But this isn’t about sex positivity. Look at the terms of the bet. How can any three men ever determine what “all women” like? At the moment that this becomes about generalizing female sexual practices under one banner, it no longer becomes about women, but about men’s idea and projection of who they would like us to be. Moreover, clearly Jay, Nas, and TJ the DJ are having a Lil Wayne moment, RE: they just “wanna fuck every girl in the world.” Because that’s the only way they could reasonably determine the truth of their statements.

That’s from crunktastic of the Crunk Feminist Collective in her post Why Jay Electronica Can Go Choke On His Own Words.

It seems the Baracka Flocka Flames controversy has heated up since the October 26 publication of Prez N the Hood: A Hip-Hop Parody Stirs Up Issues in the New York Times (video below; article requires log-in).

America’s foremost old cranky black man, Stanley Crouch, had nothing nice to say about Baracka Flocka Flames in his recent column for TheRoot.com. He dismissed the video as ‘minstrelsy.’

That shouldn’t surprise you, of course. According to Crouch, anything hip-hop — even if it’s satirical or in parody form — is What’s Wrong With Negroes. Rather than rebut Crouch myself, I will point you to Bomani Jones’ post Stanley Crouch, I think I’m on to you….

Now I am one who thinks Baracka Flocka Flames’ “Head of the State,” is f#cking hilarious, bordering on brilliant. Part of the humor for me is that I imagine the Obamas are Grade-A sh#t-talkers behind closed doors. You see glimpses of this sense of humor when President Obama speaks. You saw it when Michelle Obama was cracking on her husband’s dirty sock habits. So I can totally see Barack Obama making off color jokes along these lines for sheer sh#ts and giggles.* Plus, James Davis does a killer job of imitating Obama’s diction, making every utterance of “nigga,” downright funny. But that’s not the only humor I see inreason I love this piece.

“Head of the State,” for those who don’t closely follow hip-hop, is based on Waka Flocka Flame‘s “Hard in the Paint.”

Yeah.

Let’s just say that if Stanley Crouch titled his next column “Waka Flocka Flame is What’s Wrong With Negroes,” I will heartily co-sign. Waka Flocka Flame not only has a stupid-a## name, but he has also said he’s in it for the money, not the craft. And if we’re talking about topical content, <ebonics>this n*gga just stay ig’nant</ebonics>. This video, as Jones points out, fits much more closely with Crouch’s idea of minstrelsy, or the performance of stereotype for commercial gain.

“Head of the State” plays off the imagery and lyrics of “Hard in the Paint,” and by doing so, I think it becomes a multi-layered, satirical critique of class and race stereotypes and hip-hop video tropes.

Let’s think about this: Barack Obama was largely raised in Kansas. He not only attended college, but has degrees from Columbia University and Harvard Law — two Ivy League universities. Michelle Obama is similarly educated. So the idea of BHO unironically thug posing and rapping about his “main bitch,” and having his “own SK” is absurd. It is completely, utterly, and absolutely absurd.

And that absurdity makes “Head of the State” uncomfortable for the thinking viewer.

My second and third reactions were “Wow, this is rife with stereotypes, innit?” and “Sh*t, the tea baggers will have a field day with this.” And I suspect much of the criticism of “Head of the State,” from Crouch and others is related to W.W.W.P.T. — “What Will White People Think?” As Jones wrote, the truth is that, for better or worse, the mass media is America’s only introduction to black people.

But if you believe it’s plausible that a middle-class raised, currently upper-class, highly-educated black man, particularly the president of the United States would be chilling on the front steps of an abandoned house in a dangerous neighborhood, smoking Newports and dancing with a bottle of Smirnoff while surrounded by persons of questionable repute, I must ask who clings more tightly to the black-man-as-thug stereotype — you or Baracka Flocka?

And that’s why I love this “Head of the State,” video. It sticks a finger square in the eye of fake thug rappers who pimp gangster imagery for profit. And it sticks a finger in the eye of those who see Ivy League educated black people in the White House and manage to reduce them — and by extension all of us — to a narrow, negative stereotype.

Related:

Jay Smooth’s Raw Footage “I Forgot He Was Black.”

*Okay, raise your hand if an inappropriate HNIC joke has crossed your mind January 20, 2009.

And so, in the revised entry for rock included in the O.E.D.’s June 2010 update, Melle Mel trumps Big Bank Hank as the earliest known M.C. to “rock the mic.” Though fresh evidence could always push the usage back even further, there’s a certain justice to setting the record straight, more than three decades after the fact. Historical lexicography? It rocks.

From Ben Zimmer’s July 5 piece in the New York Times, On Language: When Did We First ‘Rock the Mic’?.

Zimmer takes a look at the use of “rock” as a verb as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary, and particularly it’s use in hip-hop.

Lyrics are in English and Arabic. His English verse is kind of wack, but interesting for its look at contemporary Saudi culture and economy. I can’t judge his Arabic verse, because I’m monolingual like that. But that beat? Lovin’ it. Learn more about Qusai on his MySpace page. [Via Saudi Jeans.]

I love black women always
Disrespect ain’t the way
Let’s start our family today
Hip-hop hooray!

— Treach from Naughty By Nature’s “Hip-Hop Hooray.”

Naughty By Nature is performing at Atlanta’s Luckie Lounge tonight. V-103 played this song this morning.

Aside: We sure wore some ugly sh*t in the 1990s.

My folks don’t have actual crates, but they do have a pretty dope collection of 1970s vinyl albums. I got into a couple of Parliament albums my dad owned. And I just about wore out my dad’s copy of James Brown’s “Hot Pants.” Beyond that, however, I never appreciated these records growing up.

As an adult, my music tastes have taken an odd turn towards the 1970s and 1980s. Some of that is nostalgia for the jams of my childhood. But much of it is a desire to hear good shit. And the 1970s and 1980s heard copious amounts of good shit. Seriously: the music of the 1970s and early 1980s was so dope that it has been recycled, reborn and given extended life through hip-hop samples and rare grooves DJ sets. I know I’m stating the obvious here, but I am convinced that good music died — or rather, went deep underground — sometime around 1989 (with exceptions due to Biggie, Jay-Z, The Roots, and the ‘NuSoul’ movement).

Now when I visit my parents, I am more interested in their music collection than ever before. They have gems such as Betty Davis, Drums Of Passion and City Life on vinyl.

This time, they put me on to an album and artist I had never heard of before: Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band. The whole album is bouncy, band-style disco with surprisingly strong lyrics. Bonus? Finding two tracks that served as samples for two songs I adore: Cherchez La Femme / Se Si Bon, sampled by Ghostface Killah for Cherchez LaGhost; and Sunshower (featured below) which was sampled by M.I.A. on her track Sunshowers.

Original post

• Didn’t you hate tattletales as a little kid?
• Don’t criminals of every color adhere to a stop snitching ethos? So how is this a black thing?
• If snitching could get you and/or your family members KILLED, would you do it?

Unless you can say with whole-hearted honesty that you would die to help the police put away a criminal who may or may not have done anything to you personally, STFU.

Although yeah, Cam’ron is an idiot.

Featuring Yo-yo, MC Lyte, KRS-One, A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan, CL Smooth, the Fu-Schnickens, and Mad Lion.

Possibly interesting tidbit: Mad Lion was the prom date of a girl in my high school class. When I heard Mad Lion was going to be there, I got all hyped because I thought he would be performing. Erm, no.

[Via Lynne]

You knew it was coming. By “(sand)Wich Boy.” And the original Throw Some D’s for reference.

Now, for the geography-challenged, Cape Verde is waaaay over on the other side of the Atlantic, off the coast of Africa (roughly Senegal). Yet, weirdly, when it comes to the genre (as classified by the GraceNote database used by iTunes), both artists — or at least, both albums** are listed as Latin.

Sonically, both CDs sound like they could easily be some nouveau bossa nova, or Brazilian folk. The similarities make sense considering both Brazil (home of bossa nova) and Cape Verde were once Portuguese colonies and both have a mix of European and African musical styles and cultures. Indeed, if you played “guess the region” most people would say “Latin America,” “Brazil,” or maybe “Cuba” — all places with music that is both Spanish or Portuguese and African, no less one than the other.

Yet Cape Verde is still not a Latin American country. It’s a few thousand miles away from South and Central America. And truth be told, Tavares (if not Evora) has an awful lot in common (sound-wise) with other African styles of music typically labeled “World.” True, the “World” label also covers music by South Asian sufis and Afropean collaborations. But at least it’s (a little) more geographically accurate by virtue of its vague inclusiveness.

So I guess my point or my question is this: does the Latin classification help those music fans who might not otherwise think to check out Cape Verdean music, despite its sonic similarity? Or does it reinforce the idea of Africa (and Africans and African music) as one big, indistinct monolith of culture and sound? (Feel free to argue some middle ground or no-man’s-land in the comments.)

For the record, Balancê is dope. Evora is always good for some mellow dinner party type stuff. I also highly recommend Di Korpu Ku Alma by Lura, who is also from Cape Verde.

(*To get all technical about it, Tavares was born in Portugal to a Cape Verdean-Portuguese family and recorded much of Balancê in Lisbon. Evora is from São Vicente, Cape Verde.)
(** I own four Cesaria Evora albums. Two are classified as world. Two as Latin.)

I’ve got most of his albums now (Blueprint 2.1 being one exception). I’ve paid to see him in concert twice (Jay-Z and Busta are the only folks who can say that). But I still can’t call myself a fan fan. I mean, I’m a fan fan of A Tribe Called Quest. But Jay-Z? He’s just cool.

Most of my half-assed fandom of Jay-Z comes because despite his lyrical skill, his subject matter (the stuff I bothered to listen to, at least) works my nerves. Now, I’ll still be the first one out there shaking my booty with a bottle of bubbly to “Big Pimpin’” — though my bottle of bubbly is more likely Bass Pale Ale, not Cristal whatever Champagne Hov’ is drinking now. But how much of one dude’s bragging can you listen to before you want to smack him? If I could have had a conversation with a younger Jay-Z, it would have been short and really one-sided: “Negro, STFU. Little boys brag about it. Grown men do sh*t. Holla back when you got something to offer besides how many birds ya flipped, how many broads you f*cked and how much you got.”

But that was the bragging of a supremely-confident young’un. “Big Pimpin,’” after all, came out when Jay was just barely 30 as opposed to damn-near-40. Jay-Z is 37 now.

Jay gave us a glimpse of his more mature, thoughtful side on The Black Album. But this? This is different.

“Kingdom Come” is, as Hova says ‘the maturation of Jay-Zeezee.’ He gives a nod to his age and position on one track. The whole album is full of R&B-influenced beats and Jay-Z rapping about grown folks issues like relationships (and his age disparity with B) and poverty.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of bragging. Would it be a Jay-Z album if there wasn’t? But it just feels different. Rather than “I got it and you don’t,” it’s “I’ve been there, done that, got the T-Shirt, wrote a book, and as a matter-of-fact, I’ve got a house there. So don’t get too cocky.” For example, on ‘30 Something’:

I don't got the bright watch
Got the right watch
I don't buy the bar out
I bought the night spot
Got the right stock
   I got
Stockbrokers that's movin it like white tops

That’s a grown man talking. A man who’s past quantity and into quality. It’s the adult hip-hop star that us older fans (and old souls among us) have awaited. Glad to see Jay-Z is making music for us. I think I finally can call myself a fan.

Ouch! Visit the site Laffy Taffy Rots Your Teeth for more. Check the video “Everything is Different Now,” which is actually a hot ode to traditional hip-hop. You can also download and pass around the 10-track album mixtape.* Think of it as freeware hip-hop .
Via Cheryl Coward.

And also via Cheryl, and Rod 2.0: a rememberance of Willi Ninja, the dude who taught Madonna how to vogue. The New York Times has a piece: “Willi Ninja, 45, Self-Created Star Who Made Vogueing Into an Art, Dies”

*Haven’t listened to the album yet. Not sure how good it is.It’s a pretty decent collection.

Montreux has been missing in action from the Atlanta festival scene for a few years now. But it’s back this year.

But let me tell you why you just really, really need to go Friday night: Joi and Anthony David perform at 7 p.m. and Meshell Ndegeocello performs at 9 p.m.

Did I mention this was FREE?