http://www.newsobserver.com/images/spacer.gif
Published: Sep 08, 2006 12:30 AM
P.M. Dawn returns
that's a blast from the past, isn't it?That's a name you'll most likely remember from your younger years, when you were wearing Cross Colours gear, still rockin' the hightop fade, trying to get somewhere with that cute, lovely honeydip in your mom's basement as songs like "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" and "I'd Die Without You" played on the stereo.
Between the fall of M.C. Hammer's hip-pop and the rise of Dr. Dre and gangsta rap, there was P.M. Dawn, the New Jersey pair whose conscious, surreal brand of hip-hop and R&B, introduced in their 1991 debut, "Of the Heart, Of the Soul and Of the Cross: The Utopian Experience," scored them the aforementioned top 10 hits, critical praise and a nice following.
But as rap got harder, more aggressive and more lucrative, the pacifistic, romantic grooves of Dawn soon became too soft and sensitive for listeners. After three subsequent albums, the duo dropped from sight.
So, when we get frontman Attrell "Prince Be" Cordes on the phone, the first question is, "Where have y'all been?"
"I just didn't feel like [performing], for a long time," says Cordes, 32, who started the group with his brother, Jarrett "DJ Minute Mix" Cordes. "I got really bored and sick of the whole shenanigans. My wife was having a baby, and I figured, you know what, I don't wanna go to school and be show-and-tell. I just wanna show up for show-and-tell, just hang out at the back with the rest of the parents."
Be claims it didn't take that much for him to get back out on the road ("The money's good -- what can I say?") for a tour of intimate shows, which kicked off this summer. There was just one problem: DJ Minute Mix left the group last year.
Keeping it all in the family, Be replaced Mix with his cousin, Greg Lewis, aka Dr. Giggles.
"I like to put a fresh new spin on a couple of things," says the Queens-born Giggles, 34. "We got new music that we're working on now, and also, I add a couple of little remix versions to a couple of the classic songs. And I also do hype work, which I did originally [for them]."
Oh, yes, a new P.M. Dawn album is in the works. Titled "P.M. Dawn Loves You," the album will tentatively drop at the end of the year. Peeping longtime fans to P.M. Dawn's progress is another reason Be wanted to hit the stage again. And so far, audiences have been nothing but appreciative.
"People come up to us, smiling and telling us about what the music means to them," says Be. "Some people even told us that they use the music to overcome the disease of addiction or physical illness just to motivate them.
"Another thing that we've found out is that the average P.M. Dawn fan who was like 10 or 15 a few years ago and are, like, in their mid-20s to 38, they're introducing their young teenage children to the music. So now, you got kids coming up and hearing it and not disliking it. They're not saying, 'Oh, why don't they talk about death?' It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool what's going on."
So now, we have a new generation of kids listening to P.M. Dawn -- and trying to get their swerve on in somebody's basement.
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/669/story/483633.html
