Album Review: Moor Jewelry - True Opera

When I was coming up in the '00s, the worlds of hip hop and punk felt worlds apart. Despite owing their origins to the hollows of the English speaking world's former manufacturing bases, and both acting at times as the language of the unheard,  the genres were often viewed as oil and water in the eyes of rock fans. This seems more the byproduct of certain fans' biases and the influence of certain commercial interests, labels, and distributors than any inherent facts or qualities of either genre in either conception or history. Honestly, you don't even have to dig to find fruitful cross-pollination between the two. As early as 1981, Blondie had released the single "Rapture" which featured Debbie Harry spitting bars (more or less competently) about a wild night out with a man from Mars. The pioneering hip hop label Def Jam was founded in part by Rick Rubin who got his start playing in a punk band The Pricks and the legendary rhyme rapscallions, the Beastie Boys started out as a hardcore band. Fast forward to 1992 and you will find the inverse, when rapper Ice T dropped the self-titled album for his band Body Count, a shocking (for the time) combination of metal and hardcore punk that became the scourge of pearl-clutchering, Tipper Gore-moms and state-sanctioned bullies alike due to its infamous single "Cop Killer." Hell, even Dee Dee Ramone released a rap record at one point… Ok, so mistakes were made, but you get my point.

In recent years the synthesis of punk and hip hop has become more common and more thoroughly embraced by music fans who are coming of age in the milieu of a seemingly post-genre revolution happening one Soundcloud mixtape and self-released Bandcamp project at a time. Amongst the more stable of these experiments is Moor Jewelry, a collaboration between Philly based experimental noise rapper Moor Mother and producer Mental Jewelry. Their new project's debut album True Opera combines elements of both artist's progressive, cryptic and dark hip hop styles with elements of post-hardcore borrowed from angular, poet-rockers Quicksand and the angsty pioneership of Glassjaw. They are joined on the record by Philip Price, drummer of the ethereal metal band Kayo Dot, providing grit to the live beats and propelling the mix towards catharsis. 

Opener "True Opera" has a Gang of Four x Fugazi vibe, while "Look Alive" is driven by a trembling breakbeat and a Refused-esque chaotic groove. "Judgment" is evil and bluesy sounding and "Eugenics" feels like a mash-up of Bad Brains and At the Drive In riding a cresting wave of justice and revenge against genocidal state policies and the ghouls who administer them. True Opera is a record that already feels timeless to a certain degree, while clearly emerging from this singular moment in history.  

With the elites of the world seemingly tripping over each other to drop any pretenses of priority, opting instead to grab whatever they can that isn't nailed down before abandoning the ship of society, it seems like it's more important for the rest of us to bridge the gaps between us to stand and support of one another in solidarity. Whether these divisions be racial, historical, or even as marginal as one's taste in art, it's time to fill in the moats and join forces. As Montenegro explains on Moor Jewelry's label's page, "[f]or people my age there was a shift away from punk rock. [But] Crass was right about everything." A-fucking-men, brother.

Grab a copy of True Opera from Don Giovoni Records here.