Fools From A Distance
So, The Guardian published a typically misinformed article about “the death of hip-hop” last week, called “When Will Hip-hop Hurry up and die?” Having read many of those, I could smell its racist, classist, ignorant Wrongness a mile off, and lo I did shrug it away, like so much dandruff, until my guitarist Evil James Harrison turned up for rehearsal going, “did you read that article in The Guardian? It made some interesting points…” and I had to refute those “points” at length. Points like this:
“…judging by [hip-hop's] output in recent years, it’s become a deadening force: as a listening experience, but also as something that maintains a deadlock on the musical imagination (and personal ambitions) of Black American youth. I doubt very much that this demographic has no more surprises up its sleeves in terms of sound and style, judging by past form(s) (jazz, rhythm and blues, funk, house, et al ). But that New Thing won’t come until they tire of hip-hop themselves and turn against it.”
I know, I know. Anyway, you’d think the foolishness of such statements might be self evident, but some people are deeply, deeply stupid, and not everybody’s had the pleasure of listening to mixtapes by Pill and B.o.B in the past few weeks, let alone all the awesome hip-hop-slash-rap-stuff that came out in all the other weeks this year. And regarding that bollock-naked-drooling-mental other point, “black American youth” has created so many “New Things” post hip-hop that to list them would require more words than a hundred similarly clueless Guardian hacks chained to a hundred Apple Macs pumped with a hundred thousand milligrams of mid-nineties-strength speed could mash out in a year, cotdamnit, and anyway, we’re not going to take his nonsense that seriously are we? No, we shall just put his witterings in some context: the man who wrote that silly little article about “the death of hip-hop” for The Guardian last week was one Simon Reynolds, who said of Biggie in his end of the 90s round-up:
The odd nifty catchphrase and deft rhyme, but c’mon, this man was a pig—Notorious P.I.G. more like; Piggy Smalls, heheheheh-and with a little help from his buddy Sean he almost singlehandedly set rap down its current path of spiritual bankruptcy. And he had the most unappetising vocal timbre in all of rap- asthmatic and adenoidal and mucus-bunged-up and fat-fuck wheezy all at once.
AHAHAHAHA! Thank you, Mr Reynolds, for the gift of laughter. In these dark days we can do with all the chuckles we can get, eh?
Thanks to Ich Lüge Bullets for the heads-up.
- The All New Weekly Doncast # 5!
- Read Issue 0 Of Garth Ennis’ Crossed For Free Right Now!
- The Emperor.
- Gone To Texas
- Me On Top Down Racism In The British Music Industry
- On 50 Cent & The Decline Of Beef As A Viable Marketing Tool
Tags: classism, fool, foolishness, hip-hop, ignorance, lol, Notorious P.I.G., racism, rap, rolf, simon reynolds, the guardian, wrongness
Hmm at the sake of sounding all blog-pundit I read that article also – and agreed with it.
Not as some 40-something rock critic (although you really should check out Simon’s writings on hiphop he’s not some bored rock critic taking pot shots, he does know of what he talks about, historically anyhoos) but as a hiphop fan…I mean if B.O.B. and Kid Cudi are the best we have – and I like them – then really we are screwed.
Where are the Missys, the Eminems, the stuff you can point to your non-hiphop mates and go ‘look hiphop isn’t crap/dead/boring cos we have this!’. I think that’s the point he’s making, hiphop is very niche or stale(mate) atm.
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November 30th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Haha, I love that Mong picture. I was just talking to someone about that the other day. My housemate in fact. Class xx
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November 30th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Was logging in to disagree with you on this, and I fundamentally still do. a) B.o.B. and Pill do not a vibrant genre make, and b) calling him racist and classist is bullshit, unless you claim to be a fan of every style of music from poor, ethnic communities.
But that Biggie stuff is super-wrong.
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November 30th, 2009 at 11:08 am
You don’t need to mention rappers they might like if you read their lyrics out loud. B.O.B (as good as he is) doesn’t talk to his generation the way that Young Jeezy does “Never snorted up one line. Never lied to these kids not one time”. Muse don’t speak to the kids the way Lil Wayne does. Guardian blogger doesn’t get rap music? SOMEBODY GET THIS MAN A TRIBE CALLED QUEST ALBUM. HE ENJOYS THE FUNKY GROOVES.
Hip-Hop never wanted to be defined by the music “they” accept. Hip-Hop controls its innovations internally before they cross-over. Popular culture hasn’t dictated a hip-hop trend since MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice. Uncle Murder makes “that run and kill the Po-Lice music” they’ll never understand that. K’Naan makes Somali immigrant music, could they be any further removed?
I personally want to know when white people are going to give up on vapid, repetitive, emotionless indie music. While hip-hop may no longer inspire the middle class rebel Guardian readers, it’s doing a lot for a lot of real people around the world. New and old.
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tim from Radio Clash reply on November 30th, 2009 3:46 pm:
I tend to find hiphop is internally defining a lot of homophobia, mysogyny and commercial sellout bling. See Lil Wayne and ‘No homo’ FFS.
Don’t make it ‘good’ even if the ‘kids’ (hmm kids like EMI, Warners, Sony BMG? Kids don’t have the paychecks or the funding – the white older men do) are controlling it. Who controls hiphop? I think atm you’ll find the bank balance does sadly.
Yes it’s a generalisation, yes. Yes even I could list loads of artists who do none of those…but they’re not the ones you’ll find on MTV, VH1 or the charts.
That’s why hiphop is commercially a spent force. Maybe time for a regroup and rethink? But while the ‘kids’ are buying pap like Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, TI, T-Pain and Lil Jon nothing will change on that front…with the companies that might pay the next KRS-1 or Rakim to do something that will reach beyond the hiphop underground anyway.
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Tego reply on November 30th, 2009 4:16 pm:
You have to be careful what you’re talking about when it comes to the majors selling hip-hop, because people like Young Jeezy, Jay-Z, Gucci Mane, Lil Jon, Uncle Murder, 50 Cent and T.I sold directly to their communities independently before the majors got involved. Their messages, their content, their energy, are all self-contained. You won’t find many other genres of music where you can create the whole package and make a major company buy in the way that hip-hop does. You may not agree with the content, but most of the top level artists in the industry are very savvy and very self-aware.
The argument that hip-hop is homophobic is an outdated one in my opinion. The use of the phrase “No homo” mirrors the use of the word “Gay” as a derogatory or even “Faggot” which do not automatically refer to an anti-gay sentiment. I’m not saying hip-hop is “Gay-Friendly” (what is?) but I don’t buy the idea that just because of the phrase “No homo” (which I use) it is automatically homophobic. I believe it’s less homophobic than ever.
In terms of KRS1 and Rakim, there’s a message in the words of all the greats you have to decode. To lump Jay-Z into a category with T-Pain is offensive. If anything, I believe KRS1 and Rakim had to do less to do more. A great rapper in 2010 will reach kids and teach kids in way more creative ways. I’m not saying there isn’t a load of faking and B-S’ing going on around that, but unless you’ve heard Young Jeezy talk about the trap, Plies talk about freedom and Freeway talk about Islam, you’re not speaking for the people. You’re speaking about them.
There are definitely “Underground” rappers who say some pretty relevant things that aren’t given the push for whatever reason that say Mims or Soulja Boy are given, but they don’t have a divine right to be popular. Lupe Fiasco is allowed to say those things in the commercial market, as is Kanye West, as is Common, as is Wale.
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tim from Radio Clash reply on November 30th, 2009 4:51 pm:
“even “Faggot” which do not automatically refer to an anti-gay sentiment.”
Don’t delude yourself, it’s very offensive, as offensive as the N-word if used by someone who isn’t black. So is No Homo, and derogatorily calling stuff ‘gay’.
I would know, you’re talking to a gay hiphop fan.
And yeah I love Lupe and Kanye, and what I know of Common’s stuff. As well as underground stuff like Sage Francis or Kid Cudi (or is he overground now, LOL) and British rap like Dizzee and Braintax and Stig et al. Shame a lot of the good stuff is underground and not really shouting about it…the only recent example of someone coming from the streets here seems to be Chipmunk.
tim from Radio Clash reply on November 30th, 2009 4:53 pm:
obviously Dizzee isn’t underground…LOL. He’s one of 1/2 overground people that does give me hope for hiphop…
November 30th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Chipmunk’s absolute shite.
Watch the episode of South Park about the word “Faggot”. Common is actually very homophobic, which is strange considering how many gay fans he has.
Dizzee Rascal is underground but he has had 2 (soon to be 3) back-to-back number 1 hits on his own independent label. I think Dizzee is a bit shite at the moment too.
British hip-hop is a mess. If this article was about the attempted cross-over attempts by British rappers killing the music, I’d agree 100%.
With respect, you can take offense to whatever you like in this world, the intent defines the message and that should always be the case. Every time somebody says “No homo” they’re not saying “I hate gay people” every time somebody describes the shitty weather as gay they are not saying “I hate gay people and this weather is like them”.
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tim from Radio Clash reply on November 30th, 2009 6:20 pm:
then what are they saying?
If they aren’t saying ‘I’m not a homosexual when I say this’ or ‘this is crap’ I’d be amazed…and those are dissing being gay. Sorry but they are. Like bitch and ho are usually put downs – yup you can self identify and reclaim the word, but otherwise it’s a diss, a put down.
Now if there was any big gay rappers using faggot, homo, queer then I’d be all behind that.
You probably think Chris Moyle’s use is acceptable…it aint, sorry. Like white people saying ‘wassup my n***er’ it’s embarassing, wrong and way out of order. I get really depressed when I hear a fave rapper of mine calling someone a faggot…in fact they usually stop being a fave of mine. Including some surprising people, like Immortal Technique.
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Tego reply on November 30th, 2009 6:44 pm:
“Now if there was any big gay rappers using faggot, homo, queer then I’d be all behind that.”- No homo.
You compare with embarrassing white people calling each other “Nigger”. Not offensive, racist white people call each other “Nigger”. There’s my point.
The word “Faggot” can be so offensive, so, so, offensive, but it’s not always intended to be so. It’s hard to fully explain the power of the English language when it comes to words with origins in pure disrespect, but the best thing about it is its evolution.
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November 30th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
I fucking hate The Guardian and Reynolds’ fucking stupid deliberately contentious headline. They, and those that nodded sagely along to his fucking pathetic dirt-shovelling, can all – frankly – FUCK THE FUCK OFF.
No trial, no debate, simple. If you can’t be bothered to look for real rap music; if you can’t hear the soul of a people in hip-hop (the culture); if you can’t relate to it on any level whatsoever – THEN FUCKING WELL LISTEN TO THE SMITHS TILL THE DAY YOU FUCKING WELL DIE.
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November 30th, 2009 at 5:38 pm