Upon first hearing the new Herbaliser single, my jaw managed to completely unhinge itself within the first five bars. The hard-hitting rummage sale of orchestra hits and gritty rap talent instantly had me hooked like a fish. This single, aptly titled “Generals,” features none other than hip-hop’s residing “great girl hope” Jean Grae. (Maybe you’ve heard of her?) I’ve always seen a lot of potential in breezy, and this song definitely ups the ante as far as that’s concerned. Here’s why:
“Generals” finds Jean and The Herbaliser caught up in the Deltron and Gorillaz brand of comic book hip-hop. For whatever reason, I’ve never been too up on this stuff. I’d take plain ol’ Madlib over Quasimoto any day. But it’s no real surprise Jean would eventually go this route, even if only for one song. (After all, she did lift her alias from an X-Men character, for shit’s sake.)
The Sneaking Suspicion: It seems Jean has managed to assemble an entourage of custom-built MCs using nothing more than a few filters and her own voice. Think of it as a reverse Quasimoto (times five). She has her verses contorted and pitchshifted throughout the track so that she accurately fakes a male Dirty South bawss (Daddy Mills), a slapstick white chick (Cheech Marina), a naughty eighth grade girl (MacGuyver), a Wu-admiring gun talker (Trap Clappa) and a token 50 Cent biter (A.K.). Jean also appears as herself on the track.
The Giveaway: This is all just speculation for the time being, folks. I certainly don’t know without a shadow of a doubt that these five individuals are all the tampered voice of Jean. But I have quite a hunch. Had breezy not tackled the MacGuyver ego, I may have not even caught it. But MacGuyver is clearly just a slightly sped up Jean Greasy. Upon making that distinction, I fiddled around with the “Generals” acapella, and well, when sped up, all the male characters sound like Jean as well, some more than others. This is further accentuated by her perfectly punctuated trademark syllables of which she’s always been known for, i.e. “hundred” instead of “hunnit.” Pair that with the fact that the video features CGI versions of every General except Jean herself.
Oh yeah, the video… The only real disappointing piece of this picture is just that. The inappropriately low-budget character renderings just don’t do the track any justice. Each rendering is perpetually poorly synched with its respective verse. But shucks, we can forgive that much. The song stands fine on its own. It’s not dependent on visuals the way a Gorillaz track might be.
Anyhoot, “Generals” is my obsession song for the moment. So I had to share. It could have been no other way.
[stream audio here]
[stream video here]
[buy from iTunes UK]
[buy from Ninja Tune]