Writing about Stray Phrases last night reminded me of this group today. BADBADNOTGOOD is another jazz trio that takes inspiration from hip hop but puts their own touch on it (obviously a more jazzy take on the genre). Like the Stray Phrases’ cover of Donuts, these guys are known for doing a lot of remakes of classic hip hop beats. My favorite of course would be the video above which is a great collection of Metal Fingers beats, though their covers of Fall in Love, Electric Relaxation, and The World Is Yours are nice too. I haven’t had the chance to check out all of their material yet, but it is all available for free at their Bandcamp page.
While writing this post I have also run into some interesting discussion that seems to be taking place around the internet about these guys. From the NPR articles here and here it seems that the more traditional (and older) jazz community is worried I guess about the more recent hype that they have been receiving lately, particularly a result of their small tour and live sessions with popular artists like Tyler, the Creator (who I’m not much of a fan of, but I’ll get around to that whole subject at some other time…). I can’t say I’m incredibly knowledgeable about the current state of contemporary jazz or whatever label is put on it, but I do believe that the pretentious arguments being made by folks like this, this, and this aren’t really doing much to help the distinct generation gap between those listening to whichever artists these jazzsnobs consider appropriate and/or legitimate jazz and a younger crowd that can appreciate music for what it is, without all of these applied rules made up by those that supposedly know what this genre “really is”. I wouldn’t claim that BBNG is doing anything revolutionary or noteworthy in particular concerning the genre of jazz but I have yet to see any reason why there is such a controversy surrounding their acceptance as musicians within the jazz community. Just my thoughts on the matter anyway.