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NEWS : STORIES
These days, rappers frequently eulogize their late friends and colleagues in songs and remixes, but Sylk-E. Fyne has taken her tribute to another place by turning her attention this time to drama's best-known doomed lovers. The first
"We took the original version with the balcony and all that and what we did was make it an urban update," Fyne said last week from Atlanta. "It's our interpretation of passionate love for the '90s." In fact, the chorus of "Romeo and Juliet" refers to Shakespeare's original tale of ill-fated lovers torn apart by their families, but that's where the similarity ends: "It's like Romeo and Juliet/ Hot sex on a platter just to get you wet/ Youz about to give me something you will never regret/ And it's gonna be the bomb, this is what I bet -- yup!" The song also goes on to talk about other things not mentioned in the classic play, such as AIDS, "an overdose of the bomb ass poonanny" and creating alliances in the music industry. According to Francesca Myman of the Yale Undergraduate Shakespeare Company, the Bard is probably less likely to be rolling over in his grave over the song than grooving to it. "He was a down-and-dirty, sexy kinda guy, arguably the rapper/pop culture icon of his age," Myman wrote in an e-mail. "If we were to update Shakespeare into modern, instead of Elizabethan, slang, he'd shock the pants off people." Fyne (a.k.a. Lamar Johnson), a 24-year-old Los Angeles native, expressed dismay that the jurors who contribute to MTV's video-review show "12 Angry Viewers" didn't see it that way. But she has taken criticism of the song in stride. "This is the '90s," she said, "and no disrespect to Shakespeare, but I was just trying to be relevant." Raw Sylk manages to be both relevant and accessible. It works as a soundtrack for intimate moments with a loved one or as background music. But, Fyne said, the best time to listen to Raw Sylk is when taking to the open road. "It's best to have a clear head when you're driving," she explained. "I'm not kicking any of that radical rap that's going to send you off the edge. You're not going to hear much on my album about shooting people and smoking blunts or whatever. I've got a very laid-back sound." While the grooves on Raw Sylk may sport a "laid-back," West Coast g-funk flavor, they are far from lazy or even relaxed. The album's 11 tracks clock in at just under 47 minutes and are pushed along by Fyne's rapping style, a flow that segues with ease from the slow delivery style of rapper Too $hort (who guests on the album's first track, "Keep It Real") to the hyper-quick style pioneered by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. And with the album completely recorded in just 12 days, Fyne says she was able to perform raps inspired by real-life situations. "I wasn't thinking about a concept with this album," she explained, "I was thinking about real experiences and what was in my heart right then." These real experiences include being an abused girlfriend ["Love No More (Look Into My Eyes)"], suffering police harassment on the way to the recording studio ("I Ain't Down With The System") and mourning the deaths of her grandmother and the man who got her started in the business, Eric "Eazy-E" Wright ["I Miss My Loved Ones" (Real Audio excerpt)]. In fact, "I Miss My Loved Ones" turned out to be her favorite song on Raw Sylk, she said. "It's not typical of other 'dead homies' songs," she explained. "When you hear this record, it lifts you up and makes you feel good about the people you've lost. It's not about pouring liquor on the street, it's about remembering your loved ones. I can see this song getting played at funerals," she concluded. As for Fyne's song about a couple that also met an unhappy end, Yale Undergraduate Shakespeare Company member Steven Klein, a fan of Shakespeare and rap, thinks Sylk-E. Fyne does Shakespeare's work justice in spirit. "I think that the hip-hop scene in general is producing the closest we have to Shakespeare's innovative use of language," Klein explained. "Although I wouldn't say the song is in any clear way adapting 'Romeo and Juliet' directly," he continued, "the implication of Shakespeare's imagery is entirely appropriate."
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