low-bee.com

WORDS

not just semaaaaaantics.

see, sfj is like "rap is dead, here's why..."
and dude from das racist is all
"nah sfj, das racist for u to say dat!"

I wish they'd gotten someone more credible to rebut SFJ's piece rather than these dudes.

edit!

[genre of music] died when people started analyzing it.

OR DID IT?

move along. nothing to see here.

the guy on the right bares a striking resemblance to one of the philadelphyinz right?

Chubby Friedman?

Not only did the dudes from Das Racist shoot a shitload of holes in SFJ's argument, one of them got into a "cartooning battle" with a New Yorker cartoonist last month and completely killed him. Basically the New Yorker is Ja Rule to their 50 Cent.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/c ... acist.html

a lot of LOLs from the cartoon-off, but shooting a shitload of holes through a musical critique on a blog isn't exactly hard, and one listen to Das Racist's myspace leaves me cringing and kind of believing Alexander Roger Wallace Frere-Jones' argument.

i <3 das racist

Hay Guys! I just heard this rap singer called Black Thoughtz and I'm pretty sure if he keeps it up, hip hopping will nvr die!!
K thnx bye

wait these clowns ARE HIPHOP now?

edit: and i would like to see Weird Al Yankovik defend the demise of traditional Rock and Roll.

I saw this pair of CLOWN SHOES in Pvd about a month ago.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollocks

lol

hima's the homie but i can assure you we look nothing alike. coincidentally i just did a remix for these dudes.

i like sfj a lot but i found his article stupid and tedious.

I'm curious to hear what E has to say about this.

cartoon off was hilarious. I hadn't realized the new yorker cartoons had gotten that bad.

In general, I think this is much ado about nothing. Let's not forget that SFJ is writing this for the mofoing New Yorker and he's attempting to talk to people that don't know crap-about-rap about what's going on in rap from a popular music perspective.

To me, SFJ isnt saying Rap is dead, he's simply saying the following:

"hip-hop is no longer the avant-garde, or even the timekeeper, for pop music. Hip-hop has relinquished the controls and splintered into a variety of forms."

Framing that argument in terms of "HIP HOP IS DEAD" was a stupid rhetorical move because of course Hip-Hop isn't dead dead, but I guess he's arguing that its domination of popular music might be dead. But while that POP influence might be dying, I don't believe he's arguing that rap is dead but that after it stops its moderate obsession with European dance musics influences that have been dominating the airwaves as of late (a la Kid Cudi and some of Jay-Z's new album) that it's likely to take a turn towards more TRADITIONALISM (a la "Only Built for Cuban Linx 2" or Freddie Gibbs) instead of its history of Avante-gardism.

I couldnt make it through that Das Rascist bullshit. It felt like disingenuous THAT'S RACIST EMIL 2004 shit. I'm surprised anyone thinks their article is poking holes in anything SFJ said in that piece. I don't necessarily agree with SFJ, but he most certainly wasnt being "racist" by saying "rap isnt the timekeeper for pop music anymore."

-e

I really like SFJ's piece by the way. I always find him interesting and inciting in a good way.

-e

SFJ is the voice of a generation that wants to but absolutly can not live in the moment. can anything just be enjoyed anymore?

shoulda seen them WITH pvd
it was a take-your-shirt-off-actually-ew-no-put-it-back-on kinda night

I'm actually disappointed that you think that the Das Racist guy won that cartooning battle.

I'm disappointed that you're disappointed about that.

This.

The Das Racist rebuttal looked like it was a lot of fun to write, but didn't really engage with the real point of SFJ's article, accurately summed up by emynd above. A little bit heavy on ad hominem attacks and scare parentheticals (seems like they are able to use regular quotes just fine, but resort to parentheses for the (lazy) gotcha-zingers). "White hip-hop writer is white" isn't a particularly blinding insight, and isn't likely to make me real excited to hear what else you have to say.

Also, rap turning back to traditionalism might be an okay thing to have happen. (/oldman)

freddie gibbs can rap. well.

Especially when you, yourself, are white.

The whole thing is silly. SFJ wrote a decent article but it feels dated and regurgitory (if that's not a word it should be). Da Racists are trying to play the defenders of rap and black culture which just makes them look stupid. I would love to hear what someone who actually matters has to say about this little c.orny ass e-beef.

"Das Racist"

You don't think that pointing out that basically all of the categories SFJ is using to discuss "hip-hop" are old and/or questionable and/or unstable is poking holes in his "hip-hop is dead" argument, which you yourself acknowledge is a "stupid rhetorical move"? It is the argument that he made, even though he kept backpedaling from it, and they point out that the reason he made it is because he wants to get attention (which he got) and be recognized as the authoritative critic who called it first, which they point out is kind of a mighty-whitey move when it comes to criticism of rap music.

Also, it's a standard move of non-white-but-non-black people who get involved in rap-related racial controversies to point out that they themselves are not white (although they themselves are not black), but it is worth pointing out that I don't think that either of the members of Das Racist is white. According to Wikipedia their names are Himanshu Suri and Victor Vazquez and they met in the "students of color for racial justice" dorm at Wesleyan. Which, I mean, God help us, worse rap groups have probably come out of that dorm.