#Shamira Ibrahim

[diaryofafeministbw]

EXCERPTS:

As thrilling as it is to participate in the shared experience of watching two titans of their industry challenge themselves to a gladiator-style conflict with impressive skill and turnaround, their tracks also expose a long standing tradition in battle raps: using women as pawns and fodder for slinging insults. When the battle is arguing over who’s the bigger misogynist, does anyone really win? The women in these rappers’ lives sure don’t. 

Kendrick fans have resurfaced interviews disavowing abuse and support from Alford’s brother; Drake’s supporters have been circulating quotes from young women rejecting claims that their relationship with the superstar was inappropriate. As the dust settles from the battle, you are left to contend with two realities. One, artists are engaging in a speculative exercise of bloodsport where the ultimate crime is violence against women and girls, a frame that is tragically not reflected in present-day society. And the other, these are sincerely held positions by each artist against their opponent, suggesting that both legends associated as colleagues for years despite being aware of purported harm that their respective crews were responsible for, and said nothing publicly. In either scenario, fans and consumers are left to reconcile a contradiction between the conviction in Drake’s and Kendrick’s lyrics and the artists’ present-day behaviors. The women, girls, and children affiliated with them are left to deal with the fallout in the public. Despite what their raps may claim, the safety of these alleged victims isn’t the priority: it’s ego. 

Objectively, both men are trading in moral inconsistency. Kendrick can barely purport to have a moral brightline around abuse and parental neglect when he has collaborated with serial deadbeat baby daddy Future, claimed alleged abuser Dr. Dre as a mentor, and heavily featured convicted sex offender Kodak Black on his most recent album. Drake’s accusations against Kendrick fall apart in kind; he declares Kendrick an abuser in the same track as he shouts out alleged chronic abuser Chris Brown. This inconsistency is not contained to this conflict, either: in a recent spat between Chris Brown and Quavo, both artists weaponized documented physical incidents with women against the other in a twisted race to the bottom. In Drake’s response to Kendrick’s accusations, he spent the bulk of his song “The Heart pt 6” denying any accusations of sexual misconduct – claiming he was too rich and famous to be culpable – as well as alleging that Kendrick’s focus on the topic was due to his own childhood experiences with sexual abuse.  It ultimately becomes irrelevant whether the artists committed the alleged acts of violence or not, because what is ultimately revealed is that the trauma the women around them have experienced is accepted, until it’s time for a rap battle. These artists may be willing to weaponize cruelty against women as a critique, but fall short of committing to rejecting abuse around them as a sustained principle.

At battle rap’s inception, women became disposable currency for sensation, with no consideration for fact or fiction, legend or myth – and  young women were left to deal with the fallout. In the ensuing weeks, the women around Kendrick Lamar and Drake are going to be thrust into an unprecedented level of scrutiny – their social media exhumed and pored over, every statement and response dissected – in service of a conflict they never signed up for. While the war of words may be over (for now), the effects against the women involved continue to linger with a level of invasiveness that they never consented to. Abuse and grooming are now spectacles for consumers to gossip about rather than structural problems that need dismantling. The care for all parties involved is not prioritized, instead it’s about who “won” a rap beef. Regardless of whether or not the accusations are merely speculative, the sensationalism  continues to harm everyone involved. It is an ongoing shortcoming that cannot continue to be maintained in hip-hop’s next 50 years; it is tragedy enough that it dominated the first 50.

Written by _ShamGod 🙏🏾

[iishtar]

Sometimes you don’t have the photos, because they were lost or taken or destroyed. And you’re just trying to pull the pieces together.

Renata Cherlise [x] 

[trascapades]

"AI-generated Drake song is an insult to the artistry of hip-hop

'Heart on My Sleeve' went viral and stoked panic within the music industry. It’s also the latest example in a long history of devaluing Black music."

Perspective by Shamira Ibrahim, The Washington Post - April 26, 2023

https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2023/04/26/ai-drake-weeknd/

#AI #AIMusic #Music #Technology #ShamiraIbrahim #ArtIsAWeapon #BlackMusic

[wheredoesthegoodgo]

“And though scenes like the one with Nour are valuable because Youssef smartly recognizes the stereotypes applied to Muslim women and confronts them on the show, absent any narrative progress, these moments merely become a distancing device.”

[garudabluffs]

There's still no one like Santigold         November 15, 2022

“The specter of poptimism was on the horizon, a critically important moment that challenged the entrenched belief — most often proffered by the straight white men who then dominated music writing — that records created by multiple songwriters and producers were illegitimate next to the holy solo genius suffering monastically on the mount. (The worst side effect of that shift, a defanged skepticism of the corporate stewardship behind major-label artists, has unfortunately survived.) It was a weird time, full of persistent assumptions about race and gender and capital, and yet inching every day toward the dissolution of genre as we knew it.

+ By the time Spirituals, Santigold's fourth album and first in six years, arrived this September, the now 46-year-old artist was juggling a few new jobs: most notably as her own label executive, on her imprint Little Jerk Records, and as a podcaster, that most contemporary of side-hustles. (Her thoughtful show, Noble Champions, features conversations with fellow artists about craft, including a recent episode with Questlove, Tunde Adibimpe and Angela Yee about what constitutes "Black music" and who gets to decide.) White's growing slate of extracurriculars, which also includes skincare products and a tea company, nods to a sobering truth of the moment: that more musicians are seeing music corporations as extractive and moving away from them, and that, in the streaming era, most can't support themselves on music and touring alone. Indeed, she told Shamira Ibrahim at Okayplayer, "I f****** hate the music industry. I think it's the worst business in the world, and I don't want to be in it anymore. I'm not saying that I will stop making music because I love making music and I'll always make music. But this career is wack, honestly."

On the immense bass track "Ain't Ready," which tags in long-missed U.K. producer SBTRKT, she sounds confident and resolute in her work, as though she's reached a moment of unforeseen clarity. Her posture calls to mind the mold of David Byrne (another past collaborator), the kind of artist who sticks to their vision despite whatever's de rigeur, and in the process has founded their own dominion. It's an approach that engenders longevity, if not lucre, and shows how she's been able to stay culturally important, urgent even.

On Sept. 26, a little over two weeks after Spirituals' release, White announced she was canceling a planned North American tour for the album, set to begin in early October and wrap just before Thanksgiving. In a statement to fans, she expressed heartbreak and disappointment, but was unequivocal that she felt the hurdles in front of her — spiking inflation, a market flooded by touring musicians trying to make up for lost time, the logistics of booking venues and hotels while mitigating COVID exposure and the risk of cancellations due to illness — amounted to doomed odds for the moment. "I have tried and tried, looked at what it would take from every angle, and I simply don't have it," she wrote.

Near the end of the note, she emphasized that the choice was a matter of prioritizing her physical and mental health, and reminded herself aloud that Spirituals is an album about honoring one's own boundaries. "It feels like I've been hanging on, trying to make it to the ever-distant finish line, but my vehicle's been falling apart the whole time ... I will not continue to sacrifice myself for an industry that has become unsustainable for, and uninterested in the welfare of the artists it is built upon." In the arts, longevity tends to be equated with consistency, the business rewarding those who never stop grinding, never leave our feeds for more than a moment. But an undervalued part of survival is knowing when to fall back — when to sacrifice short-term gains to keep from being eaten alive.”

READ MORE https://www.gpb.org/news/2022/11/15/theres-still-no-one-santigold

[dfingas]

"Canonizing Biz Markie as a one-hit wonder, though, more than misses the mark; it requires a fundamental misreading of hip hop history and the genre’s cultural touchstones to arrive at that distillation of his life’s work." - Shamira Ibrahim

[qaayve-siegyi]

"‘The View’ Has a Meghan McCain Problem" by SHAMIRA IBRAHIM via NYT Opinion https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/opinion/the-view-meghan-mccain.html?partner=IFTTT

[iishtar]

Articles no. 1

On Loving White Boys by Kathy Chow The Point

I Read Prince Harry’s Spare So You Don’t Have To by James Greig Dazed January 2023

Paris Hilton Isn’t Dumb - She Knows How to Write What Her Fans Want to Read by Rich Juzwiak Jezebel March 2023

A Family Photo Album Holds Black History by Shamira Ibrahim Harper’s Bazaar February 2023

The Story of a Face by J. W. McCormack The Baffler January 2018

Lana Del Rey and Billie Eilish Fall in Love Interview Magazine February 2023

In Cairo, a Mansion Where the Layers of History Show Through by Hussein Omar T Magazine March 2023

The Revision of Paris Hilton’s Story Is Missing Something: Her History with the N Word by Rich Juzwiak Jezebel September 2020

[louqno-beaqfo]

"‘The View’ Has a Meghan McCain Problem" by SHAMIRA IBRAHIM via NYT Opinion https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/opinion/the-view-meghan-mccain.html?partner=IFTTT

[zaatca-qiuzho]

"‘The View’ Has a Meghan McCain Problem" by SHAMIRA IBRAHIM via NYT Opinion https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/opinion/the-view-meghan-mccain.html?partner=IFTTT

[koibbo-tuogqa]

"‘The View’ Has a Meghan McCain Problem" by SHAMIRA IBRAHIM via NYT Opinion https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/opinion/the-view-meghan-mccain.html?partner=IFTTT

[koispo-faamzi]

"‘The View’ Has a Meghan McCain Problem" by SHAMIRA IBRAHIM via NYT Opinion https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/opinion/the-view-meghan-mccain.html?partner=IFTTT

[loozfo-gaucqo]

"‘The View’ Has a Meghan McCain Problem" by SHAMIRA IBRAHIM via NYT Opinion https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/opinion/the-view-meghan-mccain.html?partner=IFTTT

[jaisma-giinvo]

"‘The View’ Has a Meghan McCain Problem" by SHAMIRA IBRAHIM via NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/370rXPp

[huimde-niowku]

"‘The View’ Has a Meghan McCain Problem" by SHAMIRA IBRAHIM via NYT Opinion https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/opinion/the-view-meghan-mccain.html?partner=IFTTT