Black Eyed Peas
Bridging The Gap
Interscope
The bohemian framework of the Native Tongue collective in the late ’80s and early ’90s – exemplified by progressive hip-hop groups like De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and the Jungle Brothers – has done a metaphorical U-turn in the heads of most “headz” in the last decade. A 1988 hip-hop purist’s “hippie shit” is now a 2000 hip-hop purist’s “indispensable classic.”
Ergo, when Black Eyed Peas drop a record called Bridging The Gap, they are not merely genre-fucking to unite rock and rap fans (a heady venture attempted by almost all of today’s rap’s obstinate iconoclasts), but rather the Peas bridge the gap between the hip-hop intellectual – the one mourning Tribe’s dissolution, the one (wrongly) apathetic to the new De La Soul release, and the one anticipating the return of the Fugees – and the hip-hop world itself. While Black Eyed Peas do flirt with a stunning number of disparate genres (apparently justified by the title track’s hyperbolic claim, “this is for everything that exists”), the result is an shockingly eclectic rap album, which is also one of the most articulate dance records of any genre.
While other rap eclectics – especially the “ecleftic” Wyclef Jean – wallow in the past for their critically revered idiosyncrasies (i.e., covering Pink Floyd, covering Caribbean folk songs, getting Kenny Rogers to play on his record), the Black Eyed Peas take the role of hip-hop Nostradamuses, using live instrumentation to create the sound of the future: a sonic wonderland replete with the buzzes of electronica, the formidability of power-funk, and the soulfulness of post-Kravitz urban-rock. This warm jumble of guitars, keys, and strings is so unrestrained and lively that it makes the organic-hop of the Roots seem downright stodgy. Add beats that take the meticulous twists of jungle and tense Pharcyde-esque groove-scapes, and you’ve only merely scratched the funky surface. No artist has successfully “bridged the gaps” between the fickle identity-based urban and suburban cultures before or since Sly and the Family Stone, but with the advent of the Black Eyed Peas, at least someone is still artfully bridging the gaps between your mind and your ass.
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