What is it with these Tillman boys? Last year, the elder Tillman, Sean, released his Dance Till Your Baby is a Man (Troubleman Unlimited), a wry, Stevie Wonder-influenced album of dark, soulful, smallpox-catchy indie-pop, under the pseudonym Sean Na Na. Now Sean's adopted younger brother, Harold Martin Tillman, has returned to St. Paul, Minn., to bring his hometown's underground soul/R&B scene up to the present day with his Kill Rock Stars debut. Bearing the name of his own musical alter ego, Har Mar Superstar, the disc is a deconstructionist funk odyssey. It's fat with horny horns, gaseous guitars, new jack beats, sexed-up samples and syllables sung by a pasty-faced, unbuff white boy. The over-the-top lyrics of Har Mar Superstar poke holes in Top 40 R&B and hip-hop, even as they, well, poke the genre with lust, respect and reverence. "I admit I had a lot to drink last night/ and I didn't see that same pretty face in the daylight," he sings on "I Admit," a sticky-faced slow-jam duet based on Berlin's "Take My Breath Away." The song cuts a goofy but purposeful gash in that melodramatic '80s chestnut in a way that Shaggy's "Angel" does unintentionally to the Juice Newton hit it samples.
So what should we call this genre? Irony&B?
"Any way that someone wants to take my songs is fine," says the younger Tillman. "As long as they don't think I'm making fun of anybody because I'm definitely not. … If they want to think it's ironic because I'm white, or because I'm singing about trends that might hit close to home with some of them, that's just their deal."
One of the freshest, funniest jams on Har Mar Superstar is "Baby, Do You Like My Clothes?" "Baby do you like my clothes," he croons over a boy-band beat, staccato horn sample and a sassy, neck-snapping "mm-hmm-hmm" loop, "Because I sure don't like yours/ Unless they're lying on the floor/ With your body next to me baby/ Hypercolor tells me where my baby is hot/ 'Cause I can see your sweatpants getting dark in the crotch." He goes on, his voice buttery and sincere — though slightly nasal — to chastise his girl for her Tommy Gear-wearin', TJ-Maxx-shoppin' (hey!), proclivities.
But for someone so wary of the trappings of today's R&B lifestyle, Har Mar Superstar shows nothing but respect for the music. "R&B is the easiest music to dance to," he says. "It's got beats. Anybody can get out on the floor and totally go nuts to it, and it's definitely the most catchy form of popular music. Like, you're riding the bus and you hear someone singing the words to any old Aaliyah song. It's catchy and it's meant to catch your ear."
In the studio, Tillman has a crew that includes his brother, a beatmaster called Busy Signals and a host of rappers and backup singers. But live, it's just The Superstar, his choreography and a mini-disc player. Yep. Choreography. "I think it's got the youthful vigor of Sisqo," he says of his fancy footwork, "but the well-tempered sexuality of R. Kelly. … I think Sisqo's a little too over the top. You just have to be tasteful with your talents. I'm up for any challenge, though; if anybody thinks they can out-dance me, they should bring it on."
When informed that Tampa is the strip club capital of the Southeast, Superstar is equally agreeable. "If any ladies wanna come grind, that's definitely welcome."
Yes, Har Mar Superstar loves the female of the species. But not all the songs on the disc are fluffy love ditties — well, maybe they are. Even the dark, bravado-fueled "RESP-He Sees Me" is about how Har Mar won't get into a tussle with the boys when his girl's around. And on "Let Me Use Your Ride," he borrows his older brother's van to get freaky with his woman, and then party with his homies.
So how does the elder Tillman feel about his kid brother coming back to town to take advantage of Sean's established indie-rock connections and studio know-how? Especially after Har Mar spent his late adolescence train-hopping and busking as far away from his family as possible?
"He's very supportive," insists Har Mar, despite prior interviews in which sibling rivalry is broadly evidenced. "He's helped me through a lot of early stages of getting my stuff together. We fight a lot in the studio, but at the same time it's just typical brother kind of crap. We always keep that in mind when those fights go down, and make sure we get separated for a while and stay out of each other's business."
But how much of this tension has to do with the fact that the younger brother is adopted? And is he really? The two Tillmans look an awful lot alike, and I know that my brother used to tell me that I was adopted all the time …
"I don't know what's going on," says Har Mar. "I've asked my parents many times if I'm not really adopted. They tried to disown me for a while. I think this may be a story that they're trying to keep up."
This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 4, 2001.