It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back

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.

i can't remember the last time i listened to an entire public enemy album. 20 years ago or more.

the intern thing is kind of a variation on the hilarious let's play heavy metal or whatever for old people youtube things. i don't like those either really. 19 and 89 year olds kinda equally clueless i guess.

"Night of the Living Baseheads" seemed to leave the students coldest.

(Admittedly, this could have just had something to do with how it was presented or the fact that it was the last class of the semester or...)

Clemenza, jaymc otm

I don't think there was a single reference in the video that made sense to any of them.

crack no longer relevant eh

I also don't understand who or what is being leveled with the charge of causing a "reinforcement of received wisdom" in lex's piece.

The canon is a conservative concept that has squatted, toad-like, on music criticism for as long as I can remember – not just in the form of "100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" space-filler lists, but in the reinforcement of received wisdom.

He means the canon, right? Though I always have to weigh Lex's principled canon-hate against the fact that he just doesn't like most of the albums in it, and when he does like a widely regarded album then he decides it isn't canon after all. I wonder how this piece would read if he actually liked Public Enemy, or if the NPR intern had got his hands on Aaliyah.

Not sure what i think about this canon business - had sorta assumed it had faded a bit as "a thing"

don't really think anyone should be particularly subscribing to it, even as a roadmap or whatever but otoh if you're an outsider to a genre feels kinda weird to avoid major names in its canon - like couldn't really imagine avoiding romica puceanu or toni iordache

xp haha imagine if it had been about a canon album i actively hate! or if the intern had been bigging up angel haze instead of Fucking Drake

i find the idea of objectively good music as annoying as the next man but everybody has their own personal canon and amongst whatever group there is received wisdom, it's how people have discussions. eg i can't discuss techno with a group of friends if half of them think that all techno is repetitive and boring rubbish, an opinion anyone is entitled to. every discussion you have is based on accepted or shared wisdom. often, to have a discussion, there has to be a certain amount of accepted wisdom amongst people. it just so happens there's a vaguely annoying shared wisdom that more people share.

i find the problem as a critic lambasting this idea of the canon (which is subjective in itself obviously) is that generally the critic wants people to listen to other things which they think are good, instead.

and those things are no more objectively good either.

once you start battling for objectivity vs the canon you might as well give up writing about music.

yes ronan we should all just give up writing about music

all of us

everyone knows it's completely pointless and anyone with a career in it should just face up to the fact that their entire life is a waste of time

now will you FUCK OFF

will you please stop being so virulently rude?

i'm discussing something i'm genuinely interested in, if you are incapable of not having a tantrum then don't join in.

erm implying that the careers of half this thread are pointless ISN'T rude?

never said that, you take the implications you want to allow you to tell someone to fuck off though.

oh you're so fucking disingenuous, fuck off for real

if anyone wants to discuss my post then that's why i posted it. i'd like if there's a hope of staying on topic.

ronan's post was good, lex needs to chill

it's the same shit you always post so you could probably look up the 94387449393493 other ronanbot whinges about the existence of arts journalism as a practice in the meantime

once you start battling for objectivity vs the canon you might as well give up writing about music.

fwiw... the point i was making here is that it's a pretty slippery road to go down, battling for objectivity is quite nihilistic by nature. if you actually really do believe some things are definitively better than others and want to make a career out of saying this, or be that type of critic, then maybe there's a different lawbook you should go by... a discussion of that is what i'm after.