Slumberlord
Monday, May 31, 2004
Hip-hop: graf writing, DJing, rapping, break dancing, Japanese space robot
Peeped the new Redman single “Saga Continues,” and the first impression was swell – some 8-bit synths, gorilla noises, Def Jam diss, gratuitous swearing, nuns, and so forth.
One thing really jumps out, though – a Voltron reference! For the uninitiated, Voltron was a Japanese cartoon that landed on American shores in the early ‘80s and featured a team of five robot pilots who could combine their animal-themed robots to form one super robot – Voltron. While Voltron may have little to do with the streets, he's a popular reference in hip-hop.
Why? Hell if I know - ask some of these people, who mention Voltron in the following songs:
Redman – "Saga Continues"
Wu-Tang Clan – "Shame On a Nigga"
Killarmy – "Red Dawn"
Nelly, P Diddy, Murphy Lee – "Shake Ya Tailfeather"
Eminem – "Just Don’t Give a Fuck"
Warren G – "This DJ"
Organized Konfusion – "Keep It Koming"
Jedi Mind Tricks – "The Immaculate Conception"
Busta Rhymes – "Everything Remains Raw"
The Lox – "Let’s Start Rap Over"
In most of these cases, the rapper says he or his crew is coming together or forming like Voltron, or otherwise badass like Voltron.
Whatever the reason for Voltron’s prominence, it’s comforting for listeners outside the hip-hop sphere whenever a rapper mentions it. Not to make hip-hop a race issue (that happens enough already) but Voltron is universal to rappers who were kids in the early '80s, which is the right age range for most '90s rappers. Voltron transcends racial boundaries.
Peeped the new Redman single “Saga Continues,” and the first impression was swell – some 8-bit synths, gorilla noises, Def Jam diss, gratuitous swearing, nuns, and so forth.
One thing really jumps out, though – a Voltron reference! For the uninitiated, Voltron was a Japanese cartoon that landed on American shores in the early ‘80s and featured a team of five robot pilots who could combine their animal-themed robots to form one super robot – Voltron. While Voltron may have little to do with the streets, he's a popular reference in hip-hop.
Why? Hell if I know - ask some of these people, who mention Voltron in the following songs:
Redman – "Saga Continues"
Wu-Tang Clan – "Shame On a Nigga"
Killarmy – "Red Dawn"
Nelly, P Diddy, Murphy Lee – "Shake Ya Tailfeather"
Eminem – "Just Don’t Give a Fuck"
Warren G – "This DJ"
Organized Konfusion – "Keep It Koming"
Jedi Mind Tricks – "The Immaculate Conception"
Busta Rhymes – "Everything Remains Raw"
The Lox – "Let’s Start Rap Over"
In most of these cases, the rapper says he or his crew is coming together or forming like Voltron, or otherwise badass like Voltron.
Whatever the reason for Voltron’s prominence, it’s comforting for listeners outside the hip-hop sphere whenever a rapper mentions it. Not to make hip-hop a race issue (that happens enough already) but Voltron is universal to rappers who were kids in the early '80s, which is the right age range for most '90s rappers. Voltron transcends racial boundaries.
Sunday, May 30, 2004
Blog Community: No name, no slogan
Cocaine Blunts comes through with some thoughts on late-‘90s Bad Boy hip-hop and the double standard on samples, with a good point on Kanye’s hooks:
“You're kidding yourself if you think homie got his fingers dusty digging up the ‘Through The Wire’ jump.”
Really true – I even have that Chaka Khan record. I’ve found the samples in “Through the Wire” and some of Kanye’s other songs to be the least interesting things in them. The story and the persona were always more appealing.
Very interesting subject on Intellectual Hip-Hop Commentary – an online effort to restrict the spread of Tupac autopsy photos, and a much more logical solution via Hashim in the comments section: post dummy photos on websites to dilute image searches, with a disclaimer explaining why and discouraging people from seeking the real photos out.
I like to keep this blog strictly music, and I don’t get into politics too much, but this is tangentially music-related, and I can’t pass up the striking re-interpretation of such bizarre, unforgettable imagery – from Tyrone Shoelaces, Chicago Muzik and probably countless other blogs. That shrouded figure, like some gothic, pseudo-crucified character, is the definitive image of this conflict. They can put that in the history books, right next to a picture of the plane hitting the WTC.
Cocaine Blunts comes through with some thoughts on late-‘90s Bad Boy hip-hop and the double standard on samples, with a good point on Kanye’s hooks:
“You're kidding yourself if you think homie got his fingers dusty digging up the ‘Through The Wire’ jump.”
Really true – I even have that Chaka Khan record. I’ve found the samples in “Through the Wire” and some of Kanye’s other songs to be the least interesting things in them. The story and the persona were always more appealing.
Very interesting subject on Intellectual Hip-Hop Commentary – an online effort to restrict the spread of Tupac autopsy photos, and a much more logical solution via Hashim in the comments section: post dummy photos on websites to dilute image searches, with a disclaimer explaining why and discouraging people from seeking the real photos out.
I like to keep this blog strictly music, and I don’t get into politics too much, but this is tangentially music-related, and I can’t pass up the striking re-interpretation of such bizarre, unforgettable imagery – from Tyrone Shoelaces, Chicago Muzik and probably countless other blogs. That shrouded figure, like some gothic, pseudo-crucified character, is the definitive image of this conflict. They can put that in the history books, right next to a picture of the plane hitting the WTC.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Blog Analysis: Upskirt and Invigorate
Some Disco breaths life into the ancient art of image googling. To whit: Fennesz.
Where does SFJ get this stuff? “Upskirt shots of Kruder & Dorfmeister”? Does that mean anything or is it just the least meaningful and therefore best thing I’ve heard all day? And which would be funnier?
I imagine him trolling the streets of New York, finding less powerful webloggers and eating their brains. Eating their brains to gain their knowledge.
Courtesy Blog Pulse - the death of jazz drummer Elvin Jones, who lent his polyrhythmic skills to John Coltrane and others, tops blog entertainment for May 19. I don’t know a lot about jazz so I don’t have much perspective – is this purely because of his artistic achievements? Or do music blogs have a chain-obit effect when someone as unarguably important as Jones passes away?
Some Disco breaths life into the ancient art of image googling. To whit: Fennesz.
Where does SFJ get this stuff? “Upskirt shots of Kruder & Dorfmeister”? Does that mean anything or is it just the least meaningful and therefore best thing I’ve heard all day? And which would be funnier?
I imagine him trolling the streets of New York, finding less powerful webloggers and eating their brains. Eating their brains to gain their knowledge.
Courtesy Blog Pulse - the death of jazz drummer Elvin Jones, who lent his polyrhythmic skills to John Coltrane and others, tops blog entertainment for May 19. I don’t know a lot about jazz so I don’t have much perspective – is this purely because of his artistic achievements? Or do music blogs have a chain-obit effect when someone as unarguably important as Jones passes away?
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Blog the Suburbs
The local newscast ad must have come out of some bizarre time warp. “Hip-hop in suburbia. Harmless trend… or dangerous influence?” Hip… hop? What is this hip-hop of which you speak?
The WGN Chicago broadcast seems to be a slow news day filler – there is no particularly timely reason for running it now, and if the names were changed this story could have easily run in 1994 or 1989.
It is the pre-formatted local news article – interview white suburban teens who like hip-hop, interview marketing expert to learn that, yes, it is profitable, interview academic expert who says it’s bad, interview stodgy “good” rap type who reassures us hip-hop can be nice and peaceful and parent-approved too.*
Of course, this article is nothing new – it’s right in line with numerous articles that have come before it. It’s almost remarkable in its sameness, and in how little it says – the lead portentously drops the words “gang territory” but then fails to ever really explain how this (25 year) “trend” is dangerous in any way.
But before I get into it – picking over the inconsistencies in this article, on this blog, would be redundant. What’s more interesting is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
In 1994, William Upski Wimstatt published “Bomb the Suburbs,” his seminal thesis/mission statement on hip-hop and Chicago in particular. It’s a quick read and an informative one, particularly for someone like me whose knowledge of hip-hop is almost strictly post-2000. It’s also a great insight into graffiti, race relations and Chicago’s weird role in the hip-hop world, especially so in 2004 when Chicago hip-hop artists finally seem to be making a big impact nationally**.
As the name implies, Upski is a supporter of urban culture and city life and a critic of the suburbs. "Bombing (or spray painting) the suburbs" is a half-serious, half-philosophical directive he gives to kids living in the city.
Without having read the two books he has done since, I have to wonder how Upski would update BtS for 2004, were he to pick it up again today. A few things jumped out at me immediately.
Upski mentions gentrification once. If he were to write “Bomb the Suburbs” today, it would have to figure directly in his entire philosophy, or at least be prominently addressed. In the last 10 years, the ghetto may have expanded outward, as Upski predicted, but the core has turned into a new suburbia.
Why? Well, ironically, it’s because most people who grow up in the suburbs would probably agree with Upski. They don’t like growing up there. They will acknowledge how they’ve benefited – growing up in a safe place with good schools – but culturally, many people between the age of 18 and 38 want to escape the suburbs. They want to move to the city, and developers are aware of that. And that’s why every time I go through a neighborhood I don’t usually frequent, I see condos and coffee shops that weren’t there six months ago.
In 2001, I saw Fugazi play a show at Logan Square in Chicago. Their set included “Cashout,” which would appear on the band’s album “The Argument” later that year. The song is about gentrification. I wondered at the time, and wonder more so now, if the band was aware of a certain degree of irony in playing that song for that audience. I was there with friends who had grown up in the suburbs and moved to the city. I’m sure many of the others in attendance had taken the same course.
Go a block in any direction from the venue we were at and you can find Latino grocery stores, Latino law offices, Latino discotheques – all pushed up against venues and record stores and coffee shops catering to a different population. A lot of the apartment buildings are split between Latino families and young, single European-Americans.
And this is all at a time when the minority populations in the Chicago area are shooting up – particularly the Latino population. It’s actually the suburbs that have some of the most dramatic increases. Obviously there are places like Cicero, where the company I work for is already withdrawing its resources because, well, there just aren’t as many people who speak English as a first language as there used to be.
But it’s not just inner Cook County. Places like Addison – well away from the city in DuPage County – are among the communities with the fastest growing minority populations in the state.
So gentrification combined with the minority presence in the suburbs makes me wonder how things are changing. It’s why I have to disagree with Upski’s prediction that “the coming century will be the century of the suburb.” The century of the city, he writes, was from 1880 to 1980. But suburbs were going strong from the end of World War II on, and the generation that grew up there has a different set of values and expectations.
The demographics aren’t the only thing changing – there are also fewer and fewer commuters and more people working in the suburbs. There are more people my age doing the opposite of what their parents did – living in the city and commuting to jobs in the suburbs.
So if the city is no longer the economic center, what is its future? Increasingly the city is the destination for young people who grew up in the suburbs – they move to the city for largely cultural reasons. And thus we have gentrification.
So where are young European-Americans from the suburbs supposed to live? Obviously not the suburbs, for any number of reasons mentioned above. Not the city, because gentrification is destroying neighborhoods, right? What remains are small towns and rural areas, too far removed from the cultural centers young people want to be near.
My conclusion is that I have no conclusion, and no answers. I’ve lived in several of these different places and enjoyed different things about each. I’m planning to move again in the near future and these things are very much on my mind.
*Ok, I’m probably being a bit unfair to KRS-One there – the guy is a legend, right? But he is also the name to drop when referencing the very old-fashioned, four disciplines, pre-modern era hip-hop. I mean, really, templeofhiphop.org?
**And locally, too – when I went to see Heaven8Teen spin at Lava Lounge the other night I swear I heard “Overnight Celebrity” or “Slow Jamz” bumping out of every car.
***I visited Fugazi’s home town of D.C. earlier this year (and incidentally saw Ian MacKaye himself) and demographically there are a lot of the same conflicting forces – a sizable Latino population mixing with young European-Americans who have come for all the governmental/media/related jobs available there.
The local newscast ad must have come out of some bizarre time warp. “Hip-hop in suburbia. Harmless trend… or dangerous influence?” Hip… hop? What is this hip-hop of which you speak?
The WGN Chicago broadcast seems to be a slow news day filler – there is no particularly timely reason for running it now, and if the names were changed this story could have easily run in 1994 or 1989.
It is the pre-formatted local news article – interview white suburban teens who like hip-hop, interview marketing expert to learn that, yes, it is profitable, interview academic expert who says it’s bad, interview stodgy “good” rap type who reassures us hip-hop can be nice and peaceful and parent-approved too.*
Of course, this article is nothing new – it’s right in line with numerous articles that have come before it. It’s almost remarkable in its sameness, and in how little it says – the lead portentously drops the words “gang territory” but then fails to ever really explain how this (25 year) “trend” is dangerous in any way.
But before I get into it – picking over the inconsistencies in this article, on this blog, would be redundant. What’s more interesting is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
In 1994, William Upski Wimstatt published “Bomb the Suburbs,” his seminal thesis/mission statement on hip-hop and Chicago in particular. It’s a quick read and an informative one, particularly for someone like me whose knowledge of hip-hop is almost strictly post-2000. It’s also a great insight into graffiti, race relations and Chicago’s weird role in the hip-hop world, especially so in 2004 when Chicago hip-hop artists finally seem to be making a big impact nationally**.
As the name implies, Upski is a supporter of urban culture and city life and a critic of the suburbs. "Bombing (or spray painting) the suburbs" is a half-serious, half-philosophical directive he gives to kids living in the city.
Without having read the two books he has done since, I have to wonder how Upski would update BtS for 2004, were he to pick it up again today. A few things jumped out at me immediately.
Upski mentions gentrification once. If he were to write “Bomb the Suburbs” today, it would have to figure directly in his entire philosophy, or at least be prominently addressed. In the last 10 years, the ghetto may have expanded outward, as Upski predicted, but the core has turned into a new suburbia.
Why? Well, ironically, it’s because most people who grow up in the suburbs would probably agree with Upski. They don’t like growing up there. They will acknowledge how they’ve benefited – growing up in a safe place with good schools – but culturally, many people between the age of 18 and 38 want to escape the suburbs. They want to move to the city, and developers are aware of that. And that’s why every time I go through a neighborhood I don’t usually frequent, I see condos and coffee shops that weren’t there six months ago.
In 2001, I saw Fugazi play a show at Logan Square in Chicago. Their set included “Cashout,” which would appear on the band’s album “The Argument” later that year. The song is about gentrification. I wondered at the time, and wonder more so now, if the band was aware of a certain degree of irony in playing that song for that audience. I was there with friends who had grown up in the suburbs and moved to the city. I’m sure many of the others in attendance had taken the same course.
Go a block in any direction from the venue we were at and you can find Latino grocery stores, Latino law offices, Latino discotheques – all pushed up against venues and record stores and coffee shops catering to a different population. A lot of the apartment buildings are split between Latino families and young, single European-Americans.
And this is all at a time when the minority populations in the Chicago area are shooting up – particularly the Latino population. It’s actually the suburbs that have some of the most dramatic increases. Obviously there are places like Cicero, where the company I work for is already withdrawing its resources because, well, there just aren’t as many people who speak English as a first language as there used to be.
But it’s not just inner Cook County. Places like Addison – well away from the city in DuPage County – are among the communities with the fastest growing minority populations in the state.
So gentrification combined with the minority presence in the suburbs makes me wonder how things are changing. It’s why I have to disagree with Upski’s prediction that “the coming century will be the century of the suburb.” The century of the city, he writes, was from 1880 to 1980. But suburbs were going strong from the end of World War II on, and the generation that grew up there has a different set of values and expectations.
The demographics aren’t the only thing changing – there are also fewer and fewer commuters and more people working in the suburbs. There are more people my age doing the opposite of what their parents did – living in the city and commuting to jobs in the suburbs.
So if the city is no longer the economic center, what is its future? Increasingly the city is the destination for young people who grew up in the suburbs – they move to the city for largely cultural reasons. And thus we have gentrification.
So where are young European-Americans from the suburbs supposed to live? Obviously not the suburbs, for any number of reasons mentioned above. Not the city, because gentrification is destroying neighborhoods, right? What remains are small towns and rural areas, too far removed from the cultural centers young people want to be near.
My conclusion is that I have no conclusion, and no answers. I’ve lived in several of these different places and enjoyed different things about each. I’m planning to move again in the near future and these things are very much on my mind.
*Ok, I’m probably being a bit unfair to KRS-One there – the guy is a legend, right? But he is also the name to drop when referencing the very old-fashioned, four disciplines, pre-modern era hip-hop. I mean, really, templeofhiphop.org?
**And locally, too – when I went to see Heaven8Teen spin at Lava Lounge the other night I swear I heard “Overnight Celebrity” or “Slow Jamz” bumping out of every car.
***I visited Fugazi’s home town of D.C. earlier this year (and incidentally saw Ian MacKaye himself) and demographically there are a lot of the same conflicting forces – a sizable Latino population mixing with young European-Americans who have come for all the governmental/media/related jobs available there.
Sunday, May 16, 2004
Blog Analysis (See, analysis makes it sound more like I’m putting my own thoughts in, as opposed to brainlessly linking as I’m wont to do)
Courtesy of Technicolor, more thoughts on grime and its place in the continuum of British dance music. For Americans, reading about this is confusing to say the least, as there is this whole chain of styles (house/acid/rave/dnb/dubstep/darkcore/garage/2step/etc/whathaveyou) that had little to no presence in America, which explains why grime’s reception has been so odd here. If an erstwhile shopper goes to any Best Buy here in America, they have 50/50 odds of finding Dizzee Rascal’s record in the pop/rock section (because it was released on Matador of all labels) vs. the r&b/rap/urban section (‘cause, you know, he’s black and stuff). It would be a surprise to find him in the meager electronic section, mixed in with Groove Armada and DJ Food and the neglible trickle of trance compilations that seep into the US market.
Courtesy of Lacunae, Coachella pics. No band photos, just hipsters milling around. But that’s what Coachella is all about, isn’t it? I’m really asking, I’ve never been.
What, you want real Coachella commentary? So go here.
Courtesy of Catbirdseat, old-skool Sub Pop. It’s interesting to read because it is such a primordial, pure expression of indie beliefs (just check that vitriolic introduction to the first issue). It must have been fascinating to be on the cutting edge of something like that, before the indie scene turned into a close-minded condemnation of itself. Sub-Pop still puts out good records, of course, but they aren’t what they were in the mid- or late-‘80s. This part is particularly interesting:
“WE ARE VERY BIG INTERESTED IN REGIONAL TRENDS, MOVEMENTS, IDEAS, SLANG, RECORD LABES (sic), WHAT HAVE YOU. WE ARE VERY BIG INTERESTED IN SMALL COMMUNITIES THAT AREN’T BIG TIME LIKE IMPORTANT N.Y.AND L.A.”
Maybe this is part of “what’s wrong” with indie now. Sure, there was alternative rock and commercialization, hipster cache and the inevitable aging of the genre. But was there also a move away from regional/small/collective/obscure to national/big/individual/publicized? Aside from absorbtion into the majors, think about the “big indies” (Matador, Merge, Southern, Sub Pop itself…), the national indie mags, the Internet (of course!). Do people identify more with bands from big cities (with New York as the current hot spot) than smaller, more regional groups. Was this another step in the genre’s slide, or just another symptom? Or, alternately, is there an underground to the underground spread out through small cities across the country?
Courtesy of Technicolor, more thoughts on grime and its place in the continuum of British dance music. For Americans, reading about this is confusing to say the least, as there is this whole chain of styles (house/acid/rave/dnb/dubstep/darkcore/garage/2step/etc/whathaveyou) that had little to no presence in America, which explains why grime’s reception has been so odd here. If an erstwhile shopper goes to any Best Buy here in America, they have 50/50 odds of finding Dizzee Rascal’s record in the pop/rock section (because it was released on Matador of all labels) vs. the r&b/rap/urban section (‘cause, you know, he’s black and stuff). It would be a surprise to find him in the meager electronic section, mixed in with Groove Armada and DJ Food and the neglible trickle of trance compilations that seep into the US market.
Courtesy of Lacunae, Coachella pics. No band photos, just hipsters milling around. But that’s what Coachella is all about, isn’t it? I’m really asking, I’ve never been.
What, you want real Coachella commentary? So go here.
Courtesy of Catbirdseat, old-skool Sub Pop. It’s interesting to read because it is such a primordial, pure expression of indie beliefs (just check that vitriolic introduction to the first issue). It must have been fascinating to be on the cutting edge of something like that, before the indie scene turned into a close-minded condemnation of itself. Sub-Pop still puts out good records, of course, but they aren’t what they were in the mid- or late-‘80s. This part is particularly interesting:
“WE ARE VERY BIG INTERESTED IN REGIONAL TRENDS, MOVEMENTS, IDEAS, SLANG, RECORD LABES (sic), WHAT HAVE YOU. WE ARE VERY BIG INTERESTED IN SMALL COMMUNITIES THAT AREN’T BIG TIME LIKE IMPORTANT N.Y.AND L.A.”
Maybe this is part of “what’s wrong” with indie now. Sure, there was alternative rock and commercialization, hipster cache and the inevitable aging of the genre. But was there also a move away from regional/small/collective/obscure to national/big/individual/publicized? Aside from absorbtion into the majors, think about the “big indies” (Matador, Merge, Southern, Sub Pop itself…), the national indie mags, the Internet (of course!). Do people identify more with bands from big cities (with New York as the current hot spot) than smaller, more regional groups. Was this another step in the genre’s slide, or just another symptom? Or, alternately, is there an underground to the underground spread out through small cities across the country?
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
"There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die."
"Who said anything about slicing
you up, man. I just wanted to cut a
little Z in your forehead."
Another week, another writer looking for a way to "regenerate" hip-hop. Armond White's talking points are Jay-Z's highly praised video for "99 Problems" and, of all things, P Diddy's recent turn in "A Raisin in the Sun." I haven't seen Diddy's play, so although it appears to be an unlikely vehicle for black artistic growth, I'll refrain from addressing White's points on that subject and stick to Jay.
The video is great (you can watch it here), although not quite as revolutionary as White suggests. It's all done in a resoureful but hardly profound new wave style (in case you had any doubts, it's black and white, with jerky cuts, and includes a zoom-in on a crucifix). The imagery is great (naked dudes! Hasidic Jews! Vincent Gallo!), and the inclusion of a Rob Zombie-like Rick Rubin as Dr. Gonzo leading Jay through a New York-as-inverse-of-'70s-Las-Vegas world is particularly clever.
But White’s praise for "99 Problems," and his criticism for what he sees as the standard it breaks, is interesting. White lambastes artists like Lil' Jon and the Eastside Boyz and says "Most hiphop (sic) videos are devoted to the shallow distractions of entertainment."* His article appears to argue hip-hop culture isn't moving forward unless it's making social statements – entertainment is shallow.
White, who barely touches on the beats in either Lil' Jon's or Jay-Z's songs, does not stop to think that entertainment could be just as important to pop music as social relevance - he dismisses the clever, sonically adventurous, wonderfully funny Lil' Jon across the board, because, you know, he stigmatizes things, and stuff. Tellingly, White mentions Public Enemy/Chuck D not once but twice in this article - the old reliable standby for the social commentator who would rather see hip-hop as postmodern folk protest music than what it really is - a divisive, willfully contradictory pop animal that refuses to head in one direction or embrace one set of values.
It's not the worst article on hip-hop, and many of his observations about Jay-Z's video itself are interesting. But the roughshod application of social yardsticks to pop music is something we could really do without. Not all of hip-hop needs to flow like a documentary film or reflect the state of black artistic culture writ large. Some of it can just be good entertainment.
*White seems to have conveniently forgotten about "Change Clothes," the first video from Jay-Z's album.
"Who said anything about slicing
you up, man. I just wanted to cut a
little Z in your forehead."
Another week, another writer looking for a way to "regenerate" hip-hop. Armond White's talking points are Jay-Z's highly praised video for "99 Problems" and, of all things, P Diddy's recent turn in "A Raisin in the Sun." I haven't seen Diddy's play, so although it appears to be an unlikely vehicle for black artistic growth, I'll refrain from addressing White's points on that subject and stick to Jay.
The video is great (you can watch it here), although not quite as revolutionary as White suggests. It's all done in a resoureful but hardly profound new wave style (in case you had any doubts, it's black and white, with jerky cuts, and includes a zoom-in on a crucifix). The imagery is great (naked dudes! Hasidic Jews! Vincent Gallo!), and the inclusion of a Rob Zombie-like Rick Rubin as Dr. Gonzo leading Jay through a New York-as-inverse-of-'70s-Las-Vegas world is particularly clever.
But White’s praise for "99 Problems," and his criticism for what he sees as the standard it breaks, is interesting. White lambastes artists like Lil' Jon and the Eastside Boyz and says "Most hiphop (sic) videos are devoted to the shallow distractions of entertainment."* His article appears to argue hip-hop culture isn't moving forward unless it's making social statements – entertainment is shallow.
White, who barely touches on the beats in either Lil' Jon's or Jay-Z's songs, does not stop to think that entertainment could be just as important to pop music as social relevance - he dismisses the clever, sonically adventurous, wonderfully funny Lil' Jon across the board, because, you know, he stigmatizes things, and stuff. Tellingly, White mentions Public Enemy/Chuck D not once but twice in this article - the old reliable standby for the social commentator who would rather see hip-hop as postmodern folk protest music than what it really is - a divisive, willfully contradictory pop animal that refuses to head in one direction or embrace one set of values.
It's not the worst article on hip-hop, and many of his observations about Jay-Z's video itself are interesting. But the roughshod application of social yardsticks to pop music is something we could really do without. Not all of hip-hop needs to flow like a documentary film or reflect the state of black artistic culture writ large. Some of it can just be good entertainment.
*White seems to have conveniently forgotten about "Change Clothes," the first video from Jay-Z's album.
Sunday, May 09, 2004
Blog Report, AKA I've been too busy for two weeks to write anything fresh here so rather than let this get any dustier I'll fake an update with other people's cool stuff
Google search for "popist." I was going to post pictures of vocal cord polyps, but they're pretty gross and I
know y'all have weak stomachs.
Scroll down a few entries on Pale Wire for some links and thoughts on music writer types Nick Hornby and Geoffery O'Brien. The NY Books review of Hornby's "Songbook" is pretty dead-on - I first read it years ago when McSweeney's published it, and even then, when I was still more or less musically in line with Hornby, I had some doubts about it. To be fair it is a book about how the music fit in with his life rather than an analysis of the music itself (although it is that too, in moderation). And, for all the criticism Hornby gets in the uber-hip under 30 online music world, he has a pretty enlightened attitude toward dance music and hip-hop and he's hardly the old '70s rock 'n' roll ogre some of his detractors make him out to be.
Like Ben, I'm interested in that O'Brien book - and Luc Sante seems like a pretty sharp knife here, hm? Although his footnote on crunk seems to blur it with screwed and chopped, and I don't think the two are quite the same. Get on out the club, bitch!
Very interesting update on Sage Francis of the Non-Prophets at Stylus Magazine's Blog - apparently the guy has some serious vocal cord problems. It really shouldn't come as a surprise when this happens to musicians, but all those fans who go to the shows night after night in smoky bars never seem to see it coming. And I don't know if I've ever heard of a rapper having these problems - I always thought of it as more of a punk rock, Blake Schwarzenbach / Henry Rollins problem. Can rapping actually be as strenuous as singing at the top of your lungs? Or does it have more to do with how and how frequently it is done?
Best wishes to Francis - hopefully he can pull through this and use it as more inspiration for his music.
This guy Gareth has a good comment on popist egalitarianism, which can always use a criticism or two in this MP3 age when its Internet supremacy is unquestioned. Just scroll down past those very nice pics (love the Helsinki one with the seagulls) and take a look. One of the things I like about the SOMB is that it provides a very pre-popist, survival of the fittest world that can bring you down to earth after too much time strolling in the impossible Eden gardens where Lil' Flip, Unwound and Aretha Franklin walk hand in hand.
Google search for "popist." I was going to post pictures of vocal cord polyps, but they're pretty gross and I
know y'all have weak stomachs.
Scroll down a few entries on Pale Wire for some links and thoughts on music writer types Nick Hornby and Geoffery O'Brien. The NY Books review of Hornby's "Songbook" is pretty dead-on - I first read it years ago when McSweeney's published it, and even then, when I was still more or less musically in line with Hornby, I had some doubts about it. To be fair it is a book about how the music fit in with his life rather than an analysis of the music itself (although it is that too, in moderation). And, for all the criticism Hornby gets in the uber-hip under 30 online music world, he has a pretty enlightened attitude toward dance music and hip-hop and he's hardly the old '70s rock 'n' roll ogre some of his detractors make him out to be.
Like Ben, I'm interested in that O'Brien book - and Luc Sante seems like a pretty sharp knife here, hm? Although his footnote on crunk seems to blur it with screwed and chopped, and I don't think the two are quite the same. Get on out the club, bitch!
Very interesting update on Sage Francis of the Non-Prophets at Stylus Magazine's Blog - apparently the guy has some serious vocal cord problems. It really shouldn't come as a surprise when this happens to musicians, but all those fans who go to the shows night after night in smoky bars never seem to see it coming. And I don't know if I've ever heard of a rapper having these problems - I always thought of it as more of a punk rock, Blake Schwarzenbach / Henry Rollins problem. Can rapping actually be as strenuous as singing at the top of your lungs? Or does it have more to do with how and how frequently it is done?
Best wishes to Francis - hopefully he can pull through this and use it as more inspiration for his music.
This guy Gareth has a good comment on popist egalitarianism, which can always use a criticism or two in this MP3 age when its Internet supremacy is unquestioned. Just scroll down past those very nice pics (love the Helsinki one with the seagulls) and take a look. One of the things I like about the SOMB is that it provides a very pre-popist, survival of the fittest world that can bring you down to earth after too much time strolling in the impossible Eden gardens where Lil' Flip, Unwound and Aretha Franklin walk hand in hand.
