Let's be completely clear about this: expanding the stylistic borders of hip-hop is not only desirable and admirable, it's probably essential if the music is going to stay relevant in a rapidly changing world where cultural boundaries are getting fuzzier every day. Artists who make a good faith effort to create music that is clearly hip-hop without trying to sound like they're from the South Bronx are to be encouraged. That said, it's important not to be so open-minded that our brains fall out; this means recognizing when the experiments fail while still encouraging further experimentation. Which brings us to
Tumi and the Volume, a richly talented South African hip-hop collective determined to create something new by blending the music's traditional elements with jazz, samba, reggae, and other world music traditions. Their eponymous sophomore effort is, as it probably should be, a mixed success: the jazzier tracks (notably the rather wimpily swinging "Johnny Dyani") tend to provide an awkward matrix for
Tumi's rapping, though when the band buckles down and swings really hard (check out the excellent "What's It All About"), the results can be thrilling. Similarly, there's a reason why very few MCs try to rap over triple-meter grooves, and
Tumi illustrates that reason on the painfully misguided "Bus Stop Confessions." Then again, on "Signs" he also demonstrates that it's possible to rap both skillfully and effectively over muted chamber pop, and on "Floor" he and the band both show how much richness and subtlety can be brought to hip-hop when it brings in all the usual elements but wields them with quiet grace and a rock-solid beat. So yes, this album is a mixed bag, but it's mixed in all the right ways and the world is a better place for having it. Another album somewhat along the lines of this one, pursuing its strengths more consistently, would make the world better still. ~ Rick Anderson