neither here. nor there.
July 2012
11 posts
Same Love (feat. Mary Lambert)
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
If I was gay, I would think hip-hop hates me
Have you read the you tube comments lately
“Man, that’s gay” gets dropped on the daily
We become so numb to what we’re saying
A culture founded from oppression
Yet we don’t have acceptance for ‘em
Call each other faggots behind the keys of a message board
A word rooted in hate, yet our genre still ignores it
Everything about this song — the beats, the message, the guest vocalist — is brilliant. Macklemore pours out his heart in such an honest and thoughtful way. My friend Kristen says this song “brought her ears back to hip-hop, and should be an anthem for gay rights.” Well put. Can’t wait to see Macklemore this fall.
Happy Friday, y’all.
You've Never Heard Public Enemy's 'It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back'?! : All Songs Considered Blog : NPR →
npr.org
We had an intern review this album, which he had never heard before and here is a highlight from his piece:
Although my experience with hip-hop is definitely limited in scope, I’d still call myself a fan. I remember the first time I really cared about a rap song. It was the spring of 2010 and “Over” by Drake had just come out.
I’ll pause while you take that in. *hums*
OK, another highlight:
Ultimately, I have no regrets leaving It Takes A Nation on what is now an entirely metaphorical shelf. I’ll gladly say thank you, but given the choice, I’m going to blast Drake’s infectiously triumphant mp3s every time.
Some readers were unhappy with the intern’s assessment of the album and went in on him in the comments.
However, one reader comment stands out for two reasons — who the reader is and what the reader says:
Ahmir Thompson (Questlove) wrote:
Austin. I’m sure this entire response thread is brow beating you to no end. so I’m taking a different approach. i too had a hard time swallowing records that were deemed “classic” just because some adult told me so. i find its best to take in music when you have the proper context. i too found Epitaph, On The Corner, Blood On The Tracks, Exile On Main Street, & Horses “boring” and “not as good as…..(name something that was banging when i was a kid)—-but hopefully you will realize it is your duty to discover the beauty of acclaimed art and why it was so. take Springsteen’s “Nebraska” for instance an acclaimed record that was hard for an inner city hip hop fan to swallow without a backstory. so i spent an entire weekend reading every story about this album so that i could have a better grasp on what the times were like and that helped me understand (and eventually agree) why this is Springsteen’s magnum opus. i mean no one here is expecting you to be the next Lester Bangs or Rob Christgau but i do expect this generation (born some 20 years after me) with its advantages in technology to put real effort into the information it processes. there is no question Nation is one of THE greatest recordings ever. ur job is to find out why
And that, my friends, is our lesson for today.
Game, set, match: Questlove. As It Takes a Nation blasts through my headphones, and I scan the comments, this is one of the few times that I will side with numerous comments/possible trolls on the Internets.
