(ThyBlackMan.com) By 1986, the noted King of Pop, Michael Jackson was fresh off of the release of two commercial and critically acclaimed albums and enjoying his life as a global icon minus the rumors that were spreading about his personal life. Jackson set the goal for his next album, Bad, to sell 100 million, far surpassing the mark Thriller set with just over 38 million sold. Although Bad achieved great reviews and sold exceptionally well, so much so that it was next to Thriller in most successful album sold by the end of the eighties, Bad, on the bottom line, paled in comparison to its predecessor. Jackson released three more multiplatinum albums, but with the listening public, his career was always measured by his magnum opus, Thriller. The treatment Jackson rendered is what the likes of Nas, A Tribe Called Quest and currently Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean and (technically) Andre 3000 was and is battling. But what exactly makes an album be considered a classic?
According to the dictionary’s definition, a classic is “Of the first or highest quality, class or rank.” Second definition is “Serving as a standard, model or guide.” Certainly, the artists mentioned have released seminal works that can be considered a standard for their field/genre; Thriller, changed R&B-pop and the idea of crossover; A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory put jazz musicality, minimalism into the alternative rap scene. Finally, Nas, piggybacked off the Jazz influence of ATCQ and released the
lyrical and diverse gold standard of rap music, Illmatic. But, why is it that producing a follow-up to a classic is considered one of the hardest jobs in entertainment? Do we as music consumers add onto the pressure for the artist to force the issue with producing an even better product?
According to Cee-Lo Green as reported by MTV’s “Rap Fix,” Green believes Outkast member Andre 3000 is “bothered by this bar that had been set and maybe he wants to do something different, and he’ll always be his worse competition, his worse critic and maybe he don’t want to live up to what people think he should do.” When he released his “solo album” The Love Below, fans and critics alike gushed at 3000’s funk/jazz/pop production and songwriting display. But, with this now new bar set for the rapper/musician, the rapper has delayed his solo album for ten years. As noted by Green, the fear of failure is a big contributing factor to those faced with following up an acclaimed album. Usually, a new album is released 1-3 years later from the previous work. With the times of music changing by the year, music audiences want to hear new things. For example, when Nas made Illmatic, hip hop just ended its renowned “golden age.” By 1996, Mafiaso rap was a recurrent theme.
This in turn made Nas reconsider his approach, in which the Mafiaso rap would be a guarantee that he would be more popular and gain an influx of profits. It Was Written was released in 1996, and went multiplatinum. At a cost, many concluded that Nas sold out for monetary gains, and that the lyrical wizardry he displayed on his first album, was now but obsolete. It could be concluded that a fear of failure could have been a driving force in Nas alternating his style. While it is proven that Illmatic, while setting a standard in lyricism didn’t go platinum until 2002, Nas could have hypothesized that if he couldn’t trigger sells in the Mecca of hip hop when lyricism were still a precedent, then he would leave no matter of chance to replicate the same formula, with the same or worst results.
But on the opposite side of the artist being conflicted on a follow up from their classic album, there are those who take the bold approach of strengthening their musical palette. For Kanye West, his debut The College Dropout brought back the blizzard of the complete rap album; pop station-ready singles mixed with socially conscious, backpack themed raps with grade A songwriting. When it was time to record the follow up, Late Registration, he hired Fiona Apple producer Jon Brion to help produce and arrange his album. The end product was lush, cleaner; with more strings, pop manifestation and a combo of jazz, classical and funk on top of West’s excellent soulful sampled production. It was a sound that the two producers introduced to the listening public, and perhaps never heard since. It is considered, after My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as his best album, but it took a bold belief in West’s self to accomplish. It could have been easy for West to replicate the same formula that made him a star the previous year.
For Frank Ocean, his debut album Channel Orange was the current state of R&B on reverse steroids; excellent lyricism with minimalism production in electro funk/R&B/pop and live instrumentation captured R&B and pop fans in a way that hasn’t been done since the days D’Angelo’s throwback R&B captured critics. Kendrick Lamar’sGood Kid, M.A.A.D City could be considered the album of today’s teenagers’ generation. Kendrick’s complex bars, filled with tongue twisters, instant classic wordplay along with some of the best production on an album in years made GKMC an album that represents a time capsule for fall 2012/spring 2013. For Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean, though, one must wonder how they are composing their follow up with such high expectations to not only deliver another classic, but show growth from their classic.
Being an artist is tricky, and their next moves must be calculating to the point where they not only excel in their field but keep their old fans happy and new fans entertained. With so many avenues to explore, artists following the classic have to literally be at the drawing board and ponder the following questions; should I follow the Nas model in which I purposely dumb my talents down to make an album that would be considered a “classic” for the times? (Illmatic to It Was Written) Or take both Kanye routes in which I express my creativity for the good and extreme? (The College Dropout to Late Registration, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to Yeezus) Or, take extended time off because the pressures of creating that new material consumes them mentally (Andre 3000, Lauryn Hill) or perfectionism with a combination of pressure stunts their growth (D’Angelo.)
Hopefully, Frank Ocean and Kendrick Lamar trust their artist instincts and craft the album that they can personally be satisfied with. Just as Michael Jackson witnessed with his Badalbum, Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean could land in that same boat of crafting an actually exceptional album, except that it falls short of the previous album according to the listening public.. But in the end, when they complete their new projects, comparisons to their classic albums will forever hunt their careers. Unless, they make something even better. And that takes using every inch of the small margin for error that they have.