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Only a few years ago, it would have been difficult to imagine hip-hop fans' paying attention to a cd that philosophizes about mortality, at least not without a good shoot-out at the end. A purist mentality kept the genre loaded down with hard-core rappers, most of whom stuck with traditional formulas: shunning live instruments and embracing gangsta bravado. "I love hip-hop, so what I do is done with respect," says Everlast, "but there was a very closed-minded attitude toward live instruments and music that wasn't hard core. I wanted to get out of that box."
And that is just what he's done. Although Eminem's sensationalist rapping still rides high on the charts, that old consensus may at last be showing signs of breaking down. In searching for a little meaning in his own heart, Everlast may have touched on something that will make hip-hop reconsider its own.
--By David E. Thigpen