speaking of rap journalism...
mannybolone
Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2007/08/13/070813crmu_music_frerejonesI know it's getting commonplace to get all 
over the New Yorker's hip-hop coverage post-SFJ but even still...
over the New Yorker's hip-hop coverage post-SFJ but even still...
Comments
On one hand, I'm glad to see an instance where New Yorkers are from my view overrating a Southern rapper that I've been a fan of for the longest...which leads directly to the other hand...in that it seems that Lil Wayne has displaced Outkast as the sole exception to the typical New Yorker's overall disdain for Southern rap.
So with that, I'll throw out the following:
1. If anybody is the king of the South...and this hasn't changed since "Rubberband Man"...it's T.I.
2. I still don't think that Wayne has ever surpassed Juvenile as either a lyricist or a hit-maker.
3. Neither of The Carter albums are all that good.
4. The South's most skillful, compelling, culturally relevant rapper, Z-Ro, is still being entirely ignored by the New York contingent.
5. I don't think that Wayne's Southerness has much to do with why New Yorkers overrate him. Instead it's Wayne's non-chalant willingness to be quirky, ala someone out of the Dipset camp, that is so irresistably appealing to New Yorkers...and while I too can admit that that is something to admire about Wayne, I don't think that in and of itself warrants Wayne being treated as the best rapper alive.
6. Why don't any of these all too contrived let's-celebrate-Wayne-as-some-sort-of-refletion-on-how-with-it-I-as-a-journalist-have-become circle jerks ever express the capacity to treat Wayne's work pre-Carter as anything but an undesirable novelty? I ask that because IMO Wayne showed his full arsenal as far back as "Clear the Set" from Guerilla Warfare. In other words, I don't get why anyone even remotely familiar with Wayne pre-Carter should be impressed by any of the public eureka moments that rap journalists are finally engaging in on a weekly if not daily basis.
7. Are we really to believe that simultaneous to the South supposedly killing hip-hop that Wayne really is the best rapper alive?
also was 'go dj' really wayne's 'breakthrough hit'??? His debut album went platinum
Agreed. When Juvenile says he was the primary creative force behind all those Cash Money Records hits, I don't doubt him. His solo stuff was always better than everybody else's, and his verses always seemed better than the other dudes' when they shared a track.
But I'm also sort of biased as "Ha" was the record that really pushed my wig back and had me checking Cash Money stuff, and it was always, "There's Juvenile and some other dudes on Mannie Fresh beats!"
I can't keep up with the hip-hop journalism love/hatt on the Strut.
So is SFJ considered good hip hop journalism or bad hip hop journalism?
Now, are we talking "theatricality" in his public/on-stage persona, or in his lyrics? Why is it that when it came to talking about "rap music", we all wanted to praise skills, but when it became "I AM HIP-HOP", it was all about the celebration of the show? It's on the level of porn, and everyone is masturbating from afar, waiting for the money shot.
I never found Lil' Wayne that impressive, what is he doing now that is blowing people away? Is he measuring up to the Slug's and Blueprint's of the world, or is it nothing more than good marketing?
Plaese to tell me that that was some sort of joke post.
I like him. After all, he's writing for a readership which, in this case, may not know an awful lot about Lil' Wayne. He still seems able to write in an informed-enough way as to not appear a carpetbaggeur to most of the readers that know who Weezy is. I don't really see what the problem is here, apart from the fact that he isn't giving over most of the article to discussing rappers who aren't connected to the topic he's writing about.
From a UK perspective, I'd much rather read SF-J on hip-hop (or any other form of popular music, for that matter) than a good 95% of the people who occupy corresponding positions in the non-specialist UK press.
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But on the whole, v. good writer who does a good job getting at what makes a song appealing
taste lines up pretty well w/ a lot of people on this site, probably
Personally, I would consider him very good hip-hop journalism. Sasha is one of the few critics of any national influence (K at the NYT being the other) who I think 1) actually knows how to write and 2) genuinely loves the hell out of hip-hop in all its forms and I feel like this comes across in his writing. I thought the New Yorker, after years of listening to Nick Hornby whine about how wack pop music was getting, made a really smart choice in hiring someone who actually seems to like popular music - and contemporary Black popular music at that.
That said, writing for the mag also means that Sasha's writing has felt more constrained - I thought his prose was a bit looser when he was over at the NY Times and surely, at most other publications, he wouldn't have to explain what a "mixtape" is (I think, at this point, there's been at least 4-5 articles in the New Yorker that have had to explain, again, what a mixtape is).
Most of the criticisms directed at Sasha tend to arise from the split between rockism and poptavism (with SFJ, like much of the NYT, Slate and others) falling on the latter side while the old rock criticism crowd (see Jim Derogatis) still shitting on today's pop music from the other. I don't know how invested most hip-hop folks are in that whole debate though.
I'm kinda repeating myself here, but I'd say that this sentence is definitely a problem...
First problem being...when was Wayne ever "fairly predictable"?
It shows that SFJ just might have never listened to Wayne prior to 4 years ago.
And to jump from years of completely dismissing a rapper to basically co-signing him as the "best rapper alive" indicates that SFJ just might be engaging in a good dose of bandwagoneering.
The truth from where I sit is that in the past 4 years Wayne has 1. simplified and at the same time tightened his flow and 2. done a mighty good job of catering/bending his Southerness to fit the mold of NYC sensibilities. And again, while neither are moves to be criticized, especially considering all of the respect and success it has brought him, they aren't things that should warrant his ascent to "best rapper alive" status.
Which begs the question, what should I (or anyone else) be listening to, so that I may be able to reconsider my view of his music? Inform.
I'm still trying to figure out what these are supposed to be.
just because the magazine is called 'The New Yorker' doesn't mean that SFJ is carrying the banner for some imagined 'NYCism'.
it's a national publication you know - we even get it out here in fly-over-land
but ... wayne has been putting it down for a long time, and a lot of his early stuff was really very good. he hasn't become more popular in the last couple of years in terms of sales ... like was already pointed out, his first album is still his best selling. But he did cross over to a more 'literati' crowd who are feeling his 'weirdness,' the same kind of quirky eccentricities that SFJ focuses on that i don't necessarily think are indicative of better quality music per se. A lot of the shit he's releasing now sounds pretty hit or miss to me.
OK, fair enough. "Fairly predictable" is kinda subjective, though, and I wouldn't know how much evidence there is that SFJ had completely dismissed him in the past. Again, I know I'm speculating out of necessity here, but wouldn't it be fairly true to say NYC wasn't really checking for that many Southern rappers generally until about seven or eight years ago anyway? In which case, he's probably not much more guilty of being late to the party than any number of NY-based journalists.
that 'weirdness' is probably supposed to be indicative of 'unique artistry' or something like that - to my recollection SFJ focused on similar things in his New Yorker articles about Clipse / Ghostface etc.
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yeah it seems lil Wayne is fast approaching Ghostface status among white hipsters.
this article will no doubt help.
yr joking right?
So if "quirky" and "weirdness" is what Lil' Wayne is about now, I should be a fan then, correct?
NOPE. Hipsters like "lil" and "young". How can you listen to Ghostface Ironically? Its not "hip" to like ghostface. Its "hip" to like southern rap, or do you not read soulstrut?
Me citing "New York sensibilities" has nothing to do with this article being published in the New Yorker.
That's just pure coincidence.
In the case of Wayne, catering to New York sensibilities comes in the form of more pronouced anunciation/less slurring of words and that hard to pin down quality that for now I'm calling Dipset-esque quirkiness.
I dunno...the entire cannon of Southern rap history???
Or maybe you should listen to some Lil Boosie and slap yourself everytime you think he's any less talented or creative than the "Slugs and Blueprints of the world".
Whatever that means...
I'm not sure you can call what Lil Wayne makes "music".
1. 7 of 8 years ago would have been a perfect time to start checking for Wayne.
2. Yes, NYC not onlt slept on shit but decided to insult it as well. Therefore they should now have to answer for being how-ever-many-years behind the curve.
3. And being late to the party is one thing, but being late and then once you finally show up going off the deep end is a whole 'nother. It's really quite laughable how NYC-ers want to now define Southern rap when so many are so clearly not up on it. The way I see it, any given 17 year old on ScrewShop.com could school the fuck out of SFJ, Kelefa Sennah, Jon Caramanica, Joey Patel, etc. in a heartbeat.