#whether the portrayal of black women in rap music

[omgeto]

guys I'm partially alive. small life update. GOT AN ASSIGMENT DUE TOMORROW. I AM IN LOVE. I HAVE ORDERED TWO HOEISH OUTFITS FOR HALLOWEEEEN.

[coreyevanleak]

Why “Superfly” is the Movie We Wanted, But Not the Movie We Needed

I NEVER do this. I hate when other people do this, but I’m going to do it. I’m going to give my opinion of a movie still in theaters. 

My wife randomly asked me if I wanted to go to the movies to see “Superfly” yesterday, and I said yes. I was excited to see it. We have Moviepass, so it feels virtually free to go. The previews to the movie looked amazing! It has great actors like the up and coming Jason Mitchell from “The Chi” and “Straight Out of Compton” as well as one of my favorite actors, Michael Kenneth Williams who will forever be known to me as “Omar” from “The Wire”. We both thought we were headed for a fantastic movie. I didn’t even check the reviews like I usually do. First, I was convinced I had a good sense of what this movie was going to be, and secondly because I knew this was a movie by black folk, for black folk, about black folk, set in Atlanta. How could it not be good?

With that as the backdrop I was in a good head space to be wowed. I wanted to be entertained, and for the most part I was. The movie does have some decent action, all be it way over the top at times. The costumes were fantastic. Especially on the main character “Priest”. His swag made me wonder if I could pull off perming my own hair. The story line was solid. It followed the same over arching theme as the original which was a cult classic. The problem was, once the excitement I brought to the theater wore off, I was left watching what amounted to an extended R rated rap video complete with what felt like a 12 hour shower scene that had no connection to the story at all. 

Who doesn’t like rap videos? They are usually so original!!! Clubs, iced out wrist throwing cash in the air, dancing girls, extravagant cars and houses, rappers looking down at the camera, rinse, and repeat - that’s been rap videos since I was 12 years old.

It’s my own fault for being surprised really. The movie was directed by a man who’s renowned for his work on rap videos and produced by Future. Both of these men are tremendous talents no doubt. With this film, they had an opportunity to tell not just a great story, but an important one. Opportunity knocked, and Future and Director X must have been pre-occupied popping bottles to answer.

I assumed that the overblown attitudes toward money and power displayed in the opening couple of scenes was intended to be hyperbolic. I was expecting to see the folly of worshipping money and power brought to light at some point in this film, but I was sadly disappointed all the way to the very end. It seemed to be continuing the same old, tired story of black men seeking to achieve greatness through robbing, killing, and degrading women. Some of that is to be expected from the antagonist of a story set in Atlanta, but in this story even the protagonist is caught up in believing the myth of power and money. The hero in this story has spent his life chasing the myth, and now wants to get out. I wish I would’ve seen the end game of this pursuit played out in this movie, but sadly it ends with madness being rewarded. “Superfly” suggested that after years of flooding the streets with cocaine, perpetuating violence, objectifying women, and blatantly breaking the law, a reward waits for you on a yacht in the middle of the ocean where your LTE has full bars. 

I understand that the makers of this film wanted to be true to the original. I know they wanted to mirror as many of the iconic characters and scenes from the original as possible, but cast it against our modern reality. To that end in one of the more potent scenes of the movie, a racist and crooked cop shouts “take your hand off the gun” as he fires several shots at an unarmed black man in the car with his girlfriend, a clear allusion to #PhilandoCastile. In a later scene pointing to America’s racial tension, a statue of a Confederate soldier is knocked down during a car chase. Lastly, in a scene that fed my own carnal craving for vengeance, the policeman who killed the unarmed black man and his girlfriend in the aforementioned “police shooting” scene is shown being beaten to death by “Priest”. All of this would have been great to add to a story if only it didn’t feed into a false narrative. 

I’ve written before about how some people refuse to believe that an unarmed black man could possibly be the victim of injustice. They believe there is always more to the story no matter how much video evidence there is to the contrary. This movie surrounded important issues of racism with the kind of foolery that fuels the fires of ignorance. The unarmed black man in this movie had cocaine in his trunk and a couple scenes earlier killed three men himself. The confederate flag was knocked over by a black gangster driving a gaudy Lamborghini on his way to his death. This film fails to contrast evil vs good. It prefers to spend it’s frames contrasting evil with not that bad.  

The glorification of sex, drugs, and money along with the myth of power have been a plague to the black community. Black people aren’t solely responsible for the plague, but I’m really disappointed when I see and hear black artists and film makers cooperate with oppression by telling stories that propagate destructive ideas. 

With just a little bit of attention to detail and a conscience, Superfly’s creators could have told a powerful story exposing the folly of chasing superficial joys and still spoke to the injustices of American culture. Instead they chose to bury a conscious message beneath cheesy villains, gaudy portrayals of black culture, and dangerous notions of vengeance and escaping consequence. 

I wish I could have found the movie more entertaining. I was willing to suspend my disbelief and just let it be like Empire or a Tyler Perry movie, but once they introduced important issues like police brutality and America’s history with racism I held them to a higher standard. Maybe I’m being overly sensitive or expecting too much from a movie or from rap videos for that matter. Perhaps I’m being too harsh, but the times we live in demand more from all of us who are using a platform. Whether that is social media, music, movies, or sports. If you use a platform, use it well. 

Do you have a platform you use for sharing values that make the world better? 

If not, why don’t you?

If so, how have you used it?

[mylivingwritemare]

Rion Amilcar Scott Essay: Final Lineage Essay

This is the last essay I wrote for the class. I really resonated with Rion. I felt comfortable talking to him, like I was talking to a peer and not a professional, which is a compliment because I found some of the other writers to be very intimidating in how professionally they came off. Rion was cool, easy-going and shared a number of my interests, including sports and rap. The fact that I could go up at the end of class and talk to the author of the book I had just read about growing up outside the city, sports and rap artists is amazing and was easily one of the coolest experiences I’ve had as an English student. It was a pleasure writing an essay about such a cool guy. There’s no grade to report for this paper yet, but I’ll let you know how I did on it when it comes.

Here’s my final lineage essay about Rion Amilcar Scott and his book, Insurrections:

Rhythm and Censorship in the Works of Rion Amilcar Scott

Rion Amilcar Scott believes that “to create literature is to help create an emotional and intellectual lexicon” and that “individual words are inadequate when it comes to defining our nuanced and ever-shifting emotional states” (Older). Writing to Rion is providing a clearer image and understanding as he says, “I want people to see this spectrum of black experience that I’m presenting…on a visceral level as well as an intellectual level” (Sterne). An understanding of a situation is incomplete without mention of the emotional states associated with it, and so he tries to strike a balance of information and emotion in his stories, especially in his first book, Insurrections. As a black man who grew up in Silver Spring Maryland, a suburb outside of Washington DC, Rion finds creative ways to twist his own experiences, whether they be emotional or factual, into stories that express the struggles and concerns of African-Americans (Lanard). He expresses that he didn’t start writing Insurrections due to any “particular incident of social or racial injustice”, but that the Black Lives Matter movement, the murder of Trayvon Martin and a number of other occurrences, that happened after he began writing the book, served as inspiration and motivation for him to continue writing and had a profound effect on his work (Gillick). He said, “I forget often the influence the killing of Prince Jones (a Howard University student murdered by a Prince Georges County, Maryland police officer while I was a Howard University student) and the police killing of Sean Bell (both men were unarmed and minding their own business when killed) had on a story like, “Razor Bumps” on a story like, “Party Animal.” Those echoes were intentional. Perhaps I was looking for a catharsis of some sort.” He believes that many African-American men and women are speaking out because of the way in which America has abused and allowed the abuse of black people for so long and explains that he writes “black stories” as a way of “distorting and…flattening our humanity” (Ludwick). “I want to keep responding with complexity”, he said, and that complexity is no doubt the connection between the information and the visceral, emotional reaction associated with it. It’s not difficult to see Rion’s reflection in his writing. As a black man, he explores fatherhood, manhood, rebellion, perception and slavery, as he based Insurrections in the fictional town of Cross River, founded on a slave revolt. He admits that he did this as a sort of “wish fulfillment” because there were no successful slave revolts in America. With this, his characters and rhythm, Rion provides insights into the struggles of African-Americans (Lanard).

The Silver Spring native has accumulated a massive amount of success in so little time and at such a young age. His work has appeared “in publications such as the Kenyon Review, Crab Orchard Review, PANK, The Rumpus, Fiction International, the Washington City Paper, The Toast and Confrontation" and he won both the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award and a Completion Fellowship while earning his MFA at George Mason University (Ludwick). All of these accolades lead one to wonder what it is about Rion’s writing that is so good. He draws inspiration from a number of writers, including Edward P. Jones, Jorge Luis Borge and Randa Jarrar, whom he believes is “doing some of the most unexpected writing today” (Lanard). He even draws inspiration from poets such as Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Martín Espada, Derek Walcott and Pablo and believes that "Reading poetry every day makes your language more fluid. It makes you more attuned to the weight of words and more conversant with image and metaphor" (Packard). He goes as far as to say that the most important lesson he’s ever learned about writing is that “you’re only as good a writer as you are a reader of poetry”. This is why he reads at least one poem a day. Rion also draws a great amount of inspiration from hip-hop and hip-hop artists, his favorite, at the moment, being Kendrick Lamar (Sterne). While he draws inspiration from a number of great writers, poets and artists, the stylistic decision that makes Rion’s writing so popular is his ability to mimic rhythm and speech patterns.

Rion’s mission is to provide the truth so as to spread awareness about social issues surrounding race in America, and he does this by sharing black culture and, therefore, the black experience. One example is the chapter “Three Insurrections” in his book Insurrections. Rion himself grew up in an immigrant home. Specifically, his father moved to immigrated from Trinidad and as his stories find their basis in his life experiences, Rion featured a Trinidadian character. He admits that the difficulty in this was that he doesn’t speak ton his parents very frequently, but he wanted to give the most accurate portrayal of a Trinidadian so he interviewed his father, listened to many Trinidadian musicians and comedians and read a lot of Trinidadian literature, so he really researched the Trinidadian dialect and culture in order to make convincing Trinidadian characters (Lanard). An example of this is when Charles tells Kin “so you see how they do us? They kill a man of peace. What you think they do to regular negroes” (Scott, 178).

The influence of hip-hop and of what Rion calls “black English”, African-American vernacular, can be seen all throughout Insurrections. Rion even goes as far as to say that the town of “Cross River has its own music inspired by DC” (Lanard). An example of this is in “The Slapsmith” when Nicolette says “I’m not down for the count, uh-uh, the slapsmith bawled, slapping at the shadows. I can go another round. Another two. Uh-uh. That bitch nigga punched me! That bitch nigga punched me! Let me at him” (Scott, 63). This is the exact writing style one would expect from a guy who replied when asked if censorship was ever acceptable “it’s not” (Older). Additionally, the way Rion uses “uh-uh” as if to keep pace or rhythm along with the African-American vernacular paints the scene far differently than if he had just conceded and went with a less profane English. One can clearly see the effect of rhythm and speech patterns on the audience’s perception of Insurrections and by putting so much attention into rhythm and structure, Insurrections changes from this collection of short stories to an epic album, each story placed in musical accordance with the next to craft a complete, melodic whole” (Wabuke).

Works Cited

Gillick, Matt. “Rion Amilcar Scott 'Unapologetically' Broaches Racism and Oppression in 'Insurrections'.” BookTrib, BookTrib, 14 Sept. 2018, https://booktrib.com/2017/09/rion-amilcar-scott-boraches-racism-opression-insurrections/

Lanard, Noah. “Rion Amilcar Scott Discusses His Award-Winning Debut Short Story Collection | Washingtonian (DC).” Washingtonian, 2019 Washingtonian Media Inc., 10 May 2017, www.washingtonian.com/2017/05/10/washington-author-rion-scott-discusses-his-award-winning-debut-short-story-collection/.

Ludwick, Cameron. “UPK Author Rion Amilcar Scott Wins PEN/America Award.” UKNow, University of Kentucky, 28 Mar. 2017, https://uknow.uky.edu/professional-news/upk-author-rion-amilcar-scott-wins-penamerica-award

Older, Daniel José. “The PEN Ten with Rion Amilcar Scott.” PEN America, PEN America, 12 Dec. 2017, https://pen.org/pen-ten-rion-amilcar-scott/

Packard, Gabriel, et al. “Rion Amilcar Scott: Writers on Writing.” The Writer, The Writer, 2019, www.writermag.com/blog/rion-amilcar-scott/.

Sterne, Kevin. “The Rumpus Interview with Rion Amilcar Scott.” The Rumpus.net, The Rumpus, 6 Jan. 2017, therumpus.net/2017/01/the-rumpus-interview-with-rion-amilcar-scott/.

Scott, Rion Amilcar. Insurrections: Stories. University Press of Kentucky, 2017.

Wabuke, Hope. “Insurrections: Rion Amilcar Scott's Debut Short Story Collection Hits All the Right Notes.” The Root, Www.theroot.com, 12 Jan. 2017, www.theroot.com/insurrections-rion-amilcar-scott-s-debut-short-story-c-1790856222.

[thefederalistfreestyle]

Should You *Really* Pay $600 to See ‘Hamilton’ in San Francisco? (KQED):

[. . .] I saw the show’s star-studded opening preview last night, and I’ll be straight with you: it’s great, far exceeding my expectations. Whether or not it’s worth a sizable chunk of your paycheck depends on a few factors — not the least of which is the size of your paycheck. (More on that later.)

Let’s run down the pros and cons.

You Should Pay $600 to See ‘Hamilton’ in San Francisco If:

[. . .]

2. History is your jam and you don’t sweat the details. If you’re one of those people who can’t see a historical epic without raising a finger and saying, “Yes, but…” — look elsewhere. There’s a lot to love in Hamilton, but if you’re an American history buff, you’ll inevitably call a few things out as exaggerated or glossed over. If you’re happy to be taken for a ride and fact-check the plot afterward, you’re good.

3. You can be patient for a show to get going. Honestly, for the first handful of songs, Hamilton is just plain silly. Really. Guys in 18th-century getups shouting “Layyyydies!” and quoting Grandmaster Flash in the same breath as Gilbert & Sullivan? Songs that seem like lectures from your professor? Yeah. Give it until the Schuyler Sisters come on. If you get to “Satisfied” or “Wait For It” and you’re not invested in Hamilton’s possibilities — he’s got an important job with George Washington, he’s married, he has his whole life ahead of him — you’ve probably picked the wrong show.

[. . .]

5. You think interesting women are important. For as much turmoil as Hamilton, Madison, Washington and Jefferson deal with in the show, there’s not a lot of emotional complexity to their characters. The women appear much more multidimensional than the men, who show the most heart when under the women’s spell. Cast-wise, Emmy Raver-Lampman as Angelica and Solea Pfeiffer as Eliza are both incredible, and the closing number gives additional depth to their roles.

[. . .]

That about sums up the pros. And now…

You Should Not Pay $600 to See ‘Hamilton’ in San Francisco If:

1. You are a hardcore rap fan. I can’t stress this enough. Hamilton’s libretto is rap music that belongs in a Disney movie. It’s simple, with uninteresting beats, and though the lyrical wordplay is clever, the meter and flow don’t change up much. This, along with its crystal-clear enunciation, could be a function of the theater context. But so much of the art of rapping is developing one’s own personal style, and in Hamilton, everyone has the same style. It’s a problem, even if your love of rap only extends to the 1990s. And if you’re looking for the sonic and lexical explorations by rap music’s recent innovators like Young Thug, Future and Migos, you won’t find them. Basically this is rap music for people who don’t like rap music.

[. . .]

3. You’re a stickler about cultural appropriation. Most of the show’s laughs come from interjecting overt hip-hop slang, phrases, and dances into the “formal” script. The juxtaposition of the two is low-hanging fruit, but it’s not offensive — unless if you’re protective of black culture being co-opted for a history lesson on Broadway, and well, that’s basically this whole show.

[. . .]

6. You really love Daveed Diggs. As Alexander Hamilton, lead actor Michael Luwoye is excellent and workmanlike in filling Lin-Manuel Miranda’s humongous shoes. Joshua Henry as Aaron Burr? Isaiah Johnson as George Washington? All fine. But Jordan Donica plays Thomas Jefferson in a juvenile, clownish fashion, as if director Thomas Kail explicitly asked him to make Jefferson look uncool. (This is exemplified in the way Donica delivers a Notorious B.I.G. line in the cabinet battle, with a seemingly intentional lack of style.) I’m not arguing that the real-life Jefferson was a cool dude, but the portrayal here doesn’t fit.

7. You’re a set/costume/design nerd. The set for Hamilton is essentially static — a balcony on the perimeter, a rotating turntable on stage, and intermittent lighting and props to mix it up. The costumes are perfectly executed but nothing groundbreaking. The cast does a lot with this mostly unchanging landscape, but it’s not going to blow anyone away.

So there you have it. Still want to join the wave and be part of theatre history? You’re now armed with all the knowledge you need. Don’t throw away your sh… oh, you know how it goes by now.

oh shit Chance the Rapper & Questlove & Busta Rhymes have been called out as non-hardcore rap fans

[mediacultures1318303-blog]

I Want My MTV

There’s no doubt that the media has always played an integral part in both enforcing and challenging this idea of identity, whether that be gender, race, or age. Since the introduction of platforms like MTV, music videos in particular cast a strong reflection of identity - and how people think we should view our identity - to us, and the contrast between artists and genres of this portrayal continues to evolve in some areas yet remains unchanged in others. The enforcement of gender in particular is an aspect of identity that seems present in almost all music videos, some sending more positive messages than others, and the contrast between two recent and popular songs is exemplary of this contrast present in the industry. 

My first experience with the portrayal of men and women in music videos was watching Robert Palmer’s video for “Addicted to Love” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcATvu5f9vE, 2009) on DVD as a child, and being incredibly uncomfortable with it. For me, it was one of the first introductions to our (women) portrayal in media, and the first attempt I made to cringe away and distance myself from the baggage being a woman entailed. As I explored the comments section on the video on Youtube just now, I was disappointed but unsurprised. Nearly all of them talked about how ‘cool’ he (Palmer) was and how the women in the videos are far superior than the likes of modern music’s Nicki Minaj or Miley Cyrus. The women in this video are essentially identical mannequins, with their tight black dresses, slicked back dark hair, like tamed femme fatales swaying with no expression as Palmer stands commandingly in front of them like their leader. And it is evident from the comments that this is how the majority of males reacting to them preferred them. It wasn’t until Shania Twain released her music video for “I Feel Like A Women” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJL4UGSbeFg, 2009) that parodied that of Palmer’s that I realised how ridiculous the portrayal of gender and of women as submissive sex objects truly is. 

Many songs like Palmer’s have caused controversy over the years for their portrayal of gender, from Warrant’s “Cherry Pie”  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjyZKfdwlng, 2010)  to Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” in 2013 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyDUC1LUXSU, 2013)  that bordered on encouraging rape culture (http://thechoatenews.choate.edu/2017/05/19/taking-stand-sexism-music-industry/, 2017). Analysing recent songs allows us to truly evaluate the modern approach to gender and how while some strive to empower, others are still focused on reinforcing old and outdated roles.

“I’m the One,” a recent release from April this year by DJ Khaled featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper, and Lil Wayne, is another all too dreary reminder of the ever prevalent objectification of females though the music industry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weeI1G46q0o, 2017). It is also saturated in an incredible fetishisation of black, hispanic, and Latina women, a trend that has exploded in recent years particularly in rap and pop music. 

There is no doubt that owning ones sexuality and being comfortable to express that through a music video can be a powerful thing for a women - however, the level of lurid degradation that goes hand in hand with most revealing music videos coupled with these girls submitting to highly aggressive actions and lyrics from the men in positions of power throughout the ‘narrative’ (if you can really call it that) is highly concerning (https://www.entitymag.com/women-music-videos-self-objectifying-objectively-empowering/, 2016). The only men in "I’m the One” are the singers themselves, dressed in clothes that cover their legs and arms, and are surrounded by dozens of women (nearly all of whom are women of colour) who wear little more than highly revealing underwear. The video actually opens with one of these scantily clad, large breasted women ridiculously riding towards DJ Khaled on a white horse after a brief shot of Khaled’s newborn son (which is disturbing on another level). 

The women in this music video don’t interact at all with each other during this entire time; and why would they? Their purpose is to mindlessly bop their curvaceous and revealed bodies to an upbeat track with either fixed smiles or vacant expressions (the cameras seem much more focused on their bodies below the neck anyway), vying for the attention of our singers who are, kindly put, average males. I wonder as I watch it what they were all thinking of when they were told what their role in this video would be. When it comes down to it, this supposedly is the male dream; a group of guy friends bonding over choosing which one of the beautiful women surrounding them is going to be the lucky one they have sex with (http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/05/12/how_did_dj_khaled_s_i_m_the_one_become_no_1.html, 2017)

(http://celebmafia.com/katy-perry-roar-music-video-behind-the-scenes-promo-photos-242358/, 2014)

Hitting the charts a couple of years ago, the accompanying video to Katy Perry’s “Roar” on the other hand has a very different message to young women. Set in the aftermath of a plane crash in a tropical jungle, Perry’s character begins to slowly flourish without her male companion, culminating in her becoming queen of the jungle. There are no vacant expressions on her face or booty shots in sight. Yes, Katy Perry may be rather scantily clad in Adam and Eve esque costuming, but there is a clear distinction between her portrayal in this video and the girls in the DJ Khaled song. Firstly, the narrative is hers; she is singing about her own experiences of breaking free, standing strong and confident, no longer afraid of being loud and taking up space, and that rather than submit she would do what she wanted. It may not be as clear as Beyonce and an army of women declaring that girls run the world or Taylor Swift and co donning AK 47s and blowing up a building, but when such a prominent artist tells an audience of largely young women through a positive narrative that it’s great to stand up for yourself and realise that you are your own hero it runs a completely different message to “I’m the One” (http://www.sheramag.com/reinforcing-sexism-women-in-music-videos/, 2015).

Music and the accompanying videos will always in some way challenge audiences, whether it is to accept a new definition of identity or flog the old and rather archaic ones. What is becoming evident is people’s awareness to the situation and the backlash that many negative portrayals are liable to get now. Being self aware is key to navigating you way through the endless enforcing of gender roles in songs you just want to enjoy listening to without having to feel attacked, and the hope that one day we can have a whole top ten charting music videos without any assumption of gender stereotypes in sight.

References:

Burbidge, Nick. (2015). Reinforcing Sexism? Women in Music Videos. Retrieved from http://www.sheramag.com/reinforcing-sexism-women-in-music-videos/

Khaled, DJ. (2017). I’m The One. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weeI1G46q0o

Palmer, Robert. (2009). Addicted To Love. Retrieved from  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcATvu5f9vE

Molanphy, Chris. (2017). America’s New No. 1 Song Is the Triumph of DJ Khaled, Hip-Hop’s Jay Gatsby. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/05/12/how_did_dj_khaled_s_i_m_the_one_become_no_1.html

Mound, Katherine. (2016). Women In Music Videos. Retrieved from https://www.entitymag.com/women-music-videos-self-objectifying-objectively-empowering/

Sachdeva, Surman. (2017). Taking A Stand Against Sexism In The Music Industry. Retrieved from http://thechoatenews.choate.edu/2017/05/19/taking-stand-sexism-music-industry/

Twain, Shania. (2009). Man! I Feel Like A Woman. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJL4UGSbeFg

Warrant. (2010). Cherry Pie. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjyZKfdwlng

[escaping-consciousness]

I think another issue that I have with Kpop and the US pop industry is just the stereotypical perpetuation of cultural symbols in music. Although, I also have issues regarding people's reaction. As a black American, I grew up with the notion that hip hop was for everyone. Even if it was a predominantly black dominated industry, everyone enjoyed it in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. It was fine and dandy. Now it's suddenly bad that anyone does anything with American hip hop, rap, or anything "black". Keep in mind, these are examples outside of blatant ignorance in the Kpop industry such as blackface, inappropriate imagery or Native American culture, etc; Im not condoning these examples. but also keep in mind that some of these A-list idols have interacted with American black artists. Keep in mind that there are African American hip hop artists that don't necessarily see imagery as a bad thing when it's done in a non offensive manner. We can argue that the imagery is kind of making it seem like it appropriates things, but America, you see hip hop and rap artists from different cultural backgrounds. If people looked outside of mainstream shit, they'd see that not every artist is African American and the style of hip hop has long become a fashion trend or a way of life. It isn't new. It isn't exclusive. It's like every other genre of music, outside of racial dominance. All of the sudden, though, there's this need to claim that no one can use hip hop tones, certain hair styles, or dance moves ever due to the rise of sjw culture. I don't agree it at all. Shouldn't we encourage influence as well as education of culture? "I don't like this because they are my race and my race made this music. It should just be for US." It's led ordinary people to get unnecessary flack because they wanted to do something. Thinking everyone wants to be black when it's not necessarily the case for most people outside of the industry. Because not everyone is a robot. We are right to criticize the industry on its profit on prejudice, ignorance, exploitation, sexism, etc. however, not every person or artist wearing a gold chain, gold teeth, headbands, and corn rows is appropriating black culture. It's obvious when portrayed out of ignorance to me. At the end of the day, hip hop influences ALOT of music and fashion. MGK and ReQuest crew aren't all black and I can't be upset that they are actual hip hop dancers or a rap artist. Look at GD, CL, and Jay Park. They're all individuals in the game. Everyone knows where the style comes from. Yet people still give them so much shit because neither American or South Korean artists I mentioned are black, which is stupid. Hip hop isn't exclusive to us black folk, even if it was pioneered by African American artists. Sure, give credit where it's due, but don't call every single portrayal of hip hop dancing in the kettle black just because there's a lack of black dancers present. Hardly anyone gets upset when blues, rock, and jazz (all African American influenced) have artists and performers of different races these days. These influence other artists. How do you think we got Nu-Metal? We had Korn and Three Sex Mafia and Lil Jon. We had Linkin Park and Jay Z. Public Enemy and Anthrax. Why is it any different for hip hop now? Outside of media portrayal, why in 2017 is it wrong for other racial groups to be involved in elements of black culture as a whole??? We have Snoop Dogg and Psy, Akon and Wonder Girls, and Jay Park signing into Jay-Zs label, the list goes on. As for the Kpop industry, it reflects on how South Korea may be as a society. Again, they are a homogeneous society that may have very superficial views on beauty and such in their media. Just like America, they aren't perfect. People are dicks everywhere. Every country has racist, colorist, and classist people. The double standards on both men and women in South Korea are prevalent whether it's through media, family life, or professional life. The industry already exploits trainees. Their personal lives are under a microscope and scrutiny. My issues rely on the flaws in their culture and media as I do with the US. It's all fucked in the industry in general. I get racial issues in America play a heavy part in people's opinion. But for me, experiencing it every day, I don't really care if people want that hip hop style or not. Don't care about hair on other people because most of the time people don't do it out of I'll will. I'll criticize media portraying us a certain way instead of the people that the media and cooperation decide to lift up. Be whatever you want, but make it fair for us and be educated. We know it's not your fault as an individual. Then again, this is a long winded rant about why I don't agree when other black people say others can't do what we initially wanted everybody to do just because we're pissed at the media and actual racist people. But then when we do it, we can't own up when we get called out (another rant for another day) 😒 the other half of my rant was toward what I really hate about the Kpop industry and its exploitive tendencies toward their own and foreigners. This post is a mess. But it's my opinion.

[mavwrekmarketing]

Image copyright Reuters

Image caption The band broke the Pyramid Stage’s midnight curfew

Foo Fighters have finally stepped onto Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage, two years after they were forced to pull out of the festival.

Days before their headline performance in 2015, Dave Grohl fell off stage and broke his leg in Gothenburg, Sweden.

“I’m about two years late tonight, I’m sorry,” said Grohl on Saturday, blaming bad traffic for the delay.

He then played a solo version of Times Like These, bringing in the band for an explosive climax.

Watch the Foo Fighters on the BBC Glastonbury site

The Foo Fighters’ long road to headlining Glastonbury

Grohl explained the song held special significance when it came to their Glastonbury experience.

In 2015, he said, he has watched Florence + The Machine stand in for the Foo Fighters “on my laptop as I was sitting in a wheelchair with a broken leg and it looked beautiful.

“And all of a sudden, she played a Foo Fighters song – way better than we’ve ever played a Foo Fighters song, let me tell you.

“So I thought I’d come out here and start the show tonight singing that song back to Florence.”

Earlier this week, Grohl told BBC Radio 1 that playing Times Like These at Glastonbury would be “part of my recovery in a weird way.”

The band continued their set with All My Life and Learn to Fly – an exhilarating one-two punch of riff-laden rock.

“I think tonight we should just play until they kick us off the stage,” said Grohl. “You know we can do it.”

BBC Glastonbury – watch and listen to the festival live

Katy Perry crowdsurfs and Craig David triumphs

Dizzee: ‘I should headline Glastonbury’

The cheapest pint at Glastonbury

Get to know Glastonbury’s headliners

Grohl started out as the drummer in Nirvana, but these days it’s hard to imagine a time when he wasn’t a frontman.

Whether thrashing his guitar, strutting around the stage or teasing the crowd, his charisma spills over.

At one point, he sang an improvised song entirely consisting of one repeated swear word, just so he could break Adele’s record for the most obscenities said on stage at Glastonbury.

Image copyright Ian Gavan

Image caption Grohl seemed to be having the night of his life

And after the band played Walk, about “learning to walk again”, he joked: “I’d like to dedicate that last song to my surgeon my plastic surgeon.

“I went to him and I said, ‘I know I have a broken leg – but could you make me look older. And voila.”

As Grohl scrolled through a mini-history of the Foo Fighters’ hits (The Pretender, My Hero, Monkey Wench), it became clear the band have one setting: Supersonic. Even the quiet songs somehow ended up loud.

But their catchy pop-rock choruses and Grohl’s investment in his band kept the crowd on side throughout the two-and-a-quarter hour set.

Spirits didn’t even sag when drummer Taylor Hawkins stepped out from behind his kit to sing a version of Queen and David Bowie’s Under Pressure.

Image copyright OLI SCARFF

Image caption David Beckham and his son Brooklyn watched from the side of the stage

In fact, their bonhomie almost worked too well. During a pause in Best Of You, the audience picked up the song’s “woah-oh” refrain and sang it back to the band for a good three minutes.

“Would you let me finish the song, please?” pleaded Grohl. “Shhh.”

They eventually overran by 20 minutes, finishing their set just after the Pyramid Stage’s midnight curfew with a firework-assisted Everlong.

“I feel like this is the big one,” said Grohl. “I feel it’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

“Thank you so much. It was a beautiful night.”

Stormzy’s touching tribute

Elsewhere on Friday night, Solange played a mellow, subtly choreographed set on the West Holts stage.

Her performance drew heavily on last year’s hit album A Seat At The Table, a soulful, thoughtful portrayal of the struggles faced by black women throughout history.

Image copyright PA

Image caption Stormzy marked himself out as a future headliner during his Other Stage performance

British grime star Stormzy gave a powerful performance to a packed-out audience at The Other Stage.

Alongside his own hits, including Big For Your Boots and Shut Up, he played Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You – on which he provided a guest rap at this year’s Brit Awards.

“We’re going to sing for Ed right now,” he said, encouraging the audience to go and see the pop star’s headline set on Sunday night.

“We’re going to let him know we got him tomorrow.”

Stormzy also dedicated the song 100 Bags to his mum, saying she “wouldn’t be able to comprehend” her son playing to 20,000 people at Glastonbury.

“Hey, mumzy, look at your boy now,” he said.

Throughout, the star’s set embraced his mainstream appeal without diluting the fierce and dextrous wordplay that made him special in the first place.

Coming on the day that Dizzee Rascal complained no British rapper had ever headlined Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage, it marked the rapper out as the artist to break that barrier.

Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.

Image copyright BBC Glastonbury logo

BBC Music – Glastonbury homepage

BBC Music homepage

BBC Music News LIVE

Read more: http://ift.tt/2t3zrjM

The post Foo Fighters finally headline Glastonbury – BBC News appeared first on MavWrek Marketing by Jason

http://ift.tt/2sPNuqS