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REVIEWS
LISTEN UP
Moonlighting
Tanya Morgan
Originally released April 2006
By Travis Larrier
On the heels of TIRM’s March issue
that tackled the death of hip hop and
R&B groups, Tanya Morgan is an heirloom
for fans of an era in hip hop when it
wasn’t just solo acts, radio singles and
$0.99 iTunes downloads. Tanya Morgan
(which sounds like the name of an Erykah
Badu knockoff) is actually a trio of
emcees – Von Pea, Donwil, and Ilyas –
hailing from Brooklyn and Cincinnati. On
their debut, Moonlighting, they
manage to serve up what many of us have
been ordering: a plate of nostalgia
without the copy-cat recycling.
I first heard of Tanya Morgan on
Okayplayer. ?uestlove had just released
a “Best Albums of 2006” list that was
peppered with some of my unequivocal
favorites (Fishcale, St.Elsewhere,
Donuts), some indies on a serious
come-up (Return To Cookie Mountain—TV
On The Radio) and a couple of shockers
(The Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury,
Joanna Newsom’s Ys). Lodged in
the middle of the list was what I
thought was a neo soulstress that I had
yet to hear of named Tanya Morgan.
The following anecdote might sound
familiar to some of you out there who
have been exposed to this artist. |
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The next week I’m in Cue Records doing a
little crate digging and I see Tanya
Morgan’s Moonlighting staring me in the
face right next to a copy of Fan-Tas-Tic
Vol. 1 that I was set to buy that
day. What the hell…I really dig ?uest’s
opinion and ear on music so how bad
could this chick be, right? At the
checkout counter the 40-something,
balding white dude on the register says,
“Aaaah, Tanya Morgan! Album of the year
right there!” What?!?!? I’m not
big on stereotyping (ok, maybe I am) but
this really floored me. In one week’s
time I had 2 resounding album-of-
the-year endorsements. Was I that out of
the loop? Probably. But if this vixen is
making 40-year-old white guys cream over
her, there has to be something here.
The irony is that as soon as I popped
the CD in, the opening skit, to my
surprise, was the exact same
experience I had in the record store.
The only difference was that I wasn’t as
disgusted by the surprise of Tanya
Morgan’s true identity as the buppie
rap-hater on the album’s intro.
So why would a hip hop collective
call themselves Tanya Morgan? Everything
I’ve read about these guys intimates
that there is no rhyme or reason to the
name. In fact, their intention was to
confuse — an inside joke of sorts. Quite
an off-center concept given the
self-promotion oriented society we live
in today. For most, a nomenclatorial
stunt like this can come across
gimmicky… hokie at best. The only
problem here is that these guys are damn
good and are the newest installment of
hip hop groups that are moving things
forward by taking things back. |
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The style “flippage”, wordplay,
lo-fi production and group dynamic
found on Moonlighting make
it a throwback to days of Native
Tongue groups like De La Soul,
Jungle Brothers, Tribe and Black
Sheep. As we witness the slow
death of hip hop groups and all
that it entails, there is specific
loss in the entertainment
department. Groups were always
good to feature unique
personalities forming a composite
whole (see Flavor Flav and Chuck D
or the De La trio). In this
manner, Tanya Morgan’s
Moonlighting has the classic
group dynamic with each of the
three emcees displaying unique and
disparate styles that collate into
one gratifying product. In full
disclosure, Tanya Morgan did not
toil and labor in the studio
creating this album. Rather, they
did what many supergroups do these
days (a la Foreign Exchange) and
traded tracks and files with each
other via AOL instant messenger
and email. The result is a very
lo-fi sound that is nostalgic and
breezy. At its finest,
Moonlighting’s production and
arrangement are very reminiscent
of De La Soul is Dead. |
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Ilyas is, perhaps, the best lyricist.
Whether it’s his quick flow on the Lil’
Jon farce, “Rough U Up”, or his fluidity
on “Take the L”, Ilyas sounds like the
wiliest of emcees. Donwil acts as the
group’s medium—a straightforward, hungry
(and at times angry) rapper’s rapper who
centers the group (“We Right Here”). Von
Pea is the most compelling. His lyrical
phrasing is disgustingly diverse and
vacillates between lazy (“Pretty”),
off-kilter (the melodic “Hooks”) and
blunt, sharp-as-a-tack battle raps (“We
Bad”). Put together, the collective
sounds something like a supergroup of
sorts; the sum of the parts being far
greater than any individual.
Moonlighting is also a fun listen.
It is truly a complete album that
follows a loose storyline around a Tanya
Morgan tape that circulates through
various members of the hip hop
community. Throughout the story,
everyone who comes in contact with the
tape finds something inherently corny or
unappealing about the product. Is this
an indictment that speaks to how siloed
the hip hop community is these days in
how we want everything to fit in a box
whether it be “conscious”, “nerd rap” or
whatever? The squad also switches up
moods and subject matter with some
heavy, albeit crafty, sampling from MC
Lyte in the beginning to an ill
rendition of Marvin Gaye’s classic, “I
Want You”, at the end. “Ode to Tanya”, a
hilarious cut, shows the crew comically
hating on each other in front of a girl
at the club. It’s all here in this
album.
This album was released about a year
ago, but its uniqueness, employment of
the group aesthetic, and overall
realmusic vibe are so compelling that we
here at TIRM felt it our duty to put
anyone on who might be late to the
party. Tanya Morgan is a group, in the
classical sense of the word, making hip
hop music that I wished I had made. |
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Posted
by: donwill