Heiruspecs: A Tiger Dancing

In the 1970s, as post-industrialization drained inner cities of factory jobs and left behind a trail of gutted machinery and rotting neighborhoods, inner city youths seized upon the remains of middle-class conspicuous consumption in the form of hi-fi stereos and vinyl records and created a genre that has come to be called hip hop. For young and primarily black males, hip-hop became the means of making sense of the crumbling world around them and gave direction to both their energy and their frustrating lack of opportunity, turning scratching, graffiti, and sagging denim, symbols of urban decay, into marks of pride. As hip-hop has slowly been absorbed by the suburbs, however, it has begun to take on new meaning, losing its authentically urban character and gaining a foothold in the SUVs and stilettos of the McMansion elite. Today’s youth may have been freed from the urban jungle, but instead they are languishing in a sterilized prison of sprawling suburbs and super-max schools, suffocated by consumption and throttled by the perpetual onslaught of ubiquitous mass-produced pop. While the clammy hands of technology are losing their grip on today’s hip-hop fans, rap itself remains as relevant and soulful as ever, with a little known group out of St. Paul, Minnesota at the frontlines. A seasoned and racially diverse group that formed in high school around the idea of combining old-school honesty with a music-centered organic humanism, they continue to consistently push the boundaries of hip-hop’s cutting edge.

Heiruspecs’ sophomore album, A Tiger Dancing, is a well-rounded record that shows their maturation from an underground rap collective to a matured group who have found their voice in a crowded and commercial genre. The album opens and closes with dance hall send-ups that feature a classic old-school spitting style heavy on swagger and long on shout-outs to local scenesters. The group unselfconsciously display their roots and influences as MC Felix and Muad’Dib lay down a solid rhyming rhythm over the heavy and spacious beats, occasionally even biting from hip-hop pioneers like NWA. The group references and reverences the days when rapping was about more than bling, but about spinning records in local dance halls, about building pride and hope, and ultimately establishing meaningful identity when none was available. This identity politics comes out on “Two Fold”, where the subtle refrain threatens, “I’ll take that corny style of which you made a mockery”.

Having tested their mettle in rap’s tradition, they roll up their sleeves and fearlessly embrace the subjectivity of metaphor, weaving increasingly complex and layered tapestries of rhymes. Words once girded by a steady penetrating beat begin to fold in on themselves, morphing from the familiar to the metaphysical, personal to political, macho to fragile. “5ves” stands out as perhaps the most organic and therefore one of the most compelling tracks, as Muad’Dib showcases his remarkable beat box skills that meld seamlessly into the folds of the bass line and drum beat, taking the original concept of scratching as a cooptation of technology and dropping it on its head by coopting it a second time through the human voice. More than mere showboating, the group lay down a melody as graceful as DJ Shadow and as grounded as John Coltrane. The following title track, “A Tiger Dancing”, proves that contemporary hip hop can sound as raucous as Outkast without giving too much ground over to hi-fi pop music and letting go of rap’s roots in dissonant poetics and bare beats. The album continues to build upon itself, growing in complexity and refinement as on “32 Months” where the refrain and verse collide and on the ambitious “I’m Behind You”, a socially conscious rap that manages to connect “escapists” and “do-gooders” in the same breath. Their lyrics become increasingly more subtle, revealing deeper and deeper levels of meaning with each listen. The album culminates with the ultra-funky “It Takes” and the chill trip-hop-inspired “Lie to Me”.

Before anyone points out the unambiguously emotional content of the romantic rap-ballad “Heartsprings” or the folksy narrative of “Marching Orders”, I would just like to wage a morally justified pre-emptive strike against the allegation that this is just another emo-rap album out of Atmosphere country. While it is true that Heiruspecs rap about women and feelings, they also rap about politics, parties, and playas, which is not to say that emo is merely about an economy of subject matter, but rather whether or not rappers fall into an emotional schtick. These MCs don’t rely on the novelty or nostalgia of girls and heartache, but embrace a lyrical style that refuses to hide behind established forms, be they subject matter or musical structure. The result is what could be one of the most innovative albums of the year, one that rises to the heights of creative expression without ever losing sight of its roots in hip-hop culture and the local scene. If Heiruspecs are the future of rap, it may look more diverse, more emotionally conflicted, and more intelligent than ever, but then again, so do we.