Sasha on Shadow, Diplo, Eminem & Minstrelsy

That means no Clipse for you, of course.

x-post: nevermind! some people find complexity.

Anthony is wrong today. But right about that being a totally ILM thing to say.

re: the clipse, you may not be convinced by their complexity, but for me the clipse have a lot more (rather non-specific) stories to tell about crack than dipset do, and they dont wear it as a badge, they engage with it.

i ws reading colette today and she had this funny phrase, civilized immorality

The Clipse use crack as means to an end, it is a tool that they use to investigate, i donno, themselves, human nature, blah blah blah. You may not agree with their conclusions (if they ever draw any) but the way they both *use* crack in rap is different.

Vahid - just because you're not convinced by the Clipse's approach does not mean that its the *same* approach we're critiquing dipset for.

You told me to put the pipe down in my comments box the other day.

Indeed. But I wasn't saying it to be funny (and didn't necessarily mean crack). I mean, you said R. Kelly was a better performer or whatever than Teddy Pendergrass. You obviously were indulging in some wrong kind of narcotics.

I think crack is disassociated from its actual social connotations because its such a pop culture cliche.

And if that doesn't speak to privilege, than I don't know what does. I'm from East New York. Crack is not a joke nor a cliche to me.

The Clipse use crack as means to an end, it is a tool that they use to investigate, i donno, themselves, human nature, blah blah blah. You may not agree with their conclusions (if they ever draw any) but the way they both *use* crack in rap is different.

And that's OTM. I'm Not You is a fucking brutal ass song, but amusing since they are those rappers now that they were slagging off.

also i totally agree w/ the "rap bloggers making tasteless and dumb crack jokes" = fools.

And the hustler imagery is a powerful one. Not a day passes that I don't feel slightly envious of someone else getting paid to basically bullshit while I'm supposedly better off by being "respectable." The minstrel is a hustler, the occupier of the overlapping space that others can not for various reasons and making you buy the idea that they've got it made. I think of Eminem as a minstel. Diplo is just a carpetbagger.

That reminds me of this asshole that almost made me break out of my mask and beat his ass. I said where i was from and his response was "oh cool! I've got a connection to that neighborhood! I used to drive with my brother from Jersey to buy drugs there!" Good for him!

yeah, like those dipset-pushing fuckers at turntablelab.com!! sweater late, wrong size, screwed on shipping charges, no tracking number ... (i mean this in all seriousness!)

??

http://gay.ru/wolfy/cinema/prostitute/justso.jpg

xp

yeah as in "crack : dipset :: tshirts/mixtapes : my website". obv it's a stupid formulation on the part of the listener.

it seems to me there are a million and one things to blame for the proliferation of crack - though haven't crack use / sales / arrests been on the downswing for a long time now? - before the dipset and their fan base.

though if you were to say it was encouraging an unfortunate mentality, i'd agree.

and its not about every review being all "this is BAD FOR AMERICA" but just like some sense of reality in the response, you know. which, say, lets ppl. also not get freaked out about the wu promoting samurai swords or something.

something like this happened to me once this guy was like where are you from and i said such-and-such and he said "oh no shit i used to hustle there"
xp because i haven't got anything meaningful to contribute at this point

sterling and 3 otm

And thanks to someone's nice ping, I was reminded that I did say crack pipe in Anthony's comment box. So shoot me.

Also, more to the point, IT'S AN OBV. METAPHOR; as in: my rhymes and my style and my swagger and ME is as addictive as crack.

Of course, ILMers frontin' like they slang rock is nonsensical and cooked cocaine is a helluva drug and so forth but I don't recall anybody being this snooty and shameshame when it comes to Lou Reed/Kurt Cobain heroin-chic.