Those songs typically matched samples of very white, very pop artists to thick layers of Beach Boys harmonies. Dawn was barely even a duo - Attrell was always the creative force behind the work, the lead voice on every song. Though they billed themselves as a group, P.M. Dawn may lie beneath the surface.īaby you send me, baby you send me Set adrift on memory bliss of you But in a world where Drake dominates and everybody from Kanye to Lil Wayne gets some of their biggest pop hits by singing moody songs about their feelings, it seems as if history has come down decidedly in favor of the styles the group pioneered. Dawn‘s catalog is full of overtly romantic songs suffused with heartbreak, as likely to be sung as rapped. Was it because they were too soft? After all, P.M. Dawn‘s rightful legacy in hip-hop history? Are they sidelined today because they were hippies? Maybe, but so were De La Soul until De La deaded the D.A.I.S.Y. The name alone does a good job of explaining exactly why P.M. Dawn’s sophomore effort: The Bliss Album…? (Vibrations of Love and Anger and the Ponderance of Life and Existence). But in 1993, those legendary albums sat on the charts and the critics’ lists right next to The Bliss Album…? Or, to respect the full title of P.M.
The works we associate with that moment of transition in the early 90s are still respected as classics -albums like 36 Chambers and The Chronic. The conventional narrative of the early 90s in mainstream hip-hop is of a time when the genre transformed from a rebellious and challenging upstart artform to the dominant musical force in culture, maturing from golden age boom bap to globally-dominant gangsta rap with only a brief detour into the Native Tongues. Dawn enjoyed both enormous commercial success and broad critical acclaim.
It’s easy to forget, nearly 20 years after they faded from view, that P.M. Dawn’s unique mix of extraordinary success, deep influence on current sounds, and a relentlessly heartbroken outlook raises the question: What on earth inspired Attrell Cordes in the first place? The standout moments of the group’s history are like no other group in hip-hop - enormous pop hits and groundbreaking production work, a deep catalog of songs suffused not just with pathos but often with genuine despair, a notorious and absurd run-in with a hip-hop legend, and a stream of profound moments of personal and professional tragedy. They grew up in Jersey City, which may be the only part of their story that sounds like a regular rap group. The other guy was his brother Jarrett, who usually went by DJ Minutemix until scandal pushed him from the group in the mid-90s. Dawn was “the big guy and the other guy.” The big guy was Attrell Cordes, known as Prince Be, who passed away yesterday.
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