REVIEW: "Surf" - Chance The Rapper and Donnie Trumpet get back to the music

Madeline Fetchiet | Founder/Writer
May 31, 2015
2 min read

We can all learn a thing or two from Chance The Rapper and DOnnie Trumpet:

1. Music should be about expression, not money

2. Hip Hop is being redefined as a genre

Chance The Rapper and Donnie Trumpet did the collaborative, jazz-laced Pop album, Surf exactly right; from releasing it for free, to its ringing trumpets on every track, to offering one of the most impressive line-ups on a group Pop project in years. J. Cole, Jeremih, Big Sean and Busta Rhymes mark a few of the big-name appearances on this independent, experimental, hip hop/jazz album.

Most importantly, the artists and musicians on the Surf project remind us that music can be a powerful means of expression and method of social commentary, and can be more effective as such if it's free and available to all.

Perhaps Surf is representative of a growing artistic/social movement that values collaborative, vocal, and experimental expression, at a time when a rebirth of raw artistry is needed--both for distraction and dissertation.

Operating in the background of this social commentary movement is the transformation of Hip Hop. The genre is returning to its roots somewhat--jazzy samples, drum beats, and poignant lyricism, but artists like Chance The Rapper and the Social Experiment have been taking it a step further for a few years now.

Maybe it's the fact that Chance and some of the others featured on Surf are former jazz musicians with diverse musical backgrounds, that fuels this true attempt to fuse various genres (hip hop, pop) with raw poetry and emotional undertones of trumpets and jazz melodies, redefining the nature of cross-overs as they go.

Maybe it's that they recognized Hip Hop has strayed far from its roots, and wanted to help it return home with a positive vibe, new wave beats, and more poetic lyrical concepts.

Regardless, this album is inspiring and hopefully representative of music's ever-changing limits being questioned, and a genre's bubble being burst by those brave enough to bust through it.

Surf

1. "Miracle"

2. "Slip Slide"

3. "Warm Enough"

4. "Nothing Came To Me"

5. "Wanna Be Cool"

6. "Windows"

7. "Caretaker"

8. "Just Wait"

9. "Familiar"

10. "Smthnthtlwnt"

11. "Go"