Even casual observers of Milwaukee hip-hop have probably noticed that the scene has changed over the last few years. The traditionalist Midwest hip-hop that dominated the city for much of the ’00s has gradually given way to a new wave of weirder, more overtly experimental, trap-influenced rap, exemplified by New Age Narcissism and that circle’s many affiliate artists. It’s an exciting evolution, one that’s left local hip-hop sounding as fresh as it has in ages. It’s not the whole story, though, because the hip-hop scene’s traditionalist set is still going strong, too.
Perhaps nobody in the local rap scene offers a better example of old meeting new than Vincent VanGREAT, a rapper/producer who entered the local rap scene alongside Klassik and Blizz McFly in SAFS Crew, just around the time the scene was beginning to undergo a generational shift. Though he’s a younger artist, there’s a lot of the old-guard in his DNA. It’s clear he came up listening to artists from Umbrella Music Group, House of M and Uni-Fi Records—the dominant crews of late ’00s and early ’10s Milwaukee hip-hop—and that reverence for Milwaukee rap’s recent history carries through his debut album, UnGREATful, which he releases this week. The tracklist is filled with contributions from scene veterans like Dana Coppa, Tay Butler, SPEAK Easy, Yo-Dot and A.P.R.I.M.E.
The album has been a long time coming, following a series of delays and false starts. The project really began to take shape, VanGREAT explains, after he teamed with Uni-Fi Records label head Dima Pochtarev and DJ Mammyth, an audio engineer with a reputation for bringing polish to every project he touches.
“Mammyth is an awesome audio engineer,” VanGREAT says. “He really pushed me to elevate my sound. And when Dima started managing me and helping out, that really pushed me in the right direction. He helped me hone my sound into something more mature. He kept saying he didn’t just want me to do rap and hip-hop; he wanted me to expand it. He wanted me to be more melodic, and to play up the live instrumentation more.”
|
|
As a result, UnGREATful is a proudly musical album, filled with spry, upbeat tempos and lush accompaniments. VanGREAT’s musical education stems from his early years playing drums and singing in a church choir, and while UnGREATful doesn’t have the overt gospel leanings of Chance The Rapper or Kanye West’s most recent offerings, some of the uplift of church music has carried through his production. It’s music that’s designed to demand your attention, he says.
“Remember when The Neptunes were super hot and making beats for everybody, and Pharrell was singing hooks on everything?” VanGREAT explains. “It wasn’t the normal industry sound. What I do is a little like that. It’s not the normal sound, but it’s going to catch you and grab you immediately.”
As a result, VanGREAT’s celebratory sound plays like an unintentional counterpart to the gloomier, harsher, more oblique sounds that are currently taking root in the local rap scene.
“A lot of music right now is kind of dark,” VanGREAT says. “A lot of people are making dark music and just tapping into that side. And there’s nothing wrong with that, if that’s what you’re feeling. But I think what I’m doing is just different. It’s joy; it’s happy. It’s God, man.”
Vincent VanGREAT will perform with the Rusty Ps at the Summer Soulstice Music Festival on Saturday, June 25 at 8:15 p.m. He’ll also perform with SAFS Crew at Bremen Café on Wednesday, July 29.
