TO SIR ELTON, WITH SPITE/GREAT 'LOST" ALBUMS

The "Just Shut Up" Award of the Week

Yet another weekly feature of the R Spot that will probably not be so weekly, is the "Just Shut Up" Award, going to the person or persons who runs their mouth in the most annoying fashion during the past week. Past winners, if there had been an award, would include Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Michael Moore, Zell Miller, Colin Farrell, Ashlee Simpson and Mel Gibson.

This week the award goes to Sir Elton John, who apparently has had his medication adjusted in recent months as he has publicly taken to task Madonna (for "lip synching") and Tony Blair (for not doing more about AIDS) and now has commented openly about the psychological state and sexual mores of George Michael.

John, 57, told Heat Magazine that "George is in a strange place. There seems to be a deep-rooted unhappiness in his life and it shows on the (latest) album. All I would say to George is: you should get out more."

Only problem is, George Michael doesn't agree and he isn't laughing. In an open letter also published in Heat, Michael responds, "I was always aware that Elton's circle of friends was the busiest rumor mill in town, and that respect for my privacy was not exactly guaranteed. Elton John knows very little about George Michael, and that's a fact. Contrary to the public's impression, we have spoken rarely in the last 10 years, and what would probably surprise most people is that we have never discussed my private life. Ever."

Ouch!

In the future, perhaps John should stick to attacks on Dennis Miller and President Bush, a pair who's boorish boobishness is hardly open to debate.

Black on Both Sides, by Mos Def (1999, Rawkus Records)

This is my choice for the best rap album ever. Everyone has different expectations and tastes in their music and clearly this reflects my bias. But if you only know Mos Def as a top notch character actor or from his early hip-hop work as part of the duo Black Star, I encourage you to check out Black on Both Sides, his finest solo album to date and, in my opinion, the most lyrically dazzling and profound hip-hop since the early days of Public Enemy and Eric B. and Rakim.

Every word on this album is smart and musical...it recalls the verbal facility of the Last Poets, Chuck D. and Jay-Z at their best. Not content to chronicle the lifestyles of "gangstas" and playas, Mos Def lays out 17 tracks about everything, including male ego, the hip hop game, growing up black in America, the degredation of the environment, love, lust, racism, politics, philosophy and the economy of being black in a white man's land. Mos never preaches (well, ok, he preaches a little on the sarcastically perceptive, "Mr. Nigga", which is actually a remake of a Tribe Called Quest joint), he just lays out the rhymes in his deceptively easygoing style over catchy mid-tempo beats and he trusts the listener to draw their own conclusions. A bonus is that on many tracks, Mos Def eschews relying on sampling goes with live instrumentation, some of which he plays himself. If you're sampling tracks, the ones I recommend the most are "Mathematics", "Hip Hop", "New World Water" and "Brooklyn".

What makes this a great overlooked album? Simple--in today's rigidly formatted, corporately controlled music marketplace, nothing on this album got any real airplay, most of it's magic remains a mystery to all but the most devoted "alternative hip hop" fans. The album may have gone gold strictly on word of mouth (although I doubt it), there weren't any videos on heavy rotation on MTV, no tour to support it no bling-bling and colorful Ebonics lingo that it inspired. It's just rap, baby, at it's best. Check it out...

Also see reviews in www.amg.com.

Got any "lost" classics? Feel free to submit in the comments section at the end of this blog. I'd love to hear about them.

Other great underappreciated rap albums per "The R":
The Goats, Tricks of the Shade (1993)
Blackalicious, Blazing Arrow (2001)
3rd Bass, The Cactus Album (1988)
Atmosphere, Seven's Travels (2002)

This Just In

The "Just Shut Up" Award has been renamed the Paris Hilton Award because of her lifetime achievements in pointless self-promotion and endless unintelligent blather. Rock on Paris, we salute you! And Elton gratefully accepts...

Until next time, peace out...