Every once in a while, a musician catches my attention--maybe they're doing something I find sublimely beautiful, maybe the hooks are crazy, maybe I just can't whatever they do out of my head.
A few weeks ago, I heard a track by a rapper known as Brother Ali called "The Travelers." It's a frank and incredible track about the slave trade.
And here's a political critique about the US that will hold with any out there.
And it's all by an albino rapper from Minnesota.
Sorry for the bad language. Hope it doesn't offend too much.
hmmmm. I am trying to stay objective here.I always struggle with calling rappers "musicians" as there are a lack of musical notes. Poets, Actors, Ill even give you sages (sometimes) but there needs to me musical notes to call it music. I am not referring to the production clips in the background-I mean the lyrics coming out of the rappers mouth are not music, no actual notes, so musician doesnt fit.
ReplyDeleteI also just always feel an aversion to a white man telling me about slavery, and how bad it was. I guess it would be like a German telling a Jew how bad the Final Solution was. It just doesnt sit right. He makes some good points, and if the vessel were different I would most likely applaud. However coming from him, it kinda angers me. Just being honest.
Billy, this guy is totally a lightning rod for our ideas about race. He's white... but also albino, which, like transgender, is a destabilizing category. He also claims a life story in which he was transformed (for the better) through contacts with black folk--in essence, he was "raised black." Does that make him... what? And how does that affect how we hear the story he tells?
ReplyDeleteInteresting commentary on rap not being "music." I've always thought of it as performative poetry, with a few looped hooks to catch the ear. But most of its appeal is rhythmic--and isn't rhythm a primary element of music? Would a drummer not be considered a musician?
Interesting info on him. I'll research
ReplyDeletehim. Points taken on some of the above. Drums actually have pitches. There are tonal differences in where the stick hits the drum. I maintain rappers are poets, artists, but not musicians. Although this defenition I swiped from wikipedia opens and broadens the scope
"According to musicologist Jean-Jacques Nattiez, "the border between music and noise is always culturally defined—which implies that, even within a single society, this border does not always pass through the same place; in short, there is rarely a consensus.... By all accounts there is no single and intercultural universal concept defining what music might be, except that it is 'sound through time'."[3]"
as to the artist being "raised black" I highly doubt he has been called the N word, or ignored at Bloomingdales, or been shut out because of his blackness.
But I will google him and give him a try.