EVERY GENRE PROJECT - June 3 - Hip-Hop Soul
Genre of the Day - Hip-Hop Soul
Album of the Day - Groove Theory by Groove Theory (1995)
June 3, 2024
Alchemy isn’t just a Logic Pro plug-in. All music is alchemy, history-spanning fusions of a particular notion of what rhythms, melodies, sung words, and sonic emphases feel good to the ears. Though most music’s creation is more intuitive than rationally calculated (though some of our genres disprove this: I’m looking at you, post-minimalism), Groove Theory is an apt name to describe what’s happening in the genre I examine today. In the ‘90s, some serious alchemy was occurring in the R&B sphere as the dance-heavy, industrial sound of new jack swing began to fade away, but hip-hop drums and attitudes remained thoroughly entrenched.
As the twenty-year rule of trend cycles came to pass, producers and singers in the mid-90s grew increasingly interested in mid-70s subdued, organic soul. They found that they could imitate those grooves for the hip-hop era, clasping the biting poetry and drums of hip-hop to the vivid yet soft stylings of the likes of Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, and Al Green. It was a balance that could work perfectly as hip-hop became more politically pointed and soul moved away from the pop tinges of new jack swing and smoothed-out quiet storm towards a minimalism and confessionalism that more fittingly matched the mid-90s’ neutral hues and search for an elusive authenticity.
It’s a fusion that makes equal sense as for the reasons outlined above given the fact that most of the hip-hop producers that sharpened their craft came into consciousness at the height of those mid-70s artists, their sounds shading their deepest musical memories. Our flagship artist extends a pertinent anecdote: Bryce Wilson, the production brawn of Groove Theory, honed in on his techniques by reconstructing the sounds of Donny Hathaway and the foremost new jack swing producer Teddy Riley at home. He readily came across alignments that gave way to a fused groove, given how influential each sound was in key formative life phases.
Hip-hop soul is also an intriguing inverse: given the prevalence of sampled soul records in hip-hop productions in the ‘90s, hip-hop soul changes the paradigm by injecting booming beats with new soul creativity rather than relying on hits of the past. And while hip-hop soul as a true genre-classifiable scene and timeframe with identifiable figureheads like Mary J. Blige, Groove Theory, and Jodeci only lasted a few years, its influence reverberates as new hip-hop styles emerge and soul-focused creatives interpret them: think of how once trap became firmly established, trap soul artists (led by Bryson Tiller, who popularized the name) flourished in the late 2010s.
Groove Theory doesn’t just exemplify the thesis of hip-hop soul fusion as much as excel in it as on their eponymous 1995 album. The melodic brains to Bryce Wilson’s production efforts, songwriter and vocalist Amel Larrieux has the perfect vocal interpretation to match. Her soaring, soft harmonies recall Minnie Riperton, but she looks to emcees in order to properly suspend her voice over the hip-hop drums. In balancing the two, she achieves a searingly crisp flow while maintaining her vocal tenderness. Opener “10 Minute High” gently excavates a teenage girl’s tragic succumbing to drugs over subtle boom-bap and watery synths, an off-the-bat entry into the ‘90s canon of plainspoken social awareness songs that softly recalled the political proclamations of ‘70s soul. An approach that draws combined decades of soul and hip-hop history has a lot to draw from, though, and they dig into a variety of grooves from the psych-funk of “Hey U” and scattered dub piano perhaps nodding towards London’s lovers rock on “Come Home.” Though thickened for the hip-hop and globally-eyed ‘90s with blisteringly snappy kicks and sitar, “Baby Luv” is a beautiful ode to Larrieux’s daughter and the life-affirming joy beloved soul records provided many Black families through the decades, a chance to connect across regional or personal boundaries. It’s a brilliant union of two eras that mirror each other a surprisingly greater amount than I would’ve considered.