Petey - There are just one or two things I want to clarify before I stop clogging this post up. Firstly, all I was trying to get across was that I have no overt problems or prejudices against black people. I'm not sure of the subconscious level, because nobody is, and as for reflecting the ideas of the dominant culture - I try pretty hard not to, and feel alienated from most sections of 'mainstream' society... but that's a whole other discussion.
As for your arguments as to why I should be able to relate to urban music ('I’ve never taken heroin, much less become addicted to it, but I can enjoy music made by people who have...). I didn't mean I can't relate because of the colour of my skin/my life experiences. If I was like that, I'd read some awful boring books and make shitty music.
If I must clarify, the cultural context I was refering to is mostly my guitar music background. It's how I was bought up, it's what 95% of my music collection is. I like dirty, heavy, distorted music, and most hip-hop I have heard doesn't have this (apart from the records in my collection).
I also am not too keen on some of the afore-mentioned lyrical content, altough to take Saul Williams as an example, the album of his that I have is more political than gang-oriented (unlike, say, 50 Cent or many other mainstream hip-hop that I have heard). The lyrics that I've heard by Williams seem to be reacting against the whole gang/money culture, not re-inforcing it, and some of his lyrics help me understand what it could be like to walk in his shoes as it were. I don't care if he uses the n-word a lot. From what I've heard of him, he has valid and thoughtful things to say, and I respect him for it.
But y'know, I'm the same way about mainstream pop-music. Most of it has nothing to say to me, and I dislike listening to it.
There. Can we move on? Pleeeease? |
