If you thought hip hop was dead, think again. Up-and-coming rappers Keith “Smeazy” Passmore and Louis “LQ” Iverson, two active duty American Air Force members, have recently released their first album titled Soul Music 101. The duo introduces to the world their newly founded hip hop group, MC2, whose name and inspirations immediately separate them from the norm as they are far from what we are used to.
E=MC2: An Equation Valid from Science to Music
Forget about those gangster-movie-associated and money-related names. This rapping duo has found their inspiration in the famous relativity equation formulated by Albert Einstein. The universally-known theoretical physicist marks his presence in Soul Music 101 not only by appearing on the CD cover, but also inside its case in form of a quote that unequivocally links science to music: “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” Smeazy and LQ have therefore given the energy equation a new meaning: Energy = Music and Character. Times two that is, since there are two of them bringing their energy and rapping skills to the hip hop world.
Soul Music 101: Back to the Roots
What immediately catches the attention of the hip hop fan’s ears is the back-to-the-roots spirit of the album. Soul Music 101 stands against all the commercialized and disco-targeted songs currently airing on the radio. Rather, it is a wake-up call to bring hip hop back to its original purpose: being the vox populi. As Smeazy and LQ state in their song titled “Soul Section”, the rapping duo is “here to take hip hop to another direction” because “you wack niggaz ruined it” (MC2, “Soul Section” Soul Music 101).
Even if they talk about current political and social issues, there is often a taste of the old school in their lyrical content. For example, In “Soul Section” is impossible to miss the reference to the Notorious B.I.G.’s song “Juicy” (Ready to Die, 1994), with the famous quote “So if you don’t know, now you know”. In “Multiply” MC2 brings back N.W.A.’s song “Real Niggaz Don’t Die” (Efil4zaggin, 1991), referring to MC Ren’s sentence “Real niggaz don’t die ‘cause they eventually multiply.”
Rhythm and Blues, Jazz and Poetry: Sources of Inspiration for MC2
Smeazy and LQ also take their inspiration from other two music genres that are considered by many scholars as the predecessors of hip hop: rhythm and blues and jazz. As William Jelani Cobb describes in his book titled “To The Break of Dawn”: “The bluesman paved the way for the rapper in that the blues brought calm recognition to the concept of human evil as a consequence of human existence” (W. J. Cobb). In Soul Music 101 the smooth, calm and soft feeling of classic jazz and rhythm and blues is ever-present.
The duo adds poetry references to the classic Black music blend by quoting the so-called ‘poet laureate of television’, Nipsey Russell, in their song “Hold You Down”:
“But that's the whole tragic point my friends
What would I do...
If I could suddenly feel
and to know once again
that what I feel is real
I could cry... I could smile
I might lay back for awhile...
Tell me what, what, what would I do?
If I could feel”
(Nipsey Russell, “What Would I do If I Could Feel”)
MC2: A Soul Connection
MC2’s debut album Soul Music 101 is a breath of fresh air in this contaminated modern rap world that is too focused on materialism. Smeazy and LQ are able to connect with their fans to a very profound level by providing them with sounds and lyrical contents that touch their souls and take them back to when hip hop’s sole aim was to give voice to the voiceless.
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Brunella Irma Costagliola - Brunella Irma Costagliola is a full-time writer and a published author. Her book is titled "Gangster Movies in Gangsta Rap"
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