It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

the On Second Thought columns were more fun and required more thought: you had to at least demonstrate that you have an ear.

i didn't even like when the npr intern was like i haven't heard paid in full, etc either. you could have listened to it in the weeks you had to write this damn thing!

lil Kerouac ripping first drafts from his typewriter

dude said "I don't really know much about hip-hop but I love Rustie and Clams Casino" and then went on to blame Public Enemy for not fitting into that context, ending with "in summation, Drake rules"

He didn't "blame" Public Enemy, he just described his reaction to Millions. He said it left him "perplexed" but that he was glad he gave it a shot.

this board has countless threads devoted to ripping on revered albums, generational differences, not understanding stuff on the first listen, and while there's as much argument as can be expected in those threads there's probably not as much judgment or annoyance because people were just making conversation, not writing columns for a high profile media outlet, i really think the NPR intern angle is much more potent than just the content of what he's saying, which is occasionally lol but not especially aggressive or outrageous.

reading a bunch of these just made me say "ok yeah why am i reading what a 19 year old has to say again?"

someone needs to do a variation of this that says "NPR INTERNS ARE RUINING MUSIC"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bc/Home_taping_is_killing_music.png/220px-Home_taping_is_killing_music.png

also the "high profile" claim people are making is funny in that they've been running this series for 3 years and i'd be impressed if 2 of us knew it before this

true, true, that was news to me

serious question: how many of us read NPR's music stuff on our own? I don't unless it's linked.

they should make these interns listen to obscurities instead. world needs more Son of Bazerk reviews!

I avoid NPR like the plague but my wife gets her news from it in the car

there are a few people on there that i know and/or check for their stuff, don't go on the NPR site all the time but here and there. and my wife always has it on in her car also lol.

I listen to All Things Considered in bits to and fro work but that's it

He didn't "blame" Public Enemy, he just described his reaction to Millions. He said it left him "perplexed" but that he was glad he gave it a shot.

he said he was getting a harsh tank when he was expecting a Bentley and called various elements of the songs "thin", "cartoonish", "caricature" and "alarmingly dated"

then, rather than using that gap between expectation and reality to spend some time talking about how things have changed since Millions was released and to examine where his preconceptions of what the album would be like came from, he instead decides to complain that the whole album isn't ambient soundscapes and throws the more interesting question out as an aside at the end

tbf Chuck D does sound like a tank

I hope it's clear my annoyance is not with dude disliking Millions, it's with him acting like rap music should be passive-sounding in order to for him to enjoy it

sounds like he'd like the last couple PE albums

hahahaha

he said he was getting a harsh tank when he was expecting a Bentley

But this is a perfect example of how he explicitly lays his personal biases/expectations on the table. He doesn't say "The only good hip-hop is the kind that's lush and luxurious-sounding. Public Enemy is not like that, therefore it's bad." He says "I like hip-hop that's lush and luxurious-sounding. When I listen to a hip-hop record, that's what I want to hear. Public Enemy is not like that, so it's not my cup of tea."

called various elements of the songs "thin", "cartoonish", "caricature" and "alarmingly dated"

Again, I think he couches these descriptions pretty well as subjective opinions:

Chuck D.'s unvarnished vocals sit front and center in the mix, accompanied only by percussion that, to me, sounds thin and funk guitar samples that, frankly, I find cartoonish. To me, Chuck D.'s legendary flow also comes across like a caricature.

But Public Enemy and I are on the same page only briefly: immediately following "Show 'Em" is the alarmingly dated rap-rock fusion of "She Watch Channel Zero?!" I simply cannot get past the bizarre, jolting juxtaposition of bludgeoning, Metallica-style guitar riffs and Flavor Flav's ebullient rhymes. I find myself more inclined to laugh than dance.

I hope it's clear my annoyance is not with dude disliking Millions, it's with him acting like rap music should be passive-sounding in order to for him to enjoy it

But ... what if that's true?

He doesn't say "The only good hip-hop is the kind that's lush and luxurious-sounding. Public Enemy is not like that, therefore it's bad." He says "I like hip-hop that's lush and luxurious-sounding. When I listen to a hip-hop record, that's what I want to hear. Public Enemy is not like that, so it's not my cup of tea."

but, jay, the way he writes means these two thoughts are indistinguishable

he phrases his thoughts in such a way that "only" is the inevitable adverb

I know way too many people here right now that didn't listen to rap last year, who the fuck are y'all?

then, rather than using that gap between expectation and reality to spend some time talking about how things have changed since Millions was released and to examine where his preconceptions of what the album would be like came from, he instead decides to complain that the whole album isn't ambient soundscapes and throws the more interesting question out as an aside at the end

I don't disagree that this would make for a more interesting piece of writing, but it doesn't seem like that's his/NPR's aim.

he doesn't bother examining other possibilities for hip-hop

but, jay, the way he writes means these two thoughts are indistinguishable

Sorry, I don't get that sense at all.

xp Is that his responsibility? It's an exercise in listening and responding to music.

then you are reading the piece incorrectly

haha a cousin, selecting a Kenny Chesney song, chastised me on Memorial Day weekend for being "way too old" to listen to hip-hop.

Is that his responsibility? It's an exercise in listening and responding to music

I think it kinda is! You're a writer, you have an audience -- how can you expect you won't get questioned on your premises? You have to anticipate them.

then you are reading the piece incorrectly

Man, I feel like the dude goes far out of his way to underscore that this is merely his opinion, informed by his personal taste and his social context. I mean, I could write a similar piece about Bob Dylan -- listen to Blonde and Blonde, jot down some impressions -- and I wouldn't intend it to mean that Dylan is worthless, even if those impressions were largely negative. That's not to say that it would be a particularly interesting piece, but neither is the Public Enemy one.

I think I'm gonna listen to Genesis' Abacab for the first time tonight.

But ... what if that's true?

then it's my opinion that he doesn't actually like hip-hop

tbf this guy is a lot less adamant that he loves or understands hip hop than a lot of kids taking similar stances would be

right now, I'm a little too deep into a Death Grips-fueled rage to be very fair

there are SO many 19 year olds who have listened to nothing but rap their whole lives and claim expert/obsessive status but would be even more arrogantly dismiss PE

be

You're gonna like abacab alfred!

I basically agree will all that jaymc wrote above--I think the piece is fine. I haven't read anything else in the series, but if someone at NPR gives him this assignment (not the specific album; he says he did a poll first), I think his only obligation is to write about his reaction to the album. He doesn't have to place the album in the context of hip-hop history, just his own, which he does. The key thing for me in a piece like this is, do I find the voice believable, or is someone trying to impress me with his audacity (and in the process has evidently impressed himself)? I don't get that at all--parts even seem a little self-deprecating. If it were an album that meant more to me personally, After the Gold Rush or something, I'd probably be less charitable.

Very different, I'll add, than when I was 19. The first Rolling Stone guide, Christgau's '70s book, Stranded, and Paul Gambaccini's Top 200 Albums book all came out around the same time--the canon was still kind of being formulated. So I had this great curiosity/compulsion to seek out Forever Changes and Otis Blue and Moby Grape and all sorts of other stuff. Even punk got me interested in the past, whether it wanted to or not: the Dolls, Stooges, MC5, etc. And I'm sure this guy will branch out soon enough, but I don't think he was required to do it in this piece.

i kept waiting for "so-and-so is also the intern for the drummer for gay dad" at the end of this

I mentioned this on FB: of everything I covered in my popular music course in the fall, "Night of the Living Baseheads" seemed to leave the students coldest. I don't think there was a single reference in the video that made sense to any of them.

Lol the "red alert" bulletin from DJ Red Alert easter egg isn't hitting the class of 2013?

Using words like "cartoonish" and "caricature" makes me wonder if he's not even conceiving of a "cartoon" that can be transcendent.

Yeah like has he even watched My Little Pony Friendship is Magic?!

Well, I wonder if genuinely does not realize that no one ever disputed their cartoonishness.

if he

it's hilarious to realize Public Enemy is as old today as Woodstock was in 1992.

telling kids to respect the PE logo is like telling a gen-xer to respect the peace symbol.

i agree w jaymc and clemenza: the piece's only real sin is dullness. kid writes well enough to pass boot camp muster, is seemingly honest and self-aware about his biases, and seems to have listened fairly carefully. though i don't share his taste, nothing he wrote really bothers me. it's so short that i didn't even have time to get pissed-off bored.

OTM.

does NPR have any interns that aren't bored and alienated by any music that doesn't precisely resemble the music they already listen to?

Dudes who listened to Bitches' Brew and Horses loved them.