Mystik Journeymen

Escape Forever

Hip-hop music is no longer what it used to be. That is hardly something to lament, though. Just a short while ago, it seemed like watching "Yo! MTV Raps" was the most tedious of activities available to American society. Like the Chinese water torture, eac h song would hit you with a steady consistency, one after the other, each one indistinguishable from the last. But then something changed. Along came the Fugees. Bone Thugs -N- Harmony. Coolio. Artists that realized there could be more to this genre of mu sic than just a monotonous string of rhymes and invectives. Artists who realized that hip-hop, like any other form of music, was just that: Music. Through a synthesis of modern beats and R&B and jazz roots, they have recreated the genre as a whole. So whe n the Mystik Journeymen announce they have returned to the States to launch "Operation Creation/Destruction - the sacred journey to recover what has been lost in hip-hop music," how can we really respond in any other way than to ask "why?"

Anything called Operation Creation/Destruction sounds a bit iffy, and since the Journeymen don't bother to do anything more than announce the "Operation", without actually explaining what it is, perhaps we should be watching our backs. Of course, the like ly answer is that this "sacred journey" is really just a way of establishing credibility for the group through the use of a really intense sounding catchphrase. What we really need to wonder is what "lost" aspect of hip-hop they're trying to recover. If i t's those roots I mentioned before, the ones that emphasize the musical history of the genre, they're a little late. If, on the other hand, what they mean by "lost" is all of that aggravatingly homogeneous material that fell from grace with the advent of the new wave of hip-hop music, then for God's sake, somebody stop these guys.

"Escape Forever" is the latest single they have released on their private label, Outhouse Records. Recorded last spring in Japan during a world tour, the single is a follow up to their album, "4001, The Stolen Legacy." There are four tracks and an intro, and during none of these did I get the impression that these brave souls had actually recovered anything. In fact, much rather than adding any kind of retro sensibilities to their sound, the tracks on here seem very much a product of the modern age. The y seem actually to be more influenced by the modern movement in trip-hop pioneered by such artists as Tricky and Massive Attack, and being that they spent so much time in Japan, probably DJ Krush. Most of the beats are extremely laid back and mellow, eve n bringing A Tribe Called Quest to mind at times. Which is all good, if not actually unique. The only really interesting thing on here is the collaboration with Rino, a Japanese rapper from the group Lampeye, who performs on the track "Revenge of the Gold fish" in his native language.

Mystik Journeymen have been offered a number of recording deals before, all of which they have turned down in favor of self-producing their work. Their tours and marketing are self-financed, as is evidenced by the title of the magazine they produce, UHB ( Unsigned and Hella Broke). This is, of course, a big issue in the music today, as it has been for the past few years, with the whole controversy involving big record labels as opposed to indie credibility not having died down after all this time. While it still isn't really clear what the right choice to make is in this matter, as we realize our notions of "selling out" are starting to collapse back in upon themselves and become absurd, it is clear that to do what the Mystik Journeymen are doing takes a l ot of dedication. Even if you don't particularly care for their music, it's hard not to have respect for an artist who is willing to put so much into what he does. And don't get the wrong idea, the Mystik Journeymen are not a bad act. It's just that the y're not really breaking any new ground. As far as hip-hop goes today, they're pretty much status-quo, although there are nuances here and there that occasionally bring them a little higher than that. If you would like to see for yourself, catch them at C lub Congress on November 12, where you can decide just how well the sacred journey is going.

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