"To fully grasp the band Soul Coughing and their debut album, Ruby Vroom, whose mix of hip-hop beats, samples, jazz, and rock sounded wildly fresh in the early days of "alternative music," it helps to understand how poetry and spoken-word performance fit in. You also need to get a handle on just how much newly unearthed sound from the past was back in circulation, now that the compact disc had exploded and the record industry was printing money."
"Frontman Mike Doughty was a regular performer at the Friday night poetry slam at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in the East Village, the city's most prominent hub for spoken-word performance. He'd been raised as an Army brat, moving around the country until his family settled in West Point. After high school, he came down the river to study at Manhattan's New School,"
Poetry slams originated in 1986 at Chicago's Green Mill and expanded over a decade into competitive, improv-like spoken-word events in bars and coffee shops. In early-'90s youth culture labeled Generation X, spoken-word poetry gained cultural importance. Soul Coughing's debut Ruby Vroom combined hip-hop beats, samples, jazz, and rock with slam-influenced vocal delivery to produce a fresh alternative sound. The compact-disc boom and record-industry prosperity resurfaced archived sounds and samples for new musical use. Frontman Mike Doughty performed regularly at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe's Friday poetry slam and moved from an Army-brat childhood to study at Manhattan's New School. Doughty transitioned from writer to musician, shaping the band's hybrid aesthetic.
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