Tom Waits Raps?

Tom Waits stands as one of the most innovative artists alive, mixing crooner piano tunes, industrial percussion, and all the styles between in a way that compliments, though dissonantly, his abrasive voice. Woven throughout his catalog, there’s hip hop, too, from when hip hop was beat poetry. Take 1978’s “Step Right Up” from his Small Change album:

Step Right Up

Then, as Waits fell in with (helped create?) the garbage clank-boom crowd, he upped the percussion, giving his hip hop styles more “edge:”

Top of the Hill

Dog Door

But, during last night’s Sonic Spectrum show with Roger Moore (a program I love, by the way), I heard a Tom Waits track that clearly marks the man’s furthest stretch into hip hop:

Though my initial reaction was one of disgust. Not because Waits had further adopted hip hop (I like hip hop) but because he had done so to such a extreme level. I love Waits for the way he manipulates styles for his own use, not the other way around. He should mold hip hop; hip hop should not mold him.

But, as Waits music tends to do, the track is growing on me. His first verse (after the chorus, which he performs as well) reminds me of (hed) P.E’s “Pac Bell,” with it’s vibrato gravel quality to the vocals.

Pac Bell

All in all, I’m glad Waits is still fighting. Considering his last two albums were a B-Sides collection followed by a live recording, I imagined that perhaps he was winding down. This track makes me think he’s possibly not quite done.