A few links while folks are waiting

Two recent links on Ernesto Aguilar's new blog about two different hip-hop films are worth checking out. At least one of them, anyway. Dirty States of America, a throwback to 2003 looks at the roots of Southern hip-hop music. I'm a little disappointed that I'm so late discovering it, but I'm excited that a documentary like this is available. For those on Netflix, its available for instant viewing.

A previous post is for a more recent (I believe) documentary that looks at the relationship of white folks to hip-hop, Blacking it Up. I gotta say, I'm not one bit impressed with either the concept nor the trailer. For one, its a bit of an afterthought. About 25 years after. Two, implicit through the trailer is that white folks are co-opting hip-hop music, an analysis as unsophisticated as it is disingenuous. It becomes all the more clear when two of the personalities who are interviewed are Amiri Baraka and Paul Mooney. Now, as much as I have a historical respect for these two, they are probably the most ideal people you can find who are completely out-of-touch with our generation's politics and sensibilities. In short, it looks to be a film that wants to lock white folks into their whiteness and very likely lets racist black and white intellectuals and pundits--who hate on all hip-hop and use it to point to black folks' supposed depravity--off the hook. And I thought Byron Hurt's documentaries were weak.

Anyhow, these film trailers contrast well. One, an attempt to understand the very real divergences within hip-hop and another that posits hip-hop as a monolith. I could be wrong, y'all, and I'd be happy to hear what others think.

Lastly, a recent book review from Rebel Frequencies on Mark Reeves' Somebody Scream. This quote alone piqued my interest:

The value of this is more than meets the eye. As a music journalist, I’ve encountered countless young activists over the years who, when describing their musical tastes, feel the need to qualify their interest in rap—“as long as it’s ‘conscious’”—a distinction they don’t make with other genres like rock, punk or electronica. Somebody Scream! cuts against this unintended elitism, forcing those who believe that music has a role to play in social movements to think twice before being so dismissive toward rap’s most marketable elements—and instead view them in a context.

I'm just as quick to call out the false dichotomies folks make for hip-hop, but I haven't thought about it on these terms; that we don't feel the need to impose the same rigidities in other music. Just another way that white supremacy has shaped how those who identify as hip-hop understand their own culture.

An excellent review for what appears to be an excellent book. It is on the Amazon wishlist.