the insane rants of an apsiring rap manager and hater

Monday, May 08, 2006

The First and Only Fan of 'The B Side'

a flattering comment from Status Aint Hood.....

Whether Breihan is a "hipster" is irrelevant. What's important (for me, at least) is that he shows all the hallmarks of an indie rock kid who is a relative latecomer to rap music, one of which is a very weak grasp on the concept of rap vocalism (Hey, I thought Jaydee’s lyrics almost always sucked, but he could rap. He had a strong voice and rhythm—he could ride a beat—that’s all he could do, basically. That’s more than I can say about a large number of the vocalists such critics champion).

The fact that he gets to review rap for the Village Voice shows how little it has for rap criticism: nothing against Breihan, but can you imagine a major publication allowing a hip hop kid to feature indie rock reviews?

I actually enjoy his musings despite all of this, primarily because they are sincere, good reads. Mostly, though, I’m fascinated by how they evoke hostile racialized exchanges between the (mostly) white-identified newjacks, and the (mostly) black-identified newjacks, both of whom have really poor taste in rap; the former group either praises terrible white or nerd rap or terrible black thug rap (when they need to distinguish themselves from the other indie journalists); the latter group praises stagnant, self-righteous “conscious”/ 4-elements crap/anti-commercial crap. The two are very similar, but will never see it. The fact that they dominate a lot of internet rap discussion and fail to acknowledge other alternatives (aside from equally stagnant obsolete old-timer rap) is precisely why pages like bsidewinzagain’s are fantastic, but doomed to obscurity.

Posted by: eauhellzgnaw [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 8, 2006 09:45 AM

That's a good look right there. I didn't know ANYONE read, let alone liked this thing. I'll have to keep it moving once my antitrust final is over. But until then its all about vertical restraints.....Be back with more jewels soon.

4 comments:

bsidewinzagain said...

i think you are right in terms of listeners. but in terms of people who choose to commentate on the music, there is a difference. tom is a white kid who loves a lot of music that affirms the WORST stereotypes of black people. if he wants to listen to it, fine. but if he's going to talk about it, he should acknowledge that. or else it is a little strange, if not racist...

bsidewinzagain said...

true that ashtray-face. how did you find the blog?

bsidewinzagain said...

yo matt--thanks for reading. as soon as i have a chance to adjust my links ill add a link to your site. looks pretty good, though i havent had much of a chance to read yet. let the hip hop kids you know know about this spot and tell them to lemme know how they feel.

ill holla....

nick

Anonymous said...

What is "old-timer rap"?