Mike Ladd's Negrophilia - a review

Here's an album I've been listening to a lot lately even though it's over a year old. Some would call Mike Ladd a rapper. And so, I feel a little bashful about my first music review being a rap CD. Truth is there is some rapping on this CD, but don't let that scare you - this is smart music. Mr. Ladd, a New Yorker, is likely to doubt that his music extends beyond the 5 boroughs, but this one texan is a proud owner of Negrophilia - few collections dig as deep or attempt to make as much of a statement of this disc. So, if you're a country music fan (which I am proudly not) this will probably be a stretch for you.
The genre of music here is hard to define, but one in which I've been seeking out lately. Music that crosses the boundaries of electronica and jazz while avoiding the black holes that are rock & pop. In other words, the music is artsy. And in listening to Ladd's compositions you feel as if you're absorbing a performace art troop at a hip Manhattan establishment.
One clear defining element of this work is the jazz musicians that are either 1) dictating the melodic phrases that Ladd filters through to define key emotions or is it 2) that Ladd is creating the music logic (ala sheet music?) which is filtered through these talented musicians. My feeling is the latter, and not to simply give Ladd the benefit of the doubt. But, one can hear the type of phrases that clearly come with some specified direction. On "Back At Ya", the troop is actually quite limited. There is a clear harmony and melody followed throughout. Fortunately, the musicians push free jazz phrasing through the mix. The post-mash-up is a reconstruction of the recorded jam that defines the true talents of the artist. What I imagine to be a painstaking effort that too many who have never messed with electronic music will likely overlook but will hopefully appreciate the freshness.
Other reviews of this disc point out that the ambitious attempt results in a slightly flawed or jumbled statement of black american culture. But, again, Ladd is showing many facets in this work. Part of the cultural statements is to illustrate the numerous facets and the complex interplay of sub-cultures. The album begins to peter-out with instrumentals of what is to sound like comfortable older couples engaging in NY high life. And these gorgeous yet simple pieces ("Sam and Milli Dine Out" and "Nancy and Carl go Christmas Shopping") are hard to justify next to caustic tales of blacks treated as second class citizens in our not-so-distant past, and more subtle (yet humorous) commentary of "Sleep Patterns of Black Expatriots Circa 1960".
As music goes, it is important to have themes. As a listener, we can decide how much to invest in this. And so, when it comes down to it, the music - this new genre that attempts to side-step Rock/Pop and establish a truly American art form that combines jazz, spoken word, and digital capabilities - is quite exceptional to this white jazz nerd now living in the South.