Archive for the ‘opinion’ Category
New Site – Black Perception; regular, everyday issues occasionally from an African-American perspective (but is isn’t a Black site).
Posted on: May 24, 2011
- In: Associated Content | Black | blogging | opinion
- 1 Comment
I want to thank everyone for their continued support of this site. I may go ahead and import my blogger site here so that there are two copies of it. In the interim though you can find my work at blackperception.com that is it, no blogspot.com or anything I went ahead and purchased a domain. I was looking for a domain that would communicate the fact that this was an opinion site being ran by an African-American. The irony of it is that I do not really run a Black site, I talk about everything and will occasionally do so from an African-American perspective but it is a marketing gimmick. I wrote a lot of articles over on Associated Content and received a lot of traffic whenever the topics happened to talk about issues that were of interest to the African-American community.
I even got a gig at a Black site, but that didn’t last. I actually got the idea to call the blog Black Perception from that site; perhaps not implicitly but it may have ran in the back of my subconscious. That site had the word Atlanta in it, but it was really based out of New York. But since Atlanta is synonymous with Black culture … So I think after many, many, different names and angles I might actually be onto something. If you enjoy what I wrote here two years ago you will enjoy that site. I have also realized that marketing is often more important than writing itself. If you have a good angle you can exploit you can show people what you are really about later on. We’ll see how it works, again, thanks for your support.
Why Black music will never change
Posted on: January 8, 2009
- In: 80s | African-American | Black | Micheal Jackson | music | Nas | opinion | R & B | R&B | rap | rhythm and blues
- 1 Comment
Popular African-American music is not going to change, and the sooner we all get used to that the better off we’ll all be. Much of the talk is about the lack of accountability in what used to be known as hip-hop, but the dilution of African-American music is a phenomenon that has been occurring across the board at least since the eighties. Much of what has occurred bears similarities to what has occurred in Hollywood as the result of the first Blockbuster movies like Jaws that broke all types of sales and ticket barriers.
With us this meant Micheal Jackson, and too much of a good thing. In the beginning Micheal was “hungry” as an artist, as we like to say, to the uninitiated that meant that he was willing to do whatever it took to sell a record. But by the time his fourth record came out Micheal was on more of an artistic bent and began to talk about his own politics, such as racial politics and sociopolitical issues in general. It was in truth his seventh record, as his first three were largely under the radar, but sort of highlighted where music was going to go in general. On the one hand he shouldn’t have to digress to talking about what pop artists usually talk about because quite honestly he didn’t need the money or the fame at this point, had albums which continued to sell less than the last one though arguably he continued to set and break new records, and was weird from the outset and was perhaps just now comfortable expressing those eccentricities to the rest of the world.
A lot of good and bad came out of this; had it not been for that hunger to differentiate himself from his family Thriller may have never broke any records, MTV still may not have been showing videos from Black artists (though arguably Lionel Richie had some videos in rotation) and Black artists may have never been taken seriously, because up until then there were no real crossover artists. Blacks listened to their artists and Whites listened to theirs, but there were few artists that everyone just liked across the board, Micheal changed all of that. But there is a lot to say for the status quo. Micheal Jackson and Prince were able to bring a unique take on popular music because they were in a decade that was very accepting and open to different sounds. It was a very experimental time in general, and you could get away with stuff that you couldn’t in other decades.
In spite of the popularity of those artists though Black music underwent some interesting changes. Hip-hop became popular and was the sound of the inner city. Yet as different as hip-hop was at that time a lot remained the same and that was the idea of the way that music should sound like, as opposed to the way in which it could sound. Artists that tried to be different and often found mainstream success were universally panned in the African-American community. No one really wanted to admit to having listened to anything the likes of MC Hammer or P.M. Dawn. There were plenty of artists that were different that found mainstream appeal, such as De La Soul, Digable Planets and Arrested Development.
The honest truth is that hip-hop did not have a formula and was still experimental for the most part, which made it easier for audiences to tolerate artists talking in riddles or about concepts that weren’t as accessible as those of artists today. It was okay to listen to a group like K.M.D., but by the late nineties much of that had changed. Artists saw how immensely popular Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls was, and never quite graduated beyond that point. We had the whole Ja Rule thing, who may have found his roots in artists Mic Geronimo and groups like The Lost Boyz, and that was okay to a point.
By the time 50 Cent had sold his story to whoever was willing to listen to why he had such an issue with Ja Rule the tide had already changed. Music journalists everywhere were proclaiming that hip-hop was dead, not saying it in quite those words but if you were to read inbetween the lines that was more or less the point that was being put across. That attitude had been in place ever since the late nineties, so when Nas said it in 2006 it came as a surprise to no one, or did it? Perhaps for those who didn’t really follow the magazines, op-ed columns, or editorials it was.
Artists came out of the woodwork explaining why hip-hop was not dead and that in fact the idea of what hip-hop was had changed with their generation. Was Nas talking about mainstream hip-hop, what was being played on top 40 radio? Was he saying that real hip-hop was in essence on par with his own talent, of which we haven’t heard any mainstream artists come anywhere close to him since Tupac and Biggie Smalls? Remember that Nas came about in a time where it wasn’t about beats, where storytelling and true wordplay was what people listened to hip-hop for.
Where one door closes another one opens. Lil’ Wayne used the opportunity to bring himself into the spotlight and gain more mainstream exposure, yet Wayne isn’t necessarily interested in old antiquated ideas of what hip-hop should be. Wayne is prone to pick up a guitar and start playing it for no apparent reason, or to put out a record like “Lollipop” that isn’t really hip-hop nor isn’t really club music either. In fact that record isn’t really anything we traditionally associate with music. Much of Wayne’s wordplay sounds like ideas that come to him in a stream of consciousness as opposed to anything that was written down on paper. Much of it seems to come from a place where he may not necessarily be in the right frame of mind, perhaps some of that Purple Drank or some other mind altering experience.
Whenever something different does come along, such as Common’s various albums, the new Kanye West album, Jennifer Hudson recording a song that is more Country than R & B, Beyonce with a song that sounds like a strange cross between grunge and alternative rock, or even Outkast, who was different ever since Atliens, the work is either universally panned or admired, yet curiously never fully understood. It isn’t always the point of music to be about beats and readily accessible, and when artists with a few successful pop records try to be different they have to hear about it. Sometimes from journalists, but often from other artists that aren’t trying to be different themselves, and hate the fact of another artist being different experiencing any success. We’re too ignorant to really sit down and experience music the way those that used to listen to soul and jazz music do; music is a reflection of our gettin’ money fast paced life where we continue to live hand to mouth and don’t take care of ourselves properly and end up in the hospital at a young age with high blood pressure. It has to satisfy us like yesterday, truth is there are only so many beats, so many unique sounds, so many time signatures, so many samples, before you start to repeat yourself. The music will inevitably grow beyond those few bars and turn into more of a composition than a repetitive knee jerk experience. Every time someone begins to understand this someone else trying to get ahead finds some sort of gimmick to take us back 20 years and we’re back to the mindlessness of it all over again.
The projects (of artists trying to be different) only get mainstream radio airplay when a “beat” can be found in them and there is something catchy about them. But other artists, groups like say Little Brother for instance simply do not get the support that they need, and tend to fade into the night. BET did not want to give Little Brother a chance, basically stating that it wasn’t dumb enough for their 106 and Park crowd. This is the same media that can easily get behind Nas, conveniently rejecting the fact that intelligent hip-hop has always been with us and never left. What about The Roots, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, M.O.P., Wu Tang Clan, Killarmy, 9th Wonder, Sunz of Man, every single one of the The Nation of Gods and Earths artists, the whole New School movement, the list goes on and on. These days we’re told that Hipster rap is different and about imitation and the novelty of the eighties, but few talk about the fact that it is in part, a good thing, not to have rap built off of gangster bravado, machismo, and other empty ideas about masculinity or femininity.
The industries and establishment that are supposed to be in charge of keeping that real hip-hop alive are the ones that are truly destroying it by not doing what they can to promote artists that try to get Black people to think for a change which is all that hip-hop was ever really about in the first place. The irony of which is that your White friends probably listen to these artists when you’re not; the same ones that rode around hanging onto everyone of Eminem’s verses listen to these artists. In fact a lot of these groups that have continued to represent true and real hip-hop aren’t Black, and will never get that promotion and recognition because of the delicacies of the politics of doing so when the industry does. Even more Elvis theories, more drama. Quite honestly at this point if we were to let a third genre of music be stolen from us we have no one else to blame but ourselves given what happened to Jazz and Rock and Roll, the latter of which I don’t even think we had a whole lot of control over.
You’ll probably say that those groups aren’t necessarily any better or worse so why should you listen to them, and I really can’t argue with you there. But any true fan of hip-hop has to listen to, or I would at least would think want to take into serious consideration, Immortal Technique, if you want to consider a rapper who isn’t African-American, who has held it down at least since 2000. He’s one of those artists that can write a verse that brags about having issues with Aryans while Blacks have issues with Niggers, and can get away with it because people respect his intelligence; in fact I’m still not sure if I should take issue with him or not having said that. He brings into question what it means to be an American, not someone who is Black or White, but an American, trying to live in a country in which the layman’s definition of an American and the definition of those who are truly in power of being an American is at odds with each other, and that says a lot.
Why do I have to hit the mix tape circuit to hear the real hip-hop that I used to hear on the radio before the top 40 days in the 1980s? Why do I have to go to YouTube of all places and find it conveniently tucked inbetween the most inane videos in HD? Why am I finding it in Smack videos hearing about mainstream artists beef? Mainstream rap music will never change because this industry is going to do everything it can to silence the true artists and force them into obscurity. Until listeners stand up and refuse to continue to be programmed by that top 40 radio, they’ll never change as well …
- In: movies | opinion | review
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There are some fundamental problems with the movie Cadillac Records, which has been sold to audiences as a biopic about Etta James only because of the appearance of Beyonce Knowles of which this movie most definitely is not a biopic about Etta James or any of the other characters in this film. First off, not enough attention was paid to Etta James; Beyonce begins to deliver an interesting performance but never really gets to fully develop her character. We get a feel for her heroin addiction, which you can almost sense in the recording booth, but we aren’t totally convinced that she was truly in love with the owner of the recording label. Secondly, it would appear as though the real story is that Etta James was Amy Winehouse decades before Amy Winehouse was who she is; she has the swagger, the addiction, and the personality that precludes any shtick that Amy brought to the game years later.
So much of the film was about Muddy Waters, almost even more so than it was the record label itself that this film feels uneven. There was a great love story that could have developed between Leonard Chess and Etta James, or even an interesting story in how his obsession over Etta James affected his relationship with his wife or even a story about how Muddy Waters child affected his relationship with his girl or even more of a background on Chuck Berry’s contribution to Chess Records. Instead we are left to figure out how Leonard Chess’ amazing ability to find artists that are totally irrespective to the genre of music of which his last great artist excelled at worked together and kept from getting the best of each other.
When Howlin’ Wolf offered a rough, gritty, distinctive brand of blues things began to get interesting, at least from an artistic standpoint. But his work was perhaps ahead of it’s time and he wasn’t ready for mainstream acceptance. In the movie it was more interesting that he did not want to be indebted to Chess, who had a thing for paying artists in Cadillacs, instead of cash. This got underneath the skin of Muddy Waters, but instead of using that situation for a more intense dramatic narrative the only real confrontation we get to see if between Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf when Little Waters dies.
The only real strong performances we get to see in this film are from those of whom a more engaging plot could have been built around; Adrian Brody, Jefferey Wright and Columbus Short. Gabrielle Union was in the film but it isn’t entirely clear why as her presence is seemingly trivial and insignificant in this film. The same can almost be said for Mos Def, who typically gets to shine but does the best with the little bit of time that he has. To be totally honest it is unclear who the protagonists in this film even are, or maybe perhaps everyone is, which is a big part of the problem.
This was like Mos Def’s twenty-third film according to Wikipedia, his 37th production to date according to IMDB. His contribution as an actor amongst rappers is second to none only to Ice Cube, and this is perhaps only because Ice Cube has scored better movies that are more mainstream and not as artistic and that Cube does everything, writing, producing, directing, even composing as opposed to just acting. But if you are going to use him (Def) give him the screen time. In general, Cadillac Records plays upon the same archetypes that have defined movies about the African-American experience in the recording industry going all the way back to Sparkle. It doesn’t offer anything that different from Dreamgirls of The Five Heartbeats and is an endless string of missed opportunities. We can only hope that Etta James gets the true biopic that she deserves, and that the talent in this movie can shine elsewhere in the future …
Much has been made of the dearth of low prices on what was an honorable tradition. But too much of the focus has been on stores like WalMart. Much like other forces which have undergone significant changes due to the influence of other values that run counter-cultural to their core value the rage against WalMart simply hides a deeper, darker truth. That is the same in which it has always been if you look at the death of anything from hip-hop to Hollywood and that is in the fact that death had come along years, even decades prior, often when you felt as though said past time was very much alive.
Before WalMart there were other discounters of course yet prices were not really that much cheaper than that of the next guy. Perhaps 5 to 10 percent cheaper at best. This article is not so much about stores like WalMart that promise everything to anyone looking for a deal, but specifically with outlets selling stuff that people do not necessarily need like clothing and upscale goods and in particular where the cultural shifts have occurred. In seeing how shopping centers in America’s downtown has changed over the decades we can begin to understand some of the angst behind stores like WalMart. It is interesting to note that in spite of those changes in the seventies and eighties, the change that was coming in that part of retail was nowhere near as profound with grocers, and much of the culture was still in tact. WalMart’s taking over was perhaps a subtle confirmation that retail would never be the same again, and that nothing about retail would ever be “sacred” again.
Most of you remember those old department stores that existed downtown, in any town throughout America. In fact department stores were so popular at one time that even smaller towns of population less than 100,000 had them. JCPenny’s and Sears popped up virtually wherever possible, whereas smaller regional stores may or may not exist. Macy’s was primarily known for having a store in New York City, what ended up becoming Federated Stores years later were various department stores in the Midwest.
Years before Federated took over Macy’s and renamed hundreds of department stores to Macy’s around the nation department stores reflected the cultural tastes of those in the regions they served. When I was growing up in Akron Ohio we had two department stores downtown, Polsky’s and O’ Neils. Both department stores essentially sold the same thing, and today both stores have disappeared though the buildings that housed those stores have been taken over by the University of Akron and the City of Akron. If you are old enough to remember, you can probably see store displays when you are downtown in the former O’ Neils building getting your driver’s license renewed.
I was too young to remember Polsky’s but I do remember O’ Neils. Polsky’s had closed in 1978 but O’ Neils stayed around a bit longer into the 80s. They had the most magnificent store displays, particularly during Christmas and you had to walk up long sets of stairs until the store on red carpet. They had everything, a bakery, all of the usual guilty pleasures and distractions that go along with shopping in a department store. As a kid just walking up the stairs and seeing the store come closer to me was a big part of the excitement, as were the escalators and walking through the parking garage. There was something magical about the experience, and the fact of the clothing in the store, though exquisite to be sure, paled in comparison to the store itself.
When we stores downtown closed and we were forced to go to the department stores in the suburbs the experience was not quite the same. Those stores tried to bring some of that magic to suburbia but failed miserably. It is very odd, because much of what those stores downtown had was there, but it just didn’t feel right. The blandness of shopping malls had something to do with it. A shopping mall that is freestanding out in suburbia rarely compares to one that is built into downtown. The clothes seem flat and artificial, the displays seem to be compromised, the excitement lost.
One thing I do miss about being in Akron is that down here the department stores are always associated with a shopping mall. There are no freestanding department stores of the caliber of Macy’s that anchor strip malls. Instead those strip malls are always anchored by a WalMart, Target or Khols. What is sad is that Khols tries desperately to bring some of the glamour back to the department store. Yet the fact that they are always on a single level and do not sell anything even remotely close to being as expensive as it should be in a department store is sad.
There is also something to be said about the way in which clothing has been cheapened, forcing us to buy from top designers to get the same type of quality from labels that were considered to be rather pedestrian when all of this madness started. For example Bugle Boy used to have some real quality behind it in the late 80s, but now sells for a fraction of the price in Family Dollar. I used to pay over $40 for a pair of pants back then. People actually respected Levi’s back then as well, though I always felt that during the nineties the company had entirely too much inventory and never could find a way to sell all of it.
But in all truth Levi’s was all you really expected to buy, in fact if you could get a pair of Calvin Klein or Guess it was a really big deal and somewhat of an accomplishment. Sure the quality sucked in comparison to what we have today that was some really, really, heavy denim. But it actually meant something now when Tommy Hilfiger came in to play the discounters had come into their own and you were a fool to purchase it from the department store. Getting something for 25% off was laughable because the discounters already had it for half off before they ever began to think about marking it down.
Yet I still shopped in the department stores because the displays were better well rather, there actually were displays, and it had some type of a look and feel to it. It just felt as though it was actually worth something when I bought it from there, and I tended to hold onto that stuff forever. Buying Polo from TJMaxx just didn’t mean anything as opposed to buying it at Kauffman’s, even at the same price. Plus there was something regal about the Polo that Kauffman’s sold, as opposed to buying it from TJMaxx for some odd reason.
These days if you’re really stressed out about getting a particular designer you make a road trip to the factory outlet store or you buy it online. You don’t make any trips to the department stores, and that’s sort of sad. Because it doesn’t really mean anything at the factory outlet store or online, and that’s a big part of the reason that designers have been careful with what they put online. I could be wrong, but it almost feels as though pedestrian items which do not have that much worth anyway, or stuff that doesn’t sell well in the stores, is what is being offered online. With the factory outlet store at least you knew it was because of manufacturing defects, or the fact that too much of it was made for sale.
Looking back on it we were never really meant to wear Polo Ralph Lauren to begin with; we didn’t have enough money coming in and we often had to go out of way to get it, meaning dealing with snotty sales staff who didn’t understand why we were buying it at the beginning of the trends or not really wanting to sell it to us. Being followed around the store like a shoplifter, that type of thing. I remember a friend of mine from DC that asked a sales assistant why they didn’t have certain items in the Polo section. His point seemed to be that the Polo they sold down there was like 5 years ahead of what we had. I was just happy to buy the stuff personally but I eventually ventured out to find out for myself just how far Akron was behind, and have been jaded ever since.
It wasn’t anything that I was ever supposed to know, and that is exactly the experience that discounters have brought to shopping for the uninitiated. You aren’t really supposed to know about high end labels if the department stores in your town don’t sell them; you get obsessed with those labels, particularly in your twenties, and you end up doing stuff you shouldn’t to get them. When department stores ruled retail with an iron fist they stayed on a simple script and kept thing in a nice, clean, well maintained box. They didn’t confuse consumers, didn’t throw out the kitchen sink at bargain prices and didn’t tease anyone with a shipment from a designer they never got any other inventory from for a year and half. You knew you could afford Levi’s, you also knew that you could not afford Hugo Boss and probably did not know what it was, and you were okay with that there was no shame in it.
Today’s shopper knows entirely too much. No one really cares what their peers are doing, because everyone can research the information on it’s own. That isn’t a big deal until you consider that everyone is off doing their own thing. That sense of community is lost, it isn’t coming back again.
Except for adolescents that still dress alike in droves and legions of thousands. I’m sure they know well enough to find out what else is out there but they rarely do because the power of belonging is far more addictive than the power of knowing at times. In fact they’ll try to dumb themselves down and not come across as too smart, too much of an individual. Ah, what fond memories …
2008 had been a year of change
Posted on: December 22, 2008
The last year brought about many changes that I wasn’t really ready to make at all. In fact one of those is getting used to the idea that change is in order. Change wasn’t something I was all that comfortable with. The times have changed and I need to change with them or face extinction, it is that simple. Among the changes:
- Getting my mind around this race thing. The presidential race made me think about it for better or worse but I had already been on the fence for quite a while now. I was a cautiously optimistic individual that wanted change, but didn’t think it would be coming any time soon.
- Reevaluating what money really means to me. In previous years chasing money was just a way to acquire things to show off what I don’t have. I’ve had plenty of time to do that though. Now in helping out others and trying to enrich their lives I can help myself in ways I wouldn’t have previously. I don’t want to be 50 with a big house or 60 with a Cadillac as that last trinket that I have; those purchases that you have earned the right to have because you are old and have retirement money. Your great grandfather with a cashmere sweater or perhaps your grandmother with a mink coat, that type of thing. That’s so, twentieth-century, yet there has to be something else meaningful out there.
- What friendship means to me. It had always been so complicated so full of angst. I always wanted to reach back too would think about people that are no longer around forever. I was resolved of the idea that they don’t last forever, yet digressed upon hitting 30 and thought perhaps I was the jerk and would be the best friend ever then realized that there really is no such thing. Reality sucks, yet not often in the way that they say that it does.
- Taking a second look in how others see me. For so long I figured that there weren’t any real consequences in how I treated others because I or someone else would always move on and someone new was always around. Yet now I’m sort of stuck and I actually have to work through some situations to get to that next level. I’m not making lateral moves anymore, and that tends to turn you into someone that is easier to get along with for the duration.
- Finally, finishing what was started and facing some things and owning up to others instead of running all the time. When it becomes a habit you start to forget that you are even doing it. Fear and loathing is so nineties anyway; no one wants to hear it anymore.
All in one year, which means that next year there is a lot of work in front of me and I have to see some of these things through. No one really likes responsibility, but again, you will be left behind. You have to stop doing what you want to do and do what works for someone else and get in touch with the way that things are these days. Yes sometimes your personal tastes and preferences are wack, it’s just that simple. Next year at this time things can be entirely different, one day at a time …
Luxury goods may be a thing of the past to some, for others, not so much
Posted on: December 21, 2008
- In: fashion | fashion magazines | magazines | opinion
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Not to be undone in the transformation of the presence of traditional industries from old media to Web 2.0 is Dolce and Gabbana’s new Swide Magazine. As in all things Dolce and Gabbana this offering is tounge in cheek with the right amount of schtick and irreverence to work for those bored with fashion looking for something different, which is where Dolce and Gabbana’s D&G label typically meets consumers anyway. In fact it isn’t really apparent that Dolce & Gabbana has anything to do with this ezine, which is probably a good thing as it finds a very discrete way to suck in those skeptical of fashion websites.
Branded a luxury magazine the site offers a fancy logo with a rudimentary typeface that feels more like one of those old school typefonts included with Microsoft Word or Open Office that is more to appeal to old school types as opposed to being anything new and modern. In fact much of it has a fun nineteen fifties appeal. It is more in line with the odd website of Martin Margiela than anything new and chic, like say perhaps Dolce and Gabbana’s actual website. Unlike the Margiela website though this doesn’t feel like you’re a webmaster viewing ftp on a regular web browser checking to see if images and multimedia have been uploaded to the right directories.
It also lacks the ghetto sophistication of the Marc Jacobs website, in which flash animation takes over the entire viewing area of the browser and the latest runway show begins to play automatically. No this is a very hands on Web 1.0 site in a 2.0 age. So I checked out the content; one of the articles talks about what Paris Hilton wants for Christmas, another suggests that the lead designers of Dolce and Gabbana are doing at the moment and yet another on Andy Warhol. But aside from the email I recieved from Dolce and Gabbana about the site or the description for the Google entry “Swide is a magazine that describes the Dolce & Gabbana universe through digital communication” it isn’t clear this site has anything to do with Dolce and Gabbana at all.
This is great though their efforts are posited exactly as they should be. If nothing else this is far more interesting and sophisticated of an effort than other fashion websites we have seen. It is also interesting to note that Dolce and Gabbana tried to include a lot of this functionality on their own website perhaps to no avail, as searching through the site can be a labor of love. It’s also great that this isn’t Tom Ford’s website, which clearly is nothing more than a promotion for a brand that it would appear that you have to visit the store on Madison Avenue to see for yourself. It would appear that even now Tom still is not allowing any retailers to stock the menswear at all, of course only a handful of outlets allow you to purchase the eyewear or beauty products online. Luckily for most of us Dolce and Gabbana is a bit more accessible than that.
Check out the trailer for the new movie starring Beyonce due next April
Man is the 80s back stronger than ever can anyone say “Fatal Attraction”?? This movie should not dissapoint fans of Beyonce, though it’s questionable whether die hard enthusiasts of the big screen will be pleased. If nothing else it seems as though it is worth a look.
- In: automobiles | Detroit | opinion | politics
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Thank God President Bush decided to come through in what will most likely be his last shining moment as President. Bail out the auto industry and put an end to all of this talk which is sickening me. All of this self-righteous posturing, pro America; you are unpatriotic if you don’t buy American automobiles and if you don’t think the bailouts are a good idea so yesterday put it to rest.
It’s understandable why the President waited until the midnight hour from a political standpoint it was perhaps the best thing that he has done for his own image in quite a while. It is also understandable why people feel that the Republicans in the South want to destroy the Unions of course they want to destroy the Unions why wouldn’t they. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. These are Right To Work states where the employee and the employer can part ways at will no hard feelings no love lost. An arrangement of convenience for everyone why burden that with the “welfare” of the North aka Unions get real.
Then you have the president of the UAW, Ron Gettlefinger, who always seems to have indifference on the latest development. First he’s called out the government for not wanting to rescue the automakers now he says the conditions of the new package as being unfair and unrealistic. So now the automakers got about half of the money they had originally shot for and I think Ford simply figured it was better to let GM and Chrysler have at the money I’m not so sure what happened there.
You know the irony in all of this is that if the money was not forthcoming that Gettlefinger would have single handedly had to shoulder the blame in the American media. Everyone had in on this party except for us poor schmucks who could not acquire any credit over the last 5 years. The automakers had all of these legacy costs and should have stepped up and dealt with the UAW if those legacy costs really got in the way. Paying people who hadn’t been working there for quite a while that may never return health care among other things, so it should be no surprise that things are the way that they are now.
Gettlefinger was trying to ride out the current agreements until 2011, when the current contract expires. It doesn’t seem forseable that is likely right now but don’t be so sure. The sad thing in all of this is that the unions were truly needed back in the day when the UAW started. But as in all good things start they began to get out of hand and these days have the appearance of punking and pushing around the management at these corporations than they do of helping workers. As always the truth lies somewhere inbetween. If nothing else these workers jobs should be safe for now but the onus lies on the next administration to truly deal with these corporations if they cannot get themselves back on track with what little Bush’s administration is offering them now. Let’s certainly hope that they can so we can put all of this behind us …
- In: music | opinion | rap | Soulja Boy
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Okay given my criticisms of Soulja Boy I am subscribed to his channel on YouTube. Frequently in posts I try to take what I’ve learned through those videos to offer some depths to my arguments for and against his music. For example a while back I may have been the first, or the only individual, to talk about his desire to want to go to college. That was around a year ago. Well today there is another blog where he talks about putting forth a positive image, first off apologizing to the parents of his fans but being careful not to use the word role model and suggesting that parents still have the responsibility to be one to their kids.
Apparently he wasn’t aware of how many fans he had or the impact that he had on their life. This is interesting and all, especially after such disparaging ignorance about slavery in which he expressed gratitude for his forefathers bring brought over as his generation would not have ice and tattoos. Interesting considering what type of circumstances Africans mine under so the world’s wealthy could have diamonds and jewelry. The tattoo thing I’m still trying to figure out, I’ll let you know when I have an answer.
This is also considering what he told Ice-T to do after the former rap star tried to call him out. All of that aside, Soulja Boy may have been frustrated with trying to defend what the uninitiated consider to be his overnight success. He already had hundreds of tracks he was working online through the social networks before he got signed. Like most, he had perfected his hustle, regardless of what you think of it. Would rap stars, particular fallen idols from the nineties who struggled to offer the most complex rhyme schemes in the history of the genre who hadn’t come anywhere close to making the money he has off of one record, be happy for him? Of course not, was he naive to think that they should be? Unfortunately so.
In his own defense, many of those artists came about in era when rap had finally achieved mainstream success and being unapologetically confrontational was chic. No apologies or explanations for your schtick was in order and no were ever forthcoming. Soulja Boy has been compared to Will Smith, for example, or acts like Kid N’ Play; neither of which were all that positive or negative, in fact they comfortably sat on the fence and hid behind the fact of having created fun party music. Soulja Boy is more directly a descendant of snap; post “crunk” rap advancing from an era where getting “hype” in the club, even if it meant drunk lewd behavior and fighting, was the order of the day. Songs talking about never being scared to confront someone, or beating someone down, were the metaphors for what appeared on the surface to be meaningless rap lyrics.
Soulja Boy came about at a time where snap music was supposed to take over the party rap scene. Some of these artists were better artists than the crunk rappers some were worse. The metaphors were the same, but somehow with Soulja Boy’s lack of lyrical complexity serious issues began to arise in the rap community among the older set, who were already tired of the simplicity of the beats behind D4L and other snap groups. Soulja Boy’s metaphors, if there were any, appealed to Generation Y, and seemed to convey the “me” attitude. Lyrical dexterity was not an issue in Soulja Boy’s music; the beats were simple and appealed to the most basic primal urges of it’s listeners. The music itself was good, and began to grow in complexity later on after Soulja Boy had been signed and you can see the differences in some of the singles off of his new record.
Yet lyrically, Soulja Boy is still challenged, and then there is his amazingly brilliant ignorance that make the beauty pageant contestants seem like Einstein. Sure there was profanity, many of which were empty attempts to create a medium for the few metaphors that can be found in his music. Having listened to his songs I can’t honestly think why anyone who actually hears him out would actually think that he is promoting any negativity other than materialism, which seems to be his primary vice. You don’t even get a sense of hedonistic sexuality in his music, which seems to be one of the tenements that hip-hop is built off of.
Which brings us to all of this about being positive and whether it is rhetoric or not. Regardless of what happens, a precedent has been set. If Soulja Boy fails his fans in that way, or whether or not other artists take up this cause remains to be seen. Given the current climate of the industry this may make headlines for those intellectuals that follow every little thing artists that appear to be cut from the fabric coming off of the machine of the industry, mainly bloggers and music journalists, but it may not show through on the music or may be downplayed. You know the usual tripe up front, followed by more thoughtful cuts that are never released, sort of how Lil’ Mama was pigeonholed. Here’s to hoping that is not the case …
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First off let me start by saying that I love Detroit. This strange city has seen some interesting ups and downs during the twentieth century. It was built on a single industry, but in it’s height saw many significant cultural movements occur. Most notably was Motown, but few realize that the city has also made interesting cultural contributions in many other ways. Techno music was born there, and the town has as many Arabs as other cities has Latinos.
But there are other aspects about the town that are downright depressing. As far back as the late eighties and early nineties Detroit has had an incredible amount of vacant land. Urban explorers have always marveled in the fact that whereas in other cities you get a few vacant blocks here or there, in Detroit there are literally hundreds of vacant properties that are literally a shell of their former selves. You can literally look through houses that have been firebombed, or buildings in which demolition began, but was never completed.
Yet an interesting article in the Detroit Free Press shows the real extent of the problem. Over 30% of the city is vacant. That means that for every 10 blocks, 3 are empty. Few realize that Detroit is around 139 square miles; big enough to contain densely packed cities like Boston, San Francisco, and the borough of Manhattan. Speaking of Manhattan, Detroit is no where near as big as New York City. But it is interesting that at least one borough and two other major cities can fit comfortably inside of the area of Detroit.
Like many other cities in the region Detroit had roughly twice as many people in 1950 as they do today. Back then the city had more people as Philadelphia does now. These days though Detroit could easily get by with only 50 square miles. Some have suggested that the city could turn to urban farming to raise money, create more greenspace, and serve some of it’s own food needs as well as employ it’s populace. Everyone knows that unemployment is highest in Detroit, and the city often alternates with Washington DC, Camden NJ and New Orleans as cities that have the highest murder rates per capital
The problem with redeveloping Detroit in this way is that it suggests a major paradigm shift in both the way in which Detroit is percieved and it’s uncertain future. Solace to natives of the city is taken in the idea that Detroit is a rough city in which to live, and a sense of pride exists in the fact of just how urban Detroit can be, particularly given that while physically, clearly it is not as urban as it once was, it still is in other ways. Loosing the distinction of having been a place where life throws it’s absolute worst at you, in fact life itself is not certain in the city, though you can be a survivor to have lived in such a rough place, tears at the soul of the city.
Yet with these large amounts of vacant lands much of what one remembers about Detroit is destroyed anyway. The city was built for the automobile; large roads that would take one for up to 20 miles through the city in a comfortable grid pattern. Nice expressways and highways with grand views. A bridge which brings you into downtown Detroit as you make your grand entrance as you are descending upon the city. Beautiful urban tapestry in the Art Deco style, and many of the bridges to go with them. The people mover, a piece of a rail track in which a train moves 2.9 miles one way and loops around part of downtown. Clearly a failed effort but still part of Detroit.
The irony is that in all things downtown Detroit will go unscathed; indeed if anything the decaying buildings downtown will be razed and rebuilt before any other part of the city is. If it’s populace ever returns, there may be enough money to extend or rebuilt the people mover. But the neighborhoods are a shell of their former self, if not literally separated by vacant blocks. People try to take care of their properties, but when it is the only one for blocks or acres in an urban setting it is quite disconcerting.
Now there are other cities with vacant land that has become quite a problem. Philadelphia is often immortalized on film for it’s vacant land and urban blight. In fact the city has had up to 40,000 parcels of land abandoned or in a derelict condition. Yet in Detroit it is not the same thing; Philadelphia is still somewhat in the enormous metropolitan area of New York, not exactly in it but most certainly it’s own metro borders it. Detroit on the other hand, is a far cry from Chicago, and it’s problems often seem isolated and to itself. Both are on the eastern border of their respective states. In fact if Detroit were on the other side of Michigan offering a nice alternative to how expensive Chicago has become bordering Chicagoland, this probably would have never happened.
Detroit’s issues are more insular; it is a city that you can avoid altogether traveling through the Midwest going elsewhere to the country. You do not even have to go through it to visit other cities in Michigan, let alone any of the other major cities around there in fact unless you’re seriously considering visiting some parts of Canada it can be avoided altogether. So you really have to want to visit Detroit to concern yourself with it, there’s nothing forcing you there.
Yet if you have heard about the city and it’s problems there is everything magnetically attracting you there, a masochistic instinct to want to try it on for yourself. It is a very odd city; the uninitiated think that there must be gunshots going off all the time and that you are always in harms way. It is anything but, I spent a few weeks up there back in the early nineties. You would hear a gunshot or two at night, but other than that it was quiet, very, very quiet, like the quiet before the storm. Depending on where you are at you may never see anyone anyway. Watching the news, in which you hear every night that a few people had been shot or killed, was more disturbing than actually exploring the city and seeing it for yourself.
So the city now stands at a crossroads. Continue to shrink and see the city abandoned as few as 700,000 people will live in the city by the year 2035, or create more parks and greenspace and yes, some urban farming. Detroit could make some technological breakthroughs which would return some of that long lost respect the city has had for innovation. Yet another contribution to the American tapestry, it will be interesting to see what happens with the city in the near future …
okay so the skinny jeans didn't work out for me so well ... 
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