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 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.