Review- Moby's 18 and Busta Rhymes' Genesis

-by Tyler M. Carey

Moby's 18 can be considered his reaction to September 11, it seems. His liner notes ramble about the urgent need for peace and tolerance in light of the destruction of downtown New York. "We are all made of Stars", the single off of 18 that seems to be attracting the most airplay, seems to be a simultaneous call for unity and for self-respect. That there I think is the rub. One can see Moby, the vegan buddha of our day, as an outgrowth of the tradition of musicians going back to Graham Nash, Joni Mitchell and others who tried to advance social change through their music. Many of these individuals seem to preach to the choir. While I respect Moby and his message, and I see his addressing September 11 in his liner notes and music as cathartic for those who want to hear the message, I think his audience isn't the necessary target for such sentiments. It would be much more significant (and amusing) for Marilyn Manson to write a song encouraging his audience to just get along with one another. By extension, I also find Moby's suggestion to love one another and also be proud of yourself to be contradictory. The sentiment seems to go back to the me-generation and a lot of "I'm okay, you're okay," bullshit that is hackneyed beyond belief.

Regarding the actual music on 18, fans of Moby's Play will be satisfied to hear him dabbling in many different genres once more. "We are all made of Stars" conjures pop sensibilities fused with techno, resulting in a toe-tapping song that may only be eclipsed by its video, which features washed up celebrities galore. "In my Heart" is a disco diva song if ever there was one. The fact that it is sung by a gospel choir will quickly be forgotten as this will no doubt become this year's big drag queen song, what with its glam rock piano and d&b riffs against a soaring vocal. "Signs of Love" and "18" bring Moby back to his symphonic techno best, mixing what sounds like dozens of instrumental lines, but is actually probably just a synth and drum machine. If there is one weak song on the album, it is definitely "Jam for the Ladies", which features Angie Stone and MC Lyte rapping over perhaps the worst riff in white-boy-wanna-be-rapper history. Vanilla Ice is probably shooting his radio right now, after listening to this song, wondering what he did to earn having to hear this bit of aural crap.

If you can program your CD player to play every song in sequence except for "Jam for the Ladies", you'll find that Moby has recorded one of the most solid albums of the past year. He introduces motifs in songs and resurrects them later on the album. He expertly sequenced the album so that it peaks early on, fades to an intermezzo with "18" and then rises once more before the close. This would an excellent double-LP set for the audiophiles. Fans of Play will be enthusiastic about Moby's innovative mixes, and those who have gone unimpressed will find 18 to be a more mature Moby, able to knit a cohesive album after a decade of pastiches.

If 18 was Moby's way of emotionally addressing the attacks on his city, Genesis is Busta Rhymes saying that no terrorists are gonna get him down. Genesis is an amusing album right from the get go - a taped conversation between Busta and Clive Davis. "Everybody Rise Again" is a fairly nondescript cut that just sets the tone of a party or a crowded club. It's on "As I Come Back" that Busta - the self-described 'living cartoon character' comes out of his shell with rapid-fire syllables, alternating beats and full blown attitude. "As I Come Back" is reminiscient of Busta's first huge hit, "Woo Ha", the video for which was the first successful hip hop video to use a fish-eye lens, creating Busta's distorted overblown image. The album just keeps rolling from there.

Genesis has the requisite ton of guest stars that any hip hop album has today, but it's a much more impressive list of talent: Rah Digga, P. Diddy, Jaheim, Kelis, Mary J. Blige, Pharrell, and of course, the Flipmode Squad - a virtual who's who of the Top 40. It's no surprise that Busta attracts this talent. His engineers and co-producers routinely mix much more complex albums than most artists out there, and Busta is responsible for some of the more significant developments in hip hop music - including the aforementioned fish-eye lens for videos, the unorthodox syncopation of his earlier works which is now horribly misused by artists who can't grasp the rhythymic complexities, and more importantly the image of a professional partier, as opposed to a thug. Maxim magazine once irresponsibly accused Busta of "setting the movement back", but it's actually Busta's reliance on James Brown showmanship and urban culture that makes him a much more intriguing (and responsible) artist than those who try to manufacture false gang identities or try to imitate only that which is considered groundbreaking during the day and a half it took to record their albums.

The strongest tracks on the album, and that's saying something, are definitely "Break Ya Neck" and "Pass the Courvoisier Part II", the latter of which features P. Diddy and Pharrell. "Break Ya Neck" will probably go down in the books as one of the most lyrically misunderstood songs of all time. Busta's in fine form, more than earning his name, by spitting out as many as many as five or six words per second on this track. If it weren't for the equally prevalent use of the f and n words on the other album tracks, the censors probably wouldn't have been any the wiser as to what Busta was actually saying on "Break Ya Neck". "Pass the Courvoisier Part II" is an ode to the hip hop beverage of choice, which is amusing in and of itself. What with its placement as the closing track on the album, the songs serves as an anthemic closing to Busta's latest effort. P. Diddy and Pharrell each have their own verses, which are tied together nicely by Busta's hook-heavy chorus. The video for the song no doubt has a lot to do with it and the album's successes. Guest appearances by Mr. T and Jamie Foxx, an amusing take on the Cotton Club, and Jackie Chan style kung fu, have resulted in the video being more entertaining than any of the summer movie fare. One can only hope that Busta Rhymes' sideline film career keeps going. In all, Genesis is an excellent hip hop album that can only serve to broaden Busta's audience.