Are Strings Becoming the Modern Equivalent of the 80s/90s Sax?
Hearing sweeping strings used to be unexpected, but now it’s becoming incredibly common
I was looking to hear some Seldom Seen Kid, the fourth album album by one of my favorite bands, elbow. To my surprise, up for pre-order was Little Fictions, an album to be released on 3 Feb. and as a lead-off track — “Magnificent (She Says).”
I put that jawn on repeat…because that’s what I do. Although the drummer Richard Jupp is no longer with the band, they still have a good driving beat. But there are two other things that sell the song: the bass, which isn’t playing a straight bass line but rather filling in gaps…quite soulful, and “Magnificent…” also has a sweeping string arrangement. But that’s rock. It’s not too uncommon in that genre.
Rap (and what’s left of R&B) is different.
Recently, J. Cole sent his fans into a state of euphoria when he released Eyez a forty minute promotional video. A sort of making-of piece, we discussed here, Eyez has several shots with two ladies laying down string wizardry.
A week later Kid Cudi would make his triumphant return with Passion, Pain, & Demon Slaying. Guess what? Yes, you read the title so you know what to expect. There are strings all up and down this project.
What gives? String arrangements surfaced surreptitiously. One moment…we’re just listening to regular o’ rap then out of no where, if you ain’t got no strings on yo shit…you not making serious music. Kind of reminds me of a time when every rap track from Mount Vernon to Maine had either sax stabs or full on saxophone riffs throughout.
Prior to the sax in rap tracks, the woodwind instrument dominated the 80s. From Glen “You Belong to the City” Frey, Men at Work, and down the list to Sade, everyone had their own saxophonist on retainer. Then, one day, the instrument wasn’t needed anymore. Are we at the beginning of what could become peak String-ish? Will we be sick of the violin before 2017 ends? Let’s give it a look see.
He looked like he was ready to jump from the top rope.
His hair was long and slicked back and his necklace/wrist band of choice was chains. Muscle bound, and perhaps oiled down, Tim Cappello was known to perform in a g-string. He looked more like a WWF wrestler than a saxophone player. Tina Turner hired Cappello to be a part of her 1984 comeback run. He, in turn, transformed that into a goldmine of TV and Film appearances culminating in his role in the 1987 vampire movie, the Lost Boys.
Tim Cappello was a sex symbol. And the sax was sexy. You type “sax in the 80s” into Google and you’ll find essay after essay dedicated to that topic. The saxophone was used to convey kinetic energy and was also used to create a mood of mystery. It was used in Rock & R&B alike.
But the sax would end it’s decade run in popular music as the 80s came to an end. You can’t keep a good woodwind down, however, and the instrument would go “underground.”
You would think that The Honeysuckle Breeze album was a Hip-Hop record. It certainly was in the hands of Pete Rock.
On the strength of Pete Rock’s work on WBLS, and he and CL Smooth’s debut EP, All Souled Out, Pete Rock was given the job of remixing Public Enemy’s “Shut Em Down” and quickly became an in-demand remixer. What made that song memorable? Tom Scott’s sax.
But “Shut Em Down” is not the song that changed the landscape of rap. That would come a year later in 92 when Pete Rock and CL Smooth released the lead-off single for Mecca and the Soul Brother. You know the song. The song that still can get a party hype. The one that has become the group’s signature song. Yeah, that one. “They Reminisce Over You.” That song’s a monster.
And those horns…also Honeysuckle Breeze.
The first horns that I remember that were similar were the Tony Dofat produced Rough House Survivers’ horns. He got a little Tom Scott love too. That was the end of 92. The next year would see sax overload. If it was East Coast rap…that shit had some sort of horn in it.
I’m sure that played a role in Pete Rock’s move towards a more soulful approach on his sophomore album, The Main Ingredient. And as quickly as the sax became the “in” instrument, it was out just as quickly.
People can say whatever they want about Rick Ross — and they certainly do — but what no one will ever say is that he doesn’t know how to pick good beats. But Ross ain’t never just picked beats. Many of his songs are so full musically that they sound like movie soundtracks, the most notable being his “Maybach Music” series, produced by the wunderteam The J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League (Rook, Colione, & Barto).
The J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League are known for taking great samples, replaying them and rearranging them, which is what they did on the first “Maybach Music” back in 08. And that has been their M.O. every since, with each one upping the ante of the last. This is how they describe “Maybach Music II:”
‘Maybach’ was a blueprint on its own. ‘Maybach Music 2’ we didn’t want to do anything similar, we just wanted to keep that sense of sophistication. We sampled Dexter Wansel. (song title removed*) We did our own thing to it, to the point where it became a totally new record. Dexter Wansel was the foundation for the form. But [afterwards] we added everything; the string arrangements, live guitar, bass, and drums. Barto, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League
Let’s stop there. The sad part about the way that modern music is distributed is one rarely gets the benefit of having full credits. Who played that live guitar? Who did they have on bass? Drums? And most importantly, for this writing, who did they get for those strings? Think about those strings on the opening of “Maybach Music III,” a song which they say took them six months to create. Lawd.
The ‘Maybach Music’ [series] is something you can’t take away from us because we kind of changed the game of hip-hop. Not a lot of people do that. There is probably a handful of producers that can say they have done it. Rook
Few covered the ground that Ross did. Of course, American Gangster proceeded “Maybach Music I” by a year, but that was one album…and you can find out who played instruments on that jawn. 3 Stacks got ’em both beat with his 03 work…I know you remember that. Who wasn’t immediately in the WTF-zone after hearing “The Love Below (Intro)?” Those were rare instances. But lately, it seems that it’s becoming common.
I slept hard on that Ty Dolla $ign Free TC. I listened to all of his previous releases so I figured I knew what to expect from him. Wrong. So wrong.
Word circulated throughout social media — “Ty Dolla $ign spends $50,000-$60,000 on strings” — still meant nothing to me. Until I read about it.
Ty spent $60 thousand of his own money to bring in Benjamin Wright, otherwise known as the man responsible for the strings on Michael Jackson’s 1979 album Off the Wall. Ty and TC used to go over to Wright’s house when they were children, until they got banned for staging an overly lewd fake talk show in front of Wright’s kids. “I didn’t really know who he was [at the time],” said Ty. “He was just one of my dad’s friends.” Wright’s lush string arrangements, played by a 19-string orchestra, appear on six songs on Free TC.
If you don’t know Benjamin Wright Jr, I’m sure you know Off The Wall, I’m sure you know Thriller, you know FutureSex/LoveSounds. You know “Luchini (AKA This is It)” (a song that sampled one of Wright Jr.’s arrangements). That impressed me.
Listen to them strings in “LA” listen to that arrangement in “Straight Up” and there are four other songs with those sweeping and lush strings. You can hear each and every dollar of them strings. I promise.
Fast forward to December of this year and that aforementioned J. Cole video. Straightaway we hear Charly of Chargaux knocking out some notes. Margaux appears at the 27th minute, and she like Charly earlier, wants “one more time.” They seem to be perfectionist. Chargaux have quietly been making a name for themselves over the past four years. They met in Boston then were found plying their trade, busking in NYC subway stations.
But their first placement that I can remember was on Good Kid M.A.A.D. City. Yeah, them strings at the end of “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe,” those strings were arranged and composed by Charly and Margaux. So seeing Charly at the top of Eyez, I couldn’t tell who she on first viewing — credits help — I knew that Cole’s album would have strings. When Dreamville posted the full credits, Chargaux can be found on seven of the ten tracks. That’s a lot of strings.
Then there’s that Kid Cudi. Again, someone give me some damn liner notes, please. We don’t know who’s doing what on “Rose Golden” aside from who produced it and that we got Willow adding on. But it sounds like we got a harp up in that piece and then about a minute in some soaring strings come in and back up that Cudi hummmmmmm. “Kitchen” is a string extravaganza. We have no idea who arranged them or who’s playing them, but damn they sound good.
(elbow has been working with the Halle Orchestra since at least 09, so I’m going to assume that they’re on “Magnificent (She Says)”)
Look, I love strings as much as the next man or woman. Give me Paganini — I can ride to that like it’s rap. I doubt we’re going back to the days of full orchestral arrangements like the kind that we saw in the late 60s and early 70s, too damn expensive, but I hope it doesn’t become overkill.
Too often, people hear or see something that they really enjoy, it touches the soul of the public, maybe even sells, and suddenly executives are lining up to repeat that success, oversaturating the market with inferior copies of that originally inspired piece of art.
But what am I yammering on about anyway? Remember when “The Hip-Hop violinist” was suppose to be bringing Hip-Hop strings to all the heavy hitting tracks of the early to mid 2000s? Naw? You don’t remember Miri Ben-Ari the woman who blessed Kanye with those strings on “Jesus Walks?” Yeah, that shows how cyclical this thing called rap is. If Tom Scott is still alive, he should get ready for some more checks. The sax will be back in T-minus….
*never forget, the edict — “know a lot of beats but I say no names” Diamond. that’s Hip-Hop…
