"Check" This Out

I'm at my desk, listening to Sound Opinions (soundopinions.org). This week's program is about sophomore albums that WORK. Usually, a band succumbs to the dreaded sophomore slump. It could be for various reasons. My gut reaction is that a band's first album is an album that has to be made for the band. The band will oftentimes have to drudge through their day or night shift jobs, sink their money or non-money (credit cards) into making the album. These albums inevitably showcase a band at their hungriest.

Then, if they're lucky, success happens. In some cases, they don't have anything left to say. It's the same thing that hangs across great writers - as great as they are, they may only have one album in them. In other cases, a band gets lazy or complacent. They go from selling t-shirts at the back of their cars to pay for the gas to go to the next town, to having everything handed to them. And with the inevitable record contract comes the burden of releasing an album out of obligation.

But some artists are able to transcend this sophomore slump. Think Radiohead's The Bends, think Cowboy Junkies The Trinity Sessions, think Morphine's Cure For Pain, and think A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory. Two great genres separated by a huge generation gap, jazz and hip-hop, find a great marriage with The Low End Theory. "Check The Rhyme" is one of those songs that if anyone hates hip-hop, I defy them to listen to it and not be at least partially swayed to not discredit the entire genre. Sophisticated, flawlessly executed and just plain fun, "Check the Rhyme" is a high point in '90s hip-hop.