Karriem Riggins is best known as a jazz drummer and hip-hop producer for artists like Common, Kanye West, The Roots, and Kaytranada, but he doesn’t categorize himself as anything but an artist.
For Headnod Suite, his second album on Stones Throw Records, Riggins expertly builds on his credentials with 29 tracks of pure hip-hop—each track deftly crafted with swing that only a drummer would know. Swing is the weapon. And there’s always a message, be it verbal or instrumental.
“Headnod Suite is a concept of several rhythmic ideas fused together,” Riggins says. “I wanted to explore the power of interludes and marrying different styles and harmony together.”
On Headnod Suite, Common makes a reciprocal vocal appearance on “Yes Yes Y’all,” which gives way to literal grunts from James Brown and the 1-2 shot of “Trombone Love” and the 16-bit funk “Crystal Stairs.” If 2012’s Alone Together was right at the intersection of hip-hop and jazz, Riggins’ current path is less the jazz found in his family and career lineage, and more the hip-hop culture he found on his own.
Comments
Post a Comment