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For The Record: A Tribe Called Quest 'The Low End Theory'

A Tribe Called Quest

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A Tribe Called Quest's 'The Low End Theory' At 30 tribe-called-quest-low-end-theory-album-anniversary

For The Record: A Tribe Called Quest's Groundbreaking 'The Low End Theory' At 30

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A 2021 GRAMMY Hall Of Fame inductee, 'The Low End Theory,' released in 1991, saw A Tribe Called Quest reinvent the wheel yet again, marrying the sounds of jazz and hip-hop and solidifying the group's artistic legacy
Kathy Iandoli
GRAMMYs
Feb 15, 2021 - 8:59 am

In 1991, hip-hop was in a state of flux, and A Tribe Called Quest were searching for balance. Their 1990 debut album, People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, propelled the Queens, New York, group to new heights. Tribe tempered the growing gangster rap movement with their own breed of hip-hop, one full of humor, life, positivity and a more lighthearted approach to making music. Their style positioned them more as a group who loved being musicians over utilizing their rhymes to vent about the doom and gloom enveloping their environment.

Tribe, along with groups like De La Soul, Jungle Brothers and Leaders of the New School, were a part of the DAISY ("Da Inner Sound, Y'all") age of hip-hop. (De La Soul coined the term on their 1989 debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, in which they chanted the phrase several times throughout the project.) DAISY artists donned brighter clothing, used literal daisy imagery in their artwork, music videos and album covers, and punctuated their positive messages with poignancies on Afrocentricity. Even de facto A Tribe Called Quest leader Kamaal Fareed went by MC Love Child before he was given the name Q-Tip.

Intertwined with this bohemian take on hip-hop music, several DAISY artists, including Jungle Brothers, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, were also part of the Native Tongues collective, a loose network of East Coast hip-hop artists. But even if you weren't down with Native Tongues, if your music was the antithesis of the exploding gangster rap style of the time, you tangentially became a part of the DAISY Age.

A Tribe Called Quest's 'The Low End Theory' At 30

DAISY artists diverged from what most considered then to be the sonic norm for rap music, which was a rugged exterior revealing street hymns and conspiracy theories, along with stories of police brutality and gang wars. N.W.A's 1988 debut album Straight Outta Compton was mostly to thank, along with Public Enemy's 1988 album It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, a clarion call for the mobilization of Black people against the powers that be. It was raging against the machine at its best.

While artists of the DAISY Age discussed ways for Black people to find their own grooves and means to mobilize, albeit in a different way, Tribe and groups of their ilk were categorized under the "alternative hip-hop" subgenre, an industry move suggesting that discussions of anything other than gun talk were the exception, not the rule. They were all deemed "safe," nonviolent "alternatives," while also commanding a sound both parents and kids could mutually enjoy. It was a gift and a curse at the same time.

Read More: Busta Rhymes On Being In A "Beautiful Space" & Bringing Together Generations Of Hip-Hop Artists On 'Extinction Level Event 2'

It was a frustrating position for any critically acclaimed group paving their own path. Still, by the time A Tribe Called Quest got to work on The Low End Theory, they were more than ready to reinvent the wheel yet again. This would be the project that served as a reference point for A Tribe Called Quest as bastions of versatility. In order to prove that, they had to rework their whole style, right down to their image. There was also the added pressure of the sophomore slump. But that didn't faze lead producer Q-Tip in the least. Tribe weren't cocky—they were confident.

Tribe had a lot to prove on The Low End Theory while not coming off as tryhards. In 14 tracks, they had to somehow remove the stigmas attached to so many hip-hop artists at the time: You were either too street, too soft or too artsy, or you didn't understand a single instrument. Tribe aimed to strike that balance artfully.

Inspired by the hard thuds checkered throughout Straight Outta Compton, Q-Tip opted for bass-heavy beats on Low End.  Album opener "Excursions" oozes with those steady basslines, as does "Buggin' Out," "Check The Rhime" and closer "Scenario."

Q-Tip made it a point to masterfully bring the sounds of jazz and bebop to boom bap, where, for the first time ever, the instruments were front and center. You could listen to any song on Low End and hear every layer as it's being played, a rarity in the sample-heavy world of hip-hop. With Tribe, you experienced the masterpiece in full totality, while also seeing every stroke of the paintbrush. And despite their claims of having the jazz on "Jazz (We've Got)," Tribe didn't sound like some jazz ensemble in hard-bottom shoes anywhere on Low End. This was pure hip-hop in a new iteration by a group determined to make a mark on their own terms.

But like Q-Tip says on "Rap Promoter ("Not too modest and not a lot of pride"), Tribe had to be bolder with their messaging this time around, while still maintaining their stance on peace and positivity. On "Excursions," an idyllic intro to that creative approach, Q-Tip makes it clear that Tribe is playing the long game in rap, in the right way, while still switching the sound up. He does the same on "Verses From The Abstract," in which he takes the reins on the group's collective messaging.

This was also the moment, however, where Phife Dawg would step forward and do just enough posturing and bragging on the group's behalf. His presence was barely felt on Tribe's debut album since Phife's head wasn't all the way in the game until Q-Tip centered him. The yin to Q-Tip's yang, Phife was a 5-foot-3-inch sh*t-talker and bona fide comedian who helped the former not take the game too seriously. On "Buggin' Out," Phife is in the spotlight, and he keeps it going on "Butter" where he talks about pulling girls like "Flo" while simultaneously shining on his own for once.

Read More: 'Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty' At 10: The Story Behind The Missing Tracks From Big Boi's Solo Debut Album

Low End is also full of music industry cautionary tales. On "Rap Promoter," Q-Tip waxes philosophically and questions why rap promoters will invite hip-hop heads to a wack show. Tribe then expose the ills of the biz on "Show Business," with the help of Brand Nubian and Diamond D, and continue that sentiment on "Check The Rhime" where Q-Tip births the now-infamous line, "Industry rule number four-thousand-and-eighty / Record company people are shady."

Tribe's storytelling is in clear view on "The Infamous Date Rape" and "Everything Is Fair," with the former carrying a real sentiment of exposing criminal acts. It's heavy without being too dark, while tracks like "What?" are light without being too whimsy. "Skypager" sees Tribe dissecting their many reasons for carrying a beeper. At face value, the concept would seem like a whole lot of nonsense about an inanimate piece of technology. But the song ultimately places the group alongside the same beeper-carrying drug dealers from whom the industry and the media attempted to forcibly disassociate them. While Tribe aim to show they are different and unfazed by fancy gadgets, "Skypager" still echoes their main message: We are all in this together.

Then, of course, there's "Scenario." With the help of Leaders of the New School and the soon-to-be legend Busta Rhymes, the track is heavy on basslines, trash talk, braggadocio and bars. The perfect closer to the album, "Scenario" is so bullish and so energetic, it almost serves as a celebration of Tribe's accomplishment: the martini after a cinematic piece has wrapped.

The Low End Theory was somewhat of a swan song for A Tribe Called Quest in more ways than one. It was their diversion from the Native Tongues and the DAISY Age scenes, especially after the group signed to Russell Simmons' Rush Artist Management, under manager Chris Lighty, a move that would take their message to a bigger, more mainstream hip-hop audience. However, the album was also a farewell to the pigeonholed style and sound they were wedged into the first time around. After The Low End Theory, A Tribe Called Quest could fly, and the sky was the limit.

"Loops Of Funk Over Hardcore Beats": 30 Years Of A Tribe Called Quest's Debut, 'People's Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm'

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For The Record: Carole King's 'Tapestry'

Carole King

Photo: Jim McCrary/Redferns

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For The Record: Carole King's 'Tapestry' At 50 carole-king-tapestry-anniversary-record

For The Record: Inside The Historic Legacy Of Carole King's 'Tapestry' At 50

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Revered as one of the greatest albums of all time, Carole King's 1971 chart-topping, multiplatinum classic 'Tapestry' solidified the singer/songwriter genre and forever cemented her as an iconic artist and songwriter
Rob LeDonne
GRAMMYs
Feb 7, 2021 - 2:10 pm

Fifty years ago, A&M Recording Studios in Los Angeles was buzzing. In Studio A, the popular group the Carpenters were recording their self-titled third album. Over in Studio C, the singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell was also laying down tracks. But it was in Studio B, with the lights down low and candles flickering, where a songwriter was crafting an iconic work that would indisputably change the course of music history.

"I have two words," Carole King would later say of the astounding success of her classic 1971 album, Tapestry, which critics would later regard as one of the greatest of all time. "Who knew?"

The success of Tapestry seems like a given today, a ubiquitous part of the pop culture landscape. Even King's monumental career seems obvious, with a reputation and pedigree as the consummate singer/songwriter. At the 14th GRAMMY Awards, in 1972, King earned the distinction of becoming the first woman to win multiple GRAMMYs in the General Field, with Tapestry winning Album Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female as well as Song Of The Year ("You've Got A Friend") and Record Of The Year ("It's Too Late"); all three releases were later inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame, while King received the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

In addition to its critical acclaim, Tapestry was also a commercial behemoth, topping the Billboard albums chart in the U.S. and reaching diamond status in 1995; this week, the album was certified 13 times multiplatinum.

Carole King's 'Tapestry' At 50 | For The Record

"Tapestry struck a chord with a whole new legion of fans, including me," former President Barack Obama remarked in 2013 when King received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, becoming the first woman to win that honor. "It cemented Carole's status as one of the most influential singer/songwriters that America has ever seen."

To understand Tapestry's impact and King's triumph, you'd have to rewind the narrative. King's talents were on full display from an early age. The Brooklyn-born daughter of a piano-teacher mother, she was a music prodigy by 15, and by 17, she became a Brill Building powerhouse, penning the Shirelles' standard "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," the first No. 1 song by a Black girl group. 

Alongside writing partner and former husband Gerry Goffin, King poured out songs. The Goffin-King discography eventually became the soundtrack of the '60s: the upbeat "Up on the Roof" for the Drifters, Little Eva's dance anthem "The Loco-Motion," the peppy "One Fine Day" for the Chiffons and Aretha Franklin's sparkling "(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman." It was a run so impressive, the Beatles, who once recorded the Goffin-King track "Chains," remarked at the time that they aimed to be the Goffin and King of the U.K. 

"It's hard to describe," King once said, musing about the flow of creative inspiration. "If you ever worked on a story—typed it into a computer and watched the story come out of you—it's a similar thing. People who are creative in any way, sometimes that happens."

Read More: For The Record: Joni Mitchell's Emotive 1971 Masterpiece, 'Blue'

Young King's stunning list of achievements would have been more than enough for an already-astounding career. Besides, songwriters at the time—faceless names behind the scenes—rarely, if ever, made the transition to the stage as they were neither accepted nor welcome; the idea of a singer/songwriter was a foreign concept. However, once Goffin's and King's marriage dissolved, Carole packed her bags and moved from the East Coast to the Los Angeles enclave of Laurel Canyon, with two kids in tow. As fate would have it, she'd soon fall in with the likes of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and a scene that was about to explode. 

Still, King had both a disinterest and aversion to being in front of the mic. "There's always the concern they won't like you," she said in a 2006 interview of her original hesitancy. "You can write the song, but (at least) you're always at a safe distance from the artist." However, it was Taylor, then a new star, who King credits with her success as a performing artist. "I have James Taylor to thank for sort of nudging me out in front and teaching me by example that all you have to do is go out there to be yourself, sing the songs and everything will be fine," King once explained. 

As a member of Taylor's backing band, she has a distinct memory of the night she performed a lone song at one of his shows when her view on performing was forever altered. 

Carole King: Success Of Tapestry

Around the same time of her change of heart, she was also suffering from the commercial failure of her first artist project as part of a band called the City, no doubt stymied in 1968 by King's reluctance to perform live. And while some may confuse Tapestry for her debut album, she officially debuted as a solo artist in 1970 with the aptly titled Writer, which featured covers of previously recorded Goffin-King tracks and boasted an otherwise muted cover with the sole dash of color from a rainbow. 

The album, which peaked at No. 84 on the Billboard charts, came and went without much fanfare. Perhaps that's why when King set out to work on her follow-up, she felt free of pressure. She already stepped in front of a mic and survived. At worst, listeners were indifferent. What more was there to fear?

Inspired by the success of Taylor's much more successful 1970 album, Sweet Baby James, King began work on Tapestry, enlisting Lou Adler, a songwriter (Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World"), producer (the Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'") and founder of King's record label, Ode Records, to produce the album.

"The first thing I envisioned with Carole is that she was a solo artist," Adler once said during an episode of the PBS series "American Masters" devoted to King. "You always felt she was sitting at the piano and singing to you." As a result, in the aforementioned dim of Studio B at A&M on La Brea just off Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, the atmosphere was meant to mimic the inviting aura of a living room.

The album's subsequent production was purposely sparse, which suited King, who was previously accustomed to recording demos anyway. "Records like Tapestry can be overproduced in a minute," Hank Cicalo, the album's engineer, explained. "'Oh, let's add more guitar,' or this and that. Lou and Carole wanted that simplicity. They wanted it to be nice and warm, and a very comfortable record for people to enjoy." 

Read More: Linda Ronstadt's 'Canciones De Mi Padre' | For The Record

With that in mind, it's not hard to envision King in your living room, a piano in front of her, tapping away at the opening piano hook—not chords, but the single keys—of "I Feel the Earth Move," which appropriately heralded not only the beginning of a powerhouse album, but announced a new era. (It was inspired by a line in Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls that likened lovemaking to the Earth moving). The album's second track, "So Far Away," introduces itself similarly: a piano riff consisting of lone keys, only to be accented by an acoustic guitar, played by Taylor, and a bass. Later, drums and a fittingly distant flute appear. 

By the time the album's third track kicks in, the aching, GRAMMY-winning "It's Too Late," which she wrote with Toni Stern, the listener is gifted with three astounding original songs in a row. It's a feat fitting for a greatest hits collection. 

But therein lies the magic, and gravity, of Tapestry. "Home Again" and "Beautiful" both fit into that warm feeling Adler tried to concoct in the studio, the former an obvious allusion to that living room feel and the latter the namesake of the Tony-winning Broadway musical in which King's pop hits were transposed to wild success on the Great White Way.

"You've Got a Friend," the first track on the album's B-side, which Carole wrote in response to Taylor's "Fire and Rain" in which he sang, "I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend," is an emotional epicenter for King. She initially employs the might of those single piano notes she favors with melancholy vocals when she mournfully sings, "When you're down," later crescendoing into the resounding proclamation of "I'll be there." King later said writing the song was so easy, it was one of the most incredible songwriting experiences of her life.

As for the rest of Tapestry, King takes a page from Writer and returns to her favorite songs written for other artists: Her first hit, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?," now infused with sweet emotion, featured backing vocals from Mitchell and Taylor, while her version of "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," remade all her own, serves as an understated companion piece to Aretha Franklin's beloved rendition.  

"Tapestry changed my life," King said of its personal impact upon its release on Feb. 10, 1971, after taking three weeks to record the album with a $22,000 production budget. "In an immediate way, it gave me financial independence, which was really wonderful. Less immediate and in an ongoing way, it opened doors." She also separated its success from her life at the time: caring for two kids and expecting a third. "I buried myself in (motherhood) and kept fame and the whole thing around success at bay. And I think I did that successfully." 

On a larger scale, Tapestry solidified the singer/songwriter genre and was a brick in the road to a decade, and soon generations, of artists both writing and performing personal songs, sounding like they were made by hand with lyrics so freshly handwritten you could still smell the pencil. A disparate list of cultural icons and works could have King and Tapestry to thank for paving the way, among them the career of the songwriter-turned-artist Barry Manilow to Taylor Swift albums like Folklore and Evermore.

Did Carole King know she had lightning in a bottle? Does she even know when she's writing a good song? "You like to think we do know, but you don't always," she explained in a 2012 interview. "We never know. It's a big, old, crazy thing."

Joni Mitchell's 'Mingus' At 40: A Look Back At A Seminal Jazz Collab

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Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee: Lauren Patten

Lauren Patten

Photo: Jenny Anderson

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Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee: Lauren Patten lauren-patten-interview-jagged-little-pill-broadway-meet-first-time-grammy-nominee

Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee: Lauren Patten On The Timelessness Of "Jagged Little Pill" And Owning Her Identity On The Broadway Stage

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Actress and singer Lauren Patten tells GRAMMY.com about her experience working on "Jagged Little Pill" and using Alanis Morissette's music to start authentic conversations
Alicia Ramírez
GRAMMYs
Feb 19, 2021 - 5:43 pm

Actress and singer Lauren Patten is responsible for one of the most vulnerable performances in recent Broadway history.

She delivered a riveting performance as Jo in "Jagged Little Pill," the Broadway smash inspired by Alanis Morissette's 1995 GRAMMY-winning album of the same name. On top of earning her critical praise and her first Tony nomination, the role landed Patten her first-ever GRAMMY nomination, for Best Musical Theater Album at the upcoming 2021 GRAMMYs Awards show. Her howling rendition of "You Oughta Know," which she unleashes after she's wronged by her partner and best friend, frequently earned her standing ovations. A star was born.

Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee: Lauren Patten

But she isn't just any star. Seeing her grapple with anguish and the process of self-discovery in "Jagged Little Pill" is like seeing an artist grow into themselves, exposing their darkest parts for audiences to witness. As Jo, a teen exploring her gender presentation while in the throes of first love, Patten exercises her voice like a mighty instrument, allowing audiences to witness a performance of unmatched force and nuance whether they've experienced the musical in person or only listened to the cast recording. By the end of "You Oughta Know," Patten is so submerged in Jo's turmoil, it's clear she's emotionally drained. Still, the excitement of witnessing the birth of something greater lingers long after her tears, and those from the audience, have dried. 

GRAMMY.com spoke with Lauren Patten about the responsibility she feels as a bisexual queer woman in playing a character like Jo, working on such a resonant musical despite the ongoing, Broadway-shuttering pandemic, and using Alanis Morissette's music to start authentic conversations about identity, sexuality, race and beyond.

(Oh, and did we mention she started a band with some of the musicians from "Jagged Little Pill," too? Because, obviously, that was something we had to discuss.)

What kind of music are you listening to in quarantine? Have you rediscovered anything?

I recently rediscovered Damien Rice. I hadn't listened to any of his albums for years, and then his music appeared on my Spotify. It also happened recently with Glen Hansard. I went through a pretty big Glen Hansard phase and saw him in concert at the Beacon Theatre [in New York], which was amazing for his Didn't He Ramble album; and I hadn't listened to him for a few years and was like, "Wait, he's released new music?" That has been a little bit of a musical joy recently, going back to artists that I know and love and getting comfort from their work.

You performed in "Jagged Live In NYC: A Broadway Reunion Concert." Tell me about encountering "You Oughta Know" and "Hand in My Pocket" after nine months.

It was overwhelming but interesting, too, because we were doing this massive undertaking, creating a concert version of the show and revisiting the story we hadn't told for nine months. We did the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the "Best of Broadway" special. I also performed "Hand in My Pocket" on Zoom, but we hadn't been on a stage telling this story until rehearsals. Of course, we had to limit our time together because of COVID risks, so we didn't have a long rehearsal process. 

I initially didn't register how I was feeling because it was like firing on all cylinders so we could do this concert in a way that felt true to the caliber of our show. It didn't hit me until we were doing it. I was like, "Wow, I'm backstage watching my castmates perform. I'm backstage waiting for my cue." We didn't have an audience or a full cast, which felt strange. But I knew many people were on this journey with us. Once it was happening, it was emotionally overwhelming.

You've created a tight-knit group of musicians around you. Damien Bassman, Eric Davis and Marc Schmied have been vital. How has it felt to create that bond and how does that collaboration look like in practice?

Damien and Eric are in our band for "Jagged Little Pill." Damien played our first reading in 2017 and afterward came up to me and said he wanted to start a band with me; I'd never been in a band before. We continued developing "Jagged," and after the out-of-town tryout in Cambridge [in 2018], I asked if he was still interested. At that point, Eric had always been the guitarist for "Jagged," so I knew Eric well, Damian knew Eric well, and they'd been in the original pit for "Next to Normal"; and then Damien brought Marc in. 

It started as an outlet, to just be in that joy together and play songs that we liked, whether it was going to lead to a concert or not. It's extremely collaborative, and we know each other so well and know what our strengths are, so we all bring songs to rehearsals and choose the best ones. We primarily work on Broadway, but we have a deep love for many music genres, mainly rock, from childhood, so our sets end up being very diverse and eclectic. 

I'm the song interpreter as far as lyrics go and whatever I'm doing vocally, but full credit for the musical arrangements goes to Damien, Eric and Marc. Taking an Amy Winehouse song for this acoustic set and making it into a kind of Spanish-influenced guitar and drum vibe, that's them. I learn from them every time we rehearse because of the different musical worlds I've ever been in, and their knowledge of musical styles is so vast. It's very exciting for me, as a vocalist, to watch them work, where they think it would be interesting to take a song arrangement, and then I can come in with how I can fit into that with my interpretation of the vocals and the lyrics.

I'm such a fan of "I Miss The Mountains." Why did you gravitate toward that song to cover?

That's the only time we've ever done a musical theater song in our sets! [Laughs.] We thought it would be nice to do something that shows our love for and our connection to Tom [Kitt] [musical supervisor, orchestrator and arranger of "Jagged Little Pill" and composer and co-orchestrator of "Next to Normal"] and do something of that genre in our way. 

What was it like to adjust your Rockwood Music Hall sets to a virtual setting? What does the future of live music look like for you?

It has definitely been a highlight of my year, being able to be back with my band and play and share live music, because it's an enormous joy in my life and a relatively new one. We use my name, but it's an artistic endeavor among all four of us. 

I long for the day [when] we can play Rockwood to a sold-out house, because the energy is irreplaceable. But there's something beautiful about piping live music straight into somebody's house. The number of people who purchased tickets doubled the number of people Stage 2 holds for a concert. People under 21 who usually can't come to Rockwood could watch it, and so could people from all over the world who can't come to New York! 

You have great artists and technicians deciding on the sound mix and the camera angles at the moment with you to ensure the stream feels intimate and personal, so it becomes this other artistic endeavor. I don't think that it will replace live music; nothing will. This is teaching us about the possibilities of hybrids and having some concerts that are meant to be live and having some concerts that are tailored to be livestreamed and because there are benefits, mainly the accessibility of it. 

Lyrics can be somewhat self-explanatory, but they also mean something different to everyone. What do the lyrics to "You Oughta Know" mean to you?

People have a perception of what that song is, and because of it, they've made a perception of what the entire album of Jagged Little Pill is, which is wildly off-base. There's obviously lots of rage, betrayal, and imagining revenge as a catharsis. But there's something when you interpret the song as a musical theater artist who is telling a character's story through song that you just listen to a song differently. How I would sing "You Oughta Know" with my band is very different from how I've ever sung it. 

What strikes me lyrically is that there's something very specific in how these lyrics have been queered for the show, and that adds layers of meaning that weren't in the original song. What does it mean to say, rather than "Would she have your baby?" to say, "And you can have his baby?" It's a very different lyric, and it's very loaded. That also meant losing iconic lyrics like, "I hate to bug you in the middle of dinner."

One of the beautiful things about Alanis is that she's so generous with her work, which is no small feat when you have a song as known as "You Oughta Know." When you look at a song as a musical theater artist, you hear things differently. You look at the first lyric of the chorus and, musically, it's different from how you look at it on a page. When you look at it on a page, it's a sentence. "I'm here to remind you." It's really the full sentence, "I'm here to remind you of the mess you left when you went away." When you sing it, there are no vocals between "I'm here" and "to remind you." 

Something about that hit me very deeply! This entire song from this person saying, "I'm here," is very different [from], "It's not fair/To deny me/Of the cross I bear..." This chorus starts with this person screaming, "I'm here," so it's a very different song to me than, "You cheated on me; f* you; you have to look at how you hurt me." "You have to look at me because I'm here, and I need to be seen." It became a song for a character who tries to deflect everything she feels with humor to say what she needs to say for the first time. It became a song that circumstantially came out of a queer person who was betrayed romantically, but that's not what the song is about to me anymore.  

As a queer artist, did you feel the pressure of representing this group of humans? 

The conversation about representation is so important, and I'm so glad that it's happening. It's also really complicated, because one person cannot represent the entire LGBTQ+ community since it's so diverse and varied in experiences. Still, I'm so happy to be able to represent even one specific person's experience.

You've poured a lot of yourself into Jo, and you've done the same with your music. Has playing Jo played a part in your personal growth at this stage in your life?

I don't think that, as an actor, you can spend the kind of time, energy and soul that you put into developing a character for years and not grow. At the beginning of developing this character, I'd recently come out. Telling this story of this person who doesn't know what that means for her yet and is actively trying to figure it out while I was, too, was a very parallel experience. 

It's funny to be years into the show's development, and I'm in a different place than Jo and I've grown up with this baby Jo in my body. [Laughs.] There's a level of freedom to what I've gotten to do on stage as Jo that I haven't had anywhere, and that has changed me as an artist and a person. What I do on stage as Jo was in me; how I connect to Alanis' music was in me. I didn't know that before. As you mentioned, you can see it when I perform with my band, and I don't know if I would've found that if I hadn't had "Jagged." 

Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee: Arca Is Expanding Latin Music On Her Terms With Electronic Album KiCK i

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Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee: Antibalas

Antibalas

 

Photo: Celine Pinget

 
 
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Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee: Antibalas Talk 'Fu Chronicles,' Kung Fu And Their Mission To Spread Afrobeat

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Antibalas members Martín Perna and Duke Amayo discuss their origin story, their decades-long rise as an outlier in Brooklyn and how their first-ever GRAMMY nomination for Best Global Music Album could help introduce new listeners to Afrobeat
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Feb 16, 2021 - 7:27 pm

Even somebody who barely listens to music could presumably name three artists in each of these spheres: rock, blues and jazz. Sure, Bob Marley may remain the embodiment of reggae, but chances are you've heard of Toots and the Maytals or Lee "Scratch" Perry at least once. What about Afrobeat, a West African amalgam of soul and funk with regional styles like Yoruba and highlife?

For many, the Afrobeat conversation begins and ends with the outrageous, incendiary, brilliant multi-instrumentalist and pioneer of the form, Fela Kuti. While the Brooklyn Afrobeat ensemble Antibalas, which ranges from 11 to 19 members, undoubtedly work from the template Kuti helped create, they argue the story of Afrobeat begins—not ends—with him.

"I think that's one of the weirdest things, being in a genre of music that is so defined and predetermined by one person," Martín Perna, the multi-instrumentalist who first dreamed up Antibalas in 1998, tells GRAMMY.com. "Even reggae artists don't all get compared to Bob Marley. I don't think anybody in any other genre is in the shadow of one person like people who play this music." (For those who wish to dig deeper, Perna recommends Geraldo Pino, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou and the Funkees; his bandmate, Duke Amayo, name-drops Orlando Julius.)

"It's been a weird thing," Perna continues. "I would have thought after 22 years that it would have expanded a little bit more."

Antibalas | Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominee

More than 20 years after Kuti's death in 1997, Afrobeat may soon expand radically in the public eye thanks to Antibalas. The group, who played their first gig half a year after Kuti's passing, has been nominated at the 2021 GRAMMYs Awards show in the newly renamed Best Global Music Album category for Fu Chronicles, which dropped last February on Daptone Records. Their first album to be solely written by lead singer and percussionist Amayo, its highlights, like "Lai Lai," "MTTT, Pt. 1 & 2" and "Fist of Flowers," partly derive their power from his other primary pursuit: kung fu.

A Nigerian-born multidisciplinarian who is a senior master at the Jow Ga Kung Fo School of martial arts, Amayo aims to find the nexus point between music, dance and martial arts. When he received the unexpected news that Antibalas had clinched their first-ever GRAMMY nomination after 20 years in the game, he launched into a dance of his own.

"I walked over to my girl and said, 'Check this out. Is this real?'" he recalls to GRAMMY.com with a laugh. "She Googled the GRAMMY nominations, and it was surreal. And then I did that usual thing where you shake your hips, violently doing the hip thrust back and forth. Then, I woke the whole house up screaming, as my daughter screamed with me for a minute or two."

GRAMMY.com spoke with Martín Perna and Duke Amayo about Antibalas' origin story, their decades-long rise as an outlier in Brooklyn and how their nomination could help introduce new listeners to Afrobeat.

These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.

How would you explain the vocabulary of someone like Fela Kuti to a person who's unfamiliar?

Martín Perna: Afrobeat is like musical architecture. It's a set of ingredients and musical relationships between those ingredients. All the instruments are talking to each other. They're all in dialogue, and these dialogues create dynamic tension in the music. Some instruments create a rigid structure, and others—vocals included—have much more free reign to improvise or solo.

Duke Amayo: I would describe it as a tonal language of the common Nigerian—or African—singing truth to power from a marginalized place. That is the window from where Fela Kuti was operating. He drew from observations around him and expressed them truthfully throughout his music. He is like the Bob Marley and the James Brown of Nigeria rolled into one.

Perna: Whereas the guitar might be playing the same five-note pattern without stopping for 20 minutes, the singer or keyboardist gets to improvise. Or, when the horns aren't playing the melodies, they get solos. It's both very rigid and very free, but it's a dynamic tension between the two.

In a nutshell, describe how Antibalas came up in the Brooklyn scene.

Perna: I was 22 when I dreamed this up, and a lot of it was just trying to create a scene that I wanted to be part of. At the time, I played with Sharon Jones—rest in peace—Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. A bunch of the musicians were my colleagues in that band. The rest of the musicians came pretty much from the neighborhood—just people I knew who either had the chops or the interest to be in this band.

Amayo: I was living in Williamsburg, a neighborhood that embodied gentrification in record time. I was in the right place at the right time as I opened a clothing store/martial-arts dojo in my residence called the Afro-Spot. From here, I hosted many fashion shows, using Nigerian drummers to maintain an edge to my brand. This exposed me to musicians who wanted to make resistance music, if you will.

So that brought me in contact with Martín and [Daptone Records co-founder and former Antibalas guitarist] Gabe [Roth], who stopped in my store one day to hang. Eventually, they asked me to join the band. I started as a percussionist and then became the lead singer.

Perna: I wanted to make a band that was both a dance band and a protest band. Because you need so many people to make this music, it fulfilled that idea of being a band and a community. You need anywhere from 11 [musicians] on the small end; at our biggest shows, there have been 19 musicians on stage. So, already, you have a community of people.

Coming up in Brooklyn, did you have local peers in this style? Was there a scene?

Perna: No, there wasn't a scene. There were individuals—mostly West African guys a generation older than us—that had played with Fela or were part of some other African funk band in the '70s. But no, there weren't any peers at all.

Amayo: I would state that we were the scene.

How would you describe your vision for Fu Chronicles as opposed to past Antibalas albums?

Amayo: Fu Chronicles is a concept album written by only me. While the past albums have been written by different members employing the group dynamics of the time, my vision was to create a musical universe where African folklore and kung fu wisdom can coexist seamlessly, supporting each other in a harmonious flow.

The first song I composed [20 years ago], "MTTT," came from my intention to compose a timeless, logical song, expressing a new frontier in classical African music. I wanted to move the music forward by writing songs with two distinct-but-related bass and guitar lines and shape the grooves into a two-part form: yin and yang.

How did martial arts play into the album?

Amayo: I wanted to reimagine Afrobeat songs from a real kung fu practitioner's mindset. I'm a certified Jow Ga Kung Fu sifu, or master. I started studying kung fu in Nigeria as a young boy. The song "Fist of Flowers" describes the traditional form of Jow Ga Kung Fu that I teach. My rhythmic blocks are sometimes based on the shapes of my kung fu movements.

How did you learn about your GRAMMY nomination for Best Global Music Album?

Amayo: The first person who texted me was Kyle Eustice, [who interviewed me in 2020] for High Times. I didn't react at first. I walked over to my girl and said, "Check this out. Is this real?" She Googled the GRAMMY nominations, and it was surreal.

I did that usual thing where you shake your hips, violently doing the hip thrust back and forth, and quickly calmed down. Then I woke the whole house up screaming as my daughter screamed with me for a minute or two.

Perna: On my fridge, last year, when I set my goals and intentions, one of the five things [I wrote] was to win a GRAMMY. This year has been such a disappointment in so many ways, so it's exciting that at least we got, so far, the nomination.

This nomination serves as a punctuation mark on Antibalas's 20-plus-year career. How do you see the next 20 years?

Perna: Oh, gosh. I hope it provides some wind in our sails to continue to record and tour and grow our audience. It could be either a nice end to a beautiful history of the band, or something like I said: wind in our sails.

Amayo: I see the next 20 years of Antibalas as a flower in full growth, writing music to push the genre forward while maintaining excellence in the trade. We began as a bunch of guys in Brooklyn who wanted to make a change, make some noise, and be part of the revival of activist music.

And it's still as relevant as ever, demanding for justice movements like Black Lives Matter, Indigenous peoples' plight, and a more comprehensive education system based on truth ...

Perna: … To get this recommendation and this nod from the GRAMMYs, it's like, "Hey, everybody! Pay attention to this band! They made this amazing record, and you should listen to it!" That's something that propels us out of the world of just musicians listening to us. It feels good to get a little bit of wider recognition.

Amayo: I've been praising my wife ever since [the nomination]: "This is all mostly you." Because if she hadn't put a fire in me, I wouldn't have been able to make the right moves. It takes something to light it up for you, to believe you can get there.

Thus, my song, "Fight Am Finish," with the lyrics, "Never, ever let go of your dreams." I'm going to keep running. I'm going to keep my feet moving until I cross the finish line, you know what I mean?

Travel Around The World With The Best Global Music Album Nominees | 2021 GRAMMYs

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For The Record: Adele '21'

Adele

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For The Record: Adele's '21' Turns 10 adele-21-10-year-anniversary

For The Record: Adele's Icon-Making '21' At 10

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Released in January 2011, '21' expanded Adele's sound across timeless heartbreak songs, including "Rolling In The Deep" and "Someone Like You," and crowned the English singer/songwriter a star
Gabriel Aikins
GRAMMYs
Jan 24, 2021 - 1:54 pm

As dawn was still rising on the New Year in 2011, the music industry was already humming with anticipation. A fast-emerging English songstress named Adele was about to release her sophomore album, 21, and there were signs it could be big. Three years earlier, in 2008, she released her debut album, 19, which earned praise and awards and also gave audiences and the industry just a glimpse of her immense talent and star potential. 19 hinted at a wide sound, a voice unleashed. All of the signs were right.

Taking the promise she showed on her debut album, expanding her influences and showcasing more of her incredible vocal talent, Adele dropped 21 and forever left her mark on music.

Adele's Icon-Making '21' At 10 | For The Record

21, released Jan. 24, 2011, and Adele didn't come out of nowhere. 19 released to good reviews and solid chart performances for single "Chasing Pavements." Sporting a singer/songwriter, guitar-driven sound, the album made a strong first impression: At the 51st GRAMMY Awards, held in 2009, "Chasing Pavements" was nominated for Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year; it went on to win for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, with Adele taking home the coveted Best New Artist award that night.

While 19 hinted at what was to come from Adele, 21 was an entirely different sound. She opened the album with lead single "Rolling In The Deep," a shrewd move that clearly indicated just how disparate this project would be. The low thrum of the repeated acoustic guitar in the intro that might signify a sense of familiarity quickly gives way to a wider, more intense sound. A steady, sharp drum beat builds tension, and the big, flourishing production on the chorus definitively moved Adele past her days as a no-frills songwriter. 

What sticks out years later, though, are the emotions and the colossal talent on display across 21, even just on this opening track. It's no secret that 21 is an album of pain, born from a relationship with intense highs and a devastating ending. "It was horrible. I was miserable, I was lonely, I was sad, I was angry, I was bitter," Adele told The New York Times in 2015 about writing the album. 

"Rolling In The Deep" oozes with that venom, the pleasure of bringing her ex to his knees, evident in the darker sound and pointed lyrics, which Adele belts with all of the considerable power behind her voice. "Rumour Has It" also features a similar sense of satisfaction: The track basks in the gossip that comes from the fallout of a relationship.  The song reflected a continued growth in Adele's sound, too, this time in the form of modern vocal loops and decidedly retro swing. 

Even as the rollout of 21 was happening, the universality of the album became undeniable. Entire features and large chunks of interviews from the time are dedicated to the idea of Adele as an avatar for everyone, from her starstruck nature around other celebrities to her penchant for swearing to the ease of which she captures the truths of heartbreak. 

Listening now, it's still remarkable how there's a song or two on 21 to match any which emotional stage of a breakup. Ready to burn it all down? "Rolling In The Deep" is there for you. Longing for a new love? The funky "He Won't Go" or "I'll Be Waiting" deliver. And for those who just need to scream and cry, powerful ballads like "Set Fire To The Rain" and "Someone Like You" are Adele's emotional gifts to you. 

The methods and avenues of relationships change as society and technology change with them, but the emotions are always the same. In her deepest moments of heartache, Adele understood this and put all of it into 21, ensuring a lasting impact on people's hearts and minds.

Plenty of albums have tapped into emotional truths; few have endured like 21. The timelessness of the music and the hugely broad appeal of its influences round out the album. Producer Jim Abbiss, who worked on 19, maintained some of the more soul-based and acoustic sounds from Adele's debut, while new faces to Adele's process, like Paul Epworth and the prolific Rick Rubin, added wrinkles that appealed to a much wider audience. 

The prominent use of minor keys in the Rubin-produced "Lovesong" stands out, as do the jazz-based horns and rhythm of the Adele-Epworth collaboration "I'll Be Waiting." At the same time, the whole album is accessible to all through its backbone of piano-based arrangements, with a sound still relevant today and into the future.

Read: Revisiting Adele's Breakthrough: '19' Turns 10

As streaming rose to prominence in the 2010s, and as it continues to dominate in 2021, it is staggering to look back at the mammoth sales numbers of 21: 5.82 million units in 2011 and 4.41 million the next year, with the album topping the U.S. sales charts in both years. The only other artist to even crack 4 million in a year in the U.S. in the 2010s? Also Adele: Her follow-up album, 25, sold 7.44 million copies in 2015. 

As of late 2019, 21 had sold 31 million copies worldwide in its lifespan. These are sales numbers that rarely happen in the 21st century—largely due to the large-scale shift to streaming—yet here is Adele putting up massive figures, regardless. The continued commercial success of 21, even within the last several years, is yet another testament to just how deeply Adele connected with audiences, cutting across all generations and musical tastes. 

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By any metric, 21 accomplished what few albums could in the 2010s. Aside from its mind-boggling sales, the album swept the 54th GRAMMY Awards in 2012: "Rolling In The Deep" won for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best Short Form Music Video; "Someone Like You" won for Best Pop Solo Performance; and 21 won for Best Pop Vocal Album and Album Of The Year.

Still, 21 continues to resonate with audiences in 2021 as much as it did in 2011. Boasting a wide array of musical elements, the album pushed Adele's considerable talents to even newer heights. And for millions of people worldwide, it will forever embody the exact feeling of heartbreak in all its complicated messiness. 

Adele Turns '25': For The Record

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