Trying to Forget the Crushing Defeats since 2009

Somewhere in between nursing my hoarse, sore throat and cleaning last night’s sweat off of my tired body it hits me.

“Man, hip-hop is just…it’s just art.”

It’s about three weeks ago and I’m recovering from BU Central’s concert the night before, a three-hour DJ set by ?uestlove, the drummer from The Roots. But unlike wedding DJ’s (who just play KC and the Sunshine Band) or dance club DJ’s (which just play hits, or maybe just techno), ?uestlove started his set differently. “I’m going to teach you all about hip-hop tonight,” he said, before launching into a mind-blowing mix of samples, hits, and all-around great music.

It’s at some point during a concert like this that you begin to realize what all of your favorite hip-hop has in common–most of it is sample-driven. Songs like Jay-Z’s “What More Can I Say” or Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” have carefully layered beats, but much of the music is pulled from Motown. And for them it works: it repurposes good music for good purposes. Much like you can’t slow dance to hip-hop, you can’t booty pop to Motown. It’s a match well made.

But today’s hip-hop isn’t well matched anymore. Knowing that many of their artists are 15-minute fads and paying royalties to Michael Jackson or James Brown is too expensive, artists like Ke$ha and the New Boyz are turning to making their own beats.

The problem is, their beats suck. I don’t like the New Boyz because their genre of music sounds just a bit too much like the music I made on my Casio Keyboard back in ‘96. And Ke$ha? Um, let’s just not talk about it.

I’ve been a little worried about hip-hop lately: Beyoncé and Lady GaGa losing to Taylor Swift, Lil’ Wayne’s jail sentence, the “Death of AutoTune.” But an artist from my own past has come back, and she’s bringing the art with her. Say hello, again, to Amerie.

I should say first that Amerie’s newest album dropped last November, but I have a habit of finding stuff like this late. But it’s all okay, because I’m still an Amerie fan: her early-2000’s song “1 Thing” is still one of my favorites for it’s great, repurposed old-funk-song beat.

Wondering what all the fuss was about, I pressed play. And some magic happened.

The first thing that hits you about “In Love and War” are the drums, and it’s something that doesn’t go away for the rest of the album: funky, strong percussion that rocks the latin-funk “Tell Me You Love Me” through to the go-go soul of “Dangerous” and “Higher.” The drums (and the beats in general) are so good you’d think for a minute that this album was produced by Questlove himself.

But where “In Love and War” really hits its stride is right in the middle: Amerie’s three singles are tracks five, six and seven. The first, Why R U is emotional but layered over what I think is an Eric B beat–regardless, its old-school feel is different and showcases Amerie’s voice, which is…well, have a listen.

My favorite song on the album, though, is “Pretty Brown,” an old-school funk masterpiece that manages to ape the 1990s without feeling old. It’s songs like these on Amerie’s album that just ask for a second play, and then a third, fourth, and fifth. I’m convinced you could put “In Love and War” on repeat and not get sick of it…for a long time.

The rest of the album takes a down-tempo, introspective turn, but it’s track 10, “Red Eye,” and track 12, “Different People,” where Amerie finally makes her point. “Red Eye” is pulled almost straight from the pages of Ciara, with it’s slow tempo, quick beat, and synthesizers. “Different People” sounds like Jennifer Lopez.

But these two songs, stuck late on the album and out of sight of the Billboard charts, make complete sense. “Red Eye” is better than Ciara much as “Different People” manages to match the mighty J.Lo. And that’s exactly the point: in a crowd of people who sound the same and are losing their unique sounds, Amerie–whose album “In Love and War” sold a fraction of Ke$ha, J.Lo or Ciara, unique is back in.

And so are the drums.