Critics’ Cult Classics: Hanif Abdurraqib on Camp Lo’s “Uptown Saturday Night”

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When it dropped in January of 1997, Camp Lo’s “Uptown Saturday Night” thrilled some listeners and confounded others. On the first in a series of Critics at Large interview episodes devoted to resurfacing beloved cult classics, Vinson Cunningham talks with Hanif Abdurraqib, a contributing writer for The New Yorker and a diehard fan of the Camp Lo project. Abdurraqib describes “Uptown Saturday Night,” which leaned on Blaxploitation tropes to paint a strikingly cinematic picture of New York City, as “essentially a heist film” unto itself. Together, they discuss the album’s lukewarm reception at the time, and why its creative approach to storytelling seemed to land on deaf ears. One explanation is that the hip-hop marketplace of the era was increasingly demanding that musicians pick a lane: underground or mainstream, socially conscious or unapologetically opulent. “ ‘Uptown Saturday Night’ got lost in that because it didn’t really have a foothold in either world,” Abdurraqib says. “At a time when a lot of these guys with underground roots were bending to the hyper-commercialization of hip-hop, Camp Lo never changed who they were.” Read, watch, and listen with the critics: Camp Lo’s “Uptown Saturday Night” Fugees’ “The Score” “Uptown Saturday Night” (1974) “Midnight Express” (1978) “The Black Connection” (1974)Dynasty’s “Adventures in the Land of Music” Elliott Wilson’s review of “Uptown Saturday Night” (The Source) Slum Village’s “Fan-Tas-Tic (Vol. 1)” Puff Daddy’s “No Way Out” Pete Rock and Camp Lo’s “80 Blocks from Tiffany’s” Camp Lo’s “Black Hollywood” Jay-Z’s “American Gangster” Wyclef Jean’s “The Carnival” New episodes drop every Thursday. Follow Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts. Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices