Great Sounds Great; Bad Sounds Bad: @Peace ‘Be Like’
Every week, a panel of writers for The Corner will focus on a bunch of recently released local singles and grade them. We call it Great Sounds Great; Bad Sounds Bad. Read through the panelists thoughts below and let us know what you think of the song in the comments section.
[Grade: 7.3]
Matthew McAuley: So, if @Peace were wanting to avoid too many comparisons to Tom Scott’s other group, opening their lead single with a chord progression so similar to Homebrew’s ‘Under the Shade’ probably wasn’t a great idea. It works pretty well as a companion piece anyway though, both Tom and Lui’s verses observing similarly universal issues – just on a slightly smaller scale. Substituting the former’s focus on climate change (and deniers thereof) for inequality and poverty; no less irreverent but slightly more serious, it’s a pretty heartening plea made only more moving by the sense of resignation throughout. There’s so much I want to write about this piece but just can’t articulate, so I’m just going to try and be succinct: this is what happens when you make music without ulterior motives. This is real shit, made by real people for real reasons. This is one of the most beautiful pieces of musical dissent I’ve heard in recent times, and it absolutely deserves your attention. [10]
Tim Gentles: While there is definitely something jarring about a locally produced hip-hop track that opens with a dedication to Karl Marx and David Lange, @Peace manage to wear it in a way that actually kind of works. The track at times skirts a little too close to being a conscious hip-hop parody, but there is something wide-eyed and endearing about lines such as the one about reading Marx “as a student, ironically when I was paying to the institution”. [7]
Maryann Savage: The message here is delivered in such a brazen and naive manner that it almost takes on the quality of outsider art — like The Shaggs or Shonen Knife. At times this sounds like a parody of the simple and endearing (“this is going out to my Grandmother and all the thinkers”). The music isn’t interesting, the scratching effects sound 90s, as does the acid-jazz backing track, but the song is guilelessly original and correct. [6]
Hussein Moses: The difference I find most fascinating between @Peace and Homebrew is that now Tom Scott has a rival working alongside him. It’s actually unifying – both Scott and Lui Tuiasau (from Nothing To Nobody, and who takes the first verse here) rely on the competition aspect of the project. They bounce off of each other, compliment each others subject choice and articulate their verses with each other in mind. There’s a lot of themes to tackle on ‘Be Like’: disbelief, compassion, apprehension, contention, frustration, fairness and confusion. Out of it we get the best line you’ll hear in any song anywhere this year: “heard people say that home’s where the heart is / does that mean the homeless are heartless?” Scott’s verse is more direct though – a personal account of growing up and how that translates to the subject matter (“I know about the state / I read it as a student / ironically while I was paying to the institution”). The song ends with a suggestion not an answer: imagine if we had a fair fuckin’ world. They don’t offer solutions but the conflict in the song (rich vs. poor in its most basic of terms) is adjacent to what’s going on technically between Scott and Tuiasau (a contention of sorts) – it’s part of the reason why it’s the best song on the album but it’s also the basis of why both emcees have become even more accomplished in such a short period of time. They’ve forced each other to up their game and their alliance carries the song entirely. [10]
Sam Valentine: Something about the name @Peace kinda irks me and the track is a bit monotonous for my taste, but something tells me I’m not really hip enough to have my opinion of this taken seriously anyway. Sounds like it would sweet be blaze to. [4]
Martyn Pepperell: At 3.20 on ‘Be Like’, Homebrew’s Tom Scott asks a simple question, “Imagine if we had a fair fucking world, you know? Not this fucking prison, if we were all equal…” It’s a thought that much like Tom, I often get lost in. And between this core sentiment , the perfectly toned lyrical lines delivered by Tom’s @Peace MC counterpoint Lui Tuiasau (from Nothing To Nobody), Tom’s intricately detailed life realisation narrative raps and the breakbeat drums meets Deep Forest beatscape it all goes down on, ‘Be Like’ is an instant classic. And sure, you could call elements of @Peace’s call for equality naive if you really wanted to. However, to break past the barriers of cynicism and really make a change, you have to have a touch of that dreamer blood. Vision is the art of seeing the invisible, and turning the invisible visible is key to creating a better world. [8]
Michael McClelland: I won’t be the first on the panel to point out the poignancy and skill of @Peace’s lyrical ability with this one. One instance is: “There were needy people needing more / Just because the greedy people keep it all” – But can you value the integrity of such a statement when one half of the project formerly tipped his hat to similar exploitation? I’m talking about Homebrew’s ‘Benefit’, which is less a mirror to the anti-establishment outcry of this tune and more a heavy contrast to its wisdom. Though a light-hearted jab (one that I love, at that) at oneself and everything, ‘Benefit’ glosses over these same victims whilst it celebrates the selfish lifestyle ‘Be Like’ decries. Both, at least, resign to the fact that one way or the other, this is human nature. And I’d leave it at that – ‘Benefit’ is one song and ‘Be Like’ is another – but when personal connection is thrown into the mix, it challenges this bigger picture statement, and you can’t ignore what is a high ground of origins (“…And her Aunty was a part of the resistance / So I know a little about activism…”) and positional integrity, now intended with all graveness. A very possible U-Turn is completing its move, and drivers will know you’re not allowed to do that shit on K Road.
What else is left of a meaningful song when its meaning is compromised? I can say with all thankfulness that this one is listenable, and I won’t turn it off once the Christmas charity single hits number one. There are some lyrical moments of wise contemplation and reassuring ability: as with the examples above and as ever, it flows alright and it rhymes better. Some parts are lazy, like a fallback that could have been done better: “I gotta try and try and make up my mind / Get this bullshit out of my life / So I think I might get up and try / Either that or lay down and die”. And elsewhere, what I’d call relatively uninventive (though evocative) backing music brushes no new boundaries. All up, I don’t feel its message (sincere or not) has much to rest on. I totally feel the point they’re trying to grab, but other less obvious issues remain untouched. So I can’t award it any seal of self-relation, either. Whether or not you agree with me on the issue of moral consistency, I see this song as as flawed as the flaws it laments. [4]
Stevie Kaye: “Yeah, we dedicate this track to Mr Karl Marx & Mr. David Lange …” – considering the sly pedigree of @Peace, it’s hard to hear the track’s intro as anything other than briar patch baiting, which in turn makes you suspect the motivations of the deliberately jarring communISM rhyme. It’s in the nature of the head-nodding arcadian bliss-out production to be evocative – I get flashes of the Ewan MacColl chapters in Rob Young’s Electric Eden as well as the sense of disjunction with pre-Rogernomics local history – and the last last minute or so of the song is gorgeous (balearic trumpet!); lyrically, don’t let marquee lines like “Heard people say home’s where the heart is / does that mean the homeless are heartless?” overshadow asides like “concrete sleeps yeah / gee that’s some hard shit.” A success, though I’m not too sure how much of this I could handle at once – not that the Homebrew axis need to make a club banger, but as a wise man once said, “People don’t have a problem with conscious rap; they have a problem with conscious beats. If you make some ignorant beats, you can say all the smart shit you want.” [7]
Dan Taipua: Look, nobody wants to suffer through an embarrassing comments section debate about class, so let’s just leave it out. ‘Be Like’ stands up on its technical merits alone. Not everyone’s going to have the type of knowledge or experience to be able to recognise this, and that’s fine – you can’t be an expert on every type of music out there.
Here’s a breakdown of the song’s structure – spoken word intro / verse / hook / double verse / bridge / hook / spoken word interlude / beat interlude / scratch outro – this is the most innovative approach to songwriting we’ve seen since the beginning of GSG, regardless of genre.
The production breaks from a traditional sample/loop composition with live instrumentation for the keys, horns, and bass (the latter played by Tom’s dad). If you’re not listening closely you’ll miss the drum variations, notably in the opening lines of Tom’s verse where the pattern is trunctated to match Tom’s spoken-effusive flow and in the beat drop leading to the scratch outro. Repetition/suspense/variation, what up jazz.
Tom and Lui’s vocal delivery is flawless. Lui has a soft timbre that sits close to Common, it’s the perfect match for his song-effusive delivery (final syllable extends over last snare in every bar, attack on following downbeat). It’s unique, well-executed and sustainable. Tom adopts a more standard measure; it’s a conscious choice designed to match the directness of his message rather than a default setting – this is a guy who can go double time at 108 if he wants to.
All of these elements work together to drive a strong central narrative. Listen to the layered vocals on Lui’s verse when he’s making broader, social observations – his voice literally becomes the voice of many. Notice how the technique isn’t applied to Tom’s personal, autobiographical observations. Even the DJ has his own voice, coming in with the metatextual references from Wu-Tang’s ‘C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)’.
‘Be Like’ is a great song – as clever as it is affecting.
I’m really sorry for going so long, but I wanted to detail the reasons I had for giving this a perfect score. [10]
Whoops, early draft errors still in mine. Leave them up for posterity.
You sound completely sycophantic Dan, it’s kind of embarrassing.
Yes, Don. I’m seeking their favor by measuring cadence and tabulating the song’s structure. Also by describing drum patterns.
Get a thesaurus and/or clue. Whichever is closer to the computer desk.
Love the song, love the reviews. Good job.
Oh sweet, Breaks Co-Op for cool people.
@martyn peps, i kinda feel like the naivete is deliberate. discuss.
Straight outta mid-nineties + dreadful accents, y’aaaallllll. Being earnest in a totally played out form shifts it to unconscious parody… if you’re not self-aware at this very basic level yourself, how can you peddle this to listeners on the consciousness-raising tip?
Well said!
INSTANT CLASSIC is a completely redundant term. NO MUSIC EVER is an instant classic. It takes TIME for music to be recognised as classic. Stop using it, lazy music nerdz. Bah humbug.
Taipua, you’re a joke bro…re read your review man, big time brown nose stylez.
Yeah it’s a bit of a rushed one, gonna leave it how it is though.
You jumped the shark with that review Dan. Your lowest ebb.
Must be pretty bad if none of the negative response acknowledges any of the points raised.
So far no-one’s even explained what constitutes a ’90′s sound’ – presumably because they either a) don’t actually know b) assume everyone will share the exact frame of reference c) are straw-grasping for short missives.
I can confirm with scientific certainty that no rap single from 1989-1999 has the verse structure that ‘Be Like’ does. I’d invite anyone to refute this point with a precise example (it won’t happen).
There’s a lot of ‘This sounds like rap from when I was in 1st year uni’ going around – which probably says more about the limits of commenters knowledge that it does about the song itself.
Well what I’ve heard from the album is pretty awesome, I’m digesting it slowly like a radiohead album, I think it’s great.
but I guess I’m aware that this is golden age era conscious hip hop and recalls post-bizarre ride phar cyde, beats rhymes and life, souls of mischief – acts, albums and tracks that are massive in grey lynn. But there’s no cringe, whether it was made in grey lynn, it deserves to be loved by grey lynn. I love it.
If it was some shitty 90′s hip hop knock off I’m sure we could tell the difference, and I can’t.
Rapping about Marx is a bit cheesy but that’s just my personal opinion. The only thing I don’t like about the album so far is too much “paua and jandals” etc it’s a very fine line!
Thank you panel, especially Dan Taipua, for the enlightening reviews. I think you’ve pretty much captured what makes this song brilliant.
The only gripe I have is that the name @Peace is impossible to google or search on Facebook (searching ignores the @ symbol), so I can’t find out anything about them. Anyone have a link to a Facebook page?
Tom Scott reminds me quite a bit of another great conscious local rapper, Bjorn from Opensouls. Anyone know what he’s up to these days?
remove sam valentines shit house ‘review’ from the panel, its so stupid
Be Like harks back to distant times, when Guru released Jazzmatazz to an unsuspecting coffee house audience, blowing their minds as much as that second latte and Digable Planets stood proudly along side Arrested Development at the forefront of conscious expanding Hip Hop. This movement reached its zenith with the released of Mr Wendal, Arrested Development’s number one smash and the artistic coup de grace of collegiate rap music. Unfortunately, Be Like lacks the nuances and quirky melodic individuality of that track and instead, relies on a flaccid beat that seemingly wants to imitate the Roots You Got Me but lacks that songs emotional resonance. Lyrical flow is okay, in the way that a lot of decent Hip Hop values rhythmic cohesion over actually saying something original. Which leads us to Be Like‘s fatal flaw – what does it want to say? What does it actually say? What do they mean when they give a shout out to “the communists”? I doubt even @Peace even know. Which, unless your a crack addled Hip Hop holy man like ODB or have the ability to give wink at the audience like Snoop, is an unforgivable sin especially on the hallowed ground that @Peace try and walk. While as risible as Black Eyed Peas Where Is The Love? in that regard, @Peace still have a long way to go before they convince me that they’re anything more than a mid nineties tribute band and unlike the panel, obviously battling with some kind of white, liberal guilt, I’ll do these guys a favour and be brutally honest.
2/10
-mr wendal
-white liberal guilt
-quirky
-tom from at peace is white
-white liberal guilt
-arrested development
-mr wendal by arrested development
-flaccid beat
The term “white, liberal guilt’ refers to the exemption paid by the panel to certain lyrical atrocities by Hip Hop artists. It all reeks of granting intellectual leniency because the poor “noble savage” can’t do any better. Can you imagine if a rock band came out with some of these lyrical clunkers and tried to sell them as a preachy number? They’d get vilified. It’s an insidious form of subtle racism and I’m not having it.
Wait, you think TOM SCOTT is a black guy and HUSSEIN MOSES is a white guy?
You fucking idiot.
Panel criticises Adeaze. Panel doesn’t get brown people music.
Panel praises @Peace. White liberal guilt.
Hussein Moses and Dan Taipua have too much white liberal guilt.
“Mr Wendal, Arrested Development’s number one smash” (-_-)
“The song reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, which is one of their highest positions and, a month earlier, reached #4 in the UK Singles Chart”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Wendal
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_singles_in_1992_(New_Zealand)
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It’s not a literal term. I think everyone knows that. It refers to a hit record. If you want to cherry pick, be my guest. Much more interesting though if you argued on point.
What Grant said. Bring back Dam Native…
Uhh, Dam Native are already back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=greeLqeX5Nw
Where have you been?
Do you mean 90′s Dam Native – produced by Zane Lowe of Breaks Co-Op?
Yup. Hor(r)ified.
You sound like (are) an old loser.
What are you guys on? Lyrics are average- not terrible but certainly not amazing by any standard. Music/beat is boring and production is horrible.
You guys must be mates with this crew? In which case- fair enough i guess.
Urrrgggh these fake accents are horrible.
THNX A BUNCH CRACKHOUSE 5!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/21/Carnac.jpg
I predict you are a member of Crackhouse 5, because literally no one else cares about them.
Uhm, I think he’s making a joke, bro. Weren’t you on the panel when someone said this is reference to $noregazZzm? You accused us of being trust fund kids or something?
Who’s us? are you in that band?
i care
Good on Louis for taking it upon himself to police the comments section on this one. Good job bro! (And what a fucking redundant conversation)
Oh snap, I was right!
Earl must be the little one, because the big one came in to protect him. Shot for policing your WGTN all-white rap band, you’re the man (you’re a joke).
The little one’s name is Brian silly. But that’s ok, you ‘don’t care’ x
this is so retarded
Michael, this is ever so slightly worse than what usually happens in the comments section of this website.
Quick question. Is it fair to end this hilarious, none the less ridiculous little debate by roll calling a list of international artists who are @Peace fans and who’s musical knowledge and taste will always be far superior to you all? As much as we love and appreciate how much energy you guys are all exerting, its so simple don’t like it don’t listen. No need to have your period over it, its just music. @Peace
I’d be keen to read such a list out of interest.
Do you guys have a Facebook page? The band name is unsearchable.
@Peace – I think your whole album is really amazing but that comment really put a dampener on the opening track for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRRpLjEaqxs
^^ meh fuck that. sounds like 90′s conscious rap. no 1 should ever do that style ever again. cause i say so. not even for 2 songs on a 9 track album. hiphop albums shouldn’t have movements.
you can clearly hear Tommy Ill and Bucks influence especially on the first verse, Auckland rap feeds off Welly styles, duuh louis geez
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Lui’s from Wellington.
<3
i think he was kidding einstein
I wish internationalz cared about me… :(
Bwahahaha.. right.
And back to reality.
Love @Peace. With empty cups. That is all.
white rap pride