Nat King Cole and Hip-Hop Soul

Nat King Cole died, too soon, in February 1965, of lung cancer at the age of 45. He left behind a body of work that embraces the American songbook and exotic rhythms outside America, and it continues to endear him to millions. An archetype of sleek, musical cool, Coleโ€™s influence remains, to borrow a word,…

Nat King Cole died, too soon, in February 1965, of lung cancer at the age of 45. He left behind a body of work that embraces the American songbook and exotic rhythms outside America, and it continues to endear him to millions. An archetype of sleek, musical cool, Coleโ€™s influence remains, to borrow a word, unforgettable.

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Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?
Trump’s Tariffs Might Stick Around. What Should We Buy Now?

Itโ€™s a testament to his momentum in the culture that heโ€™s been rediscovered by some of todayโ€™s musical tastemakers in Re: Generations, a collection of Coleโ€™s tracks re-imagined by some of the hip-hopโ€™s best and brightest.

Some songs you may not recognize immediately. But theyโ€™re all earnest, though not entirely successful, attempts to put some of the best-known work of one of the nationโ€™s most beloved popular singers into a contemporary context, with todayโ€™s visionaries and stylists doing their thing in an era that is more brittle and dangerous than Coleโ€™s.

What makes Re: Generations work is not todayโ€™s insistence on having its way with yesterday; thereโ€™s irony and edge in some of these re-workings, a reflection of modern life. But these 13 tracks are a celebration of their own native, original power, and of the voice that made the originals so timeless.

Re: Generations presents these classics filtered through the production lensย of will.i.am, who is carving deep distinctions as an artist separate from the Black Eyed Peas; Cut Chemist, formerly with Jurassic 5 and the Latin funk band Ozomatli;ย Detroit funk stylist Amp Fiddler, a veteran of stints with George Clinton; and rapper-producer Cee-Lo Green, among others. The record includes actual performances from Philadelphiaโ€™s hip-hop collective The Roots; and the visionary Brooklyn band TV on the Radio, whose recent album Dear Science breaks other boundaries.

The results are as singular and uneven as you might expect from such a democratic undertaking.

On will.i.am'sย interpretation of โ€œStraighten Up and Fly Right,โ€ less is more. Leaving the tricks and devices aside, the song joins Nat King Cole in a duet with daughter Natalieโ€”a Grammy-winning powerhouse in her own right. Itโ€™s a reprise of the beyond-the-grave recording technique that made herย 1991 remake of โ€œUnforgettableโ€ so shimmering and memorable. But the studio magic works here, too, with daughterโ€™s voice and pace fitting dadโ€™s own style like the parts of a well-made watch.

Cee-Lo Green (of Goodie Mob and Gnarls Barkley) re-imagines the Billy Strayhorn classic โ€œLush Life,โ€ giving the track the sweep and glide of an urban cityscape that excerpts Coleโ€™s voice, augmenting it with modern electronic touches in the studio, boiling the track down to Greenโ€™s idea of its essence.

But thereโ€™s a challengeโ€”maybe even a problemโ€”in tweaking this indelible part of the canon that may be as well-known for its words as it is for its music. With only snippets of Strayhornโ€™s powerful, bittersweet lyrics intact here, Green has clipped the wings of the song, effectively turning a story into a sound bite, a painting into a snapshot.ย 

In the hands of TV on the Radio, โ€œNature Boyโ€ attains a primal urgency, with the bandโ€™s tense, driven atmospherics taking this Cole standard in a startling new direction, one that works despite the bandโ€™s almost overpowering the material.

โ€œWalking My Baby Back Homeโ€ disappoints. The Roots have basically fastened their streetwise hip-hop signatures directly onto the end of Coleโ€™s classic, resulting in a track that feels inorganic in its unity of two disparate sensibilitiesโ€”glued on, rather than woven in.

Cut Chemistโ€™s treatment of โ€œDay In, Day Outโ€ is positively infectious, a deft blend of hip-hop, scratches and the Brazilian rhythms that Cole passionately explored in the latter stage of his career. Cut Chemist gives voice to his own passion for Latin rhythms on a tribute track that doesnโ€™t leave Coleโ€™s voice on the outside looking in. You can get the heart started with this on the iPod every morning.

Producer Salaam Remiโ€™s treatment of โ€œThe Game of Loveโ€ weds a song steeped in Brazilian rhythms to a bassy hip-hop beat that complements the original. Nas, who jumps in halfway through, offers just enough of his signature style to make a contribution that does for this track what Bryant Terryโ€™s seasoning style does for food: augments the flavor without overpowering it.

Re: Generations is finally a statement of unity that points to hip-hopโ€™s maturity as a versatile framework for idioms outside itself. Hip-hop has long since found common cause with rock; this record illustrates just how itโ€™s continuing to grow, forging links to the past, expanding its own vocabulary and doing what music does best: building bridges to somewhere else.

Michael E. Ross is a regular contributor to The Root.

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