“I hear you’re having heatwaves in Australia.” he says with friendly gusto when we touch base with him on a 36º Melbourne afternoon. “We just had a huge snowstorm, and it’s a little crazy. You know, Atlanta doesn’t have all that equipment, like snow trucks and snowblowers and all that stuff – the streets are covered with ice, and there’s no way you can drive on them. It’s just a mess.”
When they last visited our shores two years ago, the group were celebrating 20 years since Arrested Development burst on the scene with their landmark debut record, 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days In The Life Of …. That album – and the group that created it – signalled a seismic shift in the paradigm of hip-hop that continued with the release of six more LPs.
With its themes of homelessness, black-on-black violence, racial identity, brotherhood, and spirituality, 3 Years … was a watershed moment in pop culture. Still hailed as a masterpiece and consistently placed in best-of lists around the world, this debut LP was a game-changer. It also provided a positive alternative to a largely negative gangsta rap culture that celebrated and glorified gang violence, hustling, degradation of women, and drugs.
When Arrested Development burst onto the scene in 1992, they offered a breath of fresh air with singles such as Tennessee, Mr Wendal, and Give A Man A Fish. There was intellectualism and curiosity exhibited, and all told, the album helped raise the consciousness of what it meant to be an African American in the waning years of the 20th century.
“I think we were made for that moment,” Speech replies when asked if there was a conscious decision to be an alternative to the status quo. “You know, when you make a flashlight, the flashlight’s purpose is to shine in the darkness.”
And there it is in his speaking voice – that free-flowing lyricism that has helped establish Speech as one of the most gifted MCs in modern hip-hop. “I mean, I didn’t know it to the extent I would learn about it when we started to blow up as a group, but me growing up around my mom and dad, who were both activists – and me being around them … And now I get older and all [the lessons I took from my parents] start to resonate with me in a bigger way than they did when I was a kid and was just after girls and stuff.
“It’s like, my whole purpose for life started to come clear with that record, and I honestly think it was divine intervention for us to come out in that time period and be a voice for the alternative – we just needed to be there at that time.”
As one of the major themes Arrested Development explore in their music is the state of the African American community, naturally, I ask him how he felt when Barack Obama got elected. Did he ever see that coming, a black President in America? Speech thinks for a moment. “It’s really exciting; a lot of black people would be talking about this, would be like, ‘There won’t be a black President in our lifetime’, even when he started running for President.
“I voted for him, but I didn’t think he could win – just because the racism in America is so thick over the years; but it has gotten a lot better,” he explains. “But we just felt like there was no way that this country was going to let a black dude become President. And the night he got elected, my kids and I and my wife were all just bawling and crying – and to see that type of change in the country was very inspiring, very inspiring.”
Luckily for the forces of good, Speech and his mates have been busy as late in the studio, applying the finishing touches to their new LP. I have to ask, What’s it like? When does he reckon we’ll get a listen? “Well, it’s cool stuff, all-over-the-place music,” he says excitedly. “We have an album called Splash that we’ll drop in about a month, and by the time we get to Australia, it will be out, so we’re going to perform it.”
BY THOMAS BAILEY
