I see Mr. Levins article as a shout out. He went a long way in naming names etc. If nothing else its free publicity to what few followers these types have left. Maybe the curiousity will have them checking out the opposition Mr.Levin is so concerned with. I don't read alot of racism in the mans piece. I see edgy comments trying to provoke a stir, hence ratings. DEMS need to stop sounding like bitches when the opposition goes for some ratings. Alot of the content in the critque of the rapp industry is on point. Whats racist about that? I am black. I think you rely to much on liberal BS... Is that racist? I don't like the current brand of GOP conserve-Nazi, conservatism. I did like some of the old tenets of conservative thought. I liked as well some of the DEM philosophy. Right now I think both parties are up to no good. The real deal under the DEM's though is that blacks have been screwed. That's that. It is always has been up to blacks handling our business. If nothing else that's
Re Levin/Slate article: Go to SouthKnoxBubba and scroll down to "Word to my homeys at Slate" to see his reply to their mention of him.
Rap bad, rock good? Straight-up racist, boo.
I'm with Big Mama and TCF: the Levin thing is appallingly racist. When I first read your post, TCF, my first thought was, subtle? Seemed kind of overt to me... Don't have time to count the ways at the moment, but maybe I'll get back over here later. Let's also take Levin to task for the appaling, sexist comment, "Women can't win an audience in either profession without raunching it up like Lil' Kim or Wonkette." What a creep.
ps, Levin doesn't get the respect of a "Mr" from me. No way.
Levin unwittingly demonstrated the fear "mainstream" journalists have for the blogosphere. And yet, they would be as dry, irrelevant and boring as rock would be (and in some cases is, nevertheless) without the infusion of interest in music and performance generated by rap, were it not for bloggers doing their thing and keeping them honest.
I found Levin's racist inferences to be subtle, but for that reason all the more insidious. His article masquerades as a pop take on the two genres, when really all he's doing is hatin'.
Rereading that thing, I see what you, CL, and TCF mean by subtle: no overt racist statements. I think what felt blatent to me was the trading in sterotypes and dissing a cultural form based on the way it's been commercialized.
What bugs me further is that Levin is clearly a big consumer of the big name blogs and commerical rap. He seems to have no self-consciousness about how commerical rap (I'm not going to make a parallel with blogging; I don't think it really works...) is marketed to him and other white folks (I assume he's white...) and that he seems to think his consumption of something that's marketed to him makes him an expert on the culture the product alludes to.
The very imprecise parallel to blogging is that Levin pooh poohs the grassroots quality of blogging by taking the biggest, most widely known, most commercial (running ads that make real money for the bloggers...)as strawmen for how it ain't so. I'd say there is, indeed, reason to be cynical about the egal
[argh haloscan cuts off after some number of characters, it seems. Ben's comment part 2:]
I'd say there is, indeed, reason to be cynical about the egalitraian promises of blogging: there are definite in and out crowds and highly exclusive blogrolls. Grassroots and widely accessible does not get rid of the ways social groups assign value and include and exclude. But widely accessible does make egalitarianism much more possible. To Levein widely accessible means low culture and low value.
[Ben's comment, part 3:]
Of course blogging is only as accessible as an internet connection and a computer--which is a little more exclusive than Levin lets on. Perhaps the thing that blogging and rap DO have in common is that they are vernacular cultural forms. Keepers of the elite forms frequently feel threatened by vernacular forms: jazz wasn't real music,jazz dancers had no technique, rappers aren't musicians, etc. etc. And bloggers aren't real writers.
(Sorry about all my parentheticals.)
Racist? Sure. Smoke 'em if you got 'em, ya know? It's all pure diversion to take the heat off and discredit blogtopia. Most people don't log into blogs, so the media, in its amazing and infinite ignorance, attacks bloggers to keep folks from logging in. Jennings was smearing bloggers on The Daily Show the other night. Thing is, as a blogger, you ought to love it. See, nothing is going to get more people reading blogs than having the mainstream media give them more and more attention. And the more they give, the more folks will say, "Hey, I want to see what these awful, untrustworthy bloggers are writing that has my local columnist so up in arms." And then they read a blog. The more that read the blogs, the higher the chance that they will like at least one blog, and BINGO, you got your audience enhancements (kind of like breast augmentation, but with more silicon). Personally, I love the way the MSM is attacking bloggers. It just means more people will find their ways
Well, that comment got cut off.
More people will find their way into the blogtopia. And we'll be waiting for 'em. Heh heh.
The first mistake Levin mistakes is considering P. Diddy and Nelly as anything other than businessman. Bloggers are committed to their particular slant or analysis of the news while P. Diddy and Nelly are concerned only with their bottom line.
One thing that bloggers and rappers do have in common is the attempt to carve a unique niche. For rappers it is apparel, social networking and nomenclature, for bloggers nomenclature is the only category shared. Bloggers’ social network derives from mutual admiration; the dedication of a man to his craft and his particular analysis is the reason bloggers are interconnected. Rappers rarely show mutual admiration although I could show you scores of rappers that do e.g. Outkast, Goodie Mobb, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Wu-Tang and Nas to name a few.
The “sampling plus a new riff” connection to rappers and bloggers was clever but you then shot yourself in the foot with the following statement:
Of course, the molecular structure of dead-tree
[part 2]
Of course, the molecular structure of dead-tree journalism and classic rock is filthy with other people's research and other people's chord progressions. But in newspaper writing and rock music, the end goal is the appearance of originality—to make the product look seamless by hiding your many small thefts.
[T]he appearance of originality connotes deception and dishonesty while rappers have introduced a new generation to the music of a generation before and bloggers are forthright in sourcing the original. The appearance of originality was the cornerstone of Armstrong Williams and his propagandist efforts and we see where that has landed him.
You are correct in equating rap music and blogging as “populist, low-cost-of-entry communication forms” but are way off in “that [they] reward self-obsessed types who love writing in first person.” Blogging and rap music are grassroots in nature; they are the common man, everyman and voice given to the previously voiceless. They
[part 3]
They have won converts so quickly because John Q. Citizen identifies with what they are saying as opposed to your self-enamored characterization.
Finally, I chuckled at a couple of things in this piece but that is because I am able to digest watered down, mainstream, fast food attempts at cleverness while making deadlines. You probably don’t have the time or energy to honestly state the origin of self-congratulatory and put down rhymes in the origin of rap music and its roots in party emceeing to hype crowds and the Black youth insult game “the dozens.” Only bloggers have that type of time and collage making energies.
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