Arrested Development gear up for the Electric Picnic

rrested Development have come back on the musical agenda in a big way over the past eighteen months or so, having all but fallen off the radar for the best part of ten years.

Following the huge success of their classic 1992 debut 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of - which spawned such evergreen hip-hop favourites as ‘Mr Wendal’, ‘People Everyday’ and ‘Tennessee’ – the group went their separate ways to work on a variety of solo projects.
After six million album sales and a brace of Grammy awards, it was a surprisingly low-key exit. The group subsequently resurfaced in 2001 with a couple of EPs, Heroes Of The Harvest and Da Feelin’, and have since slowly re-aquatinted audiences with the soulful brand of socially conscious hip-hop that made them so popular in the first place. Now, with a new album in the offing and a tour underway, AD could be poised to make another big splash in the pop cultural arena.
But the question has to be asked: are the group as relevant in 2004 as they were in the mid-90s?
“Well, I think hip-hop over the past few years has been so one-sided, and people have expressed their need for more diversity in their music,” says Speech, Arrested Development’s eloquent founder member. “A lot of the younger generation, who at the time we came out in the early ‘90s were 9 or 10, have come to the shows really wanting to know about this group that they’ve heard about, but who they never had the opportunity to see play live. And also, with the new material that we have in our show now, those people who really liked our first record want to hear what we sound like ten years on. So, I think there are lot of reasons right now for people to get to know Arrested Development again.”
In an interview with this writer last year, Public Enemy’s Professor Griff expressed the opinion that “hip-hop right now is on a spiral downwards”. Certainly, groups with AD and Public Enemy’s explicitly political outlook are pretty thin on the ground. Does Speech concur with Griff’s analysis?
“I do,” he acknowledges. “The amazing thing about the early ’90s – we call it the “golden age of hip-hop” – is that with most of the groups who were around during that period, when they departed the scene, they left a void that I think has yet to be really, properly filled. I think there’s a couple of things that are really noticeable. First, there doesn’t seem to be the kind of political and social awareness that was around back then. And second, when you take a group like Public Enemy and examine what they were doing musically, it was revolutionary. And hopefully in what we were doing too, there was an intelligence and a musical sophistication that I don’t see too much of at the moment. “
Where Public Enemy and Arrested Development differed was in the presentation of their respective messages. Whereas Public Enemy records were Molotov cocktails of incendiary discontent – with song titles like ‘Burn Hollywood Burn’, ‘Anti Nigger Machine’ and ‘Leave This Off Your Fuckin’ Charts’ not exactly pandering to mainstream sensibilities - Arrested Development tunes, wonderful though they were, had a decidedly more accessible feel.
Does Speech feel that AD’s less confrontational approach made them more palatable to audiences generally?
“I don’t, I think that our music was just as rebellious, but on another tip,” he counters. “I mean, in Arrested Development we talked about marriage, we talked about love and prayer and God, all of which were basically taboo subjects in hip-hop. And we had men and women in our group at a time when that was really uncommon on the hip-hop landscape. So I think that we were revolutionary in our own way.
“And I think our popularity had less to do with the fact that we were weren’t as sonically violent as Public Enemy, and more to do with the with the fact that we broadened people’s minds with regard to what hip-hop could actually be. And that’s very much the vibe that we’re getting from audiences today; they appreciate that our group is coming from a slightly different place than a lot of the other hip-hop music that’s currently out there.”
To what or to whom does Speech attribute his political awareness?
“Well, my parents had a lot to do with it,” he reflects. “They own, still to this day, the black newspaper in Atlanta. I mean, historically, to people overseas it may seem a little confusing as to why we have a separate newspaper for the black community, but in America, as you well know, there was a time during segregation when we could not tell our stories. It was against the law and it was considered subversive for newspapers to include reports about what was going on in the black community.
“And so certain people felt that it was necessary for different news outlets to come along and give an insight into what was happening in those parts of town. My mother was one of them, and with that came a lot of debate and a lot of discussion; there was always some or issue or other being picked over in our house.”
In recent times, Atlanta – where AD are still based – has become something of a hotspot for innovative hip-hop music. Why does Speech feel that the town has suddenly started producing such an abundance of talented artists?
“Well, I think there’s a number of things,” he says. “First of all, a lot of people have moved from other cities to Atlanta, so part of the boom is to do with the fact that there’s talented people moving here. But also, I think that Atlanta just really offers a different, down-to-earth, traditional vibe that you don’t really get in New York or LA. There’s a great lineage of southern artists and that’s something that people here have a lot of respect for, and draw inspiration from.”
As our conversation winds down, Speech mentions that on his last visit to Ireland, he took a quick holiday in a remote spot off the West Coast.
“Myself and my wife went over to Inisturk for a few days after we played Dublin,” he reveals. “It was incredibly beautiful there, unlike anything I’ve ever really experienced. There are maybe 200 or 300 hundred people on the island, and you’re very aware of the isolation, but the tranquillity is amazing. I loved it there.”
So can we expect an Irish traditional element to AD’s next record?
He chuckles. “That may be a few albums further down the line.”

Arrested Development play Dublin's Crawdaddy venue on September 2, Limerick's Trinity Rooms on September 3 and the Electric Picnic on Saturday, September 4, in Stadbally Hall, Co. Laoise.