Nappy Roots - Po' Folks (2002)
*** (of four)
About three seconds into this Darren Grant/Rich Newey video, we realize we're deep in rural Kentucky. No Wal-Marts, no traffic lights, but they do have three Starbucks. And everyone gets along, claims the homeless-looking old black man in the prologue. Cue what the closed-captioning guy refers to as "relaxed funk guitar music," as the anthemic sing-along chorus to "Po' Folks" kicks in.
This song is cool as hell. The Nappy Roots crew seemed to have so much promise and appeal here - little did the rest of us know that the album itself was loaded with mediocre, skip-over songs. It's an unassuming group, too. The NR guys hang out in and around a beat-up double-wide trailer home. One dude doesn't even seem to mind that he's using a toilet for an outside-sittin' seat. There's gonna be a lot of whittlin' going on, too, I imagine.
The Roots walk down the streets of their home town en masse, wave to the preacher, sit on hay in a pickup truck, cross the bridge, walk around the woods, go fishin' and pay their respects to relatives buried in the cemetery. Really, these guys give the entire tour of their corner of Kentucky. I spotted four discarded, rusty refrigerators and everything.
Grant and Newey also toss in interview clips between verses, featuring lots of happy black country folk and some of the most tooth-missin'est, Deliverance-looking peckerwood motherfuckers you've ever seen. All of whom proclaim their love for their surroundings, and some of the down-home pride is actually contagious. As a damn poor person myself, I like to see people who can find the joy in life despite not having shit. I know I for one have popped a huge grin every time the electricity has gone out while I was in the middle of taking a shower in a bathroom with no window.
About three seconds into this Darren Grant/Rich Newey video, we realize we're deep in rural Kentucky. No Wal-Marts, no traffic lights, but they do have three Starbucks. And everyone gets along, claims the homeless-looking old black man in the prologue. Cue what the closed-captioning guy refers to as "relaxed funk guitar music," as the anthemic sing-along chorus to "Po' Folks" kicks in.
This song is cool as hell. The Nappy Roots crew seemed to have so much promise and appeal here - little did the rest of us know that the album itself was loaded with mediocre, skip-over songs. It's an unassuming group, too. The NR guys hang out in and around a beat-up double-wide trailer home. One dude doesn't even seem to mind that he's using a toilet for an outside-sittin' seat. There's gonna be a lot of whittlin' going on, too, I imagine.
The Roots walk down the streets of their home town en masse, wave to the preacher, sit on hay in a pickup truck, cross the bridge, walk around the woods, go fishin' and pay their respects to relatives buried in the cemetery. Really, these guys give the entire tour of their corner of Kentucky. I spotted four discarded, rusty refrigerators and everything.
Grant and Newey also toss in interview clips between verses, featuring lots of happy black country folk and some of the most tooth-missin'est, Deliverance-looking peckerwood motherfuckers you've ever seen. All of whom proclaim their love for their surroundings, and some of the down-home pride is actually contagious. As a damn poor person myself, I like to see people who can find the joy in life despite not having shit. I know I for one have popped a huge grin every time the electricity has gone out while I was in the middle of taking a shower in a bathroom with no window.
posted by daytime at 6:04 AM
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