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In with the in crowd

LA’s Time Machine lose the zeros
April 28, 2008 4:16:38 PM

080452_time_mian
QUANTUM LEAP: Time Machine have graduated from stank rap shows to swank gigs.

I knew a girl named Juliette who moved to Queens in her junior year of high school. She was foxy; homegirl pulled off white lipstick and hoop earrings like she was auditioning for a Cool J video. Only problem was that she spent her first few months banging losers. By the time Juliette realized her mistake, she had to service a parade of jocks and thugs to arrive atop the social stratosphere.

Time Machine remind me of Juliette. After toiling for years on underground hip-hop’s stylistic and thematic fringes — and seducing lame beat and rhyme aficionados like myself — Jet Set Jay (formerly Jaysonic), Biscuit (formerly Comel), and Mekalek realized that to win popularity contests they needed much cooler friends.

But even though there will be far more candy-colored Pumas than oversized white T-shirts at Time Machine’s Middle East show next Thursday, the group have not attitudinally assimilated with their arrogant dance-happy hipster contemporaries. They prove as much by offering me a glimpse of how it feels to graduate from stank rap shows to swank gigs with the likes of Yo Majesty, the Cool Kids, and Roxy Cottontail.

“Scenes change rapidly, and now more rapidly than ever,” Jay explains by phone from Time Machine’s Los Angeles compound. “The fact that the music we’re making now is appealing to a broader audience is great, but at the end of the day it wasn’t designed for anybody in particular.”

Mekalek, who handles Time Machine’s sophisticated bouncy backdrops, is still negotiating the upgrade. “I think it’s great that we’re finding people outside of that core traditional hip-hop audience, but by the same token I’m personally a hip-hop dude, so I’m hoping that it appeals to those kids too.”

A few spins of Time Machine’s new Life Is Expensive reveals that the trio haven’t tripped far outside their know zone. On the OutKast-caliber “Something We’re Becoming,” Mekalek remains one of the few hip-hop purists who can juxtapose Beat Street æsthetics and progressive flair. And on topic-heavy cuts like “We’re Making a Video” and “Survival Kit,” Jay and Biscuit still juggle arcane and existential concepts like George and Jerry, Freud and Jung, and Harold and Kumar.

“When we made Slow Your Roll, we were meat-and-potatoes hip-hop kids, and it was our first time cooking up an album,” says Biscuit. “If I’m going to stick with the kitchen analogy, I guess this time we were comfortable using different spices and endive and all of that shit to make our own flavors.”

Given that Time Machine’s new flavors are comparable to such past genius offerings as “Who Needs a Mic?” and “Personal Ads,” it’s clear that the group’s only significant shift is their realization that life is far too expensive to rely on kids in flat-billed New Era caps who don’t buy music. As Jay says on “Something We’re Becoming”: “When we were young we thought you shouldn’t do things for the money/But that’s before we knew the things that money could do/Like if your day is cloudy, cash won’t make it sunny/But if it’s already sunny, it can buy you a pool.”

If there’s a message here, it’s that it’s no use regretting past blunders; in this Time Machine, it’s impossible to travel back and make adjustments. For Jay, Biscuit, and Mekalek, the only logical maneuver is to find the in-crowd, get promiscuous, and, of course, hope that your old dork friends will still be waiting when this materialistic neon rap scene dries up like Juliette.

TIME MACHINE + XO SKELETONS + INNERPARTYSYSTEM + DJ MICHAEL SAVANT + DJ E-MARCE | Middle East downstairs, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge | May 8 | 617.864.EAST

COMMENTS

Interesting article. Like many of TM's fans, I discovered them on tour with People Under the Stairs. They are an undeniably talented threesome, and anything they do is guaranteed to be original and intelligent. The first thing long-standing fans will notice on Life Is Expensive is this transition from underground hip hop to what you refer to as "neon rap". You fail, however, to distinguish them from the likes of Yo Majesty, the Cool Kids, and Roxy Cottontail. They have paid their hip hop dues. You can recognize it in their well-thought rhymes, seamless arrangements and Mek-style quality. The new package may seem less personal, but there is no less science, intellect, lyrical dexterity or skill displayed than on Slow Your Roll. There is a lack of thought that goes into the type of hipster hop you are referring to. The fact that they even made this evolution and stayed smart and original is simply brilliant. It is the definition of fresh. Slow Your Roll earned them a name, but a reproduction of this dated style would have boxed them into their coffin. So while you presume in so many words that TM has sold out on their old dork friends, I for one, am still listening, even more impressed, and dorkier than ever.

POSTED BY msmightymel AT 04/28/08 11:20 PM
Ms Mighty Mel has made an excellent post already about this article, but I'd like to add that I am glad Time Machine can pay their bills! I was a convert from the moment they stepped onstage, throwback to like a Dickens novel or some shit, and it makes me really happy to see them gaining popularity, and as Mel said, their popularity is not thoughtless, accidental OR wack.

POSTED BY Natty AT 05/04/08 1:29 AM

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