Paul Barman Release?

He was very smug on stage, and fairly condescending and impatient with his DJ, a very down-to-earth and talented guy (who happened to be black and Asian, so if you want to rashly accuse Barman's detractors of anti-Semitism, I will counter-accuse him of racism on the same silly grounds). Barman, I'm sure, can turn on the charm when he's with an interesting guy like you, Momus (I'm not mocking you, despite the tone of that sentence--I saw you at CMJ and was floored), but I felt like he had already written us off as uninteresting people not worth talking to.

Granted, he may have been tired, in a bad mood, mad at the guys he had been touring with--any number of things--the point is, he made a very bad impression on quite a few people here, myself included. It's completely unfair and rash of you to accuse his detractors of jealousy, and to assume their mental and creative inferiority. As I am not trying at all to be like him, I don't think it's fair to say that he throws my limitations into stark relief, either.

Momus' Boccacio reference is spot-on, but his De La Soul reference is not. Barman casts himself as an antihero; De La cast themselves as Everymen. Prince Paul aside, this makes for a big difference. As for Barman's flow, it has an earnest breathless quality that sometimes does it for me, sometimes not -- but hey, if I can sit through Timbaland's spottily-delivered banalities to get something out of the production, I can sit through Barman's spotty delivery to get at the (very, very) good bits.

I am completely unsurprised that Momus is pro-Barman, seeing as Barman is basically the Momus of hip-hop.

I can think of a few very interesting ways for Barman to slice up and explode the "this is just a gag on hip-hop" perception, but I doubt he'll do any of them, and probably with good reason.

I've only heard one track, the one that puts his spin on "Big Poppa," and I thought it was funny. I only heard it once, though.

Not necessarily. I certainly don't; then again, I'm not disgusted with him per se.

Unspoken But Present Suspicion in this thread: that Monsieur Barman's work is 'meant' to appeal to a group of people who otherwise would ignore/not pay attention to hip-hop in general, and who likely will not explore what he is referencing/building off from. I don't hold to this point of view myself.

mark, i think comparing the "wanna battle" thread to barman is sorta spot on, except for the fact that we don't go so far as to make records. for which gods should be thanked.

chaki's points sound like precisely the ones i'd use to deride barman, so there you go. and the lyrics fall straight into tom's warning about quoting "clever" and/or "deep" lyrics.

barman strikes me as a practical joke gone too far at the expense of the audience. but not far enough to make us wonder if that's the point.

As far as having that same background and approach to hip hop, I prefer what artists on the Slabco label have done. Land of the Loops for instance... Peter hook base lines, Coldcut/Negativland style plundering, child-like female vocals, singing sad love poetry. Subtle but ultimately very catchy too.

I think the Donne comparison is quite a good one, actually. He should jack in the hip hop and become some sort of modern Earl of Rochester - it'd be a better use of his talents...

Eminem's verse on Biggie's "Dead Wrong" is more or less what I think Barman could be doing if he were willing to think beyond the immediate rhyme. ("There's several different levels to devil worshippin': horses' heads, human sacrifices, cannibalism; candles and exorcism, animals, havin' sex with 'em; camels, mammals and rabbits/But I don't get into that, I kicked the habit.")

plus also, hating him seems so silly. and i'm 4 years late with this, but ...

I think any serious look at him has to reveal that he's essentially just pushing at the limits of exactly what kinds of content we expect from hip-hop, what we expect to be said.

... nitsuh otm.

-- chaki (chak...)

^^^ CHAKI APPRECIATION THREAD

phlar

― phlar

curly wurly!

had no idea he put out another album

phlar
― phlar, Saturday, April 23, 2005 4:19 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Push Barman to Open Old Wounds