New Orleans hip-hop group Galactic’s ‘Ya-Ka-May’ is gumbo of local styles
Galactic has a new album out (!!)…and they’re now considered hip hop? I haven’t heard it yet..but I have the other albums and love them. I’m anxious to check it out!!
New Orleans breeds musical mutations. And no wonder — it’s in the air. Every club in the French Quarter keeps its doors open wide, allowing the sounds of jazz, blues, R&B, soul, hip hop and rock to blend into one jaunty blur.
It’s that’s cacophonous spirit that Galactic revels in. For the last decade, the five-man collective has used its funky instrumentals to accompany scores of guest singers and players. Like a modern answer to the Meters, or Booker T. & the MGs, Galactic has both a signature sound and an openness to other artists that makes them ideal collaborators.
They hit a creative peak on their 2007 CD, “From the Corner to the Block,” which hitched funky live beats to some of today’s most progressive rappers, including Chali 2na (of Jurassic 5) and Boots Riley (from the Coup). Together, they made the most brisk, danceable and creative hip-hop CD in far too long.
Now, for their chaser, “Ya-Ka-May,” Galactic uses hip hop as just one reference point. This time they spread the wealth among a gumbo of local styles. (The album’s title refers to an Afro-New Orleans stew based on whatever meat you’ve got hanging around.)
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