I want rap to surprise me, like the first time I heard Run D.M.C. in the mid-1980s or Wu-Tang Clan during high school. Or that time my friend had a Jeru the Damaja tape in the deck of the Cadillac he inherited from his grandfather and it was all I could listen to for weeks straight; or that stretch when I was obsessed with Pharcyde’s Labcabincalifornia (particularly “Runnin’“) or Company Flow’s Funcrusher Plus. Then came MF Doom, RJD2, Madlib, Prefuse 73, The Cool Kids, Clipse, etc. Sometimes that level of infatuation with an album or song feels rare the older I get. More recently Big K.R.I.T. has held my interest, and Odd Future. My waxing/waning interest probably has something to do with age. I’m getting old. And for me, listening habits go in cycles: can’t listen to anything new for weeks; then all I want to hear is new music. You get the point. When I heard The Jealous Guys‘ “Brainwashed by London,” it intrigued me. Interested to hear more.
