Have you ever seen or read an interview of an 80s pop star and wondered how in the world they’d manage to achieve success today? Their difficulty wouldn’t simply lie in the fact that music styles have changed. Most pop stars were entertaining because they had large personalities, and their personal codes that they represented through their music and their words. Where are those stars today?
Is pop culture intended to entertain as many people as possible in one moment, or to awaken something in a few individuals who are ready for a powerful message? And if average pop music is meant to help us sleepwalk through life, what’s the point of keeping it around? We’d all do better to strain our attention to works by the likes of Thought Provokah.
Taking inspiration from conscious rap, boom bap beats and the artist’s own set of spiritual values, “Elysenya” dares to dream of pop music as more than mere background noises that accompany shoppers in a mall. These are poetic meditations on the notion of freedom itself.
That may be a heavy order for most listeners. That’s why the artist opens the album with a spoken introduction. He explains that what he’s after through his art is “five minutes where the world doesn’t feel like it’s choking me.” Can’t you relate? It’s these words and the tone in which they’re uttered that should be enough to give this forward-thinking rapper your time.
On “Ashes on Altars,” Thought Provokah, together with Talen Ted, raps over a soulful vocal loop about spiritual hardships and the strategies for sanity that he’s uncovered.
And what’s the alternative? On “Without You,” the artist raps about days blurring into each other, about doing the same thing over and over again without any of it having any real meaning.
Note Thought Provokah old-school delivery. Every syllable is a beat, and none of them feel out of time. Each word is delivered, none are drowned in unnecessary effects. Every line is used for maximum impact, and none are wasted.
Is this retro hip-hop? There’s no dust gathered on these tracks that you need to brush off. There aren’t any beats that sound dated yet. But the intention behind it is similar to what the great artists in the genre had in mind before every pop rapper started talking about “the game” and began oversharing details of their lives of riches.
On “Dead Residents,” Thought Provokah tears down the supposed glamour of street crime. It’s all an ordinary atrocity, he seems to say, and if you’re not grounded, you’re likely to be suckered in.
But what to do with all these empty feelings that you, as a witness, are likely to have? The spoken word, “Rage is Not Your Enemy,” ties the whole album together, advising listeners to find healthy ways of managing their anger instead of suppressing it or letting it control their lives.
Yes, “Elysenya” is a spiritual hip-hop album, but not because it’s trying to convince you to run to church as quickly as possible. Great artists discover profound truths on which to base their work.
Where does all of that leave us? The album’s closer, “Elysenya on Earth,” is a promise. Perhaps celestial bliss may not be immediately possible. But the rapper will use his music to help inspire those who want to imagine that heaven on Earth is an objective worth striving toward. And if pop culture can try and do that, maybe it’s worth keeping around a while longer.
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