Old and new: Killah jazz-hop

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: BADBADNOTGOOD
Featuring vocals from Wu-Tang's Ghostface Killah, Sour Soul marries jazz and old-school rap, sure to please all sorts of audiences.

BADBADNOTGOOD is a trio of jazz musicians that met at Humber College in Toronto. The group has become known in the music scene for its renditions of contemporary hip-hop songs, blending them flawlessly with its own unique style.

The group has had a long list of collaborative works and its latest album is no exception.

The album, Sour Soul, was released on February 23 and features Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ghostface Killah on vocals.

BBNG has created a style of jazz that exists separately from the typical cigar-smoking opera-going bourgeois of the genre. These hiphop twisted musicians let the listener experience jazz like never before.

This is the kind of jazz that a James Bond villain listens to when cruising around in a 1950’s Cadillac.

While the majority of rap and hip hop has turned to dissonant bells, drum machines and choruses sung by carbon copy divas, the Sour Soul album has united old and new. It brought the flair of old-school rap to a new interpretation of jazz.

It even boasts a real acoustic drum kit, none of the thin- and flimsy-sounding percussion on the radio today.

Ghostface Killah delivers hard-hitting raps that compliment the mellow vibe of BBNG in a way that lets Sour Soul get aggressive while retaining a relaxed aura.

Many of the songs on this album follow a similar format, opening with a quick and simple jazz introduction closely followed by several rap verses by Ghostface Killah. After a bit of this mellow grooving beneath a violently passionate rap, Ghostface Killah steps away from the track to let BBNG really shine through. Each song concludes with a jazz jam tagged onto the end, lasting anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute or more.

Some jams flow seamlessly together with the rap portions, as heard in the track “Tone’s Rap,” while others, such as “Six Degrees,” have a gap effectively separating the sections into two separate songs.

The rap side of this compilation isn’t bad, but it’s certainly not the strongest aspect of Sour Soul. That’s not to say that there aren’t some definite highlights on this album from Ghostface Killah, but the majority of this album’s hooks are derived from the instrumental accompaniment.

There are still some incredible verses, however, delivered on “Mind Playing Tricks” and “Ray Gun,” the latter of which is arguably the best joint effort on the album between Ghostface Killah and BBNG. This whole song just screams of villains, despite much of the content being about superheroes.

While Ghostface Killah overshadows most of the Sour Soul album, there are three excellent instrumental tracks on it. The first of these is “Mono,” which serves as an introduction to the album. It sets the mood and eases listeners into a dark sort of relaxation. The second instrumental, “Stark’s Reality,” is by far the cheeriest on the album. Tasteful use of xylophone in this song creates an effective sense of mysticism and wonder that is missing from the rest of Sour Soul. The album concludes with “Experience,” which is a rendition of the first track “Mono.”

Having a rendition such as this in an album is always a risky move, but BBNG manages to pull it off with flair, and if you didn’t listen to these songs back to back, you wouldn’t hear a single similarity. BBNG uses “Mono” and “Experience” to create bookends for this album that transition us in and out of the world of Ghostface Killah.

Both of these artists have been doing incredible things on their own, and they have both come together to create an amazing collaborative piece of work. Sour Soul is a must-have for anyone who likes old-school rap, experimental music or is curious as to what Tony Stark would say if he were a rapper.

Rating: 4 out of 5