Northern State

Back in 2003, an all female, white, hip-hop trio from Long Island called Northern State released their mini-LP, Dying In Stereo. Aside from an EP called Hip Hop You Haven't Heard, this was their big debut into the world. While many didn't even notice, the reactions to those that did were polarizing. Rolling Stone and Allmusic gave the group four stars while Pitchfork panned them with a 0.8. I saw the video for "At The Party" on Subterranean, an MTV show that specialized in alternative music. I immediately saw the 'joke meets serendidpity' quality of the group and went out and bought the EP with my first paycheck from my new job.

The problem was, I couldn't listen to the record with anyone present. All my friends hated it. It made sense - Hesta Prynn's voice in particular was very grating. I loved it though. It worked in a sense that they were a group that started doing rap as a joke, that accidentally churned out some great tracks. The rhymes were cute and goofy, with an occasional political standpoint - on opener "A Thousand Words", Prynn raps, "Keep choice legal/ya wardrobe Regal/Chekhov wrote the Seagull/and Snoopy is a beagle". It was only when those politics took center stage that they lost their footing, like on the third rate feminist 'ballad' "Vicious Cycle" where Sprout says "You say I'm beautiful underneath your breath/but you're not looking in my eyes, you're staring at my chest/ I can see history like a pal obsessed/ I'm sure the ladies can figure out the rest."

As a whole, Dying In Stereo was a good one off project. Clever and fun, through and through. The problem was, from the touring build up, and the selected praise they were getting for that record, they now had to take themselves as a serious hip-hop group. This is why their first full length, All City, is rife with problems, even though the formula is essentially the same. Now they had semi-high profile collaborators working on their material like Pete Rock, Har Mar Superstar and Martin Luther. The album had a few good tracks but it's a hard listen top to bottom. The concept had simply gotten stale. I remember being excited about their third record, Can I Borrow This Pen?, which I had heard was incorporating new rock-based elements into the group (something that seemed inevitable considering the girls rap as if the only hip-hop they've ever listened to are the Beastie Boys), but when it finally came out in 07, I forgot and never got around to checking it out. I'm not sure if the group is still together but I know Hesta Prynn has a new dance/rock project in the works. Here's the song that hooked me all those years ago. If you haven't heard it, maybe you'll embark on the same journey I did...or piss on it like everyone else did.