the roots
When it comes to hip-hop in the early 2000s, it was all about the West Side.
west side coast hiphop
The West Side of West Coast LA hip-hop, written in Japanese pronunciation
Wessai!
I feel like there might have been a CD that used that katakana spelling, or maybe not...
I have a vague memory of that...
Honestly, even thinking about it now,
Wessai is lame!
I think (laughs)
Of course, I don't mean LA hip-hop itself.
At the time, I just thought that writing 'west side' as 'Wessai' in katakana was somehow lame.
Of course, nowadays I love it!
However, back in the early 2000s, perhaps because of that 'Wessai!' image, I couldn't really bring myself to like hip-hop.
At the time, I had started getting interested in Western movies through rock music, and because I started listening to mixture rock like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine, I also began to get interested in rap,
I'm going to try my hand at all sorts of genres!
I was eager to do that.
Of course, thanks to that time, I realized the merits of various musical genres and now I spend my days enjoying music,
but I just couldn't accept Wessai...
Excuse me,
let me rephrase that: it took me a little while to realize the merits of hip-hop (laughs)
That's because back then, I was a guy who was strictly into rock.
Perhaps because they were popular, many of the hip-hop music videos at the time were from the West Coast,
with guys wearing sunglasses and driving luxury cars, flirting with women in swimsuits while rapping in a kind of sweet, melodious style,
so-called typical West Coast music videos were playing on MTV and Best Hit USA,
(I love them now, though)
Who are these flashy guys...
was all I could think...
Honestly, I thought it many times.
Why do you wear your hat tilted to the side!
Wear it straight!
I thought! (By the way, I was still a teenager then)
I still couldn't accept that flashy vibe, but while I was looking for something else, what I unearthed was
The Roots
was it.
While there are many people who perform hip-hop in a band style these days, they were the first artists I encountered who used that style.
By the way, they are from Philadelphia,
East Coast side hip-hop (is that right?)
Personally, I prefer the East Coast style because it feels more jazzy.
My number one favorite in this band is
the drummer, Questlove!
The name is cool too, isn't it? Questlove.
He's the guy with the afro in the back.
At the time, I was playing guitar and starting to get interested in drums, and I was practicing on my own,
when I happened to listen to this band's
The Next Movement
I decided to try practicing the drums for that song,
and I immediately went to the studio to try it out, but...
I couldn't do it at all...
Honestly, listening to the song, it sounded like orthodox hip-hop, and the playing didn't seem that difficult, but...
The bass drum in this song is almost entirely on the off-beat...
This difficulty is something only those who play drums or music would understand, but
unlike rock drumming, which has many downbeats and can be played somewhat by momentum,
my feet just kept dragging...
Until I got used to it, I played the drums while staring intensely at my feet (lol).
Once I managed to play the drums and listened to songs by different artists again,
I had a new sensation.
Actually, this is the part I want to talk about the most,
but ever since I started practicing hip-hop drums thanks to The Roots, I started thinking like this:
What would happen if I played this song with a band?
Since it's normal for DJs to spin tracks in hip-hop, most of the rhythm sounds are programmed electronic sounds, but ever since I started thinking this way,
I've become able to listen to hip-hop!
Since then, hip-hop has also started to come naturally to my ears, opening a new door to music and adding new color to my musical life.
I have nothing but gratitude for The Roots.
Blessings to all music.
Thank you very much.