Blacking Up:Hip-Hop's Remix of Race/Identity Video
fishmongerfunk
4,154 Posts
manny balone mentioned this doc several months back and it finally has been put up in its entirety, but will only be there until the end of this month. http://www.newsreel.org/Preview.htm
Comments
one of the things i'm most curious about, is whether it seems like there's something inherently wrong with someone from any culture appropriating from another, or whether this is specific to black-white relations. are there any problems with a Japanese woman singing a song traditionally sung by Eastern European Jewish men?
There's nothing inherently wrong with cultural appropriation if you're talking about the ways in which culture is constantly being adopted and transformed. There's no such thing as "pure culture" that can stay unaffected through the forces of migration, media, etc.
What makes things problematic is the legacy of history and in this case, the legacy of White Supremacy as not just a racist ideology, but also an exploitative system that profited off of Black culture while it simultaneously subjugated Black people. That vulgarity created in the era of blackface minstrelsy is the taint that continues to impact Black/White cultural politics and precisely this topic remains such a powder keg.
i agree with that entirely, and i think that's precisely why when the former exploiting group (whites) uses the exploited's (black) culture in a way that doesn't take it seriously/uses it as a joke it is so jarring (lots of examples in there).
but what about the aesop rocks of the world, who aren't using hip-hop as a basis for parody? who (i'm assuming) genuinely love the art form of hip-hop and want to use it as their medium? is it ok for them to create in a form that's somehow "tainted"?
...I think.
b/w
The thing that struck me about it is how naive so many of the attitudes are, especially from the so-called comedy acts - you really think you can do what you do totally free from any baggage or negative/derogatory connotations? Well, please tell me what else is able to exist in a vacuum, apart from your humour, because I'd like to know. I mean, seriously, what planet are you from?
Quite telling, too, how the young kid in the fitted at the end said he'd be looking over his shoulder to see if it was OK to laugh at that stuff, but only if he was part of a mixed audience.
lololololol
Didn't realize the Bowery Poetry Club was still open. That shit is beyond irellevant these days. Actually, I think this doc could have been made at least 10 years ago. But I guess back then Academia was still wrestling with the concept of "this new Gangsta Rap movement"
The academy has virtually nothing worthwhile to offer when it comes to rap, and tends to lag a decade or more behind it.
Truth. If ODub were hip, he would be a moderator on the Hollerboard.
Citation?
Freestylin your self-history:storytelling,hiphop and urban youth education
they even have some on dancehall and refugees
the worst thing about these ''research'' projects
is that they act as if they have discovered that hiphop is a means to ''express'' yourself and then have a mandatory chapter on ''the roots'' of hiphop culture
then go on to present this to thousands of uninitiated minds that will be forever ''tainted'' and then start downloading Drake...it's a cycle really
LOL
b/w
You know something is up when a race thread is
Agreed.
IMO, the only person truly interesting with something to say which (Once again IMO) was thought provoking was Amiri Baraka.
Ehhh... or maybe not many people have found time to watch an hour-long documentary in the half-day since it's been poasted.
Gotta say, the subject matter sounds pretty tired, and nothing I've read about it makes me think it would be a good investment of an hour of my own time.
^^^^ Owns a signed/framed copy of Young Black Teenagers LP ^^^^
"Thanx 4 lettin' us crash at the pad. Keep It Real......DJ Skribble!"
First off, all the relevant shit on this was said over a decade ago by Upski Wimsatt. In far more trenchant and succinct fashion.
Second, white kids' struggles to fit into the fabric of rap music and their perceptions of urban/black life and culture is a lot less interesting than, well, actual urban/black culture and the lives, perceptions, contradictions, and work of black rap artists. It just seems like so much navel gazing.
The doc shied away from anything that presented complexity and basically stuck to the most ridiculous examples of cultural appropriation to make an argument that few people care about, and fewer will take the time to expand upon or refute. In fact, I've spent too much time already on this bullshit.
LEAVE HIP HOP ALONEtm
Damn! We're using Harvey as a verb now?
i remember what a shock it was for me leaving dc public schools to move to maryland in 8th grade.
my dc school was about 70% black, had a major portion of the curiculum dedicated to african american history, and had a staff that was probably around 90% black.
when i started school in montgomery county in 1990, it was the complete opposite. i had never seen white kids trying so hard... i remember thinking it was kind of sad. it was also only then that i had people making fun of my airwalks and bad brains shirts.
They're obviously ridiculous enough to be agreed upon...the rest of it, as a Yt Rap Fan at one time or another, yeah, some of the issues are a little too close...at least rapping is dead now LOL...
Mitigating Factor in the confusion: I remember instances of wanting to be not only Black, but: dead, a girl, a bird, stupid, and/or a wizard. So there is that.
Hate to say it, but soulstrut rap/race threads are more informative than this piece. And like Faux said, the subject matter is mad dated.
Part of it takes place in NY
There are plenty of white assholes with fucked up racial/rap-related issues in every major city.