This is bad, real bad, Michael Jackson
Now I’m mad, real mad, Joe Jackson
So the fallout from Kanye’s award-crashing incident continues on, and it is not pretty. I intentionally stayed away from commenting on it because everyone else was doing that work for me, but I am noticing a few things about the criticism now that we are a few days away from the incident:
– Those who already disliked Kanye are REALLY piling on
– A lot of folks saying “I’m not a Taylor Swift fan, BUT…”
– A small percentage of the criticism has both racist and homophobic tones to it
However, a friend of mine in academia brought to my attention that there is a segment of the population that is not taking Taylor’s side, and is actually praising Kanye for what he said and did. Former students of his that are African-American males are taking up Kanye’s cause, saying that they are proud of him for speaking the truth. That was a bit of a shock to me, because nowhere in my sphere of contact with pop culture over the past 24 hours had I seen one voice outright defend Kanye.
This got me thinking about what other implications might be floating out there as a result of Kanye’s actions. First and foremost, the visual of Kanye pulling the mic away from Taylor will only fuel any racial hatred that some backwards white supremacists might feel, although I have no doubt that Kanye was not motivated by race. As a matter of fact, there almost seemed to be a moment up on the stage where the realization of what his actions must look like to America came across Kanye’s face. There is a good portion of the public opinion that keep echoing that Kanye is clearly not right in the head, and may still be suffering after the death of his mother. Most of all, Kanye’s ego comes up once again, as if he feels his opinion should override any award being given.
Part of why this whole situation pains me so much is that Kanye, for all of his faults, means well. Even in this outburst, I am sure he felt like he was righting a wrong inflicted upon Beyonce for not winning the award. He will always have some support from me because he is one of only a few rappers to speak out against homophobia in hip-hop, and he has suffered a good amount of character assassination as a result. Granted, some of that comes from his actions in other arenas, but being outspoken on social issues, combined with a good dose of metrosexual modeling, is a bad combination in the machismo-infused hip-hop community.
Having said this, it’s interesting to me that young black males are circling the wagons in support of Kanye, and I instantly go back to other flashpoint moments in the past 10 years or so where a prominent African-American was in the news. In the case of OJ Simpson, the division between black and white never seemed deeper. With Michael Jackson’s molestation case, he might as well have had extended family all over the country. This is a foreign concept to a lot of people, where “family” drama is kept as private as possible, and an icy divide is maintained between the offender and the rest of the clan to avoid any tainting. Within the African-American community, the appearance from the outside is “we have someone who messed up, but they are still family, and we will still support them.” Refreshing in some ways, perplexing in others.
Do we have a different standard for people of different ethnicities in how they are perceived in the media, and even in our own minds? Possibly. Until we as a society can step out of our neatly maintained boxes of cultural decorum and understand that other cultures handle situations in very different ways, we will never get over these cultural divides that keep us divided as a people. Sadly, this is not going to happen any time soon, especially if you look at how a minority of the American public view the President of our nation, simply because he has African ancestry.
Which brings up one more question in my mind: how much trouble will Obama have with the African-American community because he trashed Kanye (supposedly off the record)? There is a big risk that he may be perceived as an Uncle Tom by some because he is talking poorly of “one of his own.” The guy is damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t.
I’ve talked about it before, but Amazon is doing some amazing wheeling and dealing as it attempts to make up some ground on iTunes with an MP3 Download store of it’s own. Friday, it was the Jay-Z opus Blueprint 3, which I picked up for $3.99 (SO worth it!), and today, it’s Nelly Furtado’s Mi Plan for 
If you want a full, thoughtful recap of the VMAs, look no further than Rich’s amazing breakdown of the events (with some amazing screen caps) at 
– I defeated myself with Janet, because the initial buzz made it sound like she was going to be the heart of this dance extravaganza, but cooler heads prevailed, and she did the most appropriate thing possible. The way they only used his part of the video dance scene, and then got the camera angle of her dancing with him in the right position, was perfection. My initial disappointment with the lack of Janet turned to relief that a) she didn’t embarrass herself; and b) she didn’t embarrass Michael.
– Lady GaGa, meet the jumping shark. Jumping shark, here’s your next victim.
– If anyone is going to get a sales bounce out of this show, I am hoping it is Muse, who completely deserves it. They rocked it out, and I will be looking for the CD coming out tomorrow. Oh, and Gerard Butler introduced them. Just sayin’.
Does it seem possible that we are going on three months since Michael Jackson died? It kind of boggles my mind, as it seems like only a couple of weeks ago we were inundated with non-stop coverage of the circus surrounding his death, with all the fixins. It’s easy to forget that the buzz around MJ prior to his early demise was whether his London-based concert would even see the light of day, let alone be turned into a highly-anticipated theatrical release. But through all of the craziness and sadness, there are some key lessons that I’ve been able to identify.
– What you won’t do, do for fame – Dad is pimping side businesses, associates are rushing to publish tell-alls, and other family members are rush-releasing five-year-old recordings (see LeToya) and “tributes” (see Jermaine). I suppose it’s not a knock on anyone, but some of it just comes off a bit desperate. Even alleged son Omer Bhatti, who rumors have apparently floated for years about him being Michael’s love child, surfaced for the memorial service and even sat in the front row with the rest of the family. Tribute tour with all of his offspring is sure to follow.
Remember the 80s, when European acts stood just as much of a chance at charting in the US as native-born acts? That’s not quite where things are at right now, with 8 out of 10 acts in the Top 10 fronted by Americans, and a ninth (Drake) hailing from Canada. The sole European at the top of the Hot 100 this week is Jay Sean, who had to get signed to an American label to chart, features American rapper Lil Wayne, and hasn’t even hit the UK charts yet with his hit “Down”. In fact, you have to go all the way down to #57 to find an all-European act (Cascada). That’s pretty pitiful, but these things go in waves if you look back at the history of the American charts. So do the Europeans have any shots at making it big in the US any time soon? Well, maybe…
I’ve been meaning to get back to my Mixed Tapes series for a couple of weeks, but it got shuffled to the back of my brain, and my memory got jogged this morning as I heard New Radicals’ “You Get What You Give” on Radio 1.
Brainwashed opens with “Mother We Just Can’t Get Enough”, and really sets the anti-establishment tone of the album. The song itself talks about a love (to my ears, I’m not sure if it’s a person or a drug, but these songs are open to interpretation), and “mother” is referenced in a way to say that she doesn’t approve, but she better get used to it. The ending, though, gets to the social commentary, talking about how everything in society is tied to numbers and money, as an automated recording says
The highlight for me on this disc, though, is the ballad “Someday We’ll Know”, which describes the aftermath of a relationship, and uses a series of analogies to question why the relationship didn’t work out. As a twenty-something questioning why relationships never seemed to last for me, this song connected personally as well as musically. 
I have been in a slow drift away from country music recently, but on the recommendation of my friend Buck in Atlanta (who is 
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