Neil Young : Grunge Rockers :: Elephant Man : Dance Crews
Remember when Neil Young became the godfather of grunge?
Neil Young and Pearl Jam - “Rockin In The Free World”
Could Elephant Man play a similar mentor role for the How Mi Look generation?
Elephant Man hanging with Ding Dong, Wacky Fresh Prince
Both Elephant Man and Neil Young had long, respected careers in advance of their adoptive paternity. Both found commercial success representing the perimeter of a mainstream; Young with unconventionally brutish guitar playing and vocoder experiments, Ele with a raver-punk aesthetic and genre-defying references in his voicings.
Neil Young rode the grunge wave, took to stage and studio with Pearl Jam, and found his career revived. Still quite on top of his game, Elephant Man needs no such renewal but still he reaches out to the fitted-clothes contingent in each new voicing, crying “Sweep!” and shouting out various dance crews along the JA-BK-MySpace circuit.
Elephant Man - “Sweep (Self Defense Riddim)”
The energy and fraternity is there. We just need that “Rockin in the Free World” moment to push this thing to the next level. After all, Elephant Man’s elastic voice may be the only one that can quell the worried haters who can’t handle a little gender-confusion inna di dancehall.
Tags: alternative, analogy, classic, dancehall, grunge, pop, reggae, rock, specious
