Thursday, December 09, 2004
(it never lasts)
the future is sorta now. by future, I mean Asian cinema. China, Thailand, Japan--these folks are killin' it like Lebron in the fourth. it doesn't end.
RJD2 is like milk: only good with cocoa puffs. last night, a hun'ded heads--most halfway crooks and Frat Folk--watched the little guy run circles around four turntables and some purple-haired women on a screen behind him. before him, Lyrics Born dragged an hour's worth of heartbeats through the mud and threw electricity at white kids with black-framed glasses: it was that hot. RJ, although his work is indeed derivative (you know who I'm talking about) kept it bouncy and well-crafted. and in the 9th, he went all Nolan Ryan: dunny picked up an acoustic and strummed six strings over a Not-So-Bad heartfelt song about how a phonecall can change your day. talk about a curveball.
and then I smiled and wondered.
I don't know about all this Berkeley positivity in rap. it makes me feel all weird and guilty. like its a church sermon wrapped up in 16 bars. and I made enough noise last night for three Ukranian recounts. are hip-hop shows out of ideas? I've seen the Blastmaster do it better, Wu-Tang organize hype and De La Soul (back in the day) need none of that stuff and still rock it. can we stop putting our hands in the air and come up with some original ideas for performance? tradition is one thing, cliche is another. I remember talking to Okto from dalek about this. he made it a racial thing: Radiohead or whomever can go up and not hype up the crowd and it's okay, but a black band or group is inherently expected to get shit nutso (TV on the Radio and dalek being the exceptions that first cross my mind). of course this is conjecture, but theres a spoonful of truth to this. where's Jeru the Damaja when you need him?
