The Boy vs. The Critic
In this spirited debate with John Reuben, one of our critics takes the rapper to task over his latest album—and Mr. Zappin is more than up to it, defending himself like a pro.
by Andree Farias | posted 8/29/2005
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Rapper and funnyman John Reuben is on the defensive, and that's partly our fault. We had asked Reuben to read our review of his latest CD, The Boy vs. The Cynic (Gotee), before we caught up with him for this interview. Andree Farias, who wrote the review, called the album "quite good" and gave it 3½ stars. But he also criticized what he felt was a "lack of focus" and "Reuben's unwillingness to stick to one persona," switching from serious songs to silly ones. Not surprisingly, Reuben disagreed, saying his album DID have focus, and the end result is a spirited debate between The Artist and the Critic. Reuben even scored a point when he correctly noted that Farias contradicted himself at one point in the interview. But it's all good—Farias says the conversation was light and friendly with lots of laughter, and no hard feelings. No winners, no losers. We'll call it a tie.
I had asked you to read my review of your album prior to this interview. What did you think?
John Reuben You know what? Here's what I disagree with. You didn't really have anything bad to say, except that you say my album shows a lack of focus. I think it's pretty focused. But you could be correct. Who knows? I thought, based on some of the comments you made, it deserved a higher score. But, it's your opinion. The songs worked well, and I think there was a bigger purpose.
But it did lack focus. You go from lightheaded pop ditties to heady, thought-provoking material.
John Reuben The goal is to really connect with everyday people and then bring them into something that perhaps will be a little bit deeper. Any good speaker communicates that way. You can't always have biting observations. Sometimes you have to ease up a little bit.
Why not stick to the biting observations and throw away the poppy material, though?
John Reuben Here's the thing. A buddy of mine—this guy is a very intelligent gentleman—says that he would not like my biting observations if he didn't know that I couldn't take myself seriously. He doesn't trust anybody's opinion if they're continually taking themselves seriously. I don't want to come across as a know-it-all. There's people who fall into the trap Rage Against the Machine fell into. The only thing they could do was biting. And those songs were amazing to me. I love Rage. I love those anthems. But their biggest downfall was that they were very one-dimensional. Especially as a believer, I have to have some sort of resolution because I'm not angry all the time.
I also don't want to alienate everyday people who sometimes just want a song that will get them to work in the morning. They don't necessarily want to analyze something. They just want to enjoy [it], and later on, they'll dive into the deeper stuff. And I'm the same way. People want to unwind. They want a song that will encourage them. If they're skeptical, they want something that will be a conversation piece. If I wrote a record that was completely without those moments where you can breathe a little, I would alienate the majority of the people who end up getting into the deeper songs.
But, for the most part, there are already enough people in Christian music making songs that will help people unwind. Christian radio calls it "positive hits." Why go with the flow?
John Reuben That's the thing, though. I think you could look at it from this angle too, and that is to make people that always like to hang around the surface a little bit, draw them in and take them a little deeper, but let them trust you first. The flipside of that is people who are over-analytical and always critiquing. It's also challenging for them to enjoy themselves and not have to take life so serious all the time. You have to have a balance. Me, as a person, I'm not one or the other all the time. Like I really like the "Sunshine" song or the song I did with Tim Skipper [of House of Heroes], "I'm So Glad." That's really enjoyable to me. And then there are times when I genuinely like the harder stuff. It's just a matter of having a balanced record, which you would say it's unbalanced. But you're wrong and I'm right.
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