Sasha on Shadow, Diplo, Eminem & Minstrelsy

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.

And vahid, wtf is your problem with people liking music about swaggering?

what the fuck, asshole, what the fuck

my thing is i dont think cam is that one dimensional on drugs, that even if its always heartless and fake its still appearing in and shaded by a number of contexts. i need to listen to the record again though! but i think w rap being so dense comparatively, so many lines, that its easy for ppl to poach on, here, cams non sequiturs and then to go back and revise or reduce everything he raps abt to those terms

but, sc, i like the way you highlight ambivalence cuz rap for me, theres always shit i remember v specifically and then other shit thats notional or that i suppose i sorta remember what it ws abt, what it ws like, inside every song

Kind of disappointed the discussion moved away from the racial characteristics of non-verbal expression and how this can be detected and toward some PMRI shit about Cam'ron making it seem cool to smoke crack. (If great tragedy can't be made into great comedy I'm packing up my things and going home.)

Does someone want to, you know, tie it all together for me?