The Roots‘ (Def Jam) Questlove recently made a series of very interesting posts on his Twitter lamenting the state of hip hop.
In the posts, the famous drummer sounds downright despondent about famous hip hop artists’ reputations, and speaks highly of classic rocker and lute player Sting at one point. Questlove’s Twitter seems to be down now, but here are the unedited posts, courtesy of LA Weekly:
“tryna tell yall: this is why i cry out against the press/blogger minstrelsy embrace of hip hop (if its “scary” or “bright” “clownish”/”funny” or “oversexed” or “watered down apolitically” (no balls/opinion/position/eager to pleaseisms) its minstrel!!!! read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minstrel_show
point is: this song is cute http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cjx8wg0hmY&feature=player_embedded#
but TRULY it is the answer to all the questions we had about hip hop’s demise.
it would be nice to say “oh…its an art form and treated as such” (remember that @harryallen quote about “hip hop is treated like its disposable. its not even considered ‘art'” on our Things Fall Apart intro?–well this is the dangers of embracing something for the wrong reasons:
hip hop’s MASSIVE success was running on the fumes of the “horror flick/roller coaster” syndrome: something scary and exciting you are curious about…but something you don’t take all that serious.
in other words: lets look at sting and lil wayne:
if both figures (both are massive sales figures in pop music)—if both made announcements that they were quitting music for a career in politics: and them in office position effected your life and you had to chose one—who would you be more inclined to take seriously to run your government?
(ill leave it up to you to get my point….but for those who say wayne, i can pretty much also guess that you too dont take life all that seriously or being contrary is how you differentiate yourself from others)”
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