It’s all expected, things are for the looking
> Jazz & hip-hop share a certain communal/tribal competition ethos that I find particularly telling of the connections between both genres
> Musicians in good jazz bands listen and react to each other all the time while also maintaining a strong individual presence. That is *not* the standard in the Western music tradition where you’ll usually either get a homogenous orchestra family at the service of a conductor or a stand-out soloist but not something in-between
> You’ll see that dynamic in folk traditions or whenever DIY principles come back in vogue in rock music. Conversely, much of the post-Beatles album-oriented rock seems too engineered to allow for that kind of fluidity — I feel like those bands recast the focus to the >final product< as opposed to the >process< of executing music
> Maybe that also has to do with the fact that throughout the 20th century rock has been closely tied to a kind of posturing in a way that’s different from jazz or folk traditions. I mean, the word “cool” was born in jazz but to my mind rock was the first genre to interpret music almost solely as an extension of how one >acts< and >dresses< and >talks< and >thinks<
> Studio musicians are somewhat different in that sense but I’d say in their case self-expression takes a back spot to flexibility and chops. Also with few exceptions studio bands play the second fiddle to a soloist so I would hesitate before drawing conclusions about the core experience of rock music based on that
> One of my favorite vehicles to showcase that kind of communal experience in jazz are DUELING SAX albums
> Every jazz group has to find some way to forge a common ground between different musical personalities but that gets even more interesting in the case of DUELING SAXES because, well, those different musical personalities are playing the same instrument
> That tradition stems directly from the duels between tenors Herschel Evans and Lester Young in the Basie band in the late 30s, one of the most SWINGING bands of all time. Young’s cool tone and idiosyncratic phrasing nicely contrasted with Evans’ gruffness
> Many of those albums see two key figures in the same tradition facing off (Sonny Stitt x Gene Ammons; Al Cohn x Zoot Sims; Dexter Gordon x Wardell Grey; Johnny Griffin x Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis). Those are usually pretty good but sometimes sound a bit too gimmicky and in my experience the rhythm section is often bland. I tend to lean towards recordings that put musicians from differing traditions side to side
> I have recently discovered Oliver Nelson’s 1961 Straight Ahead album for Prestige, which lays his steady tone and organized soloing style against Eric Dolphy’s wild, iconoclastic playing
> Nelson and Dolphy have radically different interpretations of how to approach modern classical music in a jazz context while never straying far from swing and blues. The rhythm section is star-studded and seems to be having a blast in compositions that alternate between the blues and Debussy
> While hip-hop does have its share of stars and posturing, I feel like the relation between featured artists, rap collectives and producers is still very communal/tribal in its essence. I’m far from the first to point out how the structure of trading verses is similar to bebop soloing and that rap >battles/feuds< are essentially jam sessions. And just as in jazz, groups like the Wu-Tang Clan, N.W.A. and the Beastie Boys found a way to balance a wide range of personalities into a cohesive whole
> Every year I go through a cycle of excitement and frustration with the famed J.Cole-Kendrick Lamar mixtape that we might never get to listen to. I mean, we’ve been hearing about it since 2011 and by now expectations are so high that some kind of disappointment is all but inevitable
> What makes the idea of that mixtape so attractive to me is that, as in the case of Dolphy and Nelson, Cole and Kendrick are both masters of their craft who approach similar themes/questions — self-doubt, religion, morality, pride, the black experience and, every once in a while, some braggadocio — from different starting points and with different resources
> Cole often raps from a down-to-earth, sincere-as-fuck point of view, prioritizing a smooth delivery over vocal fireworks; K-Dot is a fucking prophet who has complete control of the spoken word and makes use of everything from allegories to new personas to express his insecurities
> (At this point it might be good to clarify that I think Kendrick is the most relevant, technically-adept artist in our generation. J. Cole is great and his best stuff is fucking amazing but c’mon)
> My guess would be that releasing the songs now that Kendrick has become _THE NUMBER ONE_ rapper in the world and J.Cole has grown more and more intimate over the years might disappoint some fans given that those tracks were likely recorded over five years ago
> From what I could find, J. Cole and Kendrick have collaborated on eight tracks, listed here in rough chronological order:
- “HiiiPoWeR” from Kendrick’s Section.80 debut album, which Cole produced but did not rap in;
- A 2011 leaked track called “Temptation”;
- A song from the mixtape called “Shock The World” which they performed live;
- “Forbidden Fruit” from Cole’s breakout Born Sinner album, to which Kendrick contributes vocals but does not rap;
- Two tracks from DJ Khaled and Trae in which they’re both guest features;
- Two 2015 tracks called “Black Friday” in which Cole freestyles over Kendrick’s “Alright” beat and Kendrick freestyles over Cole’s “A Tale of Two Citiez” beat
> (Kendrick also name-checks Cole in his feature in Big Sean’s 2013 “Control”, which may be the best diss feature of all time)
> The two leaked tracks are pretty great, though we’re definitely not hearing 2017 Cole & K-Dot there. “Temptation” sees them both move seamlessly from rapping about their insecurities to bragging about sex, while “Shock The World” is a reflection on their tough upbringing and aspirations with some really clever wordplay from Kendrick. Very Section.80, Born Sinner-like
> Still, out of those eight tracks, Kendrick and Cole rap together in only four — and two of those are featured appearances in tracks by other artists. If you ask me, we *definitely* have not heard enough
