Speaking about James Brown and funk and singular instrumentation, I present to you Mystikal and the Neptunes' "Shake It Fast,*" which is almost the inverse of "1 Thing." Instead of letting the drums tell the entire story, here the Neptunes let Mystikal take the spotlight for himself, giving him the sparest of backgrounds to work with, a minimalist and skeletal frame of insular beats and bleeps. The resultant sparse soundscape gives Mystikal plenty of room to sing, rap, and talk to himself, and he does a superb, electrifying job, creating the melody and rhythm all on his own, providing a couple of quotable sound bites ("Watch yourself," and "Don't be scurred")that my students nine years ago shouted to each other again and again. If James Brown were alive and well and early in his career ten years ago, he might have sounded much like Mystikal, 'cause Mystikal--though not an imitator--sure calls forth the Brownian spirit, as he--almost completely all on his own--gets off on the good foot** and makes it funky.
Notes
*I know the unedited-for-radio title is "Shake Ya Ass," but I actually like the radio edit better, because the lyrics on the title and on the euphemisms in the verses flow much better than do the words in the original.
**Yeah, he got off on the good foot, but he didn't stay there, as after this single and the subsequent (sound-alike, and almost as good) "Danger," Mystikal slowly slid off the charts and off the radio, as the Neptunes' reductive recording techniques--though (relatively) innovative--soon drove off listeners. By the time they opened up their sound, Mystikal had moved on to other producers, none of which helped him in the least. His records started to sound mediocre and--worse--dated, and he got left behind, which is a shame, 'cause the boy's got talent. It's a rough business out there, though. As Kool Moe Dee said, it's all about "How ya like me now."
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