I heard about Ursula Rucker last month and, in the last couple of weeks, have bought all three of her CDs. Ursula Rucker is a member of Philadelphia’s Hip Hop community. But saying that in no way conveys how unique she is. She is so far off the beaten track that she has to record for a German company, since what she does is of no value to the US entertainment industry. Ursula Rucker shows how far other rappers, even the best of them, fall short of creating beautiful music.It is argued, cogently, that life in the ghetto is anything but beautiful and that Rap reflects that. But there have been musicians such as Lester Young, Mingus, Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, who have been able to draw from the ugliness transcendent beauty. The difference is that Ursula Rucker does this, not with the abstraction that is music, but with concrete words; words that WILL NOT LET YOU ESCAPE THE REALITY. And yet, through these inescapable words, accompanied by intelligent, sympathetic, music, the miracle of beauty arises; I’m not sure how.
Some of it stems from her delivery. She is no MC, standing in front of a turntable basher, yelling into a mike. She delivers her extremely uncomfortable messages in a calm, controlled, fury. And this delivery, too, makes it impossible to escape the message through not hearing the words clearly.
Much of it stems from her articulacy. Her messages are deeply felt, carefully thought out, and clearly expressed in uncompromising language that makes no concessions to “dumbing down”.
Her messages are mainly described as dealing with “women’s issues”; an attempt at a brush-off, if I ever saw one. She sees things from a woman’s perspective, it’s true, which doesn’t invalidate the message in any way. And perhaps because of that, she also sees things in a way that understands motivations, without condoning anything. And expresses herself in a way that communicates her fury to the listener. Everyone in the world ought to listen to Ursula Rucker. Her work is beautiful but it isn’t, even slightly, entertaining.
Amazon is the best place to buy her CDs – they are expensive but there are bargains at Amazon, I should imagine because so many people have found her too uncomfortable to live with - AM
