Editorials
[MP3] Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – White Privilege II
“White Privilege II”, where do we even begin with this one? This track probably deserves far more discussion than I’m going to give it here. That being said, there are plenty of think pieces out there already. We live in a time where diversity and access to express one’s voice for POC are themes or discussion points front and centre in the media currently so, let’s be honest, one more blogger talking about it is probably not going to move the needle in any meaningful way.
The issue of white participation in hip hop as artists and behind the scenes running the business has been long been contentious but it’s part of a larger discussion about the contribution of Black voices and bodies in creating American culture and how that culture has spread worldwide (these issues are salient up here in Canada too!). Acknowledgement and appropriation play an integral role in this discussion too. The nomination artists like Macklemore and Iggy Azalea, a target in “White Privilege II”, have received have been the source of much discussion and controversy. Macklemore is not unaware of this and his attempts to address this have drawn plenty of reaction in the past.
The sprawling “White Privilege II” is his attempt to continue addressing those issues and ones beyond it. Macklemore wades into the #BlackLivesMatter debate and explores the idea of whether he has right to speak on it and what it means if he doesn’t.
I’ve seen some commentary online dismissive of the song. But, even if the song is flawed (and at almost nine minutes, chances are, even if you love it or the idea of it, you’re probably going to find fault or have problems with something in it!), doesn’t every journey begins with a single step? People carp on about how America (especially white America) doesn’t want to have a conversation about race. And I see criticism of the calls for a boycott in response to the #OscarSoWhite controversy saying white liberals and white Hollywood need to do more of the heavy lifting on the fixes needed to address the problems. But when Macklemore tries to initiative that conversation with what I would argue is a reasonably solid or at least certainly thoroughly prepared opening take on addressing the issues with “White Privilege II”, he gets pilloried for it. I’ll put it like this: if someone like Macklemore can’t spark this conversation in his world, I’m really not sure who could or what people who have called for this to happen would like to see happen or done instead of this song. I’d be curious what others think though.
Related reading:
– On Macklemore’s Sprawling Track About Race, ‘White Privilege II’ (Fast Company)
– ‘This Song Is Uncomfortable’: Macklemore On The Contradictions Of ‘White Privilege’ (NPR Music)
– Meet Hollis Wong-Wear & Jamila Woods, the Women of Color Behind Macklemore’s ‘White Privilege II’ (Jezebel)
[Article] ICYMI: 10 Canadian Artists You Need To Know Besides Drake…
ICYMI, last week I wrote a piece for BBC 1Xtra‘s DJ Semtex‘s new A Nation of Billions site on the Canadian hip-hop scene. Here’s a quick taste:
It’s been a busy past few months for Drake. A couple weeks back, he rode to the top of the Billboard album charts yet again with, What A Time To Be Alive, his quickie collab mixtape album with ATL autotune auteur, Future. And before that he spent the summer leaving Meek Mill’s career in ruins after the Philly rapper’s ill-advised attempt to call him out on his MC bona fides. Both things solidified for all but the most stubborn haters that, at this point in the game, his position as the biggest rapper on the planet is pretty much undisputed.
[Yet] for all of Drake’s success and influence though, none of these new artists has been able to ride the wave his success has set off and become the next breakout star, yet! But even as the Canadian music industry largely ignores this scene for reasons that have been critiqued, many in this next wave aren’t waiting for major label anointment and instead are taking a more DIY, entrepreneurial approach to building their careers leveraging the power of social media and the internet to develop their brand and grow their fan base. One article can’t really do justice to everything happening here even if it only focused on Toronto, let alone the whole country, but here’s 10 other artists worth keeping your eyes and ears on…
CLICK HERE to read the full article. And to hear an audio playlist of the artists featured in the piece, click the Rdio player below:
Amy Jade Winehouse: 14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011
From the moment I heard Amy Winehouse on the Nas-powered “In My Bed” on Trevor Nelson’s radio show and blogged about it seven years ago, I’ve been a fan of what was probably one of the most interesting and talented artists in the music game over the past ten years. As a kid who grew up appreciating mod-soul, British pop music and hip-hop, Amy Winehouse embodied all those aesthetics effortlessly. No mere pastiche or tribute act, she took the past and fused it with the now to blaze a creative and exciting new trail in music that artists like Adele have subsequently taken advantage of traveling.
But what started out as a semi-charming side-story, cute but feisty London Jewish chick with jazz-soul pipes par excellence likes her drink and to get into scraps (“She’s more rock n roll than most rock dudes!” I used to say), clearly and quickly became a self-destructive train-wreck that nobody seemed to have any idea how to pull the emergency brake on. Like Tupac before her, it was clear where this story was going to end eventually. That it came to this inevitable conclusion so much sooner than later doesn’t make it any less sad or even shocking.
Somehow I thought maybe she’d pull off a miracle and get clean but real life is… well, real. And now sadly, she is a part of an esteemed fellowship that no-one likely wishes really existed, The 27 Club and that is music’s and all of our losses. Truly, they broke the mold with that one there. Amy Winehouse, your spirit will be missed. May you R.I.P.
But as they, she will live on through her music so here’s a couple of my favorite Winehouse moments:
MP3 Download: Amy Winehouse In My Bed
MP3 Download: Amy Winehouse Love Is A Losing Game
[image via NME.com]
My Picks for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize Long List: An Explanation
The names of the nominees for the Polaris Music Prize long-list were announced last Thursday so this post is kind of moot at this point, but I thought it might be worth sharing my voting insights as a new member of the jury pool, such as they are, for those who wonder what the thought process is behind how these lists get determined. With that in mind here goes:
Here is your final Long List vote:
#1 = Art of Fresh – When The Night Comes In
#2 = Slakah the Beatchild – Something Forever
#3 = Emay – Mind Altering Dynamics
#4 = The Weeknd – House of Balloons
#5 = Eternia & Moss – At Last
Art of Fresh – When The Night Comes In
No joke, this was my favorite album of last year, period and, while I was up on Art Of Fresh before When The Night Comes In dropped, I discovered their most recent album in wholly nontraditional way (for hip-hop, at least): by seeing them perform much of it live in a short, ramshackle but incredible set at the album release event at the Czehoski bar in Toronto.
Now honestly, saying this was the best hip-hop album of 2010 is probably not the most hop-hop thing I could cop to admitting because, while producer and co-member Slakah and D.O.‘s credentials are without question, nonpareil (D.O. used to hold the Guinness World record for the longest freestyle and Slakah is signed as a solo artist to the highly-respected London record label, BBE), this album is not a pure hip-hop record by any measures that apply in 2011.
As a matter of fact, the analogy I would used to describe it’s amalgam sound of rare groove, house, electronic, pop and rock is that this is the album The Black Eyed Peas would make if they were UK soul boys reared in weekender culture and not crass, hit-seeking whores. All that being said, I play this album repeatedly and never tire of it and I can’t really say that for very many new albums nowadays.
I tried to rally people on the Polaris jury to support this record but ultimately I think it had a few too many beats aimed solely at the dance-floor for me convince the critic types on the Polaris to take it seriously. Albums with their phasers set on ‘Fun’ (not that the entire album actually is lightweight, throwaway fare in this case though) rarely get taken seriously as works of art (Michael Jackson‘s Off The Wall and Thriller being two very notable exceptions, maybe?) and that’s a damn shame. Shouldn’t having fun and celebrating the joy in life be an essential part of making art too??
Slakah the Beatchild – Something Forever
I knew I was probably shooting myself in the foot nominating two albums by essentially the same artist but Slakah the Beatchild has got to be one of my, if not the favorite producer of mine over the past 12 months. For those in the know, Toronto has long been known as a connoisseur’s market for rare groove and progressive urban music arguably second only to London and maybe Japan and Slakah’s super-soulful, organic production sound as heard on Something Forever, first released as an EP but later as Special Edition full-length release with four bonus tracks, are in many ways the embodiment of that aesthetic.
If you’ve ever nodded your head or tapped your toes to beats produced by Dilla, the Soulquarians (The Roots, Common, Erykah Badu etc.), the Ummah or Pete Rock, you owe it to yourself to check out this album. It features some rapped, some sung and some instrumental tracks but in no way sounds schizophrenic like some ‘producer-artist’ projects trying to straddle the hip-hop and R&B divide often do. This is a real album: cohesive-sounding and a true body of work. Even the vocal-less tracks will speak to you and fit with the whole. Something Forever is an absolute favorite of mine and while there seemed to be some other strong champions for it on the jury, I was gutted it didn’t make the long list of nominees in the end. Truly deserving of at least long list attention in my mind.
Listen to a sampler of Something Forever:
Now hit the jump to see my thoughts on my last three picks including Emay, Eternia and MoSS and the much-hyped, Drake-cosigned left-field R&B act, The Weeknd.
[Video] President Obama Speaks on the Ousting of Egypt President Hosni Mubarak
I was watching CNN the night of these momentous events but had to turn it off. Gloria Borger was peddling the same old scare tactics & stereotypes about ‘Arabs can’t do democracy’, this may not serve our or Israel’s interests etc. Pundits have been consistently wrong at just about every turn on what has transpired in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East.
Mona Eltahawy, Wael Ghonim are their ilk are right: the #Jan25 Egyptian revolution is a game-changer that is going to render the current mindset about Middle East politics, what Arab people and their nations are capable of and by extension much of the US and the West’s Foreign Policy stance wrt the region and the two major wars currently being conducted there obsolete.
In my mind, this is 1991 fall of the Soviet Union empire time in the Middle East. Anyone talking about ‘maintaining stability’ or supporting despots, corrupt monarchies and other autocrats & dictators that serve Western interest at the expense of their own people’s freedom are quickly going to find themselves on the wrong side of history.
Five years from now, the Middle East is going to be vastly different place and it won’t be because of the Bush’s so-called ‘War on Terror’ (although sadly and ironically, he may ultimately be able to claim the credit for the current turn of events) or the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. It’ll be because the people there have finally seen, through the example of Tunisia and Egypt, that they can take the power for themselves. I am in awe of the Egyptian people….
Related:
– Rageh Omaar: The west clings on to the old Arab order at its peril – “Arabs across the region are ready for life after the autocrats. If the west remains reticent, they will look elsewhere for support.” [The Guardian]