Have You Tried Less Tiresome Music?
I have questions, dear reader. Important, probing questions. Are you unenthused by hip-hop tracks about “police brutality and racialised oppression”? Does rapping about poverty and “the woes of Black Americans as artists” not render you giddy and enthralled? Do you not delight in endless repetition of the word nigga?
I ask because we’re told, by Dr Jeremy McCool and Dr Tyrone Smith, two devotees of “critical race theory,” that a failure to gush with enthusiasm is a result of “systemic bias and inherent prejudice,” and is suppressing such innovation. It is, they say,
The silencing of intellectuals in music.
This profound and damning revelation was uncovered by means of a “notional study” in which 310 participants, young adults, half of whom “self-identified” as black and the other half as white, were invited to listen to various tracks and read selected lyrics, before being asked whether they would be likely to skip said track if heard in the car, or would instead continue listening, mesmerised and ready to be educated.
In each instance, the white participants in the experiment rejected the messaging at a higher frequency than the Black participants.
Extrapolating with gusto – one might say wildly – our scholars promptly invoke “the silencing of Black narratives and perspectives.” It turns out that if a hundred or so white people are slightly less interested in rote racial narcissism expressed via the medium of rap, this could result in “artists who typically make thought-provoking music being shunned by the industry.” It’s all terribly unfair, you see. If true.
It remains unclear whether our mighty scholars considered the quality of the music as music, i.e., beyond any supposedly radical and “thought-provoking” content, those “deeper political implications.” Nor is it clear whether lyrical monotony, generic braggadocio and crass sexual references may have played a part in boring some more than others. To say nothing of many rappers’ own reliance on cartoonish racial stereotypes. Readers are, however, invited to ponder the intellectual heft of the following extract from one of the selected tracks, Da Baby’s Rockstar:
Brand new Lamborghini, fuck a cop car
With the pistol on my hip like I’m a cop (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Have you ever met a real nigga rockstar?
This ain’t no guitar, bitch, this a Glock (woo)
My Glock told me to promise you gon’ squeeze me (woo)
You better let me go the day you need me (woo)
Soon as you up me on that nigga, get to bustin’ (woo)
And if I ain’t enough, go get the chop
If you’ve somehow remained unmoved and have been so inadequate as to feel no moral and mental elevation, this can only be explained, it seems, by your “bias and cultural cluelessness.” How dare you silence this downtrodden intellectual, whose insights include, “I don’t even listen to [other] people’s music… I listen to me all day long,” and, “I definitely am the best rapper alive.” And whose estimated wealth is a mere $3 million.
Update, via the comments:
It occurs to me that if you’re getting your political consciousness from Da Baby, whose deep thoughts are quoted above, or Lil Baby, or J Cole, or Meek Mill, all “thought-provoking” artists selected by our scholars – if this is your measure of suppressed intellectuals – then there’s a fairly good chance that you’re a poseur, or an idiot, and your standards may require some drastic recalibration.
It’s also worth noting how one of the most hazardous of words to use – one that may result in a kicking or sudden unemployment, and from which All Decent Non-Racist People are expected to recoil – is simultaneously one to which All Decent Non-Racist People are supposed to be drawn, or at least happy to tolerate. Provided it’s being mouthed, endlessly, by idiots of a certain hue. And failing to have a taste for this experience is, we’re now told, evidence of racism.
Nor is it clear whether lyrical monotony, generic braggadocio and crass sexual references may have played a part in boring some more than others.
That.
a result of “systemic bias and inherent prejudice,
And not simply because it is shit non-music?
Then there are the spirited rivalries.
I try to imagine what would’ve become of rock music if the Stones and the Beatles had done multiple drive-by shootings at each other…or here in the States, if the west-coast Beach Boys gunned down east-coast Elvis.
All because of insufficient props. Or whatever the hell reason they keep killing each other.
Hip-hop “musicians”: Conspiring to persuade normal human beings that black people might really be inferior and dangerous.
Dr Jeremy McCool and Dr Tyrone Smith: Conspiring to persuade normal human beings that helicopters might be the only solutions to some problems.
Normal black people who loathe hip-hop: “Hey, what about us?”
Dr Jeremy McCool and Dr Tyrone Smith: “You’re not black. You’re race-traitor oreos.”
It occurs to me that if you’re getting your political consciousness from Lil Baby, or Da Baby, whose insights are quoted above, or J Cole, or Meek Mill – if this is your measure of suppressed intellectuals – then there’s a fairly good chance you’re a tiresome poseur and, more to the point, a fucking idiot.
Pardon my French.
“east-coast Elvis.” ???
Sinatra was East Side. Elvis was “flyover”. At least until Vegas…
a tiresome poseur and, more to the point, a fucking idiot.
How about dangerous, depraved, and disposable?
What, no Bryson Gray?
McCool earned his PhD at Indiana University of PA, a notorious party school of little repute. I tutored a second semester senior economics major from IUP who didn’t know what a demand curve is and didn’t know how to plot intercepts on an x-y coordinate system.
If you look at his LinkedIn page, before landing at West Chester University, another beer-swilling forgettable 13th grade that admits everyone who breathes, McCool put in some important hours as an intern at “Smokin’ 99.1” and “88.3 The Dog”, where he probably did his quantitative research on the intersectional neo-colonial racism of wacky “morning zoo” radio programs.
This is a very important scholar who should be taken VERY seriously.
“It would seem from my observations over a lifetime, that the negro race is working through an earlier period of human evolution.”
Come live in Philadelphia. The white population isn’t that dramatically ahead. Most of their kids have taken the lead from their darker fellow citizens when it comes to intellect and taste in anything above the most crass, feral, lowest-rung on the evolutionary scale pursuits in life.
The silencing of…
You’re oppressing us, leave us alone. How dare you leave us alone, how dare you just switch off our music, we demand your attention and esteem, we demand that our music fill your spaces. You must Do The Work to understand us. You’ll never understand us, you don’t have the Soul or the Lived Experience. When we’re in your spaces, you make us feel like you’re in our spaces. You’re oppressing us, leave us alone…
… intellectuals in music
I take popular music seriously by seeing it for what it is and not intellectualizing it. A young man with a guitar who’s singing about finding a girl to hold hands with who’ll love him for who he is isn’t allegorizing about attaining a closer love of God, he’s saying that in his innermost soul he wants a girlfriend. To the extent that he’s listened to avidly it’s because the music amplifies and shapes latent wishes in young men’s souls. If they hadn’t listened to 10000 hours of ice cream chords during their teenage years, they might have a different idea of what a girlfriend is. Similarly, if you’re singing about the exquisite joy of imposing cruelty on your rivals, degrading the women of the enemy tribe, and raking in the spoils of war, I take that not as a spiritual or political allegory, but as a true representation of what can be in a human heart if it grows in a certain way,
“It would seem from my observations over a lifetime, that the negro race is working through an earlier period of human evolution.”
Where did that quote come from? I don’t see it in any of the above links.
It turns out that if a hundred or so white people are slightly less interested in rote racial narcissism expressed via the medium of rap, this could result in “artists who typically make thought-provoking music being shunned by the industry.”
By the Industry? Are they actually saying that Whyte people make up the biggest proportion of consumers of rap? Especially the less-mainstream, more race-concious rap? I thought black people were exhausted and tired of catering to white people, and black music, stories and such were for black people’s consumption only. So why are these two Walmart PhDs saying that if white people don’t like the rap the artists will get canceled? Since when do white people cancel rap artists! They do that to each other, with lead.
Wasn’t there a post recently about someone complaining about white people crashing college parties and lack of rap, or the white people weren’t supposed to enjoy it…or I may be confused. I have no doubt that white people make up a large portion of the rap-loving audience, for the braggadocio and the coolness aspect. Thug Life and all that. So these rappers probably do get their millions in large part from white kids. And that likely isn’t something they would like to admit or talk about. But I still don’t think white people would be able to get some tedious social justice rapper canceled. I suspect there is a limited black audience as well for such dreck.
In each instance, the white participants in the experiment rejected the messaging at a higher frequency than the Black participants.
Well if you enjoy singing along with your music – as many people do – then it is ill advised for people of pallor to listen to much of “black people’s music”. Examples abound.
And the problem with that is?
Cruel but fair? (Found via The People’s Cube.)
I seem to recall Stephen King saying some remarkably stupid things about the American military and “those warmongering Republicans”, but the details now escape me.
It doesn’t seem to rhyme (woo).
“The silencing of intellectuals in music.”
Okay, I laughed. I denounce myself.
“This ain’t no guitar, bitch, this a Glock.”
Austrian company, based in Deutsch-Wagram, founded in 1963 by Gaston Glock, a major donor to the Freedom Party. I don’t think Doctors McCool and Smith would like him much.
Conspiring to persuade normal human beings that helicopters might be the only solutions to some problems.
Sooner or later, everyone comes around to the idea of helicopters.
Are they actually saying that Whyte people make up the biggest proportion of consumers of rap?
They do, and these hustlers know it. It’s simple mathematics; blacks only make up 13% of the US population, and I would wager less than half of that population consumes gangsta rap – you’re looking at teenagers and twentysomethings of both sexes and adult men under 50, I think – and 6% of the US population simply isn’t enough to generate the kind of money in that musical genre.
If only black people bought gangsta rap, the genre would be completely unknown outside of radio stations broadcasting to majority-black inner-city boroughs. It would be like Cuban jazz – everywhere in Miami, no one’s heard of it anywhere else.
All this needs is a backing track.
pst314, I seem to recall Stephen King saying some remarkably stupid things.
Cruel but fair
The years had not been kind to Ellen.
Roughly 6000 humanity PhDs are awarded every year in the U.S., and this number has been rising over the last 15 years. And they all want a job as a professor, ultimately leading to tenure. Yet the number of undergraduates in the humanities keeps falling. Further, universities have increasingly relied on adjuncts and lecturers rather than tenure-track professors. It’s cheaper that way.
This means there’s a lot of competition for those tenure-trace position, so these PhDs have to outdo each other in their brave and transgressive publications. That their insights make little sense outside of their narrow fields, much less have any relation to reality, is of no import. Academic and career success is the ultimate goal here, nothing else.
Apropos of nothing, BritBox has restored episodes of all of classic Doctor Who. It’s amazing how much more watchable it is before it disappears up its own arse trying to be twee and clever. Also the First Doctor is a giant *sshole, so that’s fun.
There’s always DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, or Eminem, who are among the very few rap artists I’ve heard who possess both genuine cleverness and a sense of humour (granted, Eminem’s jokes are pretty darn black — no pun intended).
Of course, the real irony is that Eminem, a.k.a. Mr. Marshall Mathers, is in fact Caucasian. If rap is not the first time a new mode of, well, call it rhythmic sonic entertainment if not quite music has come out of the Black subcultures in the West (cf. African-inspired blues leading into ’50s and ’60s rock’n’roll), it is also not the first time non-Black artists have picked it up and run with it to highly expanded result.
Also the First Doctor is a giant *sshole, so that’s fun.
Yes, there was the distinct possibility that, given a particularly bad mood, he might beat you to death with a rock or abandon you on some godforsaken planet with a corrosive atmosphere.
You know, for kids.
One should also bear in mind obstacles of dialect. Take for example the immortal line quoted above, “Soon as you up me on that (n-word), get to bustin'”. I genuinely have no idea what this is meant to convey. What does “up” mean when used as a verb in this context? Is “bustin'” indicative of violence, or sexual activity? (I’ve heard it used both ways.) And is this a command to the listener, or a brag about what the speaker will do?
If Black artists want rap to be more popular with non-Black audiences they might consider making at least a nod to basic comprehensibility (though that would probably cost them audiences who value “keeping it real”).
Which is why I appreciate Eminem’s collaboration with the Charlie Daniels band.
There’s always DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, or Eminem, who are among the very few rap artists I’ve heard who possess both genuine cleverness and a sense of humour
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince are rappers who I can actually say I have heard and liked. The “I Like Big Butts and I Cannot Lie” song/rap (I don’t know the rapper who does it) was also kind of fun – again, sense of humor. And I actually like Gangsta’s Paradise (although I heard and liked Weird Al’s Amish Paradise first). But I guess that one was for some feel-good movie, and doesn’t count as proper rap to these race hustlers.
This discussion of rap made me look up the original song that Weird Al parodied for “White and Nerdy” and I have to say it’s kind of catchy. I can’t understand half of it, but I’m guessing there’s braggadocio and getting one over on the popo. There’s even white people in the video, so this one probably wouldn’t count as social justice rap according the illustrious profs in the OP.
I still think hip-hop tracks about “racialised oppression” would not appeal very much to Gangsta types in the ‘Hood. They may mouth the words when one of their own gets shot by non-gangsters during the commission of a crime, but “poor me I’m so oppressed” doesn’t sound very Gangsta to my white and nerdy ears. And while race hustlers, both black and white, would loudly profess to love such “music” I am willing to bet that is not what they listen to when they are at home.
The odd thing about mashup music (which I indulge in) is that I’ve been listening to rap singers without their backing tracks, and some of them show an interesting turn of phrase and acidic commentary. Biggie Smalls, in particular.
My preferred source is Bootie Mashup, which pumps out a monthly best of collection.
Of course, I also immediately dump any track that uses that excrable “WAP” so I’m still an oppressor.
they might consider making at least a nod to basic comprehensibility
Or provide translations into English…
Or provide translations into English…
Thank you for that much-needed laugh! Those were hilarious.
“The “I Like Big Butts and I Cannot Lie” song/rap (I don’t know the rapper who does it) was also kind of fun – again, sense of humor.”
Sir Mix-A-Lot, “Baby Got Back”. I prefer Jonathan Coulton’s rather more tuneful cover.
So… rapping, is it? I’m a Gen-X computer nerd. This is my culture.
It is interesting to see people actually giddy over Putin’s invasion, especially as another opportunity to call “white people” racist.
I like the loungy Richard Cheese cover of Baby Got Back.
…especially as another opportunity to call “white people” racist.
It’s as if they have themselves accomplished nothing to be proud of, and so instead must continue to run down those who have.
pst314, I seem to recall Stephen King saying some remarkably stupid things.
Most artists would do well to STFU.
some of them show an interesting turn of phrase and acidic commentary
Thomas Sowell has pointed out that urban black culture is similar to and derived from Southern redneck culture. Remove race from it, and it’s easy to see that both communities share the same (often self-inflicted) social ills, from which many trenchant observations can arise.
One of the reasons I liked Justified was the fusion of the musical styles in the theme as well as the scripts.
BTW … “rap” has its beginnings in the 1970s. Didn’t like it then, don’t like it now. Not the least of which, I believe, is the deliberate obscuring of words. If your song has lyrics, I would rather hear them clearly instead of hunting down liner notes to follow along. Too many rock bands had/have that issue, and whenever the rap mobiles roll by me on the street or at red lights, voices sound like little more than percussive instruments.
Which amuses me when I watch young black reaction videos hearing for the first time Frank Sinatra, Righteous Brothers, Tom Jones, Karen Carpenter, or many other artists of the 50s, 60s, 70s and being amazed at clarity of their voices.
Oh my dears, what’s the point of singing lyrics if you can’t understand them?
Jonathan Coulton – he did the Code Monkey song! That one reminds me of a couple guys I have known and think of fondly. One of which got me hooked on Richard Cheese and burned several CDs of his music for me. Ah – Gen-X computer nerds – my people.
That their insights make little sense outside of their narrow fields, much less have any relation to reality, is of no import.
This comment, on the excretions of the 6000 humanities PhDs minted every year, I think nails this tempest in a teacup. Race grifters gonna race grift. Even if some rappers went all-in on social justice and systemic oppression on some of their songs, the majority of their output is going to appeal to the vast majority of their audience, to keep the big bucks rolling in. If some audience members, of any color, tune out the race grift songs, no biggie. The rapper gets to keep it real and stay rich. White people are not canceling rappers because few rappers are stupid enough to completely alienate the majority of their audience. And outside academia, I don’t think the black audience for such songs is very large, either.
“the silencing of Black narratives and perspectives.”
As far as I can see (or hear) there is no silencing of anything. The makers of such music–and I use the word advisedly–are free to make whatever noises they wish and utter whatever rhymes they can think of, so good for them. However, I am unlikely to be listening because, well, I don’t like either the noise or the silly little lyrics. Sorry, chaps, but please carry on with your narratives.
Professional racial victimhood spokespeople jump the shark (again).
Do they realize how stupid and inane they actually sound when they say things like this? While I don’t believe that there is any institutionalized racism left, this almost makes me think we ought to bring some of it back. Makes one pine for the bad old days of segregation. I really don’t care about their whining and complaining. I don’t care about their horrible music. Just stay the f*** away from me and out of earshot.
If this keeps up very much longer, I’m going to demand reparations for having to be exposed to this ultimate stupidity.
His name is Dick Cheese? What were his parents thinking?
“It’s simple mathematics;”
Indeed. The number of people in the various record houses live in a restricted bubble of lemmings, all of whom headed over the cliff into “rap” (same as disco – wasn’t really as popular as media believed)
Why is 4+ decade old “popular” music still so…popular?
Quintez Brown, the black racist who tried to murder a Jewish mayoral candidate, was one of the BBC’s go-to BLM talking heads.
To be honest, I didn’t realize this nut was still alive.
Their lyrical monotony, generic braggadocio and crass sexual references have absolutely nothing on Steel Panther.
Don’t they know? That’s What Girls Are For
“intellectuals in music” objection! Facts not in evidence. Rappers: turning white people into racists since 1978.
The number of people in the various record houses live in a restricted bubble of lemmings, all of whom headed over the cliff into “rap”…
I vaguely recall that the big record houses initially shunned rap for celebrating criminality and for being highly pornographic. (I suppose much as certain LP collections of dirty songs like the unexpurgated Barnacle Bill the Sailor and The Good Ship Venus had to be brought out on small record labels.) But then those record labels noticed that rap was selling well, and they changed their minds. Am I wrong?
To be honest, I didn’t realize this nut was still alive.
Another nut, just for “balance”:
Another nut
TBF that’s no crazier than some of the shite being spread by Globull Warming Nuts.