Featuring MCs Qwazaar, Qwel, and Denizen Kane, producer DJ Natural and media assassin Kid Knish, Typical dropped a self-titled full-length album, Typical Cats, on Galapagos4 Records in 2002, and began a relentless campaign to restore a fallen hip hop world to its former promise and glory. The talent assembled was unmistakable, the sound created was formidable. Firmly planted in tradition, unorthodox in invention and possessed of a strength only earned in the furnace of experience, their sound is the future that hip hop's past would have had if its present weren't held hostage by the uninspired and unrepentant. A flurry of solo projects later, Chicago's prodigal sons return. Hip hoppers rejoice. Suckers duck and cover. Typical Cats come to conquer. Battle champs, hotline legends, poetry circuit kings. Typical cats released their second album titled Civil Service in 2004.
Typical Cats return, the last of the great true school crews—bearers of transformed tradition, innovators par excellence, and heralds of an undying devotion to the science and magic of boom bap music. The latest installment in the TC saga is 3, their third studio full-length. It plays like a message in a bottle from Hip Hop’s timeless present to the bizarre post-physical, digital, viral world in which we live. DJ Natural’s production chops have only deepened with time, and the rugged loops of the self-titled “Orange Album” and the live instrumentation of Civil Service have melded to yield a mélange of soul, jazz, funk, roots, radical politics, and a sly refusal to bend to the dictates of current fashion. Kid Knish reprises his role as hip hop’s all-time greatest unseen crew member (sorry, Jarobi), serving up samples, historical references, and vinyl oddities for Natural to slice and serve as android slabs of production genius.
TC’s trio of MCs—Qwel, Denizen Kane, and Qwazaar—rhyme like men breathing from the soles of their feet. The basis of their legend is in full effect—crackling chemistry, unnerving flow, and true stories. The album plays like a jazz-era cutting session turned confessional booth, a stylistically freewheeling effort threaded together by moments of revelation, underpinned by fiercely focused production and dominated by stories of journey, moments of transformation, and warnings against coming catastrophe. For TC, the MC is a misunderstood figure, a musical seer, a minor prophet, and reluctant hustler, using words to outwit enemies, trump circumstances, and emerge from the belly of the beast with respect and rent money.
Highlights abound—Kane returning to his spoken word roots on “Denizen Walks Away,” Qwel giving his early battle rap classics a run for their money on nickel-plated platters like “My Watch” and “Gordeon Knock,” and Qwazaar flexing uncanny musical intuition, anchoring the record with meditative efforts on “Puzzling Thing” and “Reflections from the Porch” before pummeling tracks like “Better Luck” and “On My Square.” Although the LP is studded with solo shots, crew tracks are the soul of the record. “On My Square” opens with a flurry of horns before exploding into an array of signature styles—multisyllabic combinations from Qwel, laid-back but incisive chatting from Kane, and a classic Qwa verse full of declarations, threats, and witticisms, all cemented by a Qwel chorus imbued with requisite layers of meaning. Natural’s production evolves with each verse, sliding from Meters style guitars with knocking drums to moody keys with ease.
The first single, “The Crown” is a frenetic display of jagged guitars and style-shifting that makes it a perfect complement to the Orange Album’s classic “Reinventing.” The name, however, is something of a misnomer. TC have never been interested in being kings. They’ve been griots shouting from the village limits, stoning the village idiots, interrupting thieves, and solidifying sterling reputations as rappers’ rappers, smokers’ smokers, underground Gs, tribal chiefs. There will never be another Typical Cats. They leave the set like five men exiting a burning building, leaving wrecked stages and a catalog of classics in their wake. With their exodus, we find ourselves suddenly grown, having come of age with the culture, standing, as always, at the crossroads. With the music, we move like Gayle Sayers, howl like Magic Sam, see the city like a kid on the project bench, and mark it all down in a black book that will never close. It is what it is. Forever.
QWAZAAR - A native of Chicago's gritty Low End, Qwazaar strikes from hip hop's essence. Whether the subject matter is inner city or interplanetary, the flow remains untouchable - a percussive yet fluid attack that evokes South Side rain and helicopter blades in a single breath. The content is heavy-a holdover from days when this veteran MC (No Pity/Outerlimitz) had to lyrically slay rivals to earn his sterling rep. "After the dust settles, witness the blood puddles..." Lights out, kids. The Q-W-A is here.
QWEL - You first saw his name dangling a quarter mile up on a suspension bridge from your scratch-bombed window on the Orange line. You first heard that distinctive melodic/abrasive storm of syllables on old Nacro and Scam Artist tapes with inserts printed at the Kinko's. Now the heat's been perfected and this nasty North Side revelation music rebel is out to wake the sleepers. From Ted Turner's devil ass to the so-called competition, everyone and their mama gets dealt with when the kid laces up his boots.
DENIZEN KANE - From the rum and Coke rumble of Chicago's North Side flow spots to the celluloid veneer of Def Poetry Jam's main stage, Denizen Kane rips the party with a poet's heart and an outsider's eye. Journalistic, impressionistic, real-life and drastic, young Kane's late night Red Line revelations turn into heathen hymns on tape, capturing the moody face of the metropolis in color. How long can a lost one roam until he finds his way home? Listen to your city fall apart through the muddy mouth of an immigrant.
Intro
Typical Cats Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
In that case we're better than you confuse, just call it music work[?]
Whose complexities drop next to these concept mc's; fuck ya bomb threats with rhyme schemes
Please put your dogma on the leash kid, these cats come to collect
Confuse the callous crush crawl into your ear canal connect
Rustling egos and the light emit by [unintelligible] definitions
A rhymin' savage, never ravage, musical emissions [unintelligible]
These hands for all the cats searchin' hard for the content, who won't settle for the nonsense
The last true few has, willing to spend their final dollars on they favorite hip-hop artist, no matter who the cost is, lest[?] darkness
The opening lines to Typical Cats's "Intro" are an invitation to shed any preconceptions of what rap music is or should be. Instead of settling for familiar lyrical cliches, the group insists that the full arsenal of language be employed to convey their message. They position themselves as "concept MCs", artists who blend complex themes and imagery with clever wordplay and rhyme schemes. In contrast to the bombastic, violent threats common in hip hop, Typical Cats suggest their true power speaks for itself in the rhythm and flow of their music. They urge listeners to let go of any dogmatic biases and allow their art to enter through the ear canal and awaken the mind.
In the following lines, Typical Cats continue to emphasize the importance of substance and originality. The use of the term "callous" suggests a disregard for emotion and nuance that has permeated much of mainstream rap. They seek to rustle this ego-driven approach to music, instead offering a new light that illuminates the multiple meanings and layers within their lyrics. The group also highlights their musicality, dubbing themselves as "musical emissions" rather than aggressive MCs. This emphasis on musicality is particularly notable in light of the jazz-inflected production by their producer, Qwazaar. Together, the lyrics and music on the "Intro" stand as a manifesto for Typical Cats's artistic philosophy.
Line by Line Meaning
Fuck choosing a word, use everyone you've ever heard
Don't limit yourself to a single vocabulary, incorporate all the language you've ever heard.
In that case we're better than you confuse, just call it music work[?]
Because of our diverse language usage, we are superior to those who only bring confusion - this is simply our style of music creation.
Whose complexities drop next to these concept mc's; fuck ya bomb threats with rhyme schemes
Other rappers' songwriting styles pale in comparison to the intricate concepts and ideas expressed by us - we don't need to rely on violent threats in our lyrics.
Please put your dogma on the leash kid, these cats come to collect
Stop pushing your beliefs on others - we are here to show our skills and take what's rightfully owed to us.
Confuse the callous crush crawl into your ear canal connect
Our music will entrance and captivate you, even if you don't fully understand it.
Rustling egos and the light emit by [unintelligible] definitions
Our music challenges and disrupts people's egos and exposes them to a new way of thinking.
A rhymin' savage, never ravage, musical emissions [unintelligible]
We are skilled at creating rhymes and expressing ourselves through music, without resorting to violence or destruction.
These hands for all the cats searchin' hard for the content, who won't settle for the nonsense
Our music is meant for those who seek deeper meaning and won't accept superficial or meaningless lyrics.
For those whose intellect will just not accept the dumb shit
Our music is intended for intelligent individuals who won't tolerate low-quality or unintelligent music.
The last true few has, willing to spend their final dollars on they favorite hip-hop artist, no matter who the cost is, lest[?] darkness
There are still a handful of true hip-hop fans who will support their favorite artists no matter the cost, in a world otherwise consumed by darkness and ignorance.
Writer(s): Werner Nadolny, Dinand Woesthoff Copyright: Universal Music Publishing Mgb Holding B, Universal Music Publishing B.V., Edition Solid Rock Music
Contributed by Kylie L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
ringostar8
their most recent album isn't as good but this used to give me chills in high school. I've spent more time listening to these guy's than anyone, with maybe the exception of led zepplin and eyedea
Brandon Pekilis
f-f-f-f-f-firstttttt blood
also just discovered these guys dope as fuck listened to some of their other stuff they real good
Stennett Bowman
I always hear "fuck jews" at the beginning