![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/arrested_development01.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHailed as creators of a new musical genre, Arrested Development scored a worldwide blockbuster hit with their 1992 debut album. The group’s unique take on hip-hop influenced an entire generation of artists, and by 2000 Arrested Development was making music on its own terms, operating largely outside the machinery of the music industry. The group headlined this year’s LEAF Downtown AVL festival in Asheville with a performance at Pack Square Park on August 2.<\/p>\n
When Arrested Development released 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of…<\/i>, most music fans had never heard anything like it. Leader Speech was never a fan of the label applied to his group \u2013 alternative hip-hop \u2013 but he understood why the band was described that way. \u201cI got that from a subject matter standpoint,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen we came out, hip-hop was starting to get only on gangsta themes. There was a lot of talking about drug dealing, gang bangin’ and stuff like that. And our subject matter was thoroughly \u2013 and purposely<\/i> \u2013 an alternative to that narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n
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But songs like \u201cTennessee,\u201d \u201cPeople Everyday\u201d and \u201cMr. Wendal\u201d \u2013 all three of which hit the Top Ten on hip-hop and<\/i> mainstream charts \u2013 had a lot more going on than just a positive lyrical approach. Arrested Development’s sound was a highly melodic, funky mix that drew from folk and blues as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hoping to expand the tent of what hip-hop is, and I think we did that,\u201d Speech says. \u201cBut I didn’t<\/i> want our music \u2013 or our whole entire genre \u2013 to be called alternative hip-hop.\u201d He makes the point that other artists who followed in the wake of Arrested Development’s breakout success \u2013 Black Eyed Peas and Outkast, to name two \u2013 didn’t suffer from the same kind of pigeonholing.<\/p>\n
From its start, Arrested Development connected with hip-hop fans as well as music lovers who may not have had much interest in rap. \u201cRight off the bat, we were able to do Lollapalooza tours at 20,000-seaters every day throughout the nation,\u201d Speech says. \u201cAnd Lollapalooza was primarily rock groups: Fishbone, Primus, Rage Against the Machine and the like. Then we were doing jazz tours and reggae tours.\u201d<\/p>\n
But difficulties familiar to the music industry \u2013 internal dissension and label pressure \u2013 tore the group apart, and Arrested Development failed to capitalize on its early success. Speech embarked on a solo career, finding great success \u2026 in Japan. And when in 2000 he revived the group, its records would initially only be released there. \u201cJapan received it extremely well, but we still didn’t have an ‘in’ for the States,\u201d Speech says.<\/p>\n
Subsequent albums \u2013 released on the band’s own Vagabond Productions \u2013 would be available in the United States, but even today the group has a bigger following overseas than at home. Speech has his own ideas about why an American hip-hop band is more popular in Japan than at home. \u201cAmerica sells products,\u201d he says. \u201cThe product could be very soulful, very heartfelt. But once that product is old, America needs a new product.\u201d So in the minds of some music consumers, Arrested Development’s early successes perhaps count for less than they should.<\/p>\n
But the group continues to record and tour, making music that does carve out a distinctly different character from its gangsta-rap counterparts. And compelling lyrics \u2013 always an Arrested Development hallmark \u2013 remain at the core of the group’s music. A track on 2018’s Craft & Optics<\/i>, the group’s latest album, exemplifies that quality. \u201cKings\u201d is built around a spoken-word vocal that calls out the inherent racism in the Tarzan legend.<\/p>\n
Speech laughs heartily and agrees when it’s pointed out that people aren’t likely to dance to that spoken word piece. \u201cThat album is very much a listening<\/i> record,\u201d he says. Now 50 years old, Speech makes the kind of music that feels right for him. \u201cPeople my age have grown up with hip-hop as their main music,\u201d he explains. \u201cBut if you’re 50 and have grown children and a full life, you don’t want to pretend that you’re a young high schooler. And yet, you want to enjoy the music.\u201d With that in mind, he believes that Craft & Optics<\/i> has earned a place on today’s musical landscape. I think there’s a lane that should be crafted for that type of hip-hop,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
But while many of the tracks on Craft & Optics<\/i> are best experienced at home while paying close attention, the band’s live shows remain full of engaging energy and excitement. Speech and his group have a long relationship with Asheville audiences; Arrested Development played the LEAF Festival in 2009, and has appeared multiple time at the Orange Peel. \u201cI love Asheville,\u201d Speech says. \u201cThe people there have been very understanding of the music of Arrested Development, and they’re appreciative of what we contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stay tuned for much more from my interview with Speech. — bk<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hailed as creators of a new musical genre, Arrested Development scored a worldwide blockbuster hit with their 1992 debut album. The group’s unique take on hip-hop influenced an entire generation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,41],"tags":[3909],"class_list":["post-17140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hip-hop","category-interview","tag-arrested-development","cat-36-id","cat-41-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17140"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17156,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17140\/revisions\/17156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}