While enjoying a Cincinnati Reds game, Jamie "Wonder Brown" Farris (local Cincinnati musician and good friend of the WUW? crew) commented that hip hop music, at its core, may be the purest form of American folk music. Although hip hop music is often disregarded as an art form, when the music is encountered in it pure form, the listener is drawn into complex narratives about desire, hope, love, loss, longing, and despair. In order to listen to hip hop in this way, the listener must disconnect from the culture industry that seeks to uproot all art (including hip hop) from the source of its creativity and authorship to displace it in the realm of conformity and commodity.
Not that everything one hears on the radio is trash but it is typically stripped from the authorial originality and reproduced to reach spots on a strategic demographic marketing graph. The music created outside of the mainstream maintains the ability to nurture the folk roots of hip hop.
This is where Wonder Brown's music comes into view.
Carefully crafting lyrics originating from biography and struggle, Wonder Brown (a published poet) represents the antithesis to corporately crafted hooks and dance moves. His music has meaning and if willing, the listener is invited to join the journey of life.
As a member of the underground collective, Scribbling Idiots, Wonder Brown has labored hard to perfect his song writing, production, and stage performance. The 10+ years of grinding pay off on Wonder Brown's latest solo project - J.A.W.S. Opting for live instrumental production instead of stale computer programming, Wonder Brown's folk lyrics come to life as he narrates tales from the light and dark side.
J.A.W.S., like most superior folk art, requires multiple listening sessions before you are fully able to comprehend what WB is up to on this record. But, once you grow to appreciate Wonder Brown's labor of creativity, this album will continually reveal its multidimensionality.
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J.A.W.B. Just Another Wonderful Blog,
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