I recently caught up with California producer/rapper NomiS via e-mail to ask about his free Les Misérables-inspired album, music about redemption, and the Glee-ification of hip hop.
Sketch: Why should Christians care about this story and/or your project? It’s all about poor French people, right? How does a suburban Southern Baptist from Houston connect to this?
NomiS: That’s a great question. Christians should care about this story/project for many reasons, but I’ll focus on just two reasons for now. First why they should care for the story, then secondly as it pertains to the project itself.
The main reason Christians should care about “Les Mis” is because of the major themes involved within it. Yes, it’s about “poor French people” on the surface, but the real story is a tale of broken people who desperately need mercy, justice, redemption, or all of the above.
The main reason why Christians should care about this project is because it is unlike anything “Christian Hip Hop” (or any hip hop for that matter) has ever heard. There is a pretty standard format to rap music and on this project I threw out about 75% of those formulas.
For instance, roughly 90% of rap songs have 16 bar sequences for verses, and eight bar sequences for choruses that rotate back and forth between the two sequences. For the bulk of the record, I don’t even rap over the same sequence twice within the same song. There is NOT ONE 16 BAR VERSE ON THIS ENTIRE ALBUM! And, the songs are always changing and evolving with multiple sections, similar to how a musical would be.
Also, some songs on this project have changes in either tempo or time signature (or both) all on the same track. Again, it’s closer to how a musical would be. But, all of this is being done while staying true to foundational hip hop music has made for a very interesting and progressive project that I couldn’t be happier to share.
Sketch: What sparked you to pursue this project? Were you familiar with “Les Mis” before last year’s film adaptation was released? If so, what did you think of that version?
NomiS: What sparked me to do this project was the fact that I left the theater and couldn’t stop thinking about all the themes that I could relate to as an artist and as a person. If you’re familiar with my music catalog and the organizations I’m affiliated with, then you know that I’m very much a “social justice nerd”, and this musical speaks to issues of injustice all the way through.
The way that they tie grace and redemption into it was nothing short of brilliant in my mind. My mother raised me watching musicals so I was actually shocked that I had not seen any adaptation of this story prior to the movie’s release, but it only makes sense that I fell in love with it. I’ve since gone back and watched/listened to other versions as well, but I like the Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe version a lot!
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Sketch: Is there a particular character from the story that you identified with most? If so, who and why?
NomiS: Yes sir, there are two actually. One being the main character Jean Valjean and the other being Enjolras (whose name they don’t actually say in the film).
My connection to Valjean is one that I’m sure many make when watching the story unfold. His character is the perfect example of a person whose past sins keep catching up to him, no matter how much good he does or how much he’s changed his life for the better. But ultimately, he has found true peace and redemption regardless of whether or not he is forced to suffer for the past choices that he’s made.
Enjolras on the other hand represents the man that is tired of the injustice he sees on a regular basis and is willing to actually do something about it! Its easy to talk about change, but taking real steps in action is a whole other story. I respect him for acting on his convictions.
Sketch: What was the hardest part about doing this project? The easiest?
NomiS: Oh man, there were many hard parts to this project!
For one, finding a good balance between hip hop and musical theater without it getting corny, making a project that feels like film without telling an actual story, and on top of all that, I did the entire album in a month.
But, the MOST difficult part had to be the production (beats). I knew I had a month to do this whole thing so I naturally thought of taking the safe and comfortable route of just sampling the original and then making it hip hop for purposes of time constraints. I’ve done that a million times and I know it works, and people like it. But I really wanted to push myself and not settle for just “what works.”
I knew this project had potential to be something special and innovative for the genre of hip hop. The process I had created is fairly difficult to explain without visuals, but here’s a simple idea: Basically, my goal was to pull elements from the musical, play original parts, and then find a creative way to blend those parts in and out seamlessly so that you don’t really know where the musical and my original parts start and end.
The easiest part had to be coming up with song concepts. Like I said before, the guts of the entire musical are themes that I already relate to, so it was a very natural progression to turn that into song concepts. They were almost telling the concepts for me metaphorically if you’ve ever seen any adaptation.
Also, I want to be clear that this project is NOT the re-telling of the story of Les Miserables. This album is a concept project that uses the major themes of the story and translates them to relate to modern day issues of injustice, and the never ending issue of mankind needing grace and redemption.
Sketch: Is this the Glee-ification of hip hop? Now that you’ve made a rap album about a musical are you expecting any teasing or hazing from your hip hop peers? Slushies at your next cypher?
NomiS: Hahaha. Its definitely not a Glee-ification (but I like the word usage) of hip hop, but there may be some artists out there that are unhappy with the project.
Some rappers only enjoy art to the extent of standard hip hop music. If they had it their way, the genre would never really progress.
I on the other hand am the type of person who enjoys multiple different kinds of art and expression. I already understand that some people won’t get it, but that’s okay.
On the other hand, the people that do get it will absolutely love it. At least that’s my hope. Any time you take a risk and do something different, there will always be people that will diss you for it.
NomiS’ The Wretched: A Soundtrack of Justice & Redemption Inspired by Les Miserables will be available as a FREE download on March 18 at NomisHipHop.com.
Tracklist:
01. The Wretched
02. Look Down
03. End of the Day
04. Eponine Scream (Plumet Attack)
05. 24601 (Valjean’s Soliloquy)
06. Castle On a Cloud
07. The Blood of Angry Men (Look Down Prt. 2)
08. Barricades Arise
09. Thief’s Theme (Valjean Forgiven)
10. Who Am I
11. I Dreamed A Dream Deferred
