Macklemore, "Same Love"

"post-black" as a shorthand for Macklemore makes perfect sense to me

i.e.,

Unless you're a Ron Paul supporter, it should go without saying the USA's treatment of African-Americans in this country for the last, oh, 400 years has been notably shitty, right up to 2013: Job inequality is still in effect, the judicial system is still stacked, wealth distribution is fucked, and in Florida, Detroit and "stand your ground" states it's practically legal to shoot black people.

Hip-hop music — while not a cipher for the African-American experience, don;'t get it twisted — is easily the most popular art form invented and performed primarily by African-Americans in the last 40 years. That cannot be disputed.

It the 1970s it sprouted from a community that literally had nothing, which is why the instruments were other people's records. In turn, even 40 years later, America is still fucked up and rap music made by African-Americans often — implicitly or quite explicitly — reflects this fucked-up state, whether vivid tales of the neighborhoods the evening news doesn't show (Kendrick Lamar, Ice T) or mythical tales of crime (Jay Z, E-40) or simply aspirational (every time i come into your city bling bling).

White teenagers, of course, are drawn to alienation and angst (what do you think fuels heavy metal, punk, and other predominately white, teenage music forms?). HOWEVER, every time white people rapped, they tried to emulate SOMETHING in hip-hop, whether that means copped some of the slang (Marky Mark) or the back stories (Vanilla Ice) or the tales of violence (Beastie Boys) or the swagger (Eminem) or the fashion (Slim Thug) or went extra steps to show they respected the culture (3rd Bass)

Macklemore is the first popular rapper to not only be AWARE of his white privilege ("White Privilege"), but to take the extra, disgusting step and ignore it entirely.

And, in turn, a white dude who went to a liberal arts college is out here preaching that every black person in America should be more like Fugazi. Fuck him.

to me "post-black" means "post- having to ever acknowledge the history and culture and contributions of African-Americans" which, yes, he is the first popular rapper to do

wow i get what he means but how do you ever think that's a good way to put it?! you can't treat people's identities like they're made-up genre names

the reason i brought up Pat Boone is that, despite the fact that Boone divorced "black" music from its roots and sold it to white audiences just as much as macklemore has, no one would ever call him "contextually post-black" today because it would be weird to describe a white dude awkwardly singing "tutti frutti" 50+ years ago as being "post-" such an amorphous phrase as "black," the concept of which as a music has evolved plenty since. while not a compliment per se, calling someone "contextually post-black" suggests a detached perspective where "black" is not an ethnic identity, but a style or event that can be built upon or evolved from, like "punk" or "rock." It takes the already sketchy notion of slapping an ethnicity in front of a musical style - "blue-eyed soul," for instance, and takes it a toxic step further, suggesting not just that you can make a style you're own simply by being a different ethnicity than its originators, but that you can TRANSCEND the ethnicity of the originators.

Upthread, there's a reference to the term being used to describe African-American artists who utilize familiar "black" concepts but don't want them to be labeled as such. While we can debate whether that's a worthwhile way to phrase that intention, a white critic using "post-black" as a way to describe someone you think has divorced a "black" sound from its roots is at best cynical and at worst supremacist.

in a sense, it IS a compliment because it suggests evolution rather than carpetbagging

I think we can all agree that when we see "neo" or "post" as a prefix we should reach for our keyboards.

whether it's neoliberal or neoconservative or post-black these terms ask for trouble because their users plead for our forbearance, i.e. "this is how I'm different but for safety's sake I'm gonna keep a couple of fingers on the root form of this word."

i'm really confused, did Whiney call Slim Thug white?

haha i thought the same thing, maybe wgw is leaking industry secrets.

Hahaha, I meant Paul Wall

#controversysells

I read that Slim Thug wrote "Like a Boss" and assumed he was in Lonely Island.

lol man I read that post like four times front to back trying to figure out if it was real or not based on that one single misstep.

hahaha

i google image searched Slim Thug to see if there was another Slim Thug i wasn't aware of

But of course!

http://gawker.com/sharkfacegang-1465744396

lol at their nice young man practiced smiles

i don't think they have to practice, they really are nice young men!

its crazy how anticonesque he is, bet its got some retired beardo rappers feeling sort of self conscious right now

― lag∞n, Friday, November 15, 2013 3:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i kinda want to compile some kind of anthology of how white underground rap message board dudes have reacted to Macklemore's success, has to be fascinating/hilarious. ICP's review of his video was pretty classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my9mjd0BTyY

those smiles looked pretty practiced tho u must admit, which is something nice young men do, macklemore obvs more successful than ryan lewis in this case, ten thousand hours and all

i saw SHARK FACE GANG shirts at his show but idgi... is it cuz macklemore looks like a shark? cuz i could see that

http://pixarne.ws/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/cfa93438511db9e60b63708e36e4230a.jpg

http://edge-img.datpiff.com/m8deca0c/Jay-White_Great_Mixtape-front-large.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/7Ve9sB9.png

like macklemore and ryan lewis needed an extra $15

ha

lmao

otm

http://www.bet.com/shows/106-and-park/photos/the-buzz/2014/01/the-buzz-drake-covers-kanye-beyonce-ousted-and-more/_jcr_content/leftcol/flipbook/flipbookimage_5.flipfeature.dimg/010714-macklemore-the-source-magazine-cover.jpg
http://mburgan.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/mugshot__malcolm-x.jpg

No comment.

"American Hustle"

Well, there's at least one song worse than "Same Love" now. If only just one.

http://www.towleroad.com/2014/01/bizzle.html

http://i.imgur.com/yyYP1D9.png

lmao

http://i.imgur.com/uNA12eE.png

lol

i almost geek out over seeing hanstock in the wild but i guess he's known cause sports

https://31.media.tumblr.com/1b2c9bbff016f259409f14e8542c5340/tumblr_n123hr5fKB1qf7zwoo1_500.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP1I3_Vi2ds

Nitpicking here because I get the point but why is Eminem in that collage?

beats me

because he's a rapper who has a mug shot?

eminem's origins relevantly different from an evergreen b.a. i guess

(if not his appearance)

who's top left guy in that collage

Boosie

some of those pictures are super squished up

thought i cld find one of the guys from the collage posing with police but i cld not (except maklemore)

i mean snoop dogg mustve posed for photos w like half the human race at this point

one thing you can rely on tho juicee k doesnt snitch

Nitpicking here because I get the point but why is Eminem in that collage?

― Murgatroid, Saturday, February 22, 2014 4:11 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

Even the other famous white rapper has gotten arrested by police?