. As Pitchfork’s Ian Cohen pointed out, Soul Glo reference Jadakiss’s lyric “You know dead rappers get better promotion” with Pierce’s musing Juice WRLD and Pop Smoke who were killed before they turned 21 and became “cottage industries.”
Soul Glo isn’t just highlighting the exploitation of black people. They are celebrating the contributions black artists have made despite commodification. Again looking at “Coming Correct is Cheaper,” they use a historic Lyon Collins sample used heavily in old school hip-hop specifically Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two.” Beyond that, there are references to Drake, Teejayx6 and many more modern artists.
While scanning the internet for insights, I stumbled into this Twitter account called “Hip-Hop By The Numbers” that claims the total number of rap references is 44 but doesn’t specifically list them. I could only find 14ish, so I’d love to see if anyone else noticed anything. You can comment on this post or send me your discoveries via my email orbitingpunk@gmail.com.
Here’s everything I found:
Orbiting Punk Playlist #5
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