Backpack Rap
From Adam Mansbach's Angry Black White Boy, on backpackers:
"How, Macon wondered as he cut a path toward the small stage at the back of the club, had the backpack rap set gotten so self-righteous so quickly? These kids were as dogmatic as the bitterest old-school has-beens, oozing with keep-it-realness and wistful reminiscences of a misimagined past in which hip-hop hadn't been shackled to capitalism. The backpackers scorned commercial success and radio airplay--corrupting the culture, yo--but spent all their money on niche-marketed hip-hop accoutrements, from breakdance videos to old-school Pumas. They ordered water at the bar, not for fear of being carded or out of desire to stay sharp-witted for the freestyle ciphers to come, but because their giddily professed pennilessness nudged them closer to the underground rappers they admired--rappers who for the most part would have traded all the adolescent-male dick-riding for a major-label advance check and used the money to move out of the projects."
Been laughing about that one for the last two days. Most of the hate mail I get at the newspaper is from that crowd. They drive me crazy, on some you're wasting space on money-hos-and-clothes rap, give some shine to real hip-hop-type bullshit. No matter how many articles I write on dead prez, or The Roots, or Mos, or Talib, or any number of below-the-radar acts. No matter how many times I give props to the current King Shit-Disturber himself, Immortal Technique.
Sample complaint from holier-than-thou hip-hop fan, mad as hell cause I reviewed an Xzibit record: "I suppose Tara Henley is on staff at the Straight to appeal to the local contingent that buys into vacuous self-aggrandizement, misogyny, and status-peddling. But quit wasting space on a showy, ass-kissing Establishment man when columns could go to worthwhile hip-hop purveyors like Immortal Technique and Lyrics Born."
After I had already filed my response, I found out the dude was a white guy who fronts a local indie act. Something about a hot-headed white suburban hip-hop fan accusing a successful black man of being an "ass-kissing establishment man" just doesn't sit that well, you know? Reminds me of Bakari Kitwana's Village Voice cover article: "Yo! Whitewash the Show."
"How, Macon wondered as he cut a path toward the small stage at the back of the club, had the backpack rap set gotten so self-righteous so quickly? These kids were as dogmatic as the bitterest old-school has-beens, oozing with keep-it-realness and wistful reminiscences of a misimagined past in which hip-hop hadn't been shackled to capitalism. The backpackers scorned commercial success and radio airplay--corrupting the culture, yo--but spent all their money on niche-marketed hip-hop accoutrements, from breakdance videos to old-school Pumas. They ordered water at the bar, not for fear of being carded or out of desire to stay sharp-witted for the freestyle ciphers to come, but because their giddily professed pennilessness nudged them closer to the underground rappers they admired--rappers who for the most part would have traded all the adolescent-male dick-riding for a major-label advance check and used the money to move out of the projects."
Been laughing about that one for the last two days. Most of the hate mail I get at the newspaper is from that crowd. They drive me crazy, on some you're wasting space on money-hos-and-clothes rap, give some shine to real hip-hop-type bullshit. No matter how many articles I write on dead prez, or The Roots, or Mos, or Talib, or any number of below-the-radar acts. No matter how many times I give props to the current King Shit-Disturber himself, Immortal Technique.
Sample complaint from holier-than-thou hip-hop fan, mad as hell cause I reviewed an Xzibit record: "I suppose Tara Henley is on staff at the Straight to appeal to the local contingent that buys into vacuous self-aggrandizement, misogyny, and status-peddling. But quit wasting space on a showy, ass-kissing Establishment man when columns could go to worthwhile hip-hop purveyors like Immortal Technique and Lyrics Born."
After I had already filed my response, I found out the dude was a white guy who fronts a local indie act. Something about a hot-headed white suburban hip-hop fan accusing a successful black man of being an "ass-kissing establishment man" just doesn't sit that well, you know? Reminds me of Bakari Kitwana's Village Voice cover article: "Yo! Whitewash the Show."
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