Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 26, 1994 TAG: 9404270012
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Instead of harsh lyrics about sex and urban violence, gangs and woman-hating, Arrested Development preaches respect of women and calls for social change through love and political activism.
The group's favorite "f" word isn't the "f" word. It's freedom.
This stand has spurred some criticism that Arrested Development, playing Radford University's Dedmon Center tonight, has betrayed the rap form and the hardcore hip-hop crowd. Critics say the group has been embraced not so much because of what they stand for - but for what they stand against.
Arrested Development's leader, Speech, doesn't see it that way.
He says the group's aim is to deliver conscious music to a community that it feels sorely needs its consciousness elevated. "We chose a name that would be a constant reminder of what we need to wipe out so we can progress again," he has said.
"What most people call hardcore - gangster - that's easy. It's recipe music: a dab of bitches, a pinch of naked woman and a teaspoon of guns. It's pop, guaranteed to work."
But gangsta rappers alone don't speak for the entire black experience, Speech says.
"When people in the future listen to the music of the '90s, we want them to know more than what the knuckleheads were saying about black reality."
There has been more to Arrested Development's success, too, besides its positive vibe. Musically, the group mixes a blend of blues, reggae, funk and hip-hop, influenced as much by fellow social awareness rappers Public Enemy, as by Curtis Mayfield, Sly & the Family Stone and Bob Marley.
The group's performances often share the spirit and energy of revival meetings, marked equally by rapping, singing, dancing and call-and-response chanting with the audience. The group calls its concerts celebrations.
The roots of Arrested Development date back to 1988 when Speech, real name Todd Thomas, and Headliner, Tim Barnwell, met at the Art Institute in Atlanta and started performing gangsta rap in small clubs around the region.
"I understand why a lot of these guys do gansta rap," Speech has said. "They're ready to get out of poverty, and that stuff sells. But it doesn't further the liberation of our people."
He went another direction.
Speech and Headliner added Baba Oje, a devotee of Ancient Egyptian studies, as a performer and spiritual adviser, sort of the group's guru. They then recruited a singer and a drummer and a pair of dancers.
The expanded group's debut album, "3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of...," was released in 1991, earning the group two Grammy awards, and selling more than 4 million copies. It was followed with "Unplugged," an album of its unplugged performance on MTV, and it toured on last summer's Lollapalooza festival.
Speech, whose parents run the Milwaukee (Wis.) Community Journal, also wrote the theme song, "Revolution," for Spike Lee's film "Malcolm X."
A new album will be released in June titled, "Zingalamaduni," which is Swahili for "beehive of culture." Again, it is designed as a lyrical and spiritual call to action. And again, Speech says, it will be a message not everyone will want to hear.
"I feel that there are a lot of kids who respect us, but there aren't so many who want to be like us. Our activism requires too much discipline and hard work. Society makes it much easier to be a 40-ounce-drinking gansta."
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by CNB