Detroit is a city of soulful music. Beyond the golden era of Motown, The D is currently home to artist such as Slum Village and Dwele who have a soulful vibe as well as a boom-bap style. Though the hip-hop community has recently lost one of the greatest producers in music history, the Dirty District has to keep moving. Prior to the passing of Dilla, a production duo was on the come-up will a style that was similar yet unique in comparison to Dilla. This duo is the Platinum Pied Pipers. Consisting of Waajeed (who has also produced for the Slum and executive produced for Dwele) and Saadiq, the production team embarked upon a musical endeavor to display, not only their production talents, buy the talents of various up and coming and established musical artists. The result was their critically acclaimed solo project Triple P. The album is full of gems for both hip-hop heads and soul lovers. “Fever” is just one of many examples showcasing their skills and Detroit’s soul.
“Fever” starts off with the soulful hum of the Fender Rhodes while being backed up by a deep and simple synthesized bassline, another synthesized sound that sounds like flanged horns and the thumping of a piano. The banging thump of the bass drum is the dominant element of the song that makes this joint such a head banger. After the soulful instrumental intro, one of three clean snare hits introduces Zeno’s smooth voice. It nice when the bass drum falls out and its just Zeno and the Rhodes holding down the sonic duties; but soon enough the bass drum creeps back into is place of dominance after the second clean snare hit, which this one is cleaner than the first. The third clean snare hit brings the listener to the main arrangement of the instrumental, in which the bass drum pounds away as the Rhodes creates body to the beat, accompanied by the steady bassline and the ethereal bell-like/electrical piano sound that is added during the hook. Above all the drums make this song great. The way that the tambourine, snare, and bass drum come together as one hit every quarter note professes the unwritten rule that the head must bob to this track. To further emphasize the illness of the instrumentation, the last minute on the track acts as an instrumental interlude. The bass drum and bassline are the same as well as the Rhodes; however more background sounds are added, or emphasized, and the tambourine is played two different ways from the way it was played during the earlier part of the song. The instrumental is so that one can only hope that the vocals that accompanies it will be hot
Singer Zeno takes care of the vocal for this song. Though the lyrics that he sings are fairly simple, Zeno still gets his message across: I’m looking for the right woman for my life, but until then I’m going to have fun. The verse is a bit more prolific that the hook, the two seem to come together after a couple of listens. Vocally, Zeno’s voice is reminiscent of Raphael Sadiq: powerful, soulful, and having good range, especially to reach higher notes. After listening to “Fever,” fans of the Soulquarians may become nostalgic of the brighter days of modern, 90’s soul music (“modern … soul” rather than “neo-soul” because “neo-soul” is a fabricated term used out of a desire to make unnecessary genre distinctions within music, and Transmute needs a term that best and comfortably describes the sound). What is interesting about this song is that Zeno sings his verses and hook in between quarter notes. In other words, instead of singing so that the words land on the drum hits, he sings in between the hits. This is both unconventional and ill.
Detroit is holding it down for the soul side of things, especially with the leadership of the Platinum Pied Pipers. Though no one can fill in the gap that the loss of J-Dilla has created, in celebrating his legacy, PPP will keep his Detroit sound alive while establishing a new standard for soul and Hip Hop.
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June 6th, 2006 at 8:34 am
dope article
September 10th, 2006 at 2:57 pm
i love them