In today’s hyper-globalized music industry, where production and consumption cycles are increasingly uniform, encountering truly local genres and community-based artists is growing increasingly uncommon. However, footwork and juke stand as powerful exceptions. In the West Side ghettos of Chicago, these styles emerged as a refuge – an outlet for local dancers to channel the violence and brutality of street life into ferocious dance battles. So much the better that footwork has sometimes been labeled “utilitarian”. This reflects how artists are already aware of the potential of their music and don’t need to adjust their ambitions to fit the whims of the market – hence the genre’s playfulness and occasional parodic essence. Chopped-up samples are handily tossed into a cocktail blender, whipping verses into something of a joke. Cornelius Ferguson, aka Traxman, has always had a knack for turning the genre he helped shape into a palatable, uplifting, and easily danceable experience.
Da Mind of Traxman Vol. 3 propels footwork into more experimental and uncharted musical territory. This makes it a counterpart to his fellow Teklife artist, the late DJ Rashad’s highly praised Double Cup, in that it amplifies footwork’s signature production techniques and applies them to entirely unexplored material. ‘Kill Da DJ’, a collaboration with younger producers, kicks off the album with a glimpse of how club scene tastes have evolved in recent decades. But in the next track, ‘Trax Da Prophet’ , he returns to a more familiar terrain, with soulful R&B influences punctuated by 808 drum beats. ‘I’ll Write The Hook’, sampling Benny the Butcher’s ‘Bust a Brick Nick’, takes the combative verses and splinters them into an even more confrontational war anthem. ‘Trust Me’ is one of those hilarious peaks discernible throughout footwork, and of course, in Traxman’s catalogue in particular.
From the onset, footwork has achieved a syntax of its own, and it deserves recognition for it. Its artists have mastered the art of dealing with glitches by manipulating rhythms. They employ stop-start beats and use half-time rhythms, where snares don’t land on every third beat. This incorporates the dancers’ sophisticated movements and even their need to take a breath in the heat of battle.
Traxman is no exception here. His crate-digging style, coupled with his deep knowledge of soul and ghetto house roots, has made his form of footwork distinctive. With ‘I Bet U Think This Track Is About U!!’ and its sample of Carly Simon’s ‘You’re So Vain’ here, he initiates a dialogue of uncompromising blankness. ‘It Never Rains’ and ‘Day And Night Time’ draw on samples from Tony! Toni! Toné!’s ‘It Never Rains (In Southern California)’ and Peabo Bryson’s ‘Give Me Your Love’ respectively, another testament to his exuberant sample-splitting finesse. Da Mind Of Traxman Vol.3 while respecting all the genre’s definitions, brings fresh elements to its frenetic machine – exactly what we’d expect from a footwork album from one of the genre’s pioneers.
