Bill Cosby defents criticism of Hip Hop...music industry "glorifies the wrong things..."

http://www.mymusic.com/DI5/graphics/elvis_costello.jpg

"Hi, I'm Elvis Costello, here to talk to you a problem facing the young intellectuals of today. Would you be surprised to know that I am a fan of Lil Wayne? That my favorite album of 2006 was B'Day? Rap and R&B are rich genres that continue to provide us with classic music that reward just as much as indie rock, maybe even more. Increasingly, white music fans do not seem willing to give modern black artists the respect they deserve. Join me, and the good people at Rhapsody, in our fight against this ignorance."

plus nerdy dudes need to get laid...the trim status at a lot of these indie shows is off the hook these days

all we need is EC in a brownshirt acting out "Oliver's Army" in a college-radio setting.

The tastes of nerdy white college guys are of vast importance to nerdy white music writers.

"Hi, I'm Elvis Costello,etc."

Are those real quotes or jokes quotes?

see for yourself

www.blacktiewhitenoise.com/costello

ibowiebyrnecostellodarnielletweedy-wnbtpressconference.jpg

woops, fucked up the link

ihttp://blacktiewhitenoise.com/bowiebyrnecostellodarnielletweedy-btwnpressconference.jpg

fuck, just type it in.

This is either really funny and over my head or you're getting the url wrong.

...I fudged, splitting the difference between singing, chanting, and rapping, each time with diminishing returns. (I can hardly stand to listen to these tracks now.)

i couldn't hardly stand to listen to those tracks then!

lol, yeah, ui was a "funk" band. sure.

This is either really funny and over my head or you're getting the url wrong.

-- kingkongvsgodzilla, Tuesday, October 16, 2007 12:29 AM (

^^^^^

A Paler Shade of White---Sasha Frere-Jones Podcast and New Yorker article Criticizing Indie Rock for Failing to Incorporate African-American Influences SFJ discussion moved over here

college rock in the 80s was plenty white too

-- da croupier, Tuesday, October 16, 2007 12:19 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Link

and the entire history of the British charts in the 1980's.

-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, October 16, 2007 12:20 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Link

yeah coz hip-hop and house really found it hard breaking here, in comparison with the US.

vvvvv

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, October 15, 2007 9:12 PM (Yesterday)

“You can’t land a plane in Rome saying, ‘Whassup?’ to the control tower. You can’t be a doctor telling your nurse, ‘Dat tumor be nasty.’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/opinion/16herbert.html?th&emc=th

So I went out and picked up a copy of B'Day based on Elvis Costello's recommendation.

omg @ "dat tumor be nasty"

jesus christ

You know, if someone went through 10 years of medical school and had the proper training to remove my tumor, I could really give a fuck how they said it.

Doctor?

http://www.jahozafat.com/0095461785/WAVS/Movies/Idiocracy/onyourchart.wav

http://media.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2007/oct/saggin/pants_billboard540.jpg

the social acceptability of sagging vs. the social acceptability of homophobia

myspace.com/pullyourpantsupman

Ay man, all you adults out there, all you supposed "grown people"
Will you please stop lying to your people? Could we please have a moment of fucking honesty?
You know, honesty, the shit that you ask
your people to be with you, when you ask them are they having sex, or doing drugs? Could we please stop fucking lying? (that's life)
Like you preachers out there, who spread the myth that young boys
who slack they pants pick that shit up from prison to let niggas
know they homosexual. You and your faggot twisted mind know that
ain't true, you sick fuck, for even saying that shit. (that's life)
We wear our fucking pants big because our mothers were too poor to buy our size, so they had to buy two or three sizes up. Call it what it is, nigga, poverty. It's fuckin poverty.
You know, poverty, the opposite of the big fuckin cars and planes you drive, motherfucka.

gee, the NPR feature somehow missed this angle

killer mike not invited on NPR feature shockah

God damn Bill Cosby and his faggot twisted mind

Like you preachers out there
not talking to cosby but it related to the debate so

not endorsing it pt. by pt. either

no I know, I love that track and a lot of what km sez on it, I'm just sorta obligated by persona to squawk y'know

john at the risk of getting ultra-flamed by you I don't think it's your place to school a black artist on how to represent himself - hate if you gotta hate, whatever, but when a white writer starts telling a black artist what his community responsibilities are...shit man I can't see you putting up with that from somebody else!

some of this stuff transcends/supercedes specific ethnic communities doesn't it...? I mean on some level this is stuff that applies to and affects all Americans, not just black (or white) people.

(I mean the pants thing is stupid and who cares really - but the endless homophobia/glorification of consumerism/violence/etc those are not ethnicity-specific issues that affect and involve just black people)

i though baggy pants as a style signifier originated as a way to easily hide guns?

i thought it was meant to signify that the wearer enjoyed phil collins and showed up late to appointments

"for eazy access baby"

you been holdin' that one in for over 24 hours huh eth

"No no, see, when someone says 'who is it', you're supposed to say who it is!"

(knock knock)

"Who is it?"

'WHO IT IS!'

john at the risk of getting ultra-flamed by you I don't think it's your place to school a black artist on how to represent himself - hate if you gotta hate, whatever, but when a white writer starts telling a black artist what his community responsibilities are...shit man I can't see you putting up with that from somebody else!

-- and what, Friday, 26 October 2007 22:24 (1 month ago) Link

You can't really talk about this as though it were just "black artists" and "how they represent themselves." The industry has a good deal of say in how major rappers come across, what they rap about, how they act in videos, etc. So although I don't dismiss mainstream rap on objection to the lyrics, an honest discussion of this has to reflect the larger forces at play, and saying a white writer has no right to criticize the lyrics of a "black artist," is avoiding that difficult issue.

ethan at the risk of getting ultra-flamed by you I don't think it's your place to school a black artist on how to represent himself - hate if you gotta hate, whatever, but when a white writer starts telling a black artist what his community responsibilities are...shit man I can't see you putting up with that from somebody else!

-- J0hn D., Thursday, October 25, 2007 3:16 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Link

What's The Deal With Saul Williams?

Sorry, didn't see the first post. Point stands though.

I mean a lot of people in non-mainstream hip-hop, including black artists, blame the music industry for the way black people are portrayed in mainstream hip-hop, feeding to a mostly white audience a hyper-sexual, hyper-violent hyper-capitalist fantasy projected onto black people.

u really think i would use a word like 'ultra-flamed'

i dont give a fuck john hates on or not i think every head has got the right to tell artists what they wanna see them doing but i got the right to call it racist/corny/played/clueless/whatever

And there is probably a big difference between Saul Williams, who I'd imagine has a great deal of say in how he represents himself, and mainstream hip-hop. I don't mean to say that mainstream rappers are all patsies either. A Jay-Z or a 50-Cent is obviously making a very clear choice, but that choice is based largely on what will make money, and they don't seem to particularly care if that feeds a negative stereotype. It's the system, man!

No, I don't really think you'd say that - sorry dude. Wasn't really trying to call you out as much as just call the whole debate out.

oh fuck it
http://m.assetbar.com/achewood/autaux?b=M%5ea11f09b8576e606bcb5038dfdb92fb821&u=http%3A%2F%2Fachewood.com%2Fcomic.php%3Fdate%3D12242007

"mad-rutty" vs. "ultra-flamed"

And there is probably a big difference between Saul Williams, who I'd imagine has a great deal of say in how he represents himself

My Dearest Friends and Fans,

It is my greatest honor to present to you The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!,
my new album produced by Trent Reznor and mixed by Alan Moulder. The wall of sound that we've created is tagged with such graffiti that a passerby would seek out doors and ways to ENTER. Once inside a world defined by dreams come true they'd find aligned with the simplest act of sharing what we treasure. Most people aren't aware of the world of art and commerce where exploitation strips each artist down to nigger. Each label, like apartheid, multiplies us by our divide and whips us 'til we conform to lesser figures. What falls between the cracks is a pile of records stacked to the heights of talents hidden from the sun. Yet the energy they put into popularizing smut makes a star of a shiny polished gun. The ballot or the bullet for Mohawk or the mullet is a choice between new times and dying days. And the only way to choose is to jump ship from old truths and trust dolphins as we swim through changing ways. The ways of middlemen proves to be just a passing trend. We need no priests to talk to God. No phone to call her. And when you click the link below, i think it fair that you should know that your purchase will make middlemen much poorer...

NiggyTardust!

love,

Saul

During the first Lollapalooza tour, Jane's Addiction brings out Ice-T to perform a rendition of Sly & the Family Stone's "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey (Don't Call Me Whitey, Nigger)". Perry Farrell sings the white part, Ice-T sings the Black part. Black quartet Living Colour comes onstage afterward and bandleader Vernon Reid announces "I'll never be anyone's nigger for entertainment..."

I really hate being called whitey