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25 guide 12-18 Aug 2017 music

music

recent albums, accenting their

broader themes. Take, for

example, Jay-Z’s Smile from

4:44, in which his own soul-

baring about his mum Gloria’s

homosexuality is anchored by

her appearance at the song’s

end. Sister-in-law Solange,

meanwhile, built A Seat at the

Table around interviews with

her parents, their monologues

on race bookmarking the album’s

personal narrative; while Beyoncé

used a clip of Jay-Z’s grandmother

as the denouement of Lemonade.

From Chance the Rapper’s dad,

Ken, telling him he’s proud of

him on Acid Rap to Frank Ocean’s

friend’s mum sweetly listing

things to avoid on Blonde (“Don’t

use that cocaine or marijuana”),

artists keep using the voices of

their elders. But why?

“It’s usually a device to enrich

someone’s story, to suggest the

entire world that produced the

artist you’re getting to know via

their work,” says Ross Scarano,

deputy music editor at US youth

culture platform Complex Media.

It’s no coincidence that a lot of

these artists are deeply private

outside of their work, often saying

very little in interviews or, in the

case of Beyoncé and Jay-Z, just

not doing them. These interludes

offer up personal history,

communicating a warmth at

odds with the unreachable status

of the old-school megastar. They

also often appear in the artist’s

most self-consciously important

work, an acknowledg ment that

such artistic heights could never

have happened without that

support network.

More than helping to craft An

Album, such familial sermons

cement the bond between artist

and listener. Radio 1 DJ and life-

long Carter-Knowles stan, Clara

Amfo, says: “[Jay-Z]’s been open

about aspects of his life before

but on 4:44, it’s the first time I

felt like: ‘OK, I’m seeing you as a

whole person now.’” For Amfo,

A Seat at the Table offered up

a similarly direct conversation.

“Her parents’ speeches put

into context why Beyoncé and

Solange have become the people

they’ve become. I don’t think

that album would be the same

without them.” 

Michael Cragg

nterludes on US rap

and R&B albums used

to involve “hilarious”

voicemail recordings, breathy

come-ons or – as on Ludacris’s

2003 opus Chicken-n-Beer – an

automated menu offering niche

advice: “If you woke up with

a hangover and a pair of hairy

balls on your forehead, press #7.”

The rise of consumer cherry-

picking facilitated by streaming

has curtailed the often-skipped

interlude, but now they’re back,

and in a very specific way.

Solange, Frank Ocean, Chance

the Rapper, SZA, Jay-Z and

Beyoncé have all used the voices

of their respective parents, or

parental figures, on interludes

to weave a narrative through

How Jay-Z and

Solange revived the

dormant interlude

as a family aff air

Parental

guidance

I

Family ties Chance

the Rapper’s

proud pa, Ken,

with the young

Taylor (left) and

Chancellor

INSTAGRAM/CHANCE THE RAPPER