The Comedy of Errors: The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Satanic Reverses (8 May 1992)

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When it comes to writing about music, I am as liable to slip into hyperbole as the next man.  And whenever I do, I find myself able to repent at leisure for doing so.  Now, I will never delete anything from this blog that I have once raved about and subsequently gone cold on.  Every blogpost here, like a selection preserved on a mixtape, exists as a snapshot of the thrill of reacting to and hearing a particular piece of music for the first time.  Like crushes or a David Cameron tweet, convictions that you firmly had at one time can be made to look foolish once time passes, but you should never deny that the conviction was, at one time, truly felt and believed in.  So it is with Television, The Drug of the Nation, arguably the signature track of The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (hereafter to be referred to as DHHH).  “One of the best hip hop tracks of the decade” I gushed some 2 and a half years ago as an impressionable 40 year old, and it may very well be true that it is still exactly that.  But as I approach my 43rd birthday, I think about the track with its didactic roll call of accusations delivered in the stentorian drill sergeant tones of Michael Franti and think, “Jesus, mate, just let people crash out and tune out if they want.  Television can influence and educate, it isn’t as bad as you say”.  Now, I appreciate that hip-hop has a need to preach, it shines light on injustice, corruption and the struggles of the masses more than any other musical artform as well as offering a voice to the disaffected and marginalised, but DHHH appeared to start from a perspective that “You are brainwashed fools and I’m going to tell you what’s crap about every element of your life”.  Great, but can you offer me any solutions?  If not, do I really want to hand over my cash for a parental lecture set to samples?  Sleaford Mods strike me as a contemporary British take on this and just as off-putting.
So with all this in mind, I hope you can understand that when John Peel cued up Satanic Reverses, a track from their Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury album as a taster to a DHHH Peel Session to be broadcast on the 9/5/92 show, I inwardly recoiled at the prospect, but on a second listen it hooked me in with its mix of Gregorian chants, blasts of Miles Davis, 50s TV detective series themes and an ingenious lyric mixing the worst of DHHH (historical bullet points delivered in a manner to make you believe that Franti will be asking questions later) and their best as he reflects on how other parts of the world seem(ed) to be increasing freedoms and reforming themselves (whatever happened to the European Economic Community rejig?  It all passed off without any long term impact didn’t it?....) and contrasts with perceived repressions and stifling of freedoms in America.  Perceptively, he manages to link the fatwa placed on Salman Rushdie for his words with a potential culture of offence in which art will be stifled, words will be regarded as more damaging than a person’s actions and lifetime bans will be applied to anyone who speaks up on radio or challenges the status quo.  Franti was out by about 20 years, but he was right nevertheless.

I reserve the right to go off this track in 2 years time, but somehow, I don’t think I will.

Video courtesy of Ian Morgan