Saturday, April 02, 2005
I'm not lovin' it
So I was more than heated when I heard (courtesy of Best Week Ever) that McDonald's is going to pay a rapper (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4389751.stm) to rap about mickey D's in a song! That's art and capitalism coming a little too close to one another and not in a warhol-esque way either. I hope no rapper agrees to do it. I feel like rapping about a big mac, b/c Ronald told you to is the lowest that the artform can go. I don't even have words for how ludacris this is to me. Who knew that the plot of Pootie Tang was a prophecy yet to be fulfilled?
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5 comments:
though i understand your anger, i'm not sure why you're so upset by this particular instance. i mean, hip hop was co-opted a long, long time ago--many years before busta rhymes got a lil change for singing 'pass the courvoisier' (yeah, he got a lil something for that). what's the difference between getting endorsements for mentioning items in songs and simpy mentioning them? emcees name drop all the time, and it's like publicity for the item. it would seem wise to get paid for all the shit you mention in your verse, if you're gonna mention at all. hell, i've tried not to drink brands of alcohol named in rap songs, and it's damn near impossible, but i digress...
it seems to me that your assertion also delineates between mentioning a big mac in a rap song, and rapping about a big mac in a mcdonald's commercial. what's the difference? is it worse for the roots to do a coke commercial, or for black thought to drop a line about coke in a rhyme? it seems to me that you're saying the latter is more terrible, and i'd have to disagree.
i'm also not sure that i agree with your assertion that that's the lowest level an artform can reach. that art and capitalism come together like this simply indicates that capitalism works. it works too well. lemme stop there, could go on forever on this junk.
all that said, i can empathize with you. i've mourned the death of hip hop for quite some time.
what does performing blackness have to do with selling a big mac other than the fact that the person selling the big mac is black? and more generally (and perhaps more importantly), how does one perform blackness?...what is artistic purity?
as for your statement about capitalism, of course it only 'works' for a few people, and not for most. that's what it's supposed to do. hence it works. as for the effectiveness of socialism, well, i'd guess we'd have to debate on that, too.
performing blackness is capitalizing on that constructed component of self, race, for others gain. Our film teacher gave us this example of black characters in film and how the audience expects certain qualities, certain actions to prove or demonstrate blackness, i.e. rapping in this case. As for pure, art for arts sake i guess, in an ideal world.
yeah, socialism is another discussion entirely . . .
i see your point, though I didn't define socialism.
see you in chi town . . .
Peace Moya! Wow, is there room on the internet to define socialism? : )
I didn't get your information at FHHC, let's talk soon.
Check me out at How'd We Get From the Pyramids to the Projects?
We have a lot of work to do after all that "discourse".
Peace, Blessings & Balance,
Miranda Jane
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