WHAT THE LITERARY ESTABLISHMENT MUST LEARN FROM HIP-HOP, MUTHAFUCKA: Part III
Practical Lessons in Attitude.
Should all writers (of poems, short stories, novels, or whathaveyou) parody themselves at some regular interval? That might be a bit extreme, and will probably just fuel the already overdeveloped generational desire to solve the sincerity dilemma with self-reflexivity. (And besides, hip-hop skits, when they’re bad, are really bad: there’s nothing worse than hearing a rapper getting a simulated blowjob). More so, I think it’s a question of attitude. It is possible to be a “real artist” outside the pretensions of art. Look at Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Eliot made a name for himself as an elitist before writing this book of light verse. I might go so far as to say that had the author of this book not previously been the author of “The Waste Land” and “Ash Wednesday,” it wouldn’t have come off right (and I’m not just saying that it wouldn’t have been noticed) Examples abound.
Take Alec Baldwin. What makes his portrayal of Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock so compelling? It’s instructive to take a look at his filmography and lifetime awards. Almost a third of all of his awards (six in the last three years) are from 30 Rock. Before that, he did muster a Best Supporting Actor nomination (not from The Academy) for his work in The Cooler, but that performance was much later in his career than, say, his role in The Shadow. His recent success, though, is not just due to Tina Fey’s brilliant writing on the show. In a sense, Baldwin is like an electron going through the double-slit experiment: he exists in a superposition of two states at once, the dramatic, serious (and not quite believable) Baldwin of The Juror or Glengarry Glen Ross, and the comedic and self-aware Baldwin of 30 Rock. It’s in this exact sense that we know how serious T.S. Eliot really is when he’s talking about Macavity: The Mystery Cat. It’s a game, yes, but a game played by someone who knows what its like to be in a world without games, a world all together too serious (whether that’s the hood or early 20th century modernism).
R Kelly is similarly brilliant in “Real Talk” (This is a video you must watch; ask yourself: is the end of the video staged? If so, does he realize his song is ridiculous? Does it convey some truth nonetheless?). Because we see the serious, and, of course, R&B bathetic, R Kelly co-instantiated with the dead-pan humorist (intentional or not), we arrive at a sort of pleasant cognitive dissonance. I tend to think that the very fact that we aren’t quite sure if he’s aware of how funny his song is, is part of what makes it brilliant. In particular, you need to see this song in light of the rest of R Kelly’s career and the history of R&B. His song is ridiculous and stupid and hilarious and parodic and real and we love him all the more for being able accomplish this seemingly impossible conjunction of styles without even realizing it (and if he does, he’s even more brilliant for crafting an impeccable persona of accident).
One of the reasons that hip-hop has been such a dominant force in American popular culture is that it refuses to take on airs, it calls itself entertainment and lets art happen when it happens: it’s not like punk, it doesn’t say “Fuck the system,” it says “I don’t give a fuck; it doesn’t say “There is something true and important to be said,” it says “All we wanna do is party and bullshit.” Now, there may be something true and important, and we can argue if James Joyce or Dave Eggers knows what it is. But why argue when we can pass the blunt. My challenge to every writer, to the women and men currently crafting the ‘literary establishment’ of our times: leave your valuables in the open, keep your holy book on the coffee table underneath an empty bottle of Miller Highlife, offer the reader the most true and important thing you can muster, believe its true and important, then brush it off and tell a dirty joke.
Next time: The Hip-Hop Business Model (Jay-Z – “I’m not a Business Man, I’m a business, man”). The force of persona; the conflation of art and publicity; making the idea of yourself a product.
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February 13th, 2009 at 11:16 am
This seems like a relatively flat view of hip-hop. It’s not all party jams or hood tales. See Mos Def, Talib Kweli, or even Common for artists who say ‘fuck the system,’ deliver a positive message, and still make good money.
There’s also the very real concern that most hip-hop that’s about ‘passing the blunt’ or the desire to ‘party and bullshit’ is not a reflection of the audience, but is forced upon the audience by a dwindling number of record companies who are more concerned with the bottom line than promoting any sort of culture. If sex drugs and murder sell, then those acts will get money. If that’s what sells, many aspiring artists change their music to fit the genre, creating another generation glamorizing criminality.
I’d be worried to see writers change their craft to make something that sells. We don’t need any more Dan Browns.
February 25th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
I agree whole heartedly with tyrone. See my comments on the other articles. Cease and desist this worthlessly undergraduate windbaggey. The reason why I keep commenting is that after reading this series I felt like I had been beaten mercilessly with the stupid stick….and I wanted to punch back.
February 25th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
hey mothrf**rs cant yall read kris robisons talking about people writing good things (like stuff about weed) and not bad things (like wast land) and all you wanna do is make up words like windbaggey and undergraduate and talib
if you like weed more than wasste land i can defniitively say that you dont understand weed
February 25th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
i meant that the other way around (baked as f*** right now)
February 25th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
is a windbaggey like that thing missy (mistemeaner) elliot wears in her video looks like a garbage bag
February 25th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
weed>wastlend
February 27th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Tyrone,
I’m well aware that this article focuses on what you may refer to as “mainstream hip-hop.” I’m also aware of Mos Def and Talib Kweli and Common, all of whom I find to be inferior emcees comparatively. If you want some underground ‘fuck the system’ flavor, I prefer Sage Francis, Slug from Atmosphere, or Aesop Rock. As far as straight lyricism goes, however, Jay-Z outdoes them all. But this isn’t about who the best rapper is. It’s about Hip-hop as a dominant cultural force (and that means mainstream). The “literary establishment” doesn’t need to learn anything from Eyedea and Abilities or Brother Ali.
In my experience, art with an agenda tends to be bad art. There are, of course, exceptions, but it’s an easy pitfall. Mos Def and Talib Kweli are saying something “important.” So is Sage Francis. And this makes them all annoying in large doses. If I want some political insight, I’ll read Noam Chomsky or the Economist, not Immortal Technique.
Also, it’s quite contradictory to claim that sex, drugs, and murder “sell” and that they are also forced on the audience by the record industry. It’s capitalism, my friend. Record companies promote what sells. No one is forcing people to listen to Lil’ Wayne. Believe it or not, people actually want to.
As for writers changing their craft to sell…again, you seem to have missed the point. It’s about changing the mindset, not the craft. It’s about writing literary fiction as if there’s a real readership out there, which there is, if you lighten up a bit.
February 27th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
hey kris robison dont call that motherfker yr friend dude blows like tornadoes (made that up
March 1st, 2009 at 7:57 pm
hey i dont now whose in charge of this 2 bit operaion but the link is broke for the 4th part of this article from the kris robison author page so shape up kiddies your in the big leagues now
May 7th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Wow interesting. Writers in the music biz have actually kept up quite nicely . The problem is in the image. Hip hop used to have culture. its culture now is a result of gross market saturation. Hip hop artists dont last long but there is more of them. Hip hops mainstream nowadays is a result of a bunch of pin up artists and a lot of dam ringtone sales.
But the writing has gotten better. Just that the artists arent the ones written em. Well most arent. The truly mainstream artists now are the same artists they’ve always been, the artists that you can count on one hand. Thats hardly mainstream. Hip Hop is saturated with ringtone artists and one hit wonders. The the best artists are never seen, they are to busy penning away for that fresh face. Ghosts behind the glass.
But writing is getting better. Unforturatly everytime an artists disapears he or she takes someone great work wiht them. Hip Hops lack of consistency makes the genre feel cheap.