N
nomadologist
Guest
Is anyone else as amused as I am by that New Yorker article all the indiepress is basing their reviews of Hell Hath No Fury on?
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/critics/061225crmu_music
Does Frere-Jones know how ridiculously white it is of him not to have noticed that cocaine/crack dealing has been very near the center of hip-hop idioms and the problematic nature of life in the ghetto since, well, forever? Can he name me a hip-hop album that doesn't in some way deal with how devastating cocaine, heroin, and other drug dealing and use is to the economy of the ghetto? Is he seriously trying to say that talking about these things is tantamount to endorsing them unequivocally? I don't think he is, but what exactly makes one album "cocaine rap" while another that deals openly with cocaine use and distribution isn't? He doesn't make this clear. Does he realize that selling drugs is significant to the Clipse because it was part of how they "came up"--that it opened doors for them business-wise that have been essential to promoting their careers/music? ("Keys Open Doors")
If I hear one more white person call that album a "coke fantasy", I'm going to personally write to them and offer to take them to the projects and show them how very real and tangible coke, crack and drug dealing are. These hip-hop artists aren't bragging that they sell drugs--they're bragging that DESPITE having to sell drugs, they've come up. They're saying "look at what my people have to do to get successful, and no one cares, you just keep buying the coke, buying the albums." Yeah, it's cynical, but wouldn't you be jaded?
The next best thing is how so many of these same indiepress writers who hate The Clipse for writing "cocaine fantasies" then endorse Ghostface, whose album is called "Fischscale" after the flakey textured coke that is cut straight off the kilo, and includes songs that are entirely about cocaine ("A kilo is a thousand grams/easy to remember...")
Another great point people try to make against the Clipse is that their slang is opaque. It's not. I can't think of a single line in it that I can't make sense of using current slang. The terms they use for drugs and units of drugs are common in New York and I'm assuming most of the eastern seaboard. If it is opaque to you, it is because you are not part of a certain circle. It is not a fault of the album's.
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/critics/061225crmu_music
Does Frere-Jones know how ridiculously white it is of him not to have noticed that cocaine/crack dealing has been very near the center of hip-hop idioms and the problematic nature of life in the ghetto since, well, forever? Can he name me a hip-hop album that doesn't in some way deal with how devastating cocaine, heroin, and other drug dealing and use is to the economy of the ghetto? Is he seriously trying to say that talking about these things is tantamount to endorsing them unequivocally? I don't think he is, but what exactly makes one album "cocaine rap" while another that deals openly with cocaine use and distribution isn't? He doesn't make this clear. Does he realize that selling drugs is significant to the Clipse because it was part of how they "came up"--that it opened doors for them business-wise that have been essential to promoting their careers/music? ("Keys Open Doors")
If I hear one more white person call that album a "coke fantasy", I'm going to personally write to them and offer to take them to the projects and show them how very real and tangible coke, crack and drug dealing are. These hip-hop artists aren't bragging that they sell drugs--they're bragging that DESPITE having to sell drugs, they've come up. They're saying "look at what my people have to do to get successful, and no one cares, you just keep buying the coke, buying the albums." Yeah, it's cynical, but wouldn't you be jaded?
The next best thing is how so many of these same indiepress writers who hate The Clipse for writing "cocaine fantasies" then endorse Ghostface, whose album is called "Fischscale" after the flakey textured coke that is cut straight off the kilo, and includes songs that are entirely about cocaine ("A kilo is a thousand grams/easy to remember...")
Another great point people try to make against the Clipse is that their slang is opaque. It's not. I can't think of a single line in it that I can't make sense of using current slang. The terms they use for drugs and units of drugs are common in New York and I'm assuming most of the eastern seaboard. If it is opaque to you, it is because you are not part of a certain circle. It is not a fault of the album's.